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1KINGS
CHAPTER 17

1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

It was during the reign of Ahab in Israel that Elijah the prophet entered the history of this nation. Elijah became one of the greatest prophets since Samuel.
Elijah may have already been known as a prophet to the people, but he is little known or unknown to the courts of the king.
Can you imagine a little-known or unknown prophet marching into the court of the king and saying, "HEY! No more rain will fall until I say so!?"
This was more than just a significant statement. Elijah had to be positive that he had received this revelation from God.
By the way, Elijah's name means: "Yahweh is God." The statement Elijah made, coupled with the meaning of his name was a challenge to all the prophets of Baal. This challenge continued over Elijah's entire ministry. And, of course, ultimately Elijah proves that the Lord, God is the ONLY God.

2 And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, 3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. 5 So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. 7 And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

Elijah, enthused by the word God had given him, had gladly issued the proclamation and the challenge. However, he was not liked very much by the king after that. In fact, if they could have found him, they would have killed him.
But God protected His servant. Remember this: God will never give you something to say or do without protecting you.
However, I'm sure Elijah considered this a meager amount of protection and provision. How would you like to be "hid out" by the creek and have the crows come and drop food for you to eat? (verse 6)
Sometimes we doubt God's provision and protection simply because it is not what WE want. But Elijah never complained. He didn't complain even when the creek dried up!

8 And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, 9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.

Then God spoke to Elijah again, and told him to go to Zarephath. Now, if every there were a reason to question God, this would have been it!
Zarephath was a small town which was close to Sidon, located on the Mediterranean Coast in Lebanon. Sidon was widely known for Baalism. And Ahab had married Jezebel, who was the daughter of the king of Sidon.
I can just imagine Elijah when God told him to go there. "What Lord? Are You SURE? This is a Gentile country, serving corrupt gods. Why even Jezebel came from there! Are You SURE, Lord?"
But then again, Elijah WENT. No matter WHERE God sends us, the safest place for us to be is WHERE God sends us!

10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. 11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. 12 And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.

Well, surely if God would send him to a heathen land, God would see to it that he was taken in by someone RICH! But that didn't happen.
When he arrived there, Elijah found a woman who was totally broke, and out of food. She was about to make a small cake of cornbread for her and her son, and that was ALL THEY WOULD HAVE! After that, they would have NO MORE FOOD!
I hope you can see the tremendous spiritual battle going on here. God is continually, it seems, sending Elijah into "troublesome times." Elijah is constantly being faithful; but I'm quite sure the ole devil was really giving Elijah reason to DOUBT the veracity of his HEARING what God was saying.
Sometimes it is difficult to TRUST that we have heard from God correctly!

13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. 14 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth. 15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. 16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah.

Here is a man that not only LISTENS and OBEYS God, he also APPLIES what God says to the situation of the day.
Upon hearing the story of the woman's plight, Elijah requested that she feed HIM first! THEN she would have to TRUST that there would be enough for her and her son.
Friends, this is true with ANY lost person. One cannot receive the manifold blessings of God until he FIRST dies to self and TRUSTS God!
Even when Elijah had cause to DOUBT God, he issued a promise FROM God that was totally based on faith! (verse 14).
Now, if I may digress for just a moment, there has been a lot of erroneous discussion and teaching about this verse.
God did not promise to make the widow prosperous; he promised to PROVIDE and PROTECT.
The promise was: TRUST God, take care of HIS business first, then HE'LL take care of YOU!
The widow trusted, and God did as He promised by Elijah.

17 And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. 18 And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? 19 And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. 20 And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? 21 And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. 22 And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.

It seems no sooner had she trusted God, that her faith was severely tested. So was Elijah's faith tested!
First, he was subjected to loneliness and being fed by crows. Then the creek dried up. Then he was sent to a foreign land to be cared for by a baal-worshipping Gentile widow who was as poor as a church mouse! And THEN, as if that was not enough, the widow woman's son DIED!
What would YOU do in those circumstances? I remember when I first realized God's call for me to leave a prosperous management job. I did that. Then we began to build a house, and the contractor ran off with $20,000 of our money. Then I put in about 8 applications for jobs that were known to be available, and didn't get hired. By then, I was seriously doubting that I had HEARD God correctly. I was almost ready to have a screaming running fit! So I determined to YELL at God. I went out in the woods and just YELLED in prayer! It was then that God showed me the ANSWER!
Sometimes God has to remove all our choices before He can get us to do what HE wants!
Elijah was visibly upset. He took the young boy in a room and paced around, probably really fussing at God (verse 20). But it was THEN that God showed him the answer!
God showed Elijah how to perform "mouth-to-mouth resuscitation!" (verse 21) (And YOU thought that was a relatively NEW invention huh?)
Take notice of one thing that is important here. It was NOT the act of "mouth-to-mouth" that helped the boy. It was GOD Who restored his life! (verse 22)

24 And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth.

The woman, upon the return of her son alive, expresses TRUST in God. And she agrees that the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah is TRUTH!
Two things I'd like to point out in closing this chapter:

1. Christians, we must SHOW faith to the world even though
   
2. we DO have doubts at times!