The Widow at Zarephtah - 1Kings 17:7-16.
I have known this story about the widow at Zarephtah since I was a little girl. I was amazed about what God can do. As I have grown older I have become aware of more details.
One is that God tells Eliah that a widow at Zarephtah is going to provide for him. We know that the situation of the widows at that time was difficult. Losing their husbands who had been providing for them, made them vulnerable, like widows are in many countries today as well.
We may ask God: “Why do you tell Eliah to go to this widow. You know that her situation is very difficult”. So often we do not take into consideration that God is our almighty God.
Eliah goes to Zarephtah. What meets him there is an atmosphere of starvation. People do not have food. At the town gate he meets the widow, and he asks her to bring him water and food.
From a human point of view we would think: How shameless of a foreign man to ask a widow in her situation for food. But we notice her reaction. She doesn’t turn away from him. She just tells him what little she has, and that her plan is that she will prepare a last meal for herself and her son, and then they will lie down and die.
When she is asked to bring what little she has to the prophet, she obeys.
She brings what little she has, and she is blessed. She trusts that the prophet is sent by the almighty God, and her situation changes totally. God is an explosive force, and he reveals himself against all human thinking.
The self esteem of the widow at Zarephtah was low, but she meets God through the prophet, and she is BLESSED.
This is the God that we are dealing with. Are we willing to bring to God what we have? We might think that what we have is so little, and we expect somebody to come who has so much more: Better ability to speak, more money, more success etc. But like God chose the vulnerable widow, he can choose us, no matter how we are feeling. He can choose us to do things that we consider impossible, IF WE TRUST IN HIM!
Bringing what little you have, never give up thinking that it can mean a difference to somebody, that people are blessed through your willingness to bring what little you have.
God is our provider in all things. When we seek him who is overflowing of life, our lives will change totally.
Margun Warem,
Norway