place; the authority which he pleaded and the power which he claimed -in general, even the terms of his

message, "Lives Jehovah, the God of Israel, which I stand before His Face! If there be these years dew or

rain, except by the mouth (the spoken means) of my word!"  293

What answer Ahab made, what impression it produced on him or his people, Holy Scripture, in its Divine

self-consciousness and sublime indifference to what may be called "effect," does not condescend even to

notice. Nay, here also silence is best - and the prophet himself must withdraw as suddenly as he had come,

hide himself from human ken, not be within reach of question or answer, and let God work, alone and

unseen. An absolute pause with that thunder-cloud overhead - unremoved and apparently unremovable - in

presence of which man and Baal shall be absolutely powerless, such was the fitting sequence to Elijah's

Elijah's first direction was to the Wady Cherith - probably: east of the Jordan294 - one of those many wide

water-courses which drain into the river of Palestine. In this wild solitude, like Moses, nay, like our LORD

Himself, he was to be alone with God -- to plead for Israel, and to prepare for his further work. So long as

water was left in the brook - for there is nothing needlessly miraculous, even in the story of Elijah - and so

long as Jehovah had such strange provisioners as "the ravens"295 to act as His messengers - for there is

nothing that is merely natural in this history, and the miraculous always appears by the side of the natural -

the prophet would not want needed support.

In this also there were lessons of deepest significance to Elijah (compare as to God's strange messengers,

Job 37:10; Psalm 78:23; Isaiah 5:6; Amos 9:3). When in the course of time the waters of Cherith failed, owing

to the long drought, Elijah was directed to go to Zarephath (Sarepta, Luke 4:26),296 where God had

"commanded" for him even a more strange provisioner than the ravens, a poor, almost famishing widow, and

she a Gentile !297

Here again everything is significant. Sarepta was not only a heathen city, outside the bounds of Israel,

midway between Sidon and Tyre, but actually within the domains of Jezebel's father. The prophet, who was

not safe from Jezebel in Israel, would be safe within Jezebel's own country; he for whom Ahab had so

earnestly but vainly searched, not only throughout his own land, but in all neighboring countries (1 Kings

18:10), would be securely concealed in the land most hostile to Elijah's mission, and most friendly to Ahab's

purposes. But there are even deeper lessons. It is only one of these, that, cast out of his own country and

by his own people, God can find a safe refuge for His servant in most unlikely circumstances; and that,

when faith seems to fail, where most we might have expected it, God will show that He has His own where

least we would look for them. Again, the reference of our LORD to this history (Luke 4:25), shows these

three things. That the entertainment of Elijah was a distinguishing honor conferred on the widow of Sarepta;

that it proved of real spiritual benefit to her (as will be shown in the course of this history); and that it

implied, that God had purposes of grace beyond the narrow bounds of Israel, unbelieving as it was - in the

language of St. Paul, that He was not the God of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles (Romans 3:29). May

we not go a step farther, and see in this mission of Elijah to, and entertainment by a heathen widow, an

anticipation at least of the announcement of that "Kingdom of God" in its world -wide bearing, which formed

part of the message of his antitype, John the Baptist?

Once more the support of Elijah, though miraculous, was to be secured in the course of natural and easily

intelligible events. Yet withal, as it had been Jehovah Who "commanded"298 the ravens, so it was He also

Who "commanded" the widow of Sarepta, all unconscious as she was of it, to sustain Elijah.

But how should the prophet recognize her? He must go, trusting to God's direction, and, watching such

natural indications as would appear, be guided to whither he was supernaturally sent. Arrived at the gate of

Sarepta, he saw a widow, whose poverty was evidenced by her searching for a little brushwood. Was she

the woman who would sustain him? There was a preliminary test ready to hand. She must have recognized

the stranger by his dress as a prophet of Jehovah. Would she, the heathen, be willing to hold friendly

communication with him? So he handed her the drinking-vessel which he had brought, with the request to