After the widow who Elijah was staying with experienced a terrible tragedy (see 1 Kings 17:17-18), she was understandably distraught. Reading through what happened next, though, observe how it doesn’t seem like Elijah knew ahead of time what God had planned here.
“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. 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?” 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!”
The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”
1 Kings 17:19-23 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.17.19-23.NIV
Even if he didn’t know the outcome, though, Elijah had faith that God could perform miracles, and Elijah called upon God for exactly that. Elijah’s actions may reflect expectations of that day and region [ref. Long, p.208], but this was no trick or show: God “heard” [NIV]; God “listened” [NASB].
You probably know that God always hears our prayers, but you may have also heard that His answer can be “yes”, “no”, or “wait”. When God’s answer to a prayer is “no” or “wait”, it can be tough to hear accounts of when God said “yes” to other people. Why doesn’t God say “yes” to all of our prayers, when He answers other people’s prayers?
Let’s make this more specific: Why did the woman have to endure the grief of losing her son, even if it was only for a short time? After all, she didn’t know that a miracle was coming, and I think that she was lashing out in anger at Elijah earlier (see 1 Kings 17:18). In the same way, why did David lose his first son with Bathsheba, even after he asked God for a miracle (see 2 Samuel 12:15-23)?
For one thing, the “yes”s (even if they are God’s answers to other people’s prayers) help remind us that God has a plan, and that He has the power to do good, even in the “no”s and the “wait”s.
In addition, our faith is reinforced when God answers our prayers, including when we see that the results of His answers (even the “no”s) are for good. Before seeing the results, though, our faith is tested – and proven – when we have to accept His wisdom even when we don’t understand it.
I don’t have all of the answers here (and the week before this lesson was taught, one of our pastors was frank in his sermon about this same challenge). Anyone who has a simple answer might just be trying to minimize the reality of pain and suffering.
However, I do know that God was with this household throughout this difficult time, and even when the requested miracles don’t arrive, God is still with His people when we suffer through trials.
Let’s take a look at what resulted from this trial:
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.”
1 Kings 17:24 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.17.24.NIV
There was good that came out of this trial, but let’s be clear: that doesn’t make the woman losing her son a good thing. (Remember, God can produce good things from bad things, but that doesn’t make the bad things good. He only generates good results from them.)
Instead of seeing the son’s death (even if it was only for a short time) as something “good”, I’d rather look at this account from the perspective that trials aren’t the end of the story (as was mentioned in the previous article). The woman had already demonstrated her faith when she gave up her family’s food for a prophet, but now she has a whole new level of appreciation for Elijah’s role as a messenger of God’s word. Her son’s death was not a good thing: death isn’t what human beings were created for. However, that bad thing was used by God for good, strengthening the woman’s faith in Him. And, while God doesn’t need us to acknowledge Him, He knows that following Him is the best possible choice we can make, and He loves us enough to want that for us.
When this widow’s son was sick and when he died, that wasn’t the end of the story. Even though God could have left us in a fallen, broken, cursed world, where pain, suffering, and death rule because of sin, He offers hope for a time when things will be better. It might not be as soon as we would like, but eventually we will experience the joy of ultimate and complete healing, and we will learn that what we thought was the end of things was just a chapter in a larger work.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for May 4, 2025
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – 1 & 2 Kings, by Jesse C. Long, Jr. © 2002 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 