The story of Elijah and the widow is a powerful example of how God chooses unlikely people to accomplish His purposes. Elijah had spent about three years at Kerith Ravine during the drought God brought on Israel because of their idolatry and rebellion. When the brook dried up, God told him to go to Zarephath in Sidon, where He would find a widow God had chosen to provide him with food. When Elijah arrived, he discovered that she was not in any position to feed him. She had a nearly empty jar of flour and no money to buy any more. In fact, she had only a handful of flour—just enough for her last meal with her son. And after that, she was expecting to die of starvation.
After being miraculously fed by God through ravens for years, he was likely not surprised at God’s choice of this near-destitute woman to feed him. Without hesitation, he told her to make the bread and first prepare his meal, and then she and her son could eat. When she acted by faith and did what he asked, the word of the Lord came to him that “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” (1 Kings 17:14). And that is exactly what happened. The flour and oil were refilled day after day, just as the Lord had promised (1 Kings 17:15–16).
Similarly, when Israel was experiencing deep spiritual thirst because of their sin and the oppression of the Philistines, the angel of the Lord came to the home of a barren woman to promise the coming of a son, Samson, who would help deliver Israel from their enemies (Judges 13:5). What appeared to be an impossible situation became the story of God’s miraculous intervention. The Lord opened her barren womb, and she gave birth to one of Israel’s most powerful judges.
We see this same pattern most clearly in the life and work of Jesus. If we were writing the story of salvation, we probably would not have chosen a humble woman, a manger or a cross as the way God would save the world. The cross looked like the ultimate place of weakness and death. But God chose that very place to reveal His greatest power and accomplish our salvation. And then, just when it seemed that death had won, God brought life out of the tomb. The empty tomb became the ultimate reminder that what looks barren or hopeless to us is never beyond God’s ability to redeem and transform.
God’s Power Revealed
If it were up to us, we’d likely choose people who were strong, influential, and wealthy to fulfill important tasks. But God repeatedly chooses those who were weak, insignificant, and poor so that all glory from the miracle would go to Him. These stories remind us that God brings life and salvation out of places where the human eye only sees emptiness, barrenness, and death.
An empty jar, a barren womb, and an empty tomb all remind us that God does His greatest work in people and places that we least suspect. When I find myself in those places, I want to remember that what looks empty and hopeless to me is never beyond God's ability to fill and redeem. And what seems to be dead is never beyond His ability to bring life. If I will look to Him and trust Him, I can have confidence that even my emptiness can become a place where His supernatural power is revealed.
“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20)
