Jesus's Hero

One of the stories that Jesus mentioned (that engaged people) in Luke 4 was about Elijah and the widow at Zarephath. As Brenna pointed out on Sunday, Elijah had been living in the wilderness by a little stream for a long, long time (years?). He had no home and was probably dying from hunger and thirst. He must have been quite the sight when he showed up at the home of this woman in the next country over.

What stands out to you from this story? Why would Jesus tell it as an example of what he is like? How might God want to speak to you through this passage that was so important to Jesus?

7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to him:9 “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.”10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

12 “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”

15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

• 1 Kings 17:7-16