We're going to 1 Kings chapter
17 and verse 17. And this is the Word of God. 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. 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? 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. 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? 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. And the Lord heard the voice
of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and
he revived. 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. 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 true. Amen. May the Lord bless
to us this reading from his word. It might seem that with a barrel
of meal that didn't cease to give, and a cruise of oil that
didn't run dry, the troubles of this poor widow woman and
her son would be over. It might seem like that. But the truth is, and maybe if
you're younger listening to this, you don't know too much about
it, but let me tell you that the experience of the older people
who are listening will verify what I'm about to say. The truth
is, no sooner does one trouble in life pass than another one
jumps up to take its place. And the important question is,
how do we react to those troubles, to those challenges? Will our
troubles cause us to doubt the Lord or to lean upon him more? The son of the widow becomes
ill. with a sickness so serious that
he dies. There's no breath left in him. And the widow, understandably,
is overcome with grief. In her sorrow, she looks for
someone to blame. and her thoughts turn to Elijah. She reasons in her sadness that
the presence of this man of God has brought her own past sins
to God's attention and that the death of her son is his judgment
and her punishment. In such ways, our conscience
often afflicts us for the wrong that we do. And often our minds
lay the blame of our present trials on our past sins. And sometimes, despite believers
knowing that we have forgiveness with God, in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we find it hard to forgive ourselves. And the devil tells us that our
hardships and our troubles are God's punishment for our sins. And he tries to rob us of any
peace that we might have. He tries to get us to doubt Christ's
work. And when that happens, It is
time for us to return again to the blood of Jesus Christ and
to ask for a fresh sense of forgiveness and a renewal of faith to believe
in the sufficiency of Christ's death to cleanse all our sins. it ought to have been clear to
this widow woman that Elijah had nothing to do with the boy's
death. In fact, the widow and her son
had both been wonderfully delivered from death, from the effect of
the famine by the presence of Elijah in her house. The Lord had done good by this
woman by bringing Elijah to her. But such was her grief that Elijah
now bore all the anger and distrust of this lady. And here we see
something interesting that I just want to allude to, as it were,
in passing, because I think it shows us a little bit of Elijah's
character. Not here, but elsewhere in the
account of Elijah and elsewhere in scripture, we learn that Elijah
was a man How do I say this? He was a man with a short temper. We will see later that he was
not a man to be messed with. But despite all the feelings
of being wronged that Elijah might have had when this woman
was so aggressive towards him and blamed him as if it was his
responsibility that the child died, Elijah didn't rise in his
opposition. He didn't answer her in kind. He does not resist the groundless
accusations that she made. He didn't even try to explain
how foolish they were or try to defend himself. He simply
asks for the body of the boy, that the woman is now cradling
in her arms. He asks for his body and he carries
the lifeless child to the top of the house, to a little attic
where he had a room. And there he laid the child on
his own bed, and he began to earnestly pray to the Lord. Elijah took the problem of the
child's death to the Lord in prayer. He saw the desperation
of the woman and out of pity for her and perhaps for affection
for the boy, he had lived in this home now for months, perhaps
for even more than a year, for affection for the boy. He was
brought to prayer and he cried unto the Lord. That's what we
are told. He cried unto the Lord. Here
was this man of God, this prophet of God, and he is in this little
attic. with this dead child crying to
the Lord for help. That's a lovely picture to have
and surely one which ought to encourage us, the least of us,
to emulate this great prophet. bring our troubles to the Lord
in prayer. Elijah's prayer was direct and
to the point. Oh Lord my God hast thou brought
evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn by slaying her son
and He pleaded his interest with God. He says, Lord, you are my
God. It's as if he's saying, Lord,
your little one is praying to you. Hear my voice. You are my
God. And he reminds the Lord that
this lady was a widow, that she was ill able to lose this, her
son. She is one to whom the Lord had
previously shown mercy. And he mentions also that it's
the same lady that he dwells with. I'm sure the Lord knew
all of this. But Elijah brought these things
before the Lord because he was endeavouring to convey that her
loss grieved his own soul as well. And I think the reference
to bringing evil upon her may be signifying how this event,
the death of her son, would be viewed by her neighbours. So
it's as if Elijah is saying that the neighbours will talk among
themselves and they will say, is this how the God of Elijah
repays kindness to those who are his prophets? Is this how God repays those
who help his prophets? We're told that Elijah did not
restrict himself to praying. He did something else as well.
Three times he laid himself out upon the body of the child. as if he were trying to urge
life from his own body into the boy's corpse. He laid upon him,
as it were, face to face, arm to arm, palm to palm, in order
that this child might feel the warmth of his own body. And then
he uttered a most remarkable prayer. Oh Lord my God, I pray
thee, let this child's soul come again into him. Let this child's
soul come into him again. Now I say that that prayer was
remarkable. because nothing like this had
ever occurred before. This is the first example of
someone being raised to life in the Bible. In the world, there
was no precedent for such a resurrection. and none for such a prayer, none
for such a request. No one of the Lord's people ever
went to God and prayed a prayer like this. And yet the faith
of the prophet was strong and his view of God was large. He asked for something exceptional
and the Lord heard him. Elijah prevailed with God. And we read, the Lord heard the
voice of Elijah and the soul of the child came back into him
again and he revived. So that this is the first instance
of anyone being raised to life from the dead in scripture. I feel sure that Elijah felt
great happiness and gratitude. It isn't expressed, it isn't
mentioned in the text but I feel sure that he did towards the
Lord. And he brings the boy down into
the house and I guess the boy walked because he didn't have
to be carried downstairs. And there Elijah returned him
to his mother saying, see thy son liveth. And what a happy
house it was. I wonder if there was a little
bit more in that word see than simply look at this. I wonder if Elijah also meant
See and understand the true power, the true nature of God. Either way, the spirit of the
Lord illuminated this poor widow's heart and she testified, by this
I know that thou art a man of God and that the word of the
Lord in thy mouth is truth. Had she not known that before?
Had the cruise and the barrel not proved Elijah's credentials? Certainly they had. Yet how readily
she and we resort to doubting God when the next trouble comes
along, when the next problem arises. And how frequently, like
this woman, we run to unbelief when life doesn't go to plan. Now she was sure, not only of
Elijah, but of the trustworthiness and dependability of Elijah's
God. And this poor Gentile woman,
wasn't even of the house of Israel, wasn't even a Jew, this poor
Gentile woman, in the days of Elijah the prophet, a thousand
years before the coming, or 800 years before the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ, expressed her faith and her trust in Elijah's
God. Here's some lessons that I would
like us to draw from this passage, and then we'll be done. The first
one is this. Elijah did not know that the
child was going to die, even although he was a prophet and
the servant of God. The boy's death was a surprise
to him. And that's true for all of us.
God has revealed wonderful things to His church, wonderful things
that we could never have known had God not revealed them to
us. He's told us about grace and
mercy and salvation. He's explained eternal things,
heavenly things. to time-bound people, earthly
people like us. He's explained to us about the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's explained to us about the
power of Christ's blood. He's explained to us about what
he has in store for those who trust the Lord Jesus Christ and
have faith in him. He has even told us about amazing
things that are yet to happen when he takes his church back
to heaven. And yet a lot remains hidden. And there is much for which we
yet have to trust the Lord. Something might happen tomorrow
to change your life completely. Just like in this family, the
death of this child changed everything completely. Something might happen
tomorrow in your life that you know nothing about today. This is the Lord's wisdom. In this way, the Lord keeps us
humble, though we are the richest and most blessed people in all
the world. In this way, God keeps us looking
to him. How much greater was Elijah's
joy at the raising of this boy to life, because he hadn't known
anything about this occurring. Elijah felt the pain and then
the joy of the miracle. And this will be our lot in life
as well. There may be much pain in your
life, but the joy of the Lord, the joy that he gives, will be
worth it all for those who trust in him. The second lesson I want
to leave is this. Remember what we have often said,
that these passages are recorded, that they are revealed and delivered
to the church. These Old Testament Historical
narratives are given to us to teach us something more about
the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many, sorry, there
are not many examples in the Old Testament of people being
raised to life. We're going to, in a little while,
we will find another example in the life of Elisha, the prophet
who came after Elijah. But this record that we have
here today and in Elisha's time, this record is taught so that
the early church might know and understand and might believe
that resurrection from the dead was possible. And it also taught
believers to know that the soul of a man or a woman or a boy
or a girl exists in another place after the death of the body. So this story, this history of
Elijah and the widow's son who died tells us, one, that when
the soul leaves the body, it exists in another place, and
also that that soul can come back to the body. And in this
way, the Lord Jesus laid the foundation for faith in his own
resurrection and he inspired confidence in the gospel promises
of eternal life and immortality for all who trust in the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has abolished death for
those who believe in him and he has brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. Yes, we will have to die in this
body. Older people do, younger people
do, but those who trust the Lord Jesus Christ know that their
soul lives on and someday it will be returned to their bodies
and we will be raised, we will be brought back to life just
as the Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. We will
be brought back to life in those new bodies which God will give
us. And finally, here's the last
point. The faith of Elijah leaps from
the page. Here in this little narrative,
Elijah's faith is strong. He showed great faith in God. When the widow confronted Elijah,
he had nothing to say, he had nothing to give. He had no explanation. All he
could do was to take the issue to the Lord in prayer. But that
was enough. Let us all take a lesson from
this. Faith in the Lord Jesus isn't
acknowledging a set of doctrines. It isn't, I think I said this
before, all the knowledge that we have about the Bible. It certainly
isn't suspending critical judgment or denying science and reality
and believing some sort of fairytale ideas. It is trusting that God
will do what he has promised. and that our wise and loving
Saviour has got everything under control, even when it seems the
world is falling down around us and our lives are falling
apart. The Lord Jesus promises that
He will save to the uttermost those that come in faith to God
by Him. That includes you and me. those
who come seeking forgiveness upon the merits of his death
in our place. That includes you and me. He
is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. May God give us faith like Elijah,
that we might trust in Jesus Christ and prove him to be worthy
to redeem, able to save, and powerful to raise us from the
dead. Amen.