1 Kings 17:12
And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
The widow at the gate of Zarephath answered Elijah's request for bread by telling him she had only a handful of meal and a little oil left to cook a last scant meal for herself and her son before they died. She spoke in a time of severe famine when heaven had been shut for three years and six months, after God had hidden Elijah by the dried brook Cherith and then sent him to her to be sustained. She was a heathen Gentile woman outside Israel who had no privileges of God's chosen people, yet she believed in the true God and lived faithfully up to all the light she had. God passed by the many widows in Israel because of their apostasy and unbelief and chose her, accounting one who lives up to the best light she has more righteous than those with great light whose lives contradict it. Elijah's asking for drink and food from her last morsel tested her faith to the utmost, and when in extreme want she shared it with him God met her extremity with a daily miracle that preserved her household and showed He will surely sustain His self-sacrificing people through famine.
Famine Setting and Need
The widow spoke these words as her answer when Elijah met her at the gate of the city gathering sticks and asked her for water and a morsel of bread. Zarephath belongs to Zidon and was called Sarepta in New Testament times, lying in Sidon outside Israel in a heathen land. The meeting took place during a severe famine when heaven was shut up three years and six months and great famine was throughout Israel.
After Elijah had denounced God's judgments upon Ahab and Israel for apostasy, God hid him from Jezebel's power by the brook Cherith where he was fed morning and evening for many months. Continued drought dried the brook, and then God commanded the widow to sustain him and sent him to her. Her poverty and need set the scene for God's care of Elijah through a foreign widow while famine afflicted Israel.
Her home was poverty-stricken where famine pressed sore, and her pitifully meager food was about to fail. She had only a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse, and was gathering two sticks to cook a last scant meal for herself and her son on which she could barely sustain life. She expected after preparing and eating it to give up the struggle to sustain life and die. Her oath invoking the LORD as Elijah's God acknowledged Him as Elijah's God and testified to the extremity of her need.
Heathen Widow Chosen by God
She was no Israelite and had never shared the privileges and blessings of God's chosen people, but was a heathen Gentile woman dwelling in a heathen land. She was a believer in the true God who walked in all the light shining on her pathway, living faithfully and strictly according to the light she possessed and doing right so far as she could distinguish right from wrong. She had followed that light and was open to greater light through Elijah.
God passed by the many widows in Israel and sent Elijah to her because of Israel's apostasy, unbelief, rebellion, self-exaltation, rejection of light and warnings, and hardening of heart. He could not trust His prophet with Israel, for Israel's unbelief had closed the door to blessing. She was therefore especially favored and cared for by God, and was accounted more righteous than God's backslidden chosen people who had rejected light and sacrificed principle for convenience and worldly honor. God regards a heathen who lives up to the best light she has with greater favor than those who have great light and make high profession of godliness while their daily lives contradict their profession, so that those who live up to light are more favorable before Him than those who neglect greater spiritual advantages.
God made her home a refuge and asylum where Elijah found safety, help and succor when there was no safety for him in Israel. Hatred, hostility, opposition and danger among his own people drove him to flee, and he was safer among the heathen than among those who had rejected heaven's light and hardened their hearts against the truth. Jesus used the sending of Elijah to a widow outside Israel, though many widows were in Israel, to support His warning that a prophet is not accepted in his own country.
Faith Tested and Provided For
Elijah arrived on that very day when her pitifully meager supply was about to fail, and his request for drink and then food from her last scant morsel tested to the utmost her faith in the power of the living God to provide for her necessities. Even in dire extremity her compliance bore witness to her faith.
Despite having only enough for one final meal for herself and her son, she shared her morsel with Elijah. That sharing in extreme want was an act of hospitality, faith, generosity and kindness. It makes her an example of giving sympathy and assistance to one more needy while having very little herself.
In return her life and her son's life were preserved, for God sustained her and her son and kept the household supplied. He met that extremity of almost no food left by a daily miracle keeping the widow's family and Elijah supplied with food. That provision in desperate need for her household and Elijah was blessed evidence of God's love and care that should have kept Elijah from ever distrusting God.
In the history of the prophets she represents a person whose faith made her a recipient of God's power displayed through a faithful prophet. The meaning is that all who give sympathy and assistance to others more needy in trial and want, sharing their last morsel, receive God's promised great blessing. That blessing is fulfilled in the promise that he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet receives a prophet's reward, and God's power to preserve and bless is no less now than in the days of Elijah.
God's care for Elijah through the widow in that severe famine shows that He will sustain His self-sacrificing people who trust Him and sacrifice for Him through deprivation and will not leave them to perish. Even when those around them perish for lack of bread, in famine their bread and water will be sure and they will be supplied and satisfied.