1 Kings 17:17-24

In this pericope, the prophet Elijah, through fervent prayer and divine power, raises the son of the widow of Zarephath from death.

The miracle establishes Elijah as a prototype, but Jesus is the fulfillment as the ultimate Prophet and the very source of life. Elijah’s action was a petitionary act; he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard him and restored the child’s life. The power was external and granted. In the New Testament, the raising of the widow’s son at Nain by Jesus (Luke 7:11-17) directly echoes Elijah’s miracle. However, Jesus does not offer a lengthy prayer or perform a physical ritual. He acts with inherent, personal authority. He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise.’ (Luke 7:14). Life returns at His word. The people’s reaction confirms the prophetic connection but also hints at the surpassing reality: Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us’, and ‘God has visited His people.’ (Luke 7:16). Jesus is not just a prophet who intercedes for life; He is the Author of Life itself. This authority is explicitly claimed by Jesus in John’s Gospel: For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will (John 5:21).

Jesus Himself references Elijah’s ministry to the widow of Zarephath, saying: But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow (Luke 4:25-26). This shows that God’s grace extends beyond Israel, a truth that would be realized in His own mission.

The temporary resuscitation points toward the permanent resurrection and defeat of death accomplished by Christ. The boy raised by Elijah would eventually die again. His restoration was a return to mortal life, a postponement of the inevitable. This was a magnificent sign of God’s power, but it was not a final victory. Jesus’s own resurrection, however, was categorically different. When Jesus raised Lazarus, Jairus’s daughter, and the widow’s son, these were previews, powerful demonstrations of His authority that validated His claim: I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live (John 11:25). The ultimate fulfillment is in Christ’s own resurrection. He was not merely revived; He is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Corinthians 15:20). So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting?’ (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).

A prophet being sent to a Gentile widow finds its fulfillment in the universal scope of Christ’s redemptive work. In a time of judgment upon Israel, God directed Elijah to a foreign land, to a destitute Gentile woman, and there performed one of Scripture’s great life-giving miracles. This was a radical act of grace beyond the covenant boundaries of Israel. Jesus Himself highlighted this very point, invoking it as a precedent for the extension of God’s grace to the Gentiles through His own ministry as earlier quoted in Luke 4:25-26.

The raising of the widow’s son prefigured the truth that the gospel of life in Christ would break all ethnic and national barriers. The ultimate enemy, death, which afflicts all humanity, Jew and Gentile alike, is defeated by Christ for all who believe. The life given to a single Gentile boy was pointing to the eternal life offered to the entire world through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The temporary resuscitation of one boy points to Christ’s permanent victory over death through His own resurrection, offering eternal life to all. And the grace shown to a Gentile household points to the universal scope of Christ’s gospel, which brings life to a dying world without distinction. Elijah prayed, and God gave life. JESUS IS GOD, AND HE IS THE LIFE.

Ask God to:

• grant you the faith to persistently bring your deepest pains to Him.
• help you to see and minister to those outside your ‘covenant’ circles.
• Use your words, actions, and prayers to point a dying world to Jesus Christ, the Resurrection, and the Life.