Search Tools
New Defender's Study Bible Notes
17:1 Elijah. “Elijah” means “Jehovah is God,” a most appropriate name for a believer in the true God in a nation and time so thoroughly dominated by pagan apostasy.
17:7 no rain in the land. Thus was Elijah’s prophecy being fulfilled. As a matter of fact, so was that of Moses, who had long before warned that national apostasy would be followed by nationwide drought (Deuteronomy 11:17; 28:24).
17:9 Zarephath. Zarephath, near Sidon, was one hundred miles away, and Sidon was the homeland of Jezebel (I Kings 16:31). The Lord Jesus used this event as an illustration of God’s concern for Gentiles and of the strange rejection of God by many of His own people of Israel.
17:16 wasted not. There were numerous miracles recorded in the days of Elijah and Elisha, perhaps in response to the deep apostasy in Israel at the time. This miracle of the never-diminishing supply of food was a miracle of creation, superseding the normally impregnable physical law of conservation of matter. It was also significant in its application to a Gentile woman rather than to an Israelite. This widow of Sidon believed in the true God, and her faith was greatly rewarded, while the people of Israel had defected to Baal. The Lord Jesus Himself cited her example (Luke 4:25, 26).
17:22 and he revived. This is the first of eight instances recorded in the Bible when a dead person was restored to life miraculously, and the departed soul returned to its body. One was accomplished through Elisha (II Kings 4:32-36), and one at Elisha’s tomb (II Kings 13:21); one each through Peter and Paul (Acts 9:40; 20:9-12), and three through Christ (Matthew 9:18-25; Luke 7:12-15; John 11:43-44). These were all “resuscitations,” of course, and each of these people eventually died again. The first true resurrection was that of Christ Himself (I Corinthians 15:20), who could say after His resurrection: “I am alive for evermore” (Revelation 1:18). Accompanying and following His resurrection was that of “many” (perhaps all) of the Old Testament “saints” (Matthew 27:52,53).