03.16. A Poor Widow's Distress

A Poor Widow’s Distress The place of this remarkable occurrence is not mentioned. It may have been at Gilgal, where there was also a prophet’s seminary, like those in Jericho and Bethel, 1 Samuel 10:8-10. These institutions, of which Samuel appears to have been the originator and founder, were voluntary associations of men and youths, residing together under the same roof, or occupying cottages in the immediate vicinity of each other, supporting themselves by the labor of their hands, either at the plough, or in the vine and olive gardens. Their chief business was spiritual; and they devoted their time principally to the study of sacred history and the Divine revelations, as also to sacred music, and other arts and sciences dedicated to the service of God. A prophet always governed these institutions, as their teacher and paternal guide, who, when not commissioned to other service by the word of the Lord, resided as a welcome guest, sometimes at one, and sometimes at another of them; imparting wisdom by his conversation, quietly assembling them for instruction in the things of God, and uniting them in prayer and cheerful praise. These enlightened societies, to which can best be compared the missionary seminaries of modern days, contained the flower of Israel, and constituted those living temples, wherein the fire of Jehovah shone purest and brightest. They were to Israel, what Israel was to the world—the repositories of Divine truth. Often was the little remaining vigor of that nation’s spiritual life concentrated here; whence it issued forth afresh to revive the whole languid body of the Jewish people: for the Lord chose from these seminaries, not a few of his seers and prophets to plead his cause before the nations. Many of the pious and enlightened men, who were called "sons of the prophets," had wives and children; and of such was she who is here introduced to our notice, a widow of one of the sons of the prophets. Let us visit her abode of poverty. The naked walls, the empty shelves, the miserable table with a wooden bench before it, the straw pallet in the desolate chamber, sufficiently show her circumstances. But these are still more plainly declared by the pale and dejected countenance of the indigent widow. She is a daughter of Abraham, and not only after the flesh; for she knows the Lord, and is known of Him, who is a Father of the fatherless, and maintains the cause of the widow. She is aware that her portion is not in this life, but in a better country, that is, an heavenly. Without this animating consciousness she might even have perished in her affliction; for severe affliction had come upon her, one of the severest that can afflict humanity. Her husband, the glory of her house, had been torn away from her by an early death, and the world offered nothing to supply her loss, but much to embitter it; for she had also to experience what it is for a poor widow of a pious husband to fall into the hands of merciless men. However fervently he might have commended her on his death-bed to the protection of the Almighty, she was now not only in the deepest poverty, but loaded with debts. How these had been contracted we know not; but as it is well here to remember the state of the times, in reference to those of whom the world was not worthy, so it is enough for us to behold the widow in her embarrassment. Her creditor was importunate. She had already stript her house of all that was not indispensable, and sold it, in order to pacify him; and the sons of the prophets, themselves poor, had doubtless contributed their utmost. Yet all was not sufficient; and unless the whole sum were forthcoming, the inexorable creditor was fully determined to seize and detain her two sons as bondservants for seven years; which, according to an Israelitish law, he had the power of doing. Imagine what must have been the distress of the unhappy mother, on receiving a threat to this effect. Her two sons appear to have been the principal earthly supports and comforts left to her; and to have them thus torn from her side was grievous indeed. How many nights had she probably spent in weeping upon her wretched couch, after receiving such an alarming threat! In truth, her situation appeared hopeless, and she must have sunk under her reiterated trials, had not the word of the Lord supported her, and the light of his countenance shined upon her in this hour of darkness. The dispensations of the Almighty even to his own children are not always joyous; he sometimes severely afflicts them, but his love is always sooner or later manifested thereby. Strange, forsaken, and disconsolate as may seem, at times, the condition of his children, he always accompanies them as their Shepherd and Guide, to whom it is an easy thing to make water flow from the flinty rock, and to call forth grapes upon the thorny brier. Such wonders, let it also be remembered, can only be performed in the wilderness of his people; and be it ever so dry and dreary, still "all things work together for good to them that love God."