1 Kings 14-17 CSB
Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Get up, go to Zarephath that belongs to Sidon and stay there. Look, I have commanded a woman who is a widow to provide for you there.” So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood. Elijah called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup and let me drink.” As she went to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.” But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I don’t have anything baked—only a handful of flour in the jar and a bit of oil in the jug. Just now, I am gathering a couple of sticks in order to go prepare it for myself and my son so we can eat it and die.” Then Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid; go and do as you have said. But first, make me a small loaf from it and bring it out to me. Afterward, you may make some for yourself and your son, for this is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘The flour jar will not become empty and the oil jug will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the surface of the land.’” So she proceeded to do according to the word of Elijah. Then the woman, Elijah, and her household ate for many days. (17:8-15)
The blessing and grace of God come from the most unlikely places. Whenever we are in need we typically try to solve our problems ourselves, and then when that fails we pray, but we also tell the Lord how to answer our prayers. “God please move in the life of so and so to do this or that on my behalf.” Our prayers are typically short-sighted and they are often limited to the way we view the world. Yet God delights in using the least likely people to do amazing things. We would have expected God to move in the life of a King or a rich man to provide for the prophet, but instead, he used a poor widow who was also desperately clinging to life and looking for a miracle.
This tells me several things that I should remember. First, I should be careful who I overlook in this world. There are people we tend to not see (or pretend to not see) like the homeless, the poor, the refugee, the destitute, and the abandoned. Yet, they are as much a person with a soul as anyone else in the world, and they too have hopes, dreams, and potential. They have the potential to be used by God and they are capable of anything if God is at work in them. Second, the Lord delights in using the “least of these.” I believe He does this so it is clear where the power comes from and who should get the glory. Paul said it best, “Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” (1 Cor. 1:27) In the case of Elijah, there was no doubt that it was the miracle of God and not the riches of a widow which saved the day.
Another crucial thing we can learn is that God’s ways are higher than our ways, and also His plans are bigger than ours. God was just as concerned with caring for this widow and her son as He as with caring for the prophet. This miracle benefited everyone and their stories were part of a shared tapestry, so intricately woven together, that there must be a divine weaver. Sometimes we think our circumstances are just about us, but in reality, they are often about so much more. We are a piece in a puzzle that God is putting together for His glory. There is much more to the story which includes Elijah being in the right place at the right time to save the life of the widow’s son, all because of the famine bringing them together. As J.D. Greear says, we should replace the question, “What impact does this situation have on me?” with a better question, “How can I glorify God and amplify the gospel in this situation?”
