Transcript

With a name like Death Valley, it’s easy to imagine this National Park as a barren, desolate wasteland. But thanks to some unusually heavy rainstorms in the fall of 2015, the park along the border between California and Nevada bursted with the most wildflowers it had hosted in a decade—a rare event known as a “super bloom.”

Parts of Death Valley National Park were blanketed in millions of wildflowers, with species like the yellow Desert Gold and the pink or purple Desert Five-Spot carpeting the southern parts of the park, where the elevation is lowest.

Under normal circumstances, Death Valley, is a hard place for anything to live. The valley is one of the hottest places on the surface of the Earth and only gets a rough average of two inches of rain annually.

A park ranger explained, “There are so many seeds out there just waiting to sprout, just waiting to grow. When you get the perfect conditions, the perfect storm, so to speak, those seeds could all sprout at once.”

He continued, “I saw several impressive displays of wildflowers over the years and always wondered how anything could beat them, until I saw my first super bloom in 1998. Then I understood. I never imagined that so much life could exist here in such staggering abundance and intense beauty.”

The areas that bloom is normally just rock, soil, barren, and don’t even have shrubs. But during these rare super blooms, Death Valley goes from being a valley of death to being a valley of life.

By the accounts of the resurrections in the Bible, we see those who have walked through the valley of death being brought to life.

They foreshadow the “super bloom,” you could say, the great number of resurrections that will take place in the last days, when many will be raised to life.

1 Kings 17:8-12: “And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.

“So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.

“And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.

“And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

In verses 1-7, we learn about Elijah’s first action as a prophet and the beginning of his ministry. He courageously and suddenly appeared before Israel’s faithless and wicked King Ahab and gave him the latest weather report: No rain or dew for years, and this drought will not end until I say so. And then as quickly as he appeared, Elijah left.

Following this, the Lord hid the prophet by the brook Cherith and miraculously provided food for him twice a day, morning and evening, through a unique catering service: ravens.

When the brook dried up from the drought, the word of the Lord came unto the prophet, and God told him to “Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there.” Zarephath was north of Israel in Phoenicia, along the Mediterranean coast near the city of Sidon. It is in the region of modern-day Lebanon.

Elijah had been by the brook Cherith east of the Jordan River, and God told him to travel around 100 miles northwest to Zarephath and to dwell there. And once he got there, the Lord said, “behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.”

Zarephath means “a smelting place,” indicating it contained a furnace where they produced iron by heating the ore until the iron separated from the dross. The iron was then used for the construction of weapons and chariots in that day.

Elijah was being sent into a furnace, you could say, to refine his faith here. Because what God asked him to do was difficult, and it required humility to obey.

First, he was to go into pagan, Gentile, enemy territory in Phoenicia. Second, with King Ahab’s men searching for him, Elijah was to be brought out of his hiding place and travel 100 miles out in the open across Israel to reach his destination.

Third, he, a Jewish man, was to meet a Gentile woman. And fourth, he was to meet a Gentile woman who was a widow, and he was to rely on this poor widow woman to sustain and provide for him.

Just like God’s promise that he’d be fed by ravens, this too was a test of faith for Elijah, because widows at that time, especially in a famine, usually needed to be provided for, and could not provide for others.

God was again using an unusual source to feed and provide for His prophet. It probably seemed to make more sense to Elijah to wait beside a dry brook than do this!

But, in faith, verse 10 says, “So he arose and went to Zarephath.” We see by this, that Elijah moved at the Word of the Lord. This teaches us to allow God’s Word to move us from where we are in our Christian lives, to where God wants us to be.

The Holy Spirit moves us toward Christ-likeness, and we need to be submissive to God’s will and His Word, and humbly obey it, so that the Spirit might grow our faith and move us into greater maturity in Christ.

Arriving in Zarephath after his long journey, Elijah found a woman at the gate of the city gathering sticks for firewood. Elijah called out to her, but he didn’t offer to help her. Instead, he asked her to help him and to get him some water.

As she went to get Elijah some water, based on her favorable response, he added to his order, and said, while you’re at it, “Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.”

Elijah did this so he could know for sure if she was the widow God intended him to meet, who would provide for him. Her response revealed that she was the right lady.

Her words, “As the Lord thy God liveth,” revealed that she was a woman of faith, a Gentile believer in Jehovah, the living God, even though she lived in a foreign land. She was not a follower of Baal or any other false gods.

Stating “the Lord THY God” shows that she recognized Elijah as a Jew, but she believed that the Lord God of Israel was the living and true God.

Showing how poor this widow was, at his request for bread, the widow told Elijah that she was gathering sticks in order to cook one final meal for herself and her son.

She said, “I have not a cake,” or I have no bread. She said she had only had a handful of “meal” or flour in a “barrel,” or flour bin, which was a large earthenware container. And she also had “a little oil in a cruse” or a jar.

She was at that moment gathering sticks so she could go in and prepare this final meal for herself and her son before the famine claimed her and her son’s life and they would starve to death.

1 Kings 17:13-16: “And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.

“For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.

“And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah.”

Elijah’s response to the dire circumstances of the widow and her son, and the nearly empty flour bin and oil jar was basically, “That’s no problem for God.” He told her to “Fear not,” and to go and do as she had planned, making that meal with what she had left.

In making the meal, however, he asked the destitute widow to first give him a little bread from her last bit of food, and after that prepare the rest for herself and her son.

But before she did so, the prophet immediately gave her a promise from “the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste [or be used up], neither shall the cruse of oil fail [or run dry], until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”

The promise from God was that she would have food until the drought ended.

Like the Lord’s word to Elijah about coming to Zarephath, this was a test of faith for this woman. It would have been difficult to make the prophet bread first from the little food she had left, and it would have been difficult to believe this promise he made her.

It seems like Elijah was being hard on this poor widow when he told her to give him a little bread first. But he was the voice of God to this woman. He was God’s prophet, and basically, he was saying to her, “I want you to put God first in your life,” when he said, bring me, God’s prophet, a little bread first.” And the Scripture says she did just that.

She responded obediently to the word Elijah gave her from the Lord God, showing that she really believed in Jehovah. And in verse 15, we see that “she went and did according to the saying of Elijah.”

She went into that house, made a little bread for Elijah first and gave it to him, and then prepared the rest for themselves. And then God honored her faith and was faithful to His Word: “And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail.”

God continually, daily provided for her need for food during the rest of the drought. Each and every day during the famine, God provided for their needs. And that bowl of flour was never empty, and that jar of oil was never dry.

Like Christ’s miracle of the fishes and loaves in His earthly ministry, this woman’s flour and olive oil kept multiplying in accordance with God’s promise (v. 16). And like the miracle of the ravens, Elijah was again miraculously provided for by God.

Charles Swindoll wrote this, “The widow of Zarephath met God in the kitchen. She looked into the bowl and she found flour. She looked in the jar and she found oil. The last time she had checked the pantry, there was barely enough for a small portion. Now, morning and evening, day in and day out, she gave God praise for His provision.”

1 Kings 17:17-19: “And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.

“And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?

“And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.”

For a time, there were many happy days of provision in the household of the widow. Their needs were supplied day after day, by a continuing miracle of God. But after this time of blessing, tragedy suddenly struck in the widow’s home.

This can remind us how though the Lord has richly blessed us in Christ and provided for all our spiritual needs in Him, this doesn’t mean we are immune to trials in life, or to suffering down the road or around the next corner. We live in a fallen and sin-cursed world, and believers experience the same pain, tragedy, suffering as everyone else.

As the apostle Paul reminds the Church, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves.”

Verse 17 states that “the son of the woman, the mistress [or owner] of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.”

We are not told what was wrong with the widow’s son, but the illness was so severe that he died.

We see that he truly was dead by verse 17 stating, “that there was no breath left in him,” or he stopped breathing. Verses 21-22 further speak of the child’s soul having departed and then coming into him again when he was raised. And in verses 18 and 20, both the mother and the prophet used the word “slay” in reference to the boy’s death.

God had miraculously supplied this widow’s needs that kept both her and her son alive in the past. But now, suddenly, her son died.

This mother’s dreams were dashed; her heart was crushed, and her world came crashing down. She couldn’t understand it.

And thus, the woman in her grief, looked around for someone to blame. She blamed two people for her son’s death. First, she blamed Elijah for the death of her beloved son. And second, she blamed herself.

Verse 18 states, “And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?”

She imagined that Elijah’s visit had drawn God’s attention to her and to her sins. And she accused Elijah of coming to her home only to punish her sin by killing her son.

Elijah had done nothing to deserve her reaction or to bear the brunt of this woman’s blame. She and her son had been sustained and kept alive by the miraculous provision of food each day, thanks to Elijah coming into her life. But in her humanity and grief, she blamed him for her son’s death.

And the bereaved woman, as do many in times of trial, felt that she was also receiving retribution and being punished by God for her unnamed sin.

When the widow makes her unkind accusation, Elijah did not respond in kind, or with words of correction. He had compassion for her hurt.

He doesn’t argue with her. He knew no words were going to soothe her at this moment. And thus, all he said was, “Give me thy son.”

Verse 19 shows us that she was clutching her son’s lifeless body in her arms at that moment, likely saying her words with tears streaming down her face as she held him.

Elijah was a man of intense emotion. He could be fierce and strong as he ministered for the Lord. But here we see an opposite side of him, as he held out his arms to a grieving woman and with gentle compassion said, “Give him to me.”

The widow woman allowed Elijah to take the boy from her arms, perhaps due to her being touched by his sympathy and not responding with rebuke.

Elijah then “carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.” Elijah had been staying in a guest room in an upper loft or possibly even a room on the roof of the woman’s home. And he took the boy’s body to his room and laid him upon the bed where Elijah slept.

1 Kings 17:20-21: “And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?

“And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.”

After placing the boy’s body on his bed, the prophet goes before the Lord in prayer. Elijah was silent before the bereaved mother, but he wasn’t silent before God.

He cried unto the Lord and prayed with heart and fervency. And he was very candid with God in his prayer, asking, “O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?”

Elijah poured out his heart before God. He brought this unexplainable tragedy to God in prayer. He searched for God’s purpose in it. He appealed to God’s tender mercy toward this poor widow who had kindly lodged and sheltered him and helped him.

Implicit in Elijah’s prayer and in his questions was the desire that God relieve this grieving mother of this heavy burden, suffering, and plight.

Then Elijah “stretched himself upon the child three times” and he appealed to the Lord for His intervention, aid, and to remedy this tragedy.

His stretching himself upon the child indicates total identification with the boy and his need as he prayed fervently for his life.

Doing it three times makes you think of the Trinity, and that perhaps the power of the three Persons of the Godhead were being appealed to on behalf of the dead boy.

And the fact that it was after Elijah stretched himself on the child for the third time that God raised him from the dead, causes us to remember that our Savior arose from the dead on the third day.

As Elijah stretched himself upon the child three times, he made a definite request, he “cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.”

Elijah asked God directly for the life of the widow’s son. Elijah realized that only God could bring the boy back to life, so he asked God in prayer to do so (vv. 20-21).

He doesn’t demand anything from the Lord. He just submitted himself completely to God. In himself, the prophet knew he had no power to raise this child back to life. He just humbly asked God to let this boy live, to let his soul return to him.

That was as much as he could do. The rest was up to the Lord, and he left it in His hands.

What Elijah did here was a first. Up to this point in Scripture there had been NO account of anyone ever being raised from the dead. This was unprecedented. Elijah had nothing to think back on in Scripture of God doing this.

He couldn’t reflect on Scripture and think God did it back there, and He can do it here.
Elijah could not look back and pray, “Lord, as you did in the days of Moses,” because God didn’t do that in the days of Moses. He couldn’t say, “Lord God, as you did for father Abraham,”, because He hadn’t do anything like this in the days of Abraham.

But Elijah knew God was able, and knowing this, the prophet acted in faith, and he prayed for a miracle.

1 Kings 17:22-24: “And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.”

“And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.

“And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth.”

After Elijah stretched himself over the boy the third time and prayed “let this child’s soul come into him again,” the Lord responded to the voice of Elijah.

At that moment, God restored that boy’s life, the boy’s soul returned and entered him again, “and he revived” (v. 22).

It had to be an amazing sight for Elijah to see that boy take a deep breath, see life flood back into the boy’s body, and see his eyes open and revive. And again, this was the first case in biblical history of anyone who died and came back to life.

For the eight resurrections of people that we are looking at in this series, the physical body was healed, restored, and the process of decay was reversed. And also the soul was reunited with the body. We see that clearly spelled out in this account.

And the soul returning to this boy’s body reminds us how, at death, the soul and spirit depart and the body then begins the process of decay as it returns to dust. It is only the body that dies. The spirit and soul continue to live and are conscious.

The soul and spirit of man depart at death, and for the unbeliever, it is immediately cast into torment in hades, the temporary abode of the unbelieving dead in the center of the earth until the Great White Throne Judgment.

For the believer, when our soul and spirit separate from our body, it is immediately ushered into the presence of Christ in heaven.

After he revived and was alive again, Elijah then walked downstairs with the boy by his side, and brought the boy to his mother and said, “See, thy son liveth.” And that reunion had to be special beyond words.

God provided for this widow on many levels, not only with the miraculous supply of food, but now also with the raising of her son from the dead, so that he could grow, be there for her and with her, and care for her.

Out of her joy, “the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth.”

She now not only recognized Elijah as a man of God, but perceived that the word of the Lord in his mouth was truth. The miracle authenticated Elijah as God’s anointed prophet. It verified that the words that he spoke to Israel were the truth of God.

And Israel was shown that if God could raise a dead Gentile boy back to life in response to Elijah’s ministry, He could also revive the chosen people of Israel who had become spiritually dead in their idolatry through Elijah.

Speaking of the faith of the prophets in the hall of faith chapter in Hebrews 11, verse 35 states that through the prophets, “Women received their dead raised to life again.”

Interestingly, Elijah is not mentioned by name in that chapter, even though his life was characterized by faith. But the Spirit obviously had Elijah in mind when He inspired these words, because God working through the prophet Elijah and his faith is how a woman in Zarephath received her dead son back to life again.