Elijah and the Widow's Bread
1 Kings 17:8-15
When Solomon's son Rehoboam became king, the people of Israel went to war with each other. The country divided in two. The people of the north decided to call themselves Israel. The people of the south called themselves Judah.
There were many kings after that in both kingdoms. The kings often forgot the Lord God. One of the worst kings of Israel was named Ahab. He had a wicked wife named Jezebel, who talked Ahab into worshiping a false god named Baal.
At this time God spoke to a prophet named Elijah. This good man went to King Ahab, and tried to make him remember God's covenant. But Ahab would not listen. He built a temple and an altar to the false god and did more to make God angry than any other king that Israel had ever had.
Then Elijah said, "As the God of Israel lives, there will be no rain or dew in this land until I say so."
Then God told the prophet to go and hide himself in the desert country east of the Jordan River. "You will drink from the brook Cherith, and the ravens will feed you," the Lord told Elijah. So Elijah did as God said. Ravens flew in with meat and bread for him every morning and every night, and he drank from the brook.
But after a while the brook dried up, because Elijah had commanded the sky to give no rain. Then the Lord told Elijah to go to a city called Zarephath.
"I have told a widow in that city to feed you," God told Elijah. So the prophet traveled to that city. When he came to the city gates, a widow was gathering sticks for a fire.
"Please bring me a drink of water," Elijah called to her. As she was going, he added, "Please bring me a piece of bread, too."
"I have no bread baked," the woman said. "And all I have in my whole house is a handful of flour and a few spoons of oil. I was gathering sticks for a fire, to make some bread for my son and me. Then after we eat, we will die, because we have no more food. Nothing will grow without rain."
"Don't worry," Elijah said. "Make some bread for me and for yourselves. The God of Israel has told me that the flour will not be gone and the oil will not be used up until God sends rain back down to earth."
The woman went back to her house then and made Elijah a loaf of bread. And everyone in her family, as well as Elijah, ate for many days. They had all the wanted, and the flour and the oil never used up before it rained again three years later.
