Scripture Reference 1 Corinthians 2 : 4-5

⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

1 Kings 17: 17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse and finally stopped breathing. ¹⁸ She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”

¹⁹ “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. ²⁰ Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” ²¹ Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”

Life Lesson: After God’s miraculous provision we will experience a “sometime later” moment that will both challenge our faith and call into question the providence of God. Never allow whatever happens next to challenge or to call into question your faith in God or His ability to provide!

The text we are focused on today begins with, “Sometime later” just as the earlier text of verse 7 also did. In both contexts, the miraculous provision of God was inevitably followed by a time of great want. This is always the time we need to look to God with great earnest and with faith knowing that He who provided so wonderfully earlier can be trusted to do so again! 

On the heels of God’s wonderful and miraculous provision of food for the widow and her son came a new and overwhelming challenge! Death came to her door! She had once said to the prophet that she and her son had only morsels left to eat and then they both faced death by starvation, vs 12.  Death had been momentarily averted, delayed. None of us can cheat death!  Death comes for all of mankind and we cannot escape its icy grasp; however, although we cannot cheat death we belong to the One who has conquered death!

Here in this passage Elijah, the prophet of God, the man of God, the servant of God is somewhat of a messianic figure, declaring the Word of God and exercising the power of God! Moses was a type as was Elijah, both foreshadowing and pointing to the Ultimate Messianic figure who would be truly God Incarnate! This is why Elijah, undaunted by the boy’s death asks the widow to give her sons’ lifeless body to him. Who is this man who dares to presume he can do anything to thwart the power and finality of death?  

Continued in Power over Death – Part 2