Background on Elijah and the Widow

The last poem that I wrote was entitled Blessings, Blessings. That poem can be found here. This poem retells the story of Elijah and the widow.

Elijah and the Widow

God sent me here.

That’s why I’ve come.

Cause I was told you are the one.

Please feed me now.

I mustn’t starve.

Have no more food.

Barely got lard.

What do you have?

Please look and see!

Some bread and oil,

Not fit for three.

Please feed me first.

Then you will see,

How God provides,

So bountifully.

And she obeyed, until it hurt.

Then God came down,

And proved her worth.

See she forgot that God provides.

The oil increased.

The bread did rise.

Elijah and the Widow at Zarephath

⁷ Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. ⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to him: ⁹ “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widowthere to supply you with food.” ¹⁰ So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” ¹¹ As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

¹² “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

¹³ Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.¹⁴ For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lordsends rain on the land.’”

¹⁵ She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. ¹⁶ For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.