1 Kings 17:14 – For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.”
In 1 Kings 17, God leads Elijah to Zarephath where he arrives at the home of a widow and her son. As she’s a widow, she has obviously lost her husband at some point and, as we read later in the story, she’ll soon lose her son (though he is resurrected from the dead). She is familiar with grief.
On top of the loss they have experienced, they are poor and are unable to feed themselves. They’re planning to bake one last loaf of bread to eat before they die of starvation at about the time Elijah arrives. Due to the rules of hospitality in their culture, the woman feeds Elijah first as the guest, even though she and her son are near death.
Though she doesn’t know God when Elijah arrives, God rewards her for her humility, generosity, and hospitality. Because she blessed God’s servant, God blessed her. Years later, Jesus even honored the woman by using her as an example of faith and God’s heart for those who are poor, outcast, and overlooked (Luke 4:23-30).
By a miracle provision, like how God provided manna in the wilderness to sustain his people for 40 years (Exodus 16; John 6:30-32), her burden suddenly became her blessing when the man of God entered her home. Much like the little boy who would later give his lunch to Jesus, this woman saw the little she had miraculously multiplied so she and her son could eat their fill and live. God revealed Himself to her in the kitchen, as our humble God often shows up in the most ordinary places to meet with us.
In this lesson, we learn that God is to be trusted one day at a time. Faith allows us to sleep at night, believing that the God who got us through that day will get us through the next.
What situations have you gone through that seemed extremely difficult at the time but have been able to be used to encourage and help others later?
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