1 Kings 17:8-9 Transplanting

“Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”” ‭‭I Kings‬ ‭17‬:‭8‬-‭9‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. Arise, go to Zarephath: God led Elijah from the dry brook to a Gentile city. This was an unusual and challenging move for Elijah to make.

i. God kept transplanting Elijah: From home to Jezreel to Cherith to Zarephath. This transplanting made him stronger and stronger.

ii. We should also remember that this was the general region that the wicked queen Jezebel was from. “Elijah was visiting enemy territory and showing the power of God in an area where Baal was worshipped, though ineffective through drought” (Wiseman).

b. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you: Widows were notorious for their poverty in the ancient world. God told Elijah to go to a Gentile widow and receive provision; it probably seemed to make more sense to wait beside a dry brook.

i. When He was rejected by His own people, Jesus used this example of Elijah’s coming to the widow of Zarephath as an illustration of God’s right to choose a people to Himself: Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow” (Luke 4:24-26). (Guzik)

Transplanting 

“This transplanting made him stronger and stronger.”

God often transplants His children for His purposes, for His kingdom, for His glory! God transplanted the hearts of my wife and I into a life of adoption. 

Like Elijah, to some it made more sense to stay by the brook and to live our lives for ourselves but after witnessing a friend’s daughter give up her child because she preferred a life of drugs and alcohol it opened our eyes and hearts to the needs of orphans.

Have you gotten a new heart or ever been physically transplanted by God?

Blessings