040. The Prayer Of Elijah For The Restoration Of The Widow’s Son.
The Prayer Of Elijah For The Restoration Of The Widow’s Son. The Prayer as recorded.—1 Kings 17:19-21. The Lord’s Answer.—1 Kings 17:22; 1 Kings 17:24.
Never before bad a prayer like this ever been made and answered; and well might the mother, as the good man called upon Him who only could answer, be confirmed in her faith, and praise the Lord God of Israel. There lay all that remained of one who was once dear; the soul, the living, breathing power, that had once dwelt in it, was no longer there; and the expression in the prayer of the prophet, “Let the soul come into this body again,” proves to us its complete separation at death. It is when gazing at such a scene as the prayer presents, that we are furnished with an argument, the hardest and most unbelieving are forced to admit, for the immortality of the human soul. The mother for whose child Elijah prays was a widow, and he had dwelt with her and been miraculously sustained during the famine consequent upon the dry weather which followed his prayer. It appears he was in the house of this woman when her son died. She had been a worshiper of Baal in bygone days, but seems to have been convinced of God’s power, as manifested in the drought in answer to prayer, and from her language to Elijah we infer she imagined this heavy affliction was sent upon her in consequence of her sin, and that he was in some way involved in the death of her child. The “loft” where Elijah carried the body to pray over it, was an upper room dedicated to communion with God and meditation; the word in the Greek has this meaning attached to it, and no doubt it was the place of holy, sacred, and sweet communion, between the prophet and the High and Holy One. Like many a similar occurrence in our own time, there was mystery hanging round this afflictive dispensation. Here was a woman who loved God and entertained his prophets, bowed down in grief the deepest, saddest, earth can know. Elijah cannot understand it, and he seems to expostulate with God in his prayer.
“O Death all eloquent! you only prove What dust we dote on when ’tis man we love.”
“Oh! what a shadow o’er the heart is flung, When peals the requiem of the loved and young.”
God, in the miracle of restoring life to him who lay then in that “deep stillness, in that dreamless sleep,” intended a greater display of his glory and more peculiar favor to this widow than the mere sparing of his life could have been. He was dead, but God heard Elijah’s prayer, and then sank deep in this widowed heart the lesson that God was the author and giver, the hearer and answerer. How does this prayer encourage us to plead for all who are in sorrow! It is true we cannot work miracles, but we can implore the blessing of God on an affliction, so that the sorrowing heart may rejoice like this widow’s.