Elijah, the Widow and the Rest of us

S Sekou ABODUNRIN

I encourage you to read the piece in 1 kings 17: 9 – 16 many times over before proceeding

25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath Lk 4: 25 – 28

The story of Elijah and the widow is replete with instruction for our day. Some might think that this was an everyday occurrence in Elijah’s powerful ministry, but in reality Elijah clearly didn’t have an anointing that flowed in his life that “guaranteed” that every one who “sowed into his ministry” would have a supernatural financial turn around. If he had claimed such, he would have been fleecing the impressionable widow who was in a dire situation. We know this to be the case because the Lord Jesus said that Elijah was sent to one widow alone. For all we know then this event was not repeated. Elijah was not aware that millennia later there will arise precious folks who will claim that poor people should sow their last financial resource into their ministry and trust for financial breakthrough.

There is a whole army of new Elijahs it seems. Every one seems to have a supposed, “debt cancelling” anointing these days. I want you to realise that neither the Old Testament prophets nor any of the New Testament ministries practiced or preached this. It doesn’t make sense to pick and choose what portion of biblical records we will follow. If we stay true to the example set by Elijah, the first thing we need to establish is to recognise and discern what the Lord is saying to the minister and then to understand and discern what the Lord is saying to us.

Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. 1 kings 17:9

If we go into the details of this, the Lord spoke to both parties concerned. He did not leave it to the prophet to go convince or pressure the woman into “sowing”. The Lord commanded Elijah just as he had also commanded the widow. Elijah did not do the convincing or commanding. We see that the Lord had spoken to the widow about Elijah’s sustenance before he spoke to Elijah about the provision that will flow through the widow. That’s the first principle in these matters – you must discern the leading of the Lord for yourself. This leading will not be one-sided. I often hear of people who give because God told a certain minister that all those who give would get such and such!

The pattern seems to be that one should be careful to obtain money from people without finding out what the Lord has instructed them to do. Elijah walked in confidence knowing that the Lord has also spoken to the woman. Some seem to think that whatever a minister says, the Lord has spoken. Let me put it simply, the Lord has a voice, he will speak to you by himself or through his word. You are responsible for judging the things you hear. Do not offload this responsibility on someone else no matter how mighty or anointed they are. You do not go about looking for opportunities to disbelieve ministers; neither do you open your mouth like a day-old chick to swallow anything that is spoken to you.

There is another point I want you to see, God instructed Elijah to dwell there. In other words Elijah was required to move to the locality where the widow was. Elijah wasn’t to get up the next morning after eating his meal or receiving the “miracle offering”, climb upon his golden donkey and ride into town to declare himself as “good ground” for the next available widow. If he had done that he would have been wrong. The principle and practice that we see in Elijah is that a minister that makes such pulls for money or the resource of others should be accessible to them.

I have heard of ridiculous things like £7, £77 or some other juxtaposition of 7s! Elijah wasn’t going to require 77 shekels or 777 shekels simply because 7 was the number of perfection. He wasn’t only going to make blanket guarantees to the widow. He was going to stay around to see the widow walk in the turn-around that he had spoken of! The Lord gave Elijah specific instructions. Elijah was to dwell, not roam around.

Put more simply, God didn’t allow his holy prophet the luxury that some of us ministers allow ourselves today. It is common practice to hear a minister tell those that have “sown” in response to the promise of a guaranteed financial turn around, when those things don’t come to pass, that it is likely the “sower” didn’t exercise faith to pull in the harvest! Clearly Elijah didn’t practice such nor did the Lord expect him to.

The pattern we see however is that Elijah was to dwell with the widow such that he was going to be around to pull in the harvest. If faith were called into operation to call in this “harvest” it would be Elijah’s faith. The woman had acted in corresponding action by supplying the resources to sustain Elijah; now the ball was back in Elijah’s court that the word of the prophet must not be seen to have fallen to the ground. It therefore makes sense that God instruct Elijah to move into close proximity and dwell. He was to instruct the woman until the “harvest” came in.

According to the testimony of Jesus, Elijah was sent to only one widow. This instruction that God gave Elijah then wasn’t for everybody, nor was it some universal message. It was singular. If we are not careful we will do some religious arithmetic and end up with some formula like

Mighty prophet + poor widow + gift from widow = supernatural provision for widow

Elijah knew no such arithmetic. The equation I made up above lacks the most important part – what has the Lord spoken to each person personally? Elijah didn’t multiply his revenue stream by enlisting all widows claiming that the “system” works. We know that there were many widows in Israel at that time. If he had built his ministry around this he would have succeeded for people respond to this type of thing. His heart was with his Lord and he wasn’t going to take advantage of the widows for you can imagine what the other widows in town would have tried having seen that things that happened when the widow responded to Elijah.

Apparently Elijah trained Elisha properly. How do we know?

27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. Luke 4:27

Elisha didnt know the supposed bible fact that Naaman could "sow into the anointing"!

If you read the full story about Elisha, Naaman actually offered him money.

Have you noticed that people are more likely to give after a miracle has occurred? Should a wise minister receive such money? Thankfully Elisha didn’t receive such. In this case it wasn’t even Elisha that asked for it! Some that emphasise a money-anointing connection would gladly bring out the offering basket after such a profound miracle asking the fellow who has received the miracle to “sow unto good ground” or name the seed "my miracle turn around" :)

… to be continued