1 Kings 17:17-18

The Reproaches of Death.

In 1 Kings 17:15 we read that the widow and her household did eat of the multiplied meal " days " ( ימים ), a term which is by some Hebraists understood, when used without qualification, to denote a year . So the phrase with which the text opens, "And it came to pass after these things," imports that the miracle of raising the widow's son occurred "after" Elijah had been one year in her house. The "things" to which this miracle succeeded were the earlier signs of the presence of God with the prophet, meanwhile the widow read the bereavement her own way.

I. SHE SAW THE HAND OF GOD IN IT .

1 . She attributed it to Elijah . "Art thou come unto me, to slay my son."

(a) had she not, and her son with her, been saved from death by famine in connexion with his sojourn in her house?

(b) The heavenly conversation they must have had during the year would preclude such an idea.

2 . She attributed it to him as a "man of God ."

(1) This was not, in her estimation, an ordinary case of death. The circumstances surrounding it were all extraordinary,

II. SHE READ HIS REPROACHES IN IT . "Art thou come to call my sin to my remembrance?"

1 . We should newer forget that we are sinners .

2 . The remembrance, however, will affect us variously according to our moral state .

III. SHE CONNECTED THESE REPROACHES WITH THE PRESENCE OF ELIJAH . "What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God?" etc.

1 . Why did she do this?

2 . Did she not here recognize a great truth?