(Genesis 24:12-21), and as afterwards (Luke 19:30-34; 22:9-12), by anticipation provided for His servant. And,

assuredly, as ever, "the cup of cold water" given in the name of the LORD was soon to receive rich reward.

But there was yet another and a sharper test by which to ascertain whether she were the widow to whom

Elijah was Divinely sent. If she would hold communion with a servant of Jehovah -did she truly believe in

Jehovah Himself; and if so, was her faith such that she would venture her last means of support upon her

trust in Him and in His word? To put it in another manner, heathen as she was, though thus far prepared,

was there, if not activeness, yet receptiveness of faith in her, of sufficient capacity for such spiritual

provision as that which was afterwards miraculously supplied for her temporal wants? This would be the

last and decisive test. As she was going to fetch the water, without hesitating or murmuring at the

interruption of the old, or at the imposition of the new task, Elijah arrested her with a request yet stranger

and far harder than the first. She was evidently a poor widow, and we know from profane history 299 that the

famine, consequent on the want of rain in Israel, had also extended to Tyre. But when Elijah addressed to

her what, even in these circumstances, would have seemed the modest request for "a morsel of the bread" in

her hand - that is, in her possession 300 - he could not have been aware of the terrible straits to which his

future hostess was reduced.

It was not unwillingness to give even to a complete stranger part of her scanty provision, but that she had

absolutely none left. Despair breaks down the barriers of reserve - at least to fellow-sufferers, and, as in this

case, to fellow-believers. With the adjuration, "Lives Jehovah, thy God," which attested alike her knowledge

of Elijah's profession and her own faith, she told how nothing but a handful of meal was left in the small

Cad301 that held her provisions, and a little oil in her cruse. She had now come to gather by the highway a

few sticks, with which to cook a last me al for herself and her child. After that they must lie down and die.

It is difficult to know which most to wonder at, Elijah's calmness, consistency, and readiness of faith, or the

widow's almost incredible simplicity of trustfulness. Elijah was not taken aback; he did not hesitate to go on

with the trial of his hostess to the end; least of all, was he afraid of the possible consequences. As in every

real trial of our trust, there was first a general promise, and, on the ground of it, a specific demand, followed

by an assurance to conquering faith ("the cad of meal shall not come to an end, nor the cruse of oil fail").

But, if it was as he told her, why this demand in its sharply trying severity: first, to use for Elijah part of the

very little she had, and to bring it to him, and only after that to go back302 and prepare for herself and her

Needless, indeed, the trial would seem, except as a test of her faith; yet not a mere test, since if she stood it

and inherited the promise, it would be such confirmation of it, such help and blessing to her - alike spiritually

and temporally - as to constitute the beginning of a new life. And so it ever is; and therefore does every

specific demand upon our faith stand between a general promise and a special assurance, that, resting upon

the one, we may climb the other; and thus every specific trial - and every trial is also one of our faith - may

become a fresh starting-point in the spiritual life.

And the widow of Sarepta obeyed. It requires no exercise of imagination to realize what her difficulties in so

doing must have been. Did Elijah go back with her after she had brought him the cake, almost the last

provision for herself and her child, -to watch as, with wonderment and awe, she prepared the first meal from

her new store; or did he allow her to return home alone, perhaps wondering as she went whether it would be

as the prophet had said, or whether perhaps she would never again see the Israelite stranger? One thing at

least is clear, that this heathen woman, whose knowledge of Jehovah could only have been rudimentary and

incipient, and who yet, at the word of a stranger, could give up her own and her son's last meal, because a

prophet had bidden it, and promised her miraculous supply for the future, must have had the most simple

childlike trustfulness in the God of Israel. What a lesson this, and how full of comfort, to Elijah! There was

faith not only in Israel, but wherever He had planted its seed. Elijah had spread the wings of the God of

Israel's promise (1 Kings 17:14), and this poor heathen had sought shelter under them.