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 two 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 supply his needs. Without hesitating, he told her to make the bread and first prepare his meal, and then she and her son could eat. Then, 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).
When Israel was suffering 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 once again to be an impossible situation became the story of God’s glorious power. The Lord opened her barren womb, and she gave birth to one of Israel’s most powerful judges.
We see this same pattern most profoundly in the life and ministry of Jesus. If we were writing the story of salvation, we probably would never have chosen a humble woman, a dirty manger or a shameful cross as the way God would save the world, especially since the cross revealed the ultimate place of weakness and death. But God chose that very place to reveal His unlimited power and wisdom in accomplishing our salvation. When it appeared to all the world that death had won, God’s resurrection power trampled death and the God-Man’s life burst forth from 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 write more predictable and manageable stories — ones that herald human achievement and bring glory to man. But God repeatedly does the opposite, choosing the weak, insignificant, and poor so that all glory goes to Him. These true life stories remind us that only God can bring life and salvation out of empty, barren and dead places. They all reveal that God does His greatest work among people and in places that we least suspect.
As I’m finding myself in a similar storyline that looks humanly impossible, I’m praying to remember the greater reality — that what appears empty and hopeless to me is never beyond God's ability to fill and redeem.
“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)
