During the prophet Elijah's time God closed up the heavens for many months because of Israel's disobedience. The time came when Elijah could no longer be sustained in Israel, so God sent him to a widow to the north of Israel.

God told Eliah: "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you" (1 Kings 17:9).

"Sidon" roughly means "catching fish", and Zarephath means "place of refining". Elijah’s journey to the widow was to serve two purposes: He was to "catch fish" for God and in so doing the person "caught" would be "refined".

When Elijah met the widow, she told him: "As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar" (verse 12). She recognized that Elijah was an Israelite, and she mentioned "his" God: "your God". So it wasn't her God – yet.

After God had provided for Elijah, the widow and her son for many days, the son became ill and died. The result was that the widow looked earnestly into her own life, apparently for the first time during Elijah's stay: "What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?" (verse 18).

Elijah asked God to intervene and the child's life was restored. This experience had caused a phase of refinement in the widow's mind: "Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth" (verse 24).

Using Elijah as His instrument, God had "caught" the widow for Himself.

Jesus mentioned this incident in His ministry: "I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow" (Luke 4:25-26).

What was the principle Jesus was emphasizing in referring to this incident? "No prophet is accepted in his own country" (Luke 4:24).

With these thoughts I wish everyone a rewarding Sabbath!