Elijah hides with a Sidonian widow.

1 Kings 17.8-16.

Ancient Sidón was a Phœnician city-state on the Mediterranean coast, about 40km north of Tyre, another city-state the Sidonians originally founded. (Both cities are now part of Lebanon.) The Phœnicians were a seafaring Canaanite ethnic group, and 𐤑𐤃𐤍/tsidún in their language probably means “fishing village.” They were decidedly Baalists. The royal family usually served as head priests of Hadád and Asheráh, the weather and fertility gods. Ahab ben Omri, king of Ephraim (the northern tribes which the Deuteronomistic Historian calls “israel”) had married into this family: His wife was Jezebel bat Ethbaal, daughter of the king. They were setting up worship of the Baals in the very same way the Sidonians did, in Ephraim. In Israel.

Hence the prophet Elijah of Tishbe told Ahab the rain would stop till he said so. Then he hid in a wadi till it went dry; then God sent him, of all places… to Sidón.

1 Kings 17.8-9 KWL

8The LORD’s word

comes to Elijahᴾ to say,

9“Stand up.

Go to Sarepta, to Sidón, and stay there.

Look, I ordered a woman there, a widow,

to provide for you.”¹

Sarepta (Phœnician 𐤑𐤓𐤐𐤕/Tsaríptu, “refinery”—of metal or dye; Hebrew צָֽרְפַת/Tsarfát, KJV “Zarephath,” in present-day Lebanon) was another coastal city-state 13km south of Sidon, just near Ephraim’s border, and at that point in history was Sidonian territory. Had a big shrine to Asheráh. Being on the coast meant it’d never run out of water; or food, if you know how to fish. But the drought would still affect wheat and barley farming, so bread would be harder to come by.

It’s kind of a clever place to hide, actually. Elijah was a prophet of YHWH, but because Sidon was decidedly Baalist, your average fool would presume Elijah was far too “holy” and “devout” to live among such pagans. As if he wasn’t already used to all the pagans in Ephraim.

The LORD’s word (i.e. Jesus before his incarnation) told Elijah he’d ordered this Sidonian woman to provide for him. So she wasn’t pagan; she heard God. People have a tendency to believe everyone in a particular people-group or country are monolithically of the same religion, or hold the same worldview, or have the same politics, or are otherwise uniformly alike. And even if their king or dictator or despot demands they all conform to his standards, you know that’s not how humans work. There are always holdouts. This woman was one of them. Let everyone else follow the Baals; she and her house followed the LORD.

Which really came in handy because she was destitute. Thankfully the LORD sent her a prophet who knew how to pray for miracles.

Who’s providing for whom?

Because the wadi dried up, we can estimate Elijah left it at the beginning of the dry season—late spring or early summer. Right around Pentecost, when people were supposed to be celebrating the first harvest of the year… but the drought had no doubt produced a really awful harvest. People were starting to feel its effects. At this point they were likely screaming at Baal about their crops, and really cursing Elijah’s name. If he had a minor reputation before this point, he had a much bigger one now, and really did need to hide.

When he got to Sidon, he could immediately see this widow’s situation:

1 Kings 17.10-13 KWL

10Elijah stood and went to Sareptá.

He came to the town gate.

Look, there was the woman,

a widow, collecting wood.

Elijah called her, saying, “Bring me please

a little water in a jar to drink.”

11She went to get it.

Elijah called her, saying, “Bring me please

a bit of bread in your hand.”

12She said, “By the life of the LORD your¹ god,

I have no provisions.

Just a handful of flour in a jar,

and a little oil in a jug.

Look, I’m collecting two pieces of wood,

and will go prepare it for me and my son.

We will eat it,

and we will die.”

From the look of things, this widow whom the Word said would provide for Elijah, was dirt poor. I don’t know whether she farmed, but if she did, her crops were as dead as everyone else’s.

There were no laws in ancient Sidon to provide for the poor and needy. Unlike in Israel, the widow couldn’t glean another person’s fields, Ruth-style; nor pick food from its edges, like Jesus and his students did. If a Sidonian farmer caught her doing either such thing, he’d put an arrow or spear through her. Her distant family members felt no obligation to provide for her. And she has a dependent son. The only way she could earn money was to sell her possessions until she was completely out of them, resort to temple or private prostitution, or sell herself into slavery—which in pagan lands often still meant prostitution.

So she was gonna eat the last of her food, then starve to death. Off to get firewood then.

This is where Elijah encounters her, collecting wood. He asks for water—and no, this isn’t some weird elitist or sexist flex; this is what middle eastern hospitality looks like. When you’re thirsty you’re supposed to ask for water, and people are supposed to happily bring it. Still will. Might even bring you orange juice. You notice Elijah, knowing the water situation, only asks for a little water, but she’s happy to get him even that.

It’s when he asks for bread that her whole story spills out. It’s interesting; she believes in God, and even swears by his life—the LORD is a living God, but the Baals are just stone and wooden pillars which can’t be trusted to answer prayers. Yet at the same time she refers to the LORD as “your God.” Obviously she’s identified Elijah as Israeli by his accent, his lack of fluency with Phœnician, or maybe the tassels on his clothes. Anyway it’s possible she’s a little annoyed with the LORD because the drought is hitting her too, and there’s her incoming death by starvation: She feels abandoned, and feels he’s certainly not behaving like he’s her God anymore. When times are tough it’s sure easy to feel that way.

But when she responds to Elijah’s request, and prophecy, it’s clear she hasn’t given up on the LORD at all. And he comes through for her.

1 Kings 17.13-16 KWL

13Elijah told her, “No fear.

Go do as you¹ said.

But first make me a small lump of bread,

and make bread for you¹ and your¹ son afterward.

14“For the LORD, Israel’s god, says this:

‘The flour jar won’t empty,

and the oil jug won’t run out,

till the day the LORD sends rain

upon the face of the ground.’ ”

15The woman went and did as Elijah said.

She ate—she and Elijah,

and her house, for many days.

16The flour jar didn’t empty,

and the oil jug didn’t run out,

following the LORD’s word,

who spoke by Elijah’s hand.

The way this passage has been taught me in the past—and I still hear it preached this way—is the widow had to make bread for Elijah first, and only then would the LORD follow through on his promise and ensure the flour and oil would never run out. But the text doesn’t say this. At all. The LORD put no conditions in Elijah’s prophecy, other than to say this’ll stop after the rain starts. There are no conditions on the widow’s faith. So why do people claim there are? Because we would put such conditions on her. And shouldn’t. We should be just as gracious as God is.

Now it’s not like this wasn’t a test of her faith in both the prophet and the LORD. Elijah told her to use the last of her flour and oil on him before feeding herself and her son. If he were a con man, or had misheard God, or God was trying to trick her for some evil reason, she’d still starve, only sooner. But you recall the Word had said he ordered the woman to provide for Elijah, 1Ki 17.9 so she did hear God to some degree; she was a prophet herself to some degree. The LORD may have told her something like this before, or the Holy Spirit somehow confirmed within her what Elijah had prophesied was truth. Either way she acted in faith: She did make Elijah bread first.

But again: The LORD never said his promise was contingent on her faith. Really, Elijah didn’t say it either. So I don’t think it’s at all right to teach it.

And we should be aware this was also a test of Elijah’s faith. The Word had told him this widow would provide for him; then he gets to Sareptá and finds there’s no way she has the wherewithal. His response isn’t, “Nuts, I heard God wrong,” nor “Sorry, wrong person,” but “No you will provide, because thus saith the LORD.” He trusted the LORD far more than circumstances. There would be flour and oil.

Either perspective takes good, strong faith. If we don’t share their degree of faith, we need to develop it. You never know when we might be in similar impoverished circumstances, and need it.