1 Kings 17:22

17-24 Neither faith nor obedience shut out afflictions and death. The child being dead, the mother spake to the prophet, rather to give vent to her sorrow, than in hope of relief. When God removes our comforts from us, he remembers our sins against us, perhaps the sins of our youth, though long since past. When God remembers our sins against us, he designs to teach us to remember them against ourselves, and to repent of them. Elijah's prayer was doubtless directed by the Holy Spirit. The child revived. See the power of prayer, and the power of Him who hears prayer....

Verse 1 Kings 17:22. _AND THE SOUL_] נפש _nephesh, of the child came into him_ _again_, על קרבו al kirbo, into the midst of him; and he revived, ויח _vaiyechi, and he became alive_. Did he not become alive from the circumstance of the immaterial principle coming again into him? _Although_ רוח ruach is sometimes put for the _breath, yet_ נפש generally means the immortal spirit, and where it seems to refer to _animal life_ alone, it is only such a life as is the immediate and necessary effect of the presence of the immortal spirit. The words and mode of expression here appear to me a strong proof, not only of the existence of an immortal and immaterial spirit in man, but also that that spirit can and does exist in a separate state from the body. It is here represented as being _in_ _the midst_ of the child, like

EXPOSITION ELIJAH AND THE GREAT DROUGHT.—The picture which the historian has just drawn of the shameless idolatry and the gross degeneracy of the earlier part of Ahab's reign forms a fit prelude to an account of the ministry of the great prophet Elijah, which occupies this and several succeeding chapters; for the two stand together in the closest connexion. It was only the unprecedented corruption of that age which necessitated such a mission, and a mission armed with such credentials as his. It will be obvious to the most cursory reader that the narratives comprised in the remaining portion of this book and the earlier part of 2 Kings are of a very different character from those which have so far been before us. The ministry of Elijah and Elisha alike is little more than a series of miracles. Of their words comparatively few are recorded; we hear of little but the signs and w

AND THE LORD HEARD THE VOICE OF ELIJAH,.... In prayer, and answered it: AND THE SOUL OF THE CHILD CAME INTO HIM AGAIN, AND HE REVIVED; this is the first instance of anyone being raised from the dead; this Satan has imitated; hence the many fabulous stories with the Heathens of persons being raised to life after death k. k Vid. Huet. Alnetan. Quaest. l. 2. c. 12. sect. 30....

IV. THE PROPHET ELIJAH AND KING AHAB 1. Elijah's Prediction and Miracles CHAPTER 17 _ 1. Elijah's message to Ahab (1 Kings 17:1)_ 2. At the brook Cherith (1 Kings 17:2) 3. With the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:8) 4. The widow's son restored to life (1 Kings 17:17) Upon this scene of complete departure of God, when Ahab and his heathen wife worshipped Baal and all the vileness connected with that cult flourished in Israel, there appeared suddenly one of the greatest of God's prophets, Elijah (my God is Jehovah) the Tishbite. “A grander figure never stood out even against the Old Te

ELIJAH IS FED BY RAVENS, AND RAISES THE WIDOW'S SON. Elijah appeared suddenly: we hear nothing of his birth or parentage. He simply announced to Ahab, in the name of Yahweh, before whom I stand (_cf._ Jeremiah 35:19), that there should be no rain for three years. Elijah is described as one of the sojourners of Gilead. Probably the LXX is correct in saying that he came from Tishbe (_mg.),_ said to be in Gilead to distinguish it from another Tishbe in Galilee (Tob_1:2). He then retired (1 Kings 17:3) to the brook Cherith, E. of Jordan, where he was fed by ravens. In the valley of the Jordan was the rock of Oreb the raven (Judges 7:25;...

_And the Lord heard_[R.V. HEARKENED UNTO] _the voice of Elijah_ This is the more usual rendering of the verb followed by a preposition as here. Instead of this verse the LXX. (_Vat_.) has -and it was so, and the child cried out." The following words also, in 1 Kings 17:23 -and Elijah took the child," are omitted in that version....

DISCOURSE: 343 THE WIDOW’S SON RAISED BY ELIJAH 1 Kings 17:22. _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._ THOUGH God was pleased to separate for himself a peculiar people, to whom alone he communicated the knowledge of his will, he gave frequent intimations to them, that his mercy should in due time be extended unto the Gentiles also. The history of the Sidonian widow was particularly noticed in that view by our Lord himself. In his first sermon at Nazareth, he warned the Jews, that they must not rest in their outward privileges, since, if they walked unworthy of them, God would again, as he had frequently done before, transfer to the Gentiles those ble

C. ELIJAH AT ZAREPHATH 17:8-24 As the water supply at Cherith began to fail, God instructed Elijah to leave the land of Israel and journey to the Phoenician village of Zarephath. Two great miraculous occurrences are connected with the prophet's sojourn therethe miraculous provision of food in the home of a widow (1 Kings 17:8-16); and the resurrection of the widow's son (1 Kings 17:17-24). _1. THE MIRACULOUS PROVISION OF FOOD_ (1 Kings 17:8-16) TRANSLATION (8) And the word of the LORD came onto him, saying, (9) Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold I have commanded a woman, a widow, to feed you. (10) And he arose and went to Zarephath

ELIJAH AND THE WIDOW OF ZAREPHATH The prophet Elijah, who occupies so large a space in the succeeding history, is, like his successor Elisha, conspicuous among the prophetic figures of the OT. as a worker of miracles; and to him belongs the further distinction of having been removed from earth without dying. His prophecies differed from those of most later prophets in having in view only certain critical occasions of contemporary history, and in having no reference to the remote future or the Messianic age, though the moral and religious principles which they affirmed had, of course, a wide application....