Early morning in a narrow rocky ravine: a thin clear stream runs over smooth stones between steep tawny walls, with a few green bushes at its edge and one black raven perched on a boulder.

The Book of

1 Kings 17

No dew, no rain, at one man’s word. Then the LORD feeds His prophet by ravens, and by a widow’s last handful of flour.

24 verses≈ 5 min4 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–2Solomon's throneThe kingdom made secure
3–4WisdomA discerning heart
5–8The templeA house for the LORD's Name
9–11Glory and fallSolomon's heart turns
12–16Two kingdomsThe kingdom torn
17–19ElijahThe LORD, He is GodChapter 17
20–22AhabNaboth and Micaiah

The Ravens Feed Elijah

Hard afternoon light in a hall of Ahab’s palace: a dusty, rough-cloaked prophet stands alone and still before the king, who sits on a carved chair inlaid with ivory, while courtiers stand frozen along the plastered walls.

Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”

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Then a revelation from the LORD came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan. And you are to drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

Reflect

Daily bread

Elijah got “bread and meat in the morning and evening,” never a store for next week, and then “the brook dried up.” Where is God providing for you one day at a time? What brook are you leaning on that He may be about to move you from?

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

From Cherith to Zarephath

Elijah was one of “the settlers of Gilead” (Tishbe, his hometown, is uncertain). He hid by the Brook of Cherith “east of the Jordan,” a site that is also uncertain, then went north to “Zarephath of Sidon,” a coastal town between Tyre and Sidon in the homeland of Jezebel and her god Baal: some seventy miles as the crow flies, farther on foot.

The Widow of Zarephath

God

God

Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Get up and go to Zarephath of Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”

Late afternoon outside the plain stone gate of a small coastal town, the sea glinting beyond: a thin widow stoops to gather a few dry sticks from the dusty ground while far down the road a lone traveler in a dark hair cloak approaches.

So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks.

0:12

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Elijah

Elijah called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, so that I may drink.” And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread.”

The widow of Zarephath

But she replied, “As surely as the LORD your God lives, I have no bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. Look, I am gathering a couple of sticks to take home and prepare a meal for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die.”

Elijah

“Do not be afraid,” Elijah said to her. “Go and do as you have said. But first make me a small cake of bread from what you have, and bring it out to me. Afterward, make some for yourself and your son, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be exhausted and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain upon the face of the earth.’”

So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and there was food every day for Elijah and the woman and her household. The jar of flour was not exhausted and the jug of oil did not run dry, according to the word that the LORD had spoken through Elijah.

Question

Quick question

Elijah gave the widow a promise from the LORD before she baked a thing.

What did the LORD say would not run out until the day He sent rain?

Elijah Raises the Widow’s Son

Later, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill, and his sickness grew worse and worse, until no breath remained in him.

The widow of Zarephath

“O man of God,” said the woman to Elijah, “what have you done to me? Have you come to remind me of my iniquity and cause the death of my son?”

Elijah

But Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.”

Dusk in the small courtyard of a flat-roofed mud-brick house by the sea: steep outside stone steps lead up to a little roof chamber whose doorway glows with lamplight, and the widow sits on the bottom step, head bowed, waiting.

So he took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed.

Then he cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have You also brought tragedy on this widow who has opened her home to me, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, please let this boy’s life return to him!”

And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah, and the child’s life returned to him, and he lived.

Daylight inside the widow’s small house: just inside the doorway Elijah gives the boy, alive and blinking in the light, into his mother’s arms as she clutches him, weeping for joy.

Then Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. “Look, your son is alive,” Elijah declared.

1 Kings 17:24

Pray

The God who feeds

Thank God that He feeds ravens and widows and hears the cry over a sick child. Ask Him for faith to give first from little and to trust His word, as she did “according to the word of Elijah.” Pray for the widows, the hungry and the grieving near you, and for hands to help them.

You’ve experienced

1 Kings 17

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A verse to carry with you

Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is truth.

1 Kings 17:24

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