Elijah and the Drought

Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, approached King Ahab to declare that there would be no dew or rain for these years except according to his word (1 Kings 17:1). Following this pronouncement, the word of the Lord directed Elijah to turn eastward and hide by the brook Cherith, which is before Jordan. The text states that ravens brought Elijah bread and flesh in the morning and evening, and he drank from the brook until it eventually dried up because there had been no rain in the land (1 Kings 17:6-7).

Upon the drying of the brook, Elijah was commanded to go to Zarephath, which belonged to Zidon, to dwell there with a widow whom the Lord had commanded to sustain him. When he arrived at the gate of the city, he requested water and a morsel of bread from a woman gathering sticks. The woman replied that she had only a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse, which she intended to prepare for herself and her son so they might eat it and die (1 Kings 17:10-12). Elijah instructed her to make him a little cake first and promised that the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil would not fail until the day the Lord sent rain upon the earth.

The woman followed Elijah's instructions, and the text records that she, he, and her house did eat many days without the meal or oil being exhausted (1 Kings 17:15-16). Later, the son of the woman fell ill and his breath left him. The woman questioned Elijah, who then took the child to an upper chamber. After Elijah stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord, the soul of the child came into him again and he revived (1 Kings 17:21-22). Elijah delivered the living child to his mother, who then stated she knew he was a man of God.