Elijah raises the Sidonian widow’s son.

1 Kings 17.17-24.

There’s some debate about this story: Whether Elijah raises a boy from the dead, or whether Elijah just cures a boy who’s gravely ill. Since the LORD has to put the boy’s soul—his lifeforce—back into his body, 1Ki 17.22 and a body without a soul is dead, I’m gonna say it looks like he died.

1 Kings 17.17 KWL

After these things happened,

the son of the woman fell ill;

she was head of the house.

The illness became very serious,

until there was no breath remaining in him.

“The woman” was the Sidonian widow whom the LORD had ordered to provide for Elijah. 1Ki 17.9 Verse 17 points out she’s the head of the house, which either means she’s in charge of the family—there are no adult men to lead it—or simply that she’s a homeowner. ’Cause she did own a house, and verse 19 tells us Elijah was living in its upper room.

We knew from verse 12 she had a son. We don’t know how old he was, but she could put him on her lap, 1Ki 17.19 so it looks like he was still little. We also don’t know what illness he had, but it stopped him from breathing. It must’ve come upon him suddenly, because Elijah appears to not have known about it till the woman confronted him in the next verse:

1 Kings 17.18 KWL

The woman said to Elijah,

“What are you¹ to me, man of God?

Did you¹ come to me to remind me of my wrongdoing,

and to put to death my son?”

I don’t think there’s any other way to read this, than to interpret it as a really angry reaction. So… what’s that all about?

“What are you to me?” is an ancient middle eastern saying, found in both testaments of the bible. Jesus actually says it to his mom. Jn 2.4 People presume it’s a light rebuke when Jesus says it, because we can’t imagine him yelling at his mom; she’s only trying to help! Jn 2.3 But every time the saying appears otherwise in the bible, it’s not light; it’s an outright rejection. It’s their version of “Get the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] away from me!”

But why does the widow want Elijah out of there? Because she thinks God’s at fault for her son dying. And why would she leap to that conclusion? She says it herself: עֲוֹנִ֖י/aöní, “my wrongdoing.” Not her רַע/ra, “evil”; not her חָטָא/khatá, “sin.” She didn’t break a command or anything. But she believed she did go farther in some way than she should have; she trespassed. Something so egregious, Elijah’s god took it out on her kid. Although you notice she never directly rebukes Elijah’s god. The ire is all directed towards the prophet. She probably didn’t wanna risk further smiting.

I have no idea what this trespass might be, ’cause the bible doesn’t say. I just know she really didn’t understand what kind of character the LORD has. He’s not a petty, vengeful god like the Baals the Sidonians usually worshiped. He’s not eagerly waiting for us to slip up so he can slap us down and send us to hell. God is love. But if the sort of gods you’re used to, or were raised to believe in, are the angry smitey sort, stands to reason you’d think any of your bad karma would unleash his wrath upon you.

Now you’d think because the LORD was miraculously providing them food, she’d have a better idea of what God’s like. But not necessarily. Sometimes it takes an awful lot to get the idea of God’s grace through our thick skulls. Some Christians never really get it, and spend the rest of their lives as legalists because they think God keeps a tally of our sins, and sends us to hell when the points get too high. Or kills our kids.

People regularly assume, wrongly, God’s gonna make us suffer a bit to restore our karmic balance. Yeah we’re repentant, but we owe the universe a little something for our wayward life before. That’s how people behave, so that’s how we presume God behaves. But that’s not who God is. So learn who God is. Don’t just assume it; read your bible and learn what he’s like.

So let’s see Elijah reveal what God’s like.

Undoing the boy’s death.

At this point the widow was obviously unhappy with the prophet of the LORD, and Elijah wasn’t happy about the circumstances either. So he took the boy to his room:

1 Kings 17.19-21 KWL

19Elijah told her, “Give me your¹ son.”

He took the boy from her lap

took him into the upper room where he lived,

and laid the boy upon his bed.

20Elijah cried out to the LORD, saying,

saying, “LORD my god,

why is this evil also coming

against the widow with whom I’m staying,

to put her son to death?”

21He breathed into the boy thrice,

and cried out, “LORD my God,

return this boy’s soul to his body.”

Ancient middle eastern houses had flat roofs, which were generally used as a patio. Sometimes they built an extra room on them, an “upper room,” which you had to access from a ladder or stairs outside. Elijah was living in this widow’s upper room. He decided he needed this space to cure the boy, so he carried him upstairs and shouted at God a bit. “LORD, why is this happening?” Fair question.

The widow presumes the LORD is doing it to punish her, but Elijah presumes no such thing. He does consider it evil, but note he doesn’t directly accuse God of doing the evil. Because who’s to say it’s God? True, God does decide how long our lifespan is gonna be, and takes people when he decides it’s our time. Other times he doesn’t; we’re killed by war, disease, disasters, accidents, and crime. Sometimes they’re caused or passively allowed by God; sometimes not, and we mustn’t assume like determinists that all these things are “acts of God.” They’re not.

But even if God was behind the boy’s death, we constantly forget God considers death negotiable. We think of death as so final, we never even imagine—even though Elijah, Elisha, Jesus, Paul, Peter, and thousands of Christians have raised the dead—that maybe death isn’t the final word we make it out to be. Elijah never figured, “Well he’s died; nothing to be done now.” He wanted the LORD to put the boy’s soul back.

Next, there’s some odd wording. What it literally says is Elijah וַיִּתְמֹדֵ֤ד עַל הַיֶּ֙לֶד֙ שָׁלֹ֣שׁ פְּעָמִ֔ים/way-yitmodád al-hay-yeléd šalóš p’amim, “he measured out the boy three paces.” It’s a weird statement, which almost makes it sound like Elijah was measuring him for a shroud. But it can’t mean that. It’s likely an idiom, and we’ve lost track of what it more accurately means. Bibles have historically interpreted it, “He stretched himself”—as if to measure him—“over the boy three times,” which isn’t any clearer. The Septuagint went with, “He blew into the boy thrice”—it makes it sound like Elijah was doing some kind of artificial respiration. The ancients didn’t know about any such thing, but maybe God, who does, instructed Elijah to try it. Anyway that’s what the translators of the Septuagint figured it meant, so I went with the Septuagint.

Whatever Elijah did, worked.

1 Kings 17.22-24 KWL

22The LORD heard Elijah’s voice,

and returned the boy’s soul to his body.

He lived.

23Elijah took the boy,

took him down from the the upper room into the house,

and gave him to his mother.

Elijah said, “See? Your¹ son’s alive.”

24The woman told Elijah, “Now this I know:

You’re¹ a man of God,

and the LORD’s word in your¹ mouth

is true.”

The LORD’s response was to put the boy’s lifeforce back into him, and Elijah brought him down to his mother. She immediately took back everything she said against the prophet. Guess there was some value in having him around!

But the widow’s final statement points out something more: She knows the LORD’s word in Elijah’s mouth is true because Elijah did stuff. It’s not enough to talk about God, or proclaim Jesus to people: Acts have to follow. And I don’t just mean good behavior. Acts of power have to follow. In Mark’s Long Ending, Jesus points out those who follow him are gonna do miracles. They’ll throw out demons, speak in tongues, survive venom and poison, and cure the sick. Mk 16.17-18 If we truly follow a wonder-working God, we’re gonna work wonders. If we don’t or can’t, or we’re faking any “miracles” we do—if we’re simply frauds—why should anyone believe our words? Why should anyone believe our Lord?

Yeah, I’ve heard from cessationists who absolutely hate when I say things like that, because they keep insisting God doesn’t do that stuff anymore. Really it’s they who refuse to do that stuff, and they’ll answer to Jesus for their lack of obedience. Jesus’s brother James taught us to pray like Elijah, and pointed out miracles followed those prayers. Jm 5.16-18 Why give those instructions, with those examples, if we can’t do the very same things as Elijah?