“But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. Luke 4:25-26 NKJV
Let’s begin in Luke 4 in the synagogue, in Jesus’s hometown of Nazareth, where Jesus had revealed to the Jews that he was the promised Messiah and Saviour. He had been at a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee and performed his first miracle of turning water into wine. Yet, despite all these things the people in his hometown did not believe in him. All they could say was “Is this not Joseph’s Son?” Because of their unbelief and spiritual blindness, he reminded them of the Widow of Zarepath.
In 1 Kings 17 we encounter the widow, a woman of great faith. Though she is not mentioned by name her story made it into the heroes hall of faith in Hebrews 11:35a AMP. “Women received back their dead by resurrection: ….” By her act of faith she foretold the resurrection of the Son of God and the coming hope of eternal life.
In a time of severe famine, this widow hosted in her home one of the greatest prophets in Israel. Let’s note here, that this was not just a simple physical famine but a statement of the spiritual barrenness of God’s people. God was simply speaking to the fallen state of the children of Israel at this time, the lack of righteousness, a famine of the word of God.
This widow however, had a different spirit. She believed the word that was spoken to her. She went on to prepare a cake for Elijah with the little meal she had in her house. The promise was that after she fed the prophet Elijah, she and her son would not die. Whatever food remained would be enough to feed herself and her son for many days. Her barrel of meal and her vial of oil would never run out.
God chose a poor widow from a despised region of Israel to preach the Good News of Christ and His Kingdom. This was in the time of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, Israel had forsaken Yahweh their God and were worshiping golden calves at shrines in Bethel and Dan. Queen Jezebel herself was a pagan priestess from Sidon. Through her marriage to Ahab she had introduced idol worship to the chosen people of God. By her ways she hindered the preaching of the gospel to the nation of Israel and killed many of God’s prophets. Such was the spiritual state of Israel, their spiritual barrenness was of incalculable magnitude.
God in his wisdom used women to illustrate how his church should respond to the good news of Christ, because Christ is the head of the church and we are his body. In other words, the church is a woman. We are his bride that he came to court by the preaching of his word. At this time women, especially widows, were some of the most vulnerable people in society. Most of them did not own any means of livelihood except through their husbands, their sons or another kinsman redeemer.
From time to time, God will prune from our lives the things we had come to rely on as our source of livelihood, so we may recognise Him as the ultimate husband, the only provider and the nearest kinsman redeemer. Such pruning may be in the loss of a business, a job, property, or in some cases suffering loss through illness, bereavement or a broken relationship. For some, pruning may come through the removal from a social or political status, abandonment by friends or relatives and such like. God will prune from our lives some of our most priced ‘possessions’ so we can look to him. He will allow us to become ‘widows’ in a sense, so we may be free to get married to Christ and start to bear fresh spiritual fruit for him. He wants us to be drawn to His Son, to be married to Christ and to put all our trust in him.
Glory to God that this widow received into her house the one that God had sent. She allowed him to stay in her house and her family came into fellowship with him. The word of God was preached by Elijah in her house and this brought resurrection power even to her son that died in the house. The little meal this woman had could be likened to our faith. Faith is the ingredient God needs to bring us salvation in any situation. As the word says, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And when we believe and confess Jesus as our Saviour, God seals us with his Holy Spirit and he provides us with eternal life. He gives resurrection power to our dead inner man. Indeed the barrel of meal will never run empty and the cruise of oil never run dry.
May your faith rise in this time of the pandemic, while we are in Lockdown. May the word of the Lord visit you in your home. May you act in faith toward God and perform the commandment of the Lord. May you share your last meal in acts of brotherly love, and may the Kingdom of God grow mightily and prevail in the earth as we witness Christ to the nations. There is nothing of our physical needs that the Lord will not provide to those that serve him diligently.
We have lost many things in the pandemic, but God did not leave us without a Word, he did not leave us without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Rise up in faith and prepare your meal. You will not die but live many days and declare the goodness of the Lord. Be you be a “widow” that can be counted among widows.