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1 Kings 17 Bible study: Your son lives

The LORD "commanded" ravens to feed Elijah (17:4), and then a widow in Zarephath, "which belongs to Sidon" (17:9). Jesus himself named her: of all the widows in Israel, "Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon" (Luke 4:26).

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“The woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the LORD’s word in your mouth is truth.””
1 Kings 17:24 · World English Bible

Try it · Did you catch it?

“In 1 Kings 17, the LORD says he has commanded a widow in Zarephath to sustain Elijah.”

Is that in 1 Kings 17, or not? Make your call.

What's really going on

As the LORD lives

In the text

Elijah walks into 1 Kings with only his name and where he is from: "Elijah the Tishbite, who was one of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab" (17:1). It is the first time the WEB names him. The verses just before tell of the king he speaks to: "Ahab the son of Omri did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight above all that were before him" (16:30), and he "went and served Baal and worshiped him" (16:31). Elijah's first words are an oath: "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word" (17:1) (tap lives, stand). The chapter keeps coming back to that word lives. The widow swears by it too: "As the LORD your God lives" (17:12). And Elijah's last words in the chapter are, "Behold, your son lives" (17:23).

Where it leads to Jesus

Jesus names this widow

In the text

1 Kings 17:9leads toLuke 4:25-26

The LORD sent Elijah to "Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon" (17:9), to a widow there (17:9-10). In the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:16), Jesus said, "But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land" (Luke 4:25). "Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow" (Luke 4:26). Jesus names this very event: the town, the land and the widow of 1 Kings 17. 1 Kings says the LORD's word came to Elijah about rain "in the third year" (18:1); Jesus speaks of "three years and six months" (Luke 4:25). These notes set the two side by side and don't work out how they fit.

Honest questions

Questions people ask about 1 Kings 17

That was a taste

The rest of 1 Kings 17 is waiting in Favor

  • Ravens, then a widow
  • According to the LORD's word
  • Your son lives
  • When the sky is shut up
  • Fed in hiding
  • 11 questions as you read
  • 11 more Hebrew words
  • A short check at the end
  • Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it

חַיchaysay KHAI

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "alive, living", and used "of God, as the living one". Strong's: "alive". It frames the chapter. Elijah's first words are "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives" (17:1). The widow swears the same way, "As the LORD your God lives" (17:12). And Elijah's last words in the chapter are "Behold, your son lives" (17:23). In Hebrew all three are chay. In the next chapter Elijah swears it again: "As the LORD of Armies lives, before whom I stand" (18:15).

For your group

1 Kings 17 Bible study questions

  1. 1The widow had "only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jar" (17:12), and she made Elijah's cake first (17:13-15). Where is it hardest for you to give from what little you have?
  2. 2When her son fell sick, the widow said hard words to Elijah (17:18), and he took the whole matter to the LORD in prayer (17:20-21). What do you do with questions and hard words when something goes wrong?
  3. 3Jesus said Elijah was sent to none of the many widows in Israel, but to a widow in the land of Sidon (Luke 4:25-26). Who might God be sending you to that you wouldn't have expected?

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Questions

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