#DailyDevotion We Worship A God Who Raises The Dead

1 Kings 17:19-24¹⁹“Give me your boy,” he said to her. He took him from her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed. ²⁰Then he cried to the LORD. “LORD my God,” he said, “would You also bring misery on the widow I’m staying with by killing her boy?” ²¹Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and called to the LORD, “O LORD my God, please make this boy live again.” ²²The LORD did what Elijah asked, and the life of the boy returned again to his body and so he lived. ²³Elijah took the boy, brought him down from the upper room of the house, and gave him to his mother. “Look,” Elijah said, “your boy is alive.” ²⁴“Now I’m convinced,” the woman told Elijah, “you are a man of God and the LORD’s Word you speak is the truth.”

So, no, I don’t think Elijah performed CPR on the sick boy. Having taken CPR, it looks nothing like this anyway. Why does he take the boy to the upper room? Why does he stretch himself out on the boy three times? Who knows. Prophets do some strange things sometimes. We do see here Elijah’s own being irate with the LORD for allowing the boy to get sick to the point of death and having the widow be irate with him. The certain thing we see is Elijah calling upon the LORD 3 times. The LORD hears Elijah’s prayers and restores the boy back to health.



You would think a jar of oil and flour never running out would be enough to convince someone the person who promised it was actually a man of God. I guess having Elijah live there for several years was enough to convince her men of God are sinners also. Perhaps it was enough to make her doubt his calling. We are hard headed creatures. Having received her boy back from the dead she is now convinced Elijah is a man of God whose word he speaks is the LORD’s and is the truth. We should not be so hard-headed.

Remember, this is a devotion, not a commentary. As I read this text there are several things that come to my mind as I think about it. Jesus has his disciples in the upper room where he feeds them the medicine of immortality, i.e. the LORD’s Supper. Elijah takes the boy to the upper room and makes him alive again. On another hand, Jesus is the son of a widow, Mary. Mary thinks her son Jesus is dead on Friday. On the third day, the Spirit raises Jesus from the dead and Mary receives him back. That Jesus Christ is risen from the dead is the message makes us believe he is the Messiah, the very Son of God whose Word is Truth and is the Word of Truth. I’m not saying that is the meaning of the text but those are the thoughts the text brings to my mind. Those thoughts in themselves are the truth of the Gospel.

Perhaps what we should get from the text is the simple truth of the words of the widow. Elijah is a man of God whose word of truth is the LORD’s. We should recognize as the widow does the LORD is God, the creator of all that is seen and unseen. The LORD who promised Elijah he would take care of him and the widow is the same LORD Jesus who promises us the Father knows what we need and we shouldn’t be anxious about it but rather to “seek his kingdom and his righteousness and these things will be added to us.” Most of all this same LORD Jesus Christ as he raised the widow’s son through the prayer of Elijah is going to raise from the dead everyone and give eternal life to all who believe in him and eternal perdition to all who rejected him.

Heavenly Father, give us faith to trust you, Jesus and the Spirit are the LORD speaking the truth, taking care of us, and raising us to eternal life on the Last Day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.