The Cry of Elijah
Part 3: Revelation of God’s Glory
And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.
— 1 Kings 17:21
The comfort of daily providence disintegrates into despair when the soul leaves the body. The widow consented with the prospect of death when she first met Elijah, “That we may eat it, and die,” she pleaded agonizingly for her last meal. Yet, when salvation became her entitlement, the bottomless barrel of meal and the endless cruse of oil were worthless, for, there is no life. When we tenaciously try to hold onto life, our own grip will choke the breath out of it, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” Christ came to seek and save those whose lives have been lost. The Prophet was sent not only to save the woman from dying of hunger, but also to save her posterity from death. When Elijah cried out for the child’s soul, he travailed for an entire generation.
When death is in plain view, our senses of eternity become acute then we cry out for benevolent intervention. Once delivered from our ruins and back in the land of complacency, we soon neglect the Almighty that saved us. “Except it be given him from heaven,” man possessed nothing, yet he is forgetful of his nakedness. When these divine endowments are stripped, he lifts up his offensive utterances toward heaven and blasphemes God because of pangs of his predicaments.
Death by complacency is slow and wretched as life disintegrates into dust. The soul waits idling as its existence slowly fades into oblivion. The deaths that were the portions of the widow and her son in that time of extraordinary famine were deferred to reveal a glimpse God. When the Origin of that life is forgotten as favors are taken as perquisites, death returns.
The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.
— Luke 12:23
The mercy of God exposes the soul to Life by bringing it into the wilderness where all abstractions and the preoccupations of existence are removed. “And it came to pass after these things,” those monotonous affairs of trying to give definitions to life, God in His compassion, leads us back toward the course of eternity. Just as Abraham’s faith was tested after he was given Isaac, God calls out for the soul of the child to draw the widow into the corridor of salvation.
The famine was the catalyst purposed to turn Israel back to God, so is the violent shaking of the Church turning it back to Jesus, “And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory.”
Remember the Son’s Life
The widow’s son, whose life, she once ready to give up, now finds it precious as his breath has left him. The meal and oil, they are not important now as compared to the life of her son attesting that food does little to sustain life.
When I first experienced God’s salvation, the knowledge of the Creator inviting me to walk with Him was so overwhelming. The thoughts of my mortality and its vain existence gave way to the excitement of laboring in the field of souls. Blissful exuberance gradually seceded yielding to the strain of ministry, as toils and labor defined my life. It is the pure love of God that reaches out and stop this slow descend into obscurity; He touches the gourd and causes it to wither so that we are once again reminded of the souls that will be consumed by the fire of Hell if make complacency our homes.
The gourd was, to Jonah, more precious than life so God touched it. God will touch the things which seem vital but have no eternal significance to get our attention. Yet, the misery of impending death is real to any mortal. Jonah’s gourd withered and the Prophet was morbidly furious even though it was God who provided relief. The agony of witnessing the death of your own son is beyond any human tongue to articulate.
O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!
— 2 Samuel 18:33
David’s anguish is primal and instinctive because of his love for Absalom. Even the graves could not hold their dead as the voice of God thundered throughout the universe when the Father watched His beloved Son crucified for our transgressions.
And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?
— 1 Kings 17:18
The widow blamed Elijah for the death of her son. It was the Prophet that came and extended the years to the lives that she had abandoned, nevertheless, the anguish of grief is beyond reasons and logic.
The world blames the Church for everything that is wrong with life, yet it is through the Church that life is brought forth. Man blames God for the miseries, yet, it was God who offered him salvation from eternal misery. The world’s irrational and blasphemous rants against God will intensify the closer we get to the end; God is shaking the world to remind us, we need a Savior!
Give Up Death for Life
The widow was on her way to the grave, yet in utter humility and obedient, gave up her last meal to Elijah. This sacrificial act stopped death. When she was willing to die, God found her; now that life was her portion, the challenge came again to remind her of its Author as God demonstrated in calling for the breath of her son.
Elijah did not respond directly to the widow’s accusations because she would not understand. The urge to explain God must be refrained, the mystery of the gospel can only be received by faith and not with the wisdom of man. Nicodemus, the teacher of the Law, could not understand earthly things how much more difficult for the world to understand heavenly things?
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
— 1 Corinthians 2:4-5
Instead of words, the Church must demonstrate the power of God. Elijah’s response was, “Give me thy son.” Sacrifice is the first step in beholding the glory of God.
And he said unto her, Give me thy son.
And he took him out of her bosom,
and carried him up into a loft, where he abode,
and laid him upon his own bed.
Salvation Expressed
FIRST, Salvation is an intentional act. Elijah took the child out of her bosom. This is a deliberate act to save the child. “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” We need to take people by the hands and lead them out of the burning city; many are unwilling, but we must overcome our fears for their chance of salvation. The way to eternal life is not comfortable, “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”
SECOND, Salvation demands a meeting with God. Elijah took the boy up into his loft where he stayed. The upper room is the awesome place where the Holy Spirit visits mortals. The place where the power of God is demonstrated sovereignly by grace. The Shunammite’s son and Tabitha were raised to life in the upper chambers. Mount Sinai was very familiar to Moses as it was the place where he met and saw God’s glory. We must find those secret chambers where we bring the dying souls to God in prayer. Elijah took the boy back to that sacred brook where he found God. Cherith is the secret place of strength for those who dare to trust God completely.
THIRD, Salvation works through love. Elijah laid the boy on his own bed. This is the place of intimacy, where love is poured out without reservation. The boy is no longer the widow’s but it is the Prophet’s own son. The widow took care of Elijah when he came, now, the Prophet is carrying the woman’s son. We must carry people to the Kingdom with the tenderness of love; it was God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
FORTH, Salvation requires perseverance. Elijah cried out to God twice, stretched himself upon the child three times. The Prophet was unrelenting even though he did not understand the reason. He expressed his simplistic thoughts regarding the situation with God in sincerity and persisted until his faith was perfected and the boy resurrected.
And he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?
— 1 Kings 17:20
God knows how foolish we are and He does not hold that against us. Elijah cried out and in his imprudence, blamed God for bringing the evil upon the woman. What God heard was not the Prophet’s upbraiding words, but a man who is crying out for the dying soul of his child—God heard the voice of his faithful servant.
The souls of a generation are dying, we need to act deliberately in travailing for them. Faith and sincerity are the hands that will hold salvation; regardless of whether we can formulate the right words to say, God looks at our hearts, He hears our voices and will revive the souls of this generation again—when we cry out.
