It happened after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.

And she said to Elijah, "What do we have in common, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son."

I Kings 17:17-18 (NHEB)

 

Oh, what a difference a day makes! Since the moment the Widow of Zarephath had obeyed God in caring for the Prophet Elijah, every day had gotten better. Where she once had no hope for the future, she now had no fear for tomorrow. And she realized it all had changed the moment she had been obedient.  The oil and flour she possessed, which had once been barely enough to scrape together for a last meal, now never ran out. She was able to care not only for her son and herself, but also for this Prophet the Lord had placed under her care. Every time she went to prepare a meal, her faith was strengthened. God was faithful in response to her faithfulness, and she had been blessed above what she could ever have imagined. Things would be easy from here on out. Nothing but blue skies and rainbows. There was nothing left to worry about.

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But there is always an “after” to “these things.” That’s when the unimaginable happens. The poor widow now experienced a disaster worse than any that had ever befallen her before. That which was most precious to her, her beloved child, was taken from her. But the “after” didn’t happen all at once. Scripture says the boy, “fell sick.” Perhaps with the child’s initial cries of discomfort, the widow felt the first twinge of fear she had experienced since the day she first met Elijah. But then she comforted herself with the knowledge that there was nothing to worry about now that this blessed Prophet was living under her roof. After all, children get sick and then they get better. This was nothing out of the ordinary. Elijah was her personal good luck charm that would keep anything bad from happening.

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And then the child got worse.

 

And worse.

 

And then her nightmare became reality and her beloved son, her only hope and dream, died. What agony it must have been to sit beside the little boy’s bedside, to time his breaths, and to cry out in vain to God for healing.  This just did not add up. This made no sense at all. To what purpose could a loving God allow such thing to happen and after all that she had been through?

 

Is suffering caused by sin? In the big picture, yes. All of the fallen creation groans under the consequences of sin and the hope for redemption (Romans 8:22). But is every single negative thing that occurs in our life a punishment for sin? Ask Job about that. Sometimes its just the trying of our faith. And that is part of what makes trials so frustrating. We rarely see the point of suffering in the moment of testing.

 

When disaster strikes, we usually examine and blame ourselves. It’s as if we imagine God on a “Points System” where we earn gold stars for correct behavior. We get so many points for doing certain good deeds and extra points for going above and beyond. When trials, setbacks, and heartache occur, we immediately wonder what we have done wrong to make this happen. Were we neglectful in some area? Is there some hidden sin? Something we overlooked?

 

Her past sins came immediately to the widow’s mind and she felt overwhelming guilt as the cause of her poor child’s suffering and death. If such guilt is not properly examined and the sin repented, we become defensive and lash out at others, and this is exactly what the widow did to Elijah. Once again she surrendered to her grief and fear and blamed Elijah: “YOU have no idea of what I’m going through! YOU have brought this punishment on me! YOU have killed my son!”

 

Though our hearts break for those like this poor woman who endure unimaginable pain and loss in this life, we must not leave them to drown in their hopelessness and grief when healing and restoration is only a prayer away. In these situations, we must examine ourselves and see the real purpose in trials, which is to bring us closer to God, to teach us patience and endurance, and to strengthen our faith so that we may serve as a testimony to others. Healing can begin only when we accept that our faith must be in an eternal God no matter the temporary circumstances in which we find ourselves in this life. If we never grasp this truth, we condemn ourselves to repeat the lesson.