Why Is God Doing This To Me – Widow of Zarephath’s Story
Bad things happen to good people…to Godly people. When bad things happen, they are the result of sin. Sometimes bad things happen to us because of our own poor choices, decisions, and lifestyle.
Other times bad things happen to us because of someone else’s poor choices; we are simply caught in the middle or at the wrong place at the wrong time.
And then there are those times when bad things happen to us simply because that’s the nature of life here on earth (cancer, infertility, death….).
These events don’t reflect God’s love for us (or the lack of it). Instead, they provide us opportunities to see God at work in our lives, to grow our faith, and to be able to witness to others.
The Widow of Zarephath’s Story
The Widow of Zarephath has no name other than ‘the widow…’, so we are going to call her Mrs. Z. We don’t know what happened to Mrs. Z’s husband, but we know that when he died, he left her with little means to care for herself and their young son.
The Bible also tells us that God had directed Mrs. Z to supply the man he was sent to her home with food and a place to stay.
When Elijah arrived and asked her to bake them some bread, she said she had only enough flour and oil for a small amount of bread for her and her son AND that after that, they would likely starve to death because she had no means to feed them.
Elijah told her not to worry-to just do it and that God would take care of the rest. She did and God did. Every single day there was always just enough flour and oil to make what was needed. Cool, huh!
Then tragedy struck. One day Mrs. Z’s son got sick; getting worse day by day until he finally died. Mrs. Z was grief-stricken. She asked Elijah why he had come to her house and why God would do such a thing when she had been so willing to trust him. Elijah, too, was upset and even angry at God for taking this kind and faithful woman’s son from her.
God heard Elijah’s prayers (and I’m sure the prayers of Mrs. Z) and brought the boy back to life, where it’s safe to assume he lived and cared for his mother for the rest of her life.
Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”
The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house.
Mrs. Z saw God work in mighty ways, didn’t she? You can see God work in your life, too, if you will open your eyes and heart to him.
What We Can Learn From Mrs. Z
Have you ever been disappointed because God didn’t answer your prayer the way you wanted him to? I think we all have at one time or another. Or maybe you don’t think he is listening at all because nothing seems to be happening…
Lesson One:
God can do the seemingly impossible.
Mrs. Z had only enough flour and oil for one day…then another…then another…then another… The jars were never empty.
to paycheck, but when you put your faith in God he will NEVER leave you stranded.
Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and
say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
Lesson Two:
God hears our prayers.
Our prayers will not always be answered the way we want them to be unless our only prayer is for God’s will to be done. Why? Because God knows best and sees the big picture, where all we see are the desires of our heart in the moment we pray.
Did God raise the boy back to life as a way of saying thank you to Mrs. Z for trusting him with her daily provisions or did he bring her son back to life to prove once and for all that he really was the one true God? We really have no
In the same way, you may never have a savings account and live paycheck way of knowing for sure, but we do know this: God cares about us and will always bring us through the tough times if we will let him do so.