“Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.” -1 Kings 17:24 

In the song “Healing Hand of God,” CCM musician Jeremy Camp sings these words in the chorus: 

“I have seen the healing hand of God 

Reaching out and mending broken hearts

Taste and see the fullness of His peace

And hold on to what’s being held out

The healing hand of God. “

We see the healing hand of God in 1 Kings 17:8-24. God commanded Elijah, the Jewish prophet who served immediately before Elisha, to go and live in Zarephath, a Gentile city belonging to the Sidonians. This carries incredible importance because Queen Jezebel, the notoriously evil and pagan queen married wrongfully to the Jewish king Ahab, was Sidonian. 

Needless to say, it was a study in irony and contrasts. But Elijah obeys God and walks to this center of Baal worship. Encountering a widow who is preparing for death due to the drought that had struck the agrarian society at Elijah’s word, the prophet asks the unnamed widow to prepare food for himself first before doing so for herself and her son. 

I can’t help but wonder if the widow thought Elijah was certifiable. She had barely enough oil and flour to make bread for her small family, how could she help someone else before herself? But when Elijah told her that her food would not run out till the drought ended, she took a step of faith, making a cake of bread for Elijah and then for her family.

The Word of God records Him being true to His word, showing compassion to a Gentile outsider: the bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by Elijah (1 Kings 17:16). 

But then, tragedy strikes the widow again. Her son grows sick and dies. Grieving, she angrily asks Elijah, “What have I to do with you, o man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?” (1 Kings 17:18). 

Stop and consider for a moment. This widow had conceived and brought forth her son into this world. She clearly loved him, considering she was going to prepare a final meal for him before he died, before Elijah came and saved them. Perhaps he, being younger and stronger, had helped take care of his mother when his father (and her husband) had died. 

And now, he was dead. 

Have you ever seen God’s hand rescue you, only later to enter into a new trial? That was what this widow was experiencing. But again, God saw her (cf. Genesis 16:13). Using Elijah, He raised her son from the dead. This would foreshadow Jesus, the Son of God, raising the widow of Nain’s son from the dead - and that son was at his funeral (Luke 7:11-17). 

So the question remains - why would God show compassion to a pagan Gentile widow? While I believe that she had faith in God (v. 24), she was likely pagan prior to those experiences. In Luke 4:26, Jesus tells a Jewish synagogue that while there were many Israelite widows in Elijah’s time, Elijah went only to one - a Gentile. Jesus used this story and another to highlight the truth that the gospel is for all people, both Jews and Gentiles (Romans 1:16). The Jews got the message - and they wanted to kill Him. 

So, why? 

Well, we know that God shows mercy on whom He will, and that He is not partial (Romans 9:18; Romans 2:11). The beautiful message of the gospel is that God showed mercy to all of us, even though He was underneath no obligation to behave in such a way. 

This historical event provides a foreshadowing of what was to come: God demonstrated His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). And that’s good news.

1. How does it impact your view of God that He showed compassion to a Gentile woman, who was an outsider?

2. How does it make you feel that God chose to show mercy to you, saving you from death and condemnation to hell on the cross?

3. What is one thing you want to do this week to remind you that God is the God who rescues you?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ozi Ojukwu is a girl wildly in love with Jesus. A recent graduate of Cedarville University, she is a Colson-Fellow-In Training, learning about the fundamentals of a Christian worldview and how it connects to all of public life. She recently completed an internship at the Borgen Project, a nonprofit that makes global poverty a focus of US foreign policy. A bookworm to the core, she loves reading both historical fiction and memoirs. Her favorite verse is Romans 1:16.