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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 1 Kings 17:17 - 17:24
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The Dead Boy Restored to Life
v. 17. And it came to pass after these things, after the widow and her family had been so miraculously preserved, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, the illness took such a severe turn,that there was no breath left in him, the boy died.
v. 18. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Her distress was so great that she was inclined to blame Elijah for the unfortunate turn of events. Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, her sensitiveness causing her to believe that her own sinfulness stood out all the more strongly by contrast with the holiness of the prophet, and to slay my son? The woman supposed that in the same degree in which she was learning to acknowledge her sin God was taking account of it in order to punish her.
v. 19. And he, instead of arguing with her, said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, as she held him clasped tightly in her arms,and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, in the upper room of the house, and laid him upon his own bed, evidently deeply perplexed by this act of Jehovah and yet ready to wrestle for the boy's life in prayer in the loneliness of his chamber.
v. 20. And he cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord, my God, hast Thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn by slaying her son? It was a cry of deep distress over the fact that the tribulations of the famine were now increased by this new calamity, but also a prayer of faith that God surely would not permit death to hold the boy in these circumstances.
v. 21. And he stretched himself upon the child three times, measuring his full length over him, and cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord, my God, I pray Thee, let this child's soul come into him again, taking full possession of his entire body once more.
v. 22. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived, he came back to life.
v. 23. And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, into the main part of the house, and delivered him unto his mother. And Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.
v. 24. And the woman said to Elijah, who by this miracle had proved himself a type of the great Master and Lord of death, Now, by this I know that thou art a man of God, her conviction was now most assured, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth, to be accepted with implicit faith. The example of the widow of Zarephath shows that the Lord has His elect in the very midst of a reprobate people