I Kings 17:9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
First Kings 17 tells us a very interesting story regarding two very different people. One was Elijah and one was an unnamed woman. He was a man; she was a woman. He was an Israelite; she was a Canaanite or Gentile. He was a prophet; she was a widow. They had two different needs. Elijah was under drought, as was the entire land, and the widow was in drought, lacking food. We read of two prayers. Elijah prayed that God would withhold rain, and the widow, if she prayed at all, prayed that God would provide food for her.
The Bible tells us in James that Elijah was a man who was “subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.” So Elijah was praying, “Dear God, judge Ahab. Bring peace to your people.” Ahab was a menace. God answered that prayer, but I’m not sure it was what Elijah had expected because God withheld the rain from Ahab, but Elijah also lived in drought. God commanded ravens to provide for Elijah, and they did.
Later, God commanded Elijah to go to a widow woman in Zarephath. God said, “Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.” Elijah went and found this widow, and when he saw her gathering sticks for a fire, he said, “Could you get me some water, please? And, while you are at it, could you get me something to eat?” She replied with great fervor and invoked God, “As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
Here is an economy that only a starving person could appreciate. She had counted even the sticks she was gathering! Here is Elijah who prays for God’s judgment of Ahab. God sends Ahab a drought and Elijah a drought as well. Here is this woman who, if she prayed at all, is praying for God to feed her and her son. What does God do? God sends her another hungry person, a hungry prophet. I don’t think either of these people got what they were expecting when they prayed.
Sometimes we don’t recognize an answer to prayer when it is staring us in the face. We can learn something here: if you can trust God for an answer, then you can trust God with the answer. Did God give the answer that Elijah or this widow expected? I don’t know, but I rather think it was a bit different than they expected. But God answered nonetheless.
There are three things to remember. First, sometimes God’s answer is different than what we ask. That is okay because God knows better than I do. God sees further than I do and understands more deeply than I do. Sometimes God’s answers to my prayers are different than my prayers. God’s ability to answer is better than my ability to ask.
Second, God’s answer was better than the request. The Bible ends this part of the story by saying that the barrel of meal the widow had “wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah.” He gave this woman a word by Elijah and he gave Elijah food by this widow. God was providing for both in a wonderful way. So, sometimes God’s answer is better than our asking.
Finally, God’s answers are because of our asking. Just because God’s provision was different and better than what they expected does not mean that God did not give an answer to their asking. Friend, you may not even know how to ask, but just begin with the faith and the knowledge you have because God’s ability and God’s knowledge supersede our own. God is a God Who cares, hears, and responds. If you can trust God for an answer, you can certainly trust God with the answer.