16 ELIJAH’S THIRD MIRACLE

We have here a further reward and benefit given to the widow for her kindness to the prophet. As if it were a small thing to be kept alive by the miraculous multiplication the grain and oil, now her son, when he died, is restored to life and then also restored to her. If God wanted the child dead, why would He miraculously provide aid for them so that he would not die? Clearly God is doing something extraordinary here and perceptive observers, or students as is our case, will try to understand what God is saying through what He is allowing and doing.

First, we will begin by thinking about the sickness and death of the child. From what appears in this story, he was her only son. He was her comfort and her world in her widowed condition. He was fed miraculously, and yet that did not secure him from sickness and death. Shall we hesitate a moment and consider the relationship between bread and life? In John 6: 49 & 50 Jesus said, “. . . our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die.” Is it possible that the affliction her son was to this widow now was a thorn in the flesh, so she would not be lifted up in pride by the favors that were done for her and the honors that were given to her by the daily supply of new grain and oil?

God has a way of mixing His comforts, miracles and blessings with sufficient problems, difficulties, disappointments and tests to keep us both encouraged and dependent. He knows how to maintain this balance. The woman was nurse to a great prophet, was employed to sustain him, and had strong reason to think the Lord would do her good; yet now she loses her child. We must not think it strange if we experience very sharp afflictions, even when we are in the way of duty and doing a valuable service for God. She was herself nursed by daily repeated and continued miracles and enjoyed a well provided house without charge or care by a distinguishing blessing from heaven. And yet, in the midst of all this satisfaction, she was in this heart-wrenching way afflicted. When we have the clearest manifestations of God’s favor and good-will towards us, even then we must prepare for the disappointments God permits. We have not yet arrived home in heaven. Our mountain never stands so strong but that it may be moved and therefore in this world we must always rejoice with the wise caution of also trembling because we know that pain is part of what we experience here on earth.

Second, we read of her heart-felt complaint to the prophet of this affliction. It seems the child died relatively suddenly. If this were not the case, while the boy was sick she surely and reasonably would have asked Elijah to work a miracle to heal or cure him. It says he grew worse and worse and then died. This was evidently rather quickly and she did not have time or thought to ask the prophet to pray for his healing. He was suddenly dead, perhaps even dead in her arms and she cries out with an implied accusation against the very prophet who has until then obviously been a blessing to her and her son. This is how she gives vent to her sorrow, lamenting her loss, indirectly accusing the prophet and with no indication she had any hope of relief. This is recorded in verse 18. She expresses herself passionately asking “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?’” (18)

Contrast this to how calmly and matter-of-factly she had spoken of her own and her child’s death when she expected to starve to death. That was recorded earlier in verse 12, “that we may eat and die.” Yet now that her child actually dies, and not so miserable a death as the agony of a slow weakening of a hungry body as it starves to death by famine, even with a sudden death with the dying process already over, she is extremely disturbed at it. We may speak lightly of an affliction at a distance, but when it touches us that is different! Job 4:5 tells us about that “But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed.״ Earlier she spoke deliberately, ‘we will eat our last meal and then die,’ but now in haste, the death of her child being a surprise to her, it is understandably and naturally hard for her, even impossible for her, to keep her spirits composed when her troubles came on her suddenly. This was unexpected, when things were going so well for her! Her peace and prosperity came to an abrupt end.

She calls him a man of God, and yet quarrels with him as if he had caused the death of her child, and is ready to accuse him, forgetting past mercies and miracles: “What do you have against me, man of God? If you have not yet made this discovery, as a Christian leader, some day you will. People may unfairly assume a problem they are experiencing is your fault. They are looking for something or someone to blame. Sometimes they blame God. Sometimes they blame you and sometimes they blame themselves. What if the problem has nothing to do with blame, quilt, misbehavior or even human error? Why seek someone or something to blame? Is it not possible that disappointments happen simply in the process of life? Paul refers in 1 Corinthians 10:12 to problems, difficulties and temptations that are “common to mankind.” Problems happen in life.

We will see next that humans are changeable. We do not know why she makes this quick change, but the next thing the woman says seems to indicate that she has become aware of her own shortcomings. She wants to know, “Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” Seemingly now she expresses herself humbly admitting that perhaps the cause of the affliction was her own sin. This is speculation, but perhaps she knew of Elijah’s intercession against Israel for worshipping Baal, and, became more clearly conscious of her own sin, her former worshipping of Baal the god of the Sidonians. Could it be that now she that she worshipped the true God (we assume), she was therefore more aware of the sin she had committed when she worshipped Baal.

Is there something important here for us to learn? Knowing the true God makes us more sensitive to sins that earlier we did not know were sins. The closer we are to a holy God, the more we are aware of the unholiness of the things in our lives that are not holy. Shall we choose the comfort of being ignorant or press in to know God better even though it makes us uncomfortable to have to deal with the sin we then discover in our lives? I believe I would rather get closer to God than not to be close to God even though I had to pay the price of becoming aware that some of what I had thought or done was right was actually wrong and I just did not realize it was wrong at the time.

She now appears to be acknowledging the true God, the God of Israel as her God. She understands that Elijah made intercession against Baal and those who worshipped him and that that include her. She knows now he had made intercession against a sin she just now discovers. When God removes our comforts from us He may be doing that to bless us with an awareness of our sins against us Him. It is a painful experience, but the end result is that we are more pure, holy and righteous; more usable in the hand of a holy God. Perhaps the iniquities of her youth, though long since past were now becoming more apparent to her. Job 13:26 says, “For you write down bitter things against me and make me reap the sins of my youth.”

If God were teaching her, then through her experience recorded here in this story, we too can learn from her experience. We can see a great mercy and kindness of God in this idea. If God in any way reminds us of our sins, it is not to punish us, but to the contrary it is in preparation for His forgiveness. If he wants to forgive us He must lead us to repentance and He often does this by His kindness rather than by His condemnation. Let us continue in this story and we will see that God restores the son to the mother. God was kind to her to remind, or to teach her, of her sin and then after He had accomplished that act of mercy, He adds another kind action of mercy in bringing her son back to life and healing whatever it was that took his life.

Third, now let’s look at what Elijah said to God in view of this problem. He gave no answer to her complaint other than to ask her to give him her son, but brought him to God, and laid the case before Him, not knowing exactly what to do or say other than to bring the matter before the Lord.  He took the dead child from the mother’s arms and put it in his own bed in his own private upper room as verse19 says, “‘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.” Possibly he had taken a particular liking to the child, and found the sorrow was not only the boy’s mother’s but also his own also just as much as by sympathy for the boy’s mother. He went to his room, and humbly reasons with God concerning the death of the child as verse 20 explains, “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?’” Interestingly, Elijah sees this death as an action of God not merely something that God permitted. He pleads before God regarding the greatness of the affliction to the poor mother as much as to say, “this is affliction added to the afflicted.” Lord, you are the God who helps widows, yet this extra tragedy has occurred to someone already afflicted. She is a widow. He also pleads his own concern, “She is a widow I am staying with. Will you who are my God, bring evil on one of the best of my helpers during this time of famine? I will be identified with this woman’s sufferings so that others will be afraid to entertain or help me in the days to come. If I bring death into the house where I come, who will be willing to risk experiencing similar treatment?”

So understandably, for a number of logical reasons, Elijah earnestly begs God to restore the child to life again. Verse 21 says, “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!’” In the record of the Bible we do not read before this of any who were raised to life. Evidently Elijah, by a divine impulse, prays for the resurrection of this child even though there was no precedent. There was no precedent for anyone ever praying that it would not rain when everyone was suffering from a famine. And there was no precedent for anyone ever praying that a dead person would be restored to life. Yet both strange prayers were answered so we must assume that God was directing Elijah about how to pray; what to pray.

Even after this we do not see that praying for the dead to rise to life was a normal prayer. Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain to life and Peter prayed in Joppa, spoke to the dead Tabitha (Dorcas in Greek) and she rose from the dead, but these were indeed rare and exceptional instances. That Elijah, Jesus and Peter did this is no indication that we should attempt to do the same thing. It could happen, but an exception to be an exception needs to be an exception. David, even though he fasted and prayed to preserve the life of his child did not receive that answer to his sincere prayer. 2 Samuel 12:22, 23 give us the principle we should usually follow. “He answered, ‘While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, “Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.” 23 But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.’” We hope for the resurrection.

But Elijah had a power to work miracles, which David did not have. Or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that God choose to do through Elijah one kind of miracle and choose to do through David other kinds of miracles. Elijah “stretched himself out on the boy,” evidently as an action by faith to show his complete urgency, earnestness and commitment to pray for the life of the child and show how much he was affected with it and how sincerely and completely eager he was for the restoration of the child. By his actions he would if he could put life into him by his own breath and warmth. We cannot deny that this was an exceptional sign of what God could do by His power and what He does by His grace, in raising dead souls to spiritual life. Now, as recorded in the Bible, the Holy Ghost comes on spiritually dead persons, overshadows them, and puts life into them.

Elijah is very specific in his prayer, “Let this boy’s life return to him.” Some translations say “let this child’s soul come into him again.” If that is a more accurate translation, this clearly and plainly presupposes the existence of the soul in a condition separate from the body. This would certainly substantiate the soul’s immortality which God may have designed to teach us through this miracle. Wouldn’t this evidence of a life outside of, separate from and yet certainly related to the body in which it had lived, be a great encouragement to the people of God who suffer the loss of a loved one? This brings us to the next important part of this story.

Fourth, the resurrection of the child gave great satisfaction to the mother. Verse 22 certainly is the pivotal event in this story. “The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived.” See the power of prayer and the power of Him that hears prayer. Elijah probably felt a certain kind of joy as he brought the living boy to his mother. We may also suppose his mother could scarcely believe her own eyes. Can you imagine the twinkle in Elijah’s eyes as he says, “Look, your son is alive!” as verse 23 says. Certainly we can understand the woman’s response as she cried out, as verse 24 says, “Then the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.’”

She already knew it before, by the miracle of the increase of olive oil and flour. Then through the death of her child which she took so unkindly, she may have questioned it. If Elijah were a man of God would he be a party to the death of her son? But now she was abundantly satisfied and totally convinced that Elijah had both the power and goodness of a man of God. She would not be likely to ever doubt it again, but surrender herself to the direction of Elijah’s word and the worship of Elijah’s God. In this way the death and resurrection of her child was like that of Lazarus with this specific result which Jesus declared as recorded in John 11:40, “Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you will see the glory of God?’”

It was for the glory of God and the honor of God’s prophet that this third recorded miracle in Elijah’s public ministry occurred. Through this miracle the reader and believer of the Bible may be either introduced to or reminded of a central and glorious belief Christians have all over the world. The belief in the resurrection from the dead is a great hope unique to the Christian faith. No other faith system has this rich, proven, convincing and comforting belief. So we will end this lesson of Elijah’s third miracle with a reference to 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection chapter in the Bible.

Fifth, the glorious hope of the resurrection is a great blessing for all Christian believers. The resurrection is not only a great hope for all Christians, it is especially and specifically the reason servants of the Lord, leaders in His Church, pastors, evangelists, missionaries and Christian teachers continue to faithfully and selflessly serve. 1 Corinthians 5:50-58 make clear connection between the belief in the resurrection and our motive to serve. “ I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Every time we see evidence in the Bible of the resurrection power of God we teachers and preachers of the Word of God can use it to emphasize this great truth and hope. Elijah’s third miracle provides us with such an opportunity.

Let’s preach it.