Stroll through Scripture for Sunday, November 3, 2024 – All Saints Sunday

Based on 1 Kings 17:1:24

The Narrative Lectionary moves us forward to the time after Israel is split in two – the Kingdom of Judah in the south and the Kingdom of Israel in the north.  1 Kings 17 tells us about the prophet Elijah.  Elijah has a conflict-laden relationship with the king of Israel – Ahab.  All of the kings of the northern kingdom are bad – some are just more horrible than others.  In 1 Kings 16:30, Scripture tells us that “Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.”  That would make him the worst king up to this point in Israel’s story.  

What made him so terrible?  1 Kings 16:31-34 gives us a list: he married Jezebel – a princess of Phoenicia, went and served and worshipped Baal the storm god, erected an altar to Baal in Samaria, and made a sacred pole for the fertility goddess Asherah.  The reign of Ahab, along with the prophet Elijah, will continue through the rest of 1 Kings.  

The end of 1 Kings 16 introduces us to Ahab.  1 Kings 17 turns right away to God’s punishment for Ahab’s sins.  The very first thing we hear is the prophet Elijah telling Ahab that there will be a drought because of Ahab’s sins.  It’s not just the king who will suffer as a result though – everyone does, including Elijah.  Terrible leadership has a way of impacting everyone and making everyone suffer, just as God told Samuel to remind Israel as they demanded a king rule over them in 1 Samuel 8.  

But God protects Elijah, telling him to go to a place where he will be able to eat and drink while the drought continues.  But God also has other plans for Elijah.  So God makes the safe place dry up as well telling Elijah to go to Zarephath in Sidon, which is along the Mediterranean coast north of Tyre.  There he meets a widow who is preparing a last meal for herself and her son – telling Elijah that after they eat this last bit of food they have, they will die.  But Elijah tells her “Do not be afraid.”  Elijah tells her the jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day when the rains return.  She trusts Elijah and it turns out as Elijah had said it would.  

While Elijah stayed with the widow and the son, the son became ill and apparently died.  The widow got mad.  Elijah takes the son to the upper chamber and prays to God to bring the son back to life.  And he does.  When the woman sees her son, she says “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”  

While the story about the jar of food and the raising of the widow’s son are moments of Good News, there’s a larger narrative that we should not forget.  1 Kings is a book about the kings of Israel.  The widow wouldn’t have been preparing for her and her son’s death in the first place if Ahab had been a decent ruler, or at least not horrible and unfaithful.  Ahab’s horribleness and sin leads directly to others suffering.  Terrible leadership has consequences, especially on the innocent and the poor.  It is God who brings life though in spite of it all.  

Questions for reflection:

• In the midst of suffering caused as a result of Ahab’s terrible leadership, Elijah meets the widow who is preparing to die.  He tells her “Do not be afraid.”  It seems as though terrible leadership relies on fear, while God tells us to not be afraid.  How is God telling you not to be afraid?  
• It took the raising of the widow’s son for the widow to know that Elijah was a “man of God.”  What does it take for us to know that God has been present?