Elijah is definitely a great case study of the ups and downs in the life of a prophet. I can only think his stories are included in the Bible as encouragement to us.
Elijah was constantly on the run. Jezebel hated him as he always prophesying against her and Ahab, her husband. This bothered her so much that she had the prophets of the Lord killed and those that somehow escaped had to hide in caves. Elijah also had to hide which was how he found himself at the brook, Cherith, being fed by ravens.
Soon after, he met up with the widow and her son, but then the son became sick. He cried to the Lord, "Have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?" He questioned God. He didn't know why God was allowing this to happen, especially after all that God had done. He continued to pray, "...let this child's life come into him again." And miraculously, God healed the boy. "And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived." When God answers a prayer, it always blesses more than one person. Obviously the son was blessed by being healed. Elijah was blessed as he continued to see God work through him. But I also think the mother needed to see that miracle as it says, "And the woman said to Elijah, 'Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.'" She must have had a little doubt in the back of her mind that God needed to confirm for her. Her words to Elijah probably also spoke to him, encouraging him, God speaking to him through her.
As much as I like the fact it is a story about Elijah, it is also a story about a mom, one I can relate to. This mom was happy to help Elijah.....at first. She obeyed him when he asked her, by faith, to feed him first, then herself and her son. God rewarded her faithfulness and the oil and the flour didn't run out. But then, she got tested when her son fell ill, "What have you against me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!" She lost all confidence in Elijah, God, and started thinking it was because of sin in her past. We tend to get like that, too, don't we? We jump to conclusions that God is doing something to get back at us instead of trusting Him. She needed a faith lesson. God used her son and his health, something very close to her heart, to teach her. We don't like it when it affects us personally. We'd much rather someone else go through the lesson and then we can learn by watching their lives. That's just not how it works.
Whenever a mom gets featured in a Bible story, I pay attention. This mom had already experience pain in her life where God didn't answer how she hoped, she had lost her husband. Now she was a widow. She then when through a time of extreme financial stress where she could no longer feed her one son. She was doing all she could do right until the end, not giving up, even though she only had enough to make one more meal. She could have given up and not even bothered to gather sticks for that final meal. No doubt she was upset at the thought, but she pressed on and that was where Elijah met her, while she was still doing all she could. She acknowledged, "As the Lord your God lives...." so she knew Elijah must have been a servant of God, but He wasn't her God, He was his. Perhaps the reason God had Elijah stop there was so that she could learn that He could also be her God.
I find that is where God meets me, too, "gathering sticks". My stick gathering is almost exactly the same, mundane, routine tasks like doing laundry, making meals, constantly, constantly tidying....but that's where God often sends me an "Elijah". Sometimes I do get the big miracle, but other times, it is something small and easy to miss, like a quick coffee visit with a friend or a phone call or even a sweet comment from a child. My 3 year old's saying to me lately is, "I like you, Mommy." I think that is almost more significant to me than, "I love you". It's his way of communicating, "You're nice to be around. I like being with you." That is the way I feel my "Elijah" moments.
The Bible calls her "the woman" or "the widow", or "the mistress of the house", but she was a mom. She was just trying to do her best with what she had. She didn't have much, but she remained faithful with what little faith she had. Her faith was weak though and God didn't let it stay that way. It took a near tragedy for her to learn her lesson. Why did God bother with this mom? She doesn't even get a name in the Bible. He looked down and saw her among many moms and chose her. Maybe after all that God did for her, she went around and ministered to other moms or widows in her area! Who knows? You would have thought the oil and flour would have been enough to teach her that God was real and that Elijah could be trusted, but no, she had to learn the hard way.
Elijah prayed on her behalf. It doesn't record her prayers, but I'm sure she must have prayed, too. We all need people praying our behalf. The prayers just need to be honest like Elijah's was, even questioning God can be part of our prayers.
If I could rewrite the headings in the Bible, I would take out "The Widow of Zarephath" and rewrite it as "The Mom Who Needed to Learn a Faith Lesson".
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