Chapter 10—The Voice of Stern Rebuke

This chapter is based on 1 Kings 17:8-24; 18:1-18.

Hidden in the mountains by the brook Cherith, for many months Elijah was miraculously provided with food. When, because of the continued drought, the brook became dry, God told His servant: “Arise, get thee to Zarephath [known in New Testament times as Sarepta] ... : behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.”SS 67.1

This woman was not an Israelite. She had never had the privileges that the chosen people of God had enjoyed, but she was a believer in the true God and had walked in all the light shining on her pathway. And now, when there was no safety for Elijah in Israel, God sent him to this woman to find asylum in her home.SS 67.2

“So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And ... bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread.”SS 67.3

In this poverty-stricken home the famine pressed sore, and the widow feared that she must give up the struggle to sustain life. But in her dire extremity she bore witness to her faith. In response to Elijah's request 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. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”SS 67.4

No greater test of faith could have been required. Regardless of the suffering that might result to herself and child and trusting in the God of Israel to supply her need, the widow met this supreme test of hospitality by doing “according to the saying of Elijah.”SS 68.1