Failed Education in the School of the Widow

Elijah, like a phoenix from ashes (not fire) rises from Israel’s religious identity as a force of nature. Elijah is an earthy man who has more in common with Samson than he does with Moses. The remarkable aspect of Elijah as a person is his faith, not his courage that vacillates with his despairing temperament. Elijah is more of a sign than a prophet, more of an expressed need in its most primal form than an example. Israel as a people needs to believe! Unfortunately they are a wild people with occasional bursts of faith in the Nazarite tradition and lack Torah as instruction in both the court of the king and in everyday life.

The Wildman, the hairy survivalist, the self appointed prophet, the sign of need, needs education. Elijah has nowhere to go to learn Torah, so God has chosen a widow to be Elijah’s teacher. Elijah has been informed that God has spoken to a widow and ‘commanded’ her to feed him. Elijah lacks any theological grounding, he writes nothing and his story is (like Samson’s) flavored with the trappings of a dime novel from the old west.

When Elijah arrives in Zarephath the widow recognizes him and taunts him with his own oath formula (as Yahweh lives); however, she expresses her complete desperation and in the use of ‘your God’ differentiates her understanding of Yahweh from Elijah’s. The God of the widow doesn’t bring droughts to topple kings and leave widows to suffer. Her God cares for widows and sends Elijah to take care of her, so that she may feed him. The text sets forth the care of the widow in typical legendary discourse to magnify the person of Elijah.

We are never told how the widow’s jars remained full; we are led to believe it was always miraculous. Of course, in a time of drought and famine it must have been, day by day, miraculous for a desperate widow and a fugitive zealot to have their needs met. I do not think we are to imagine Elijah spending three years in his upper room and hiding while the jars remained full. Rather, Elijah must survive by caring for the widow and her house. Elijah’s strength and athletic adrenaline must serve the widow.

The widow of Zarephath is nameless, even as Elijah did not consider her when he stood before Yahweh, challenged Ahab, and declared a drought that would end only at his word. Only the raw, underdeveloped character of a wilderness survivalist matches the chutzpah of Elijah. The self-sufficient loner is admirable for his belief but is not an example to follow as a human being. Elijah’s reputation as a miracle worker overshadows any sign of someone who cares about other human beings. Elijah cares only for the supremacy of his God, a God whom he experiences but fails to recognize along the way in the lives of the widow of Zarephath and Obadiah.

Elijah is a liminal person, disconnected from society, uneducated and untamed. Elijah does not recognize the faith of Obadiah or the widow; he considers himself to be alone when other believers in Yahweh have believed at the risk of losing their lives and been saved by the wisdom of Obadiah. Elijah doesn’t know the ‘seven thousand ‘ souls that have not bowed down to Baal, he doesn’t even acknowledge their existence; he is alone.

The son of the widow of Zarephath becomes ill; her response reveals her displeasure with Elijah. It is apparent that the widow and Elijah have a less than exemplary relationship. He lives in her home as a dysfunctional liminal person, unable to adjust to the life of ‘widows’, of everyday people. This is so because Elijah never changes course in his perspective on how he is to live in relation to the consequences of his actions. Ultimately, Elijah’s actions lead to his violent death.

The widow thinks of Elijah as an unforgiving, merciless character, disconnected from her reality. The cause of her son’s illness is, in her thought, the result of living with this man who has no sympathy for widows. He has reminded her of her sins (1st Kings 17:18). We are not told what sin or sins that the widow recalls. I suspect the introduction of her son is a literary clue. Without a husband to care for her, she has either resorted to using her desirability as a female to gain the aid of a man or has prostituted herself. Possibly her son is not the child of her deceased husband. Elijah resorts to the power of his faith and heals the boy.

Elijah was given an opportunity by Yahweh to live with a woman, get to know her and possibly to have a family. Elijah’s way of living and his concept of God leave widows helpless in a world of male dominance. Elijah is a man without responsibility and his zealousness is problematic for all, even God. However, God honors faith and works with all kinds of people, people like the widow, like Obadiah, and even like the miracle-working Elijah.

God sent Elijah to the widow to recognize the failure of his king-challenging fiasco that led to his flight into the wilderness where there was no manna, no quail, only the carrion of ravens. Elijah does not recognize his failure to fast and seek God’s guidance. Elijah’s trek to Horeb is in imitation of Moses and once again Elijah fails. Elijah does not receive a revelation of God but is rebuked for thinking God is a nature God that is known through acts of power. God attempts to teach Elijah that he speaks in the sheering silence of the soul where only God can be heard. God speaks in the heart of a widow who experiences the rash faith of Elijah as the cause of her suffering. God speaks in the life of Obadiah who saves Yahweh’s prophets from Jezebel.