Prayer, Tragedy, and How to Pray a Lament (1 Kings 17.20–21)

O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?

O LORD my God, let this child’s life come into him again.

Background

Before this prayer, a lot of time has passed. The narrator moves briefly through the generations of kings in both the southern Kingdom (Judah) and the Northern Kingdom (Israel). Jeroboam, in the north, does not change his ways, and God punishes him for it. His son Nadab succeeded him and was killed by Baasha, who wiped out the clan of Jeroboam. His son, Elah, reigned until he was killed by his commander, Zimri, which created a civil war between him and Omri. Omri became king, then his son Ahab ruled for twenty-two years. All strayed further from the ways of God.

Judah did not fare any better. Rehoboam did not follow the ways of God and lost his father’s great treasures to an Egyptian incursion. His son, Abijam, followed in his father’s ways. The grandson, Asa, did turn back to the ways of David, though he did not clear the land of all the idols.

The narrator then turns his attention to Elijah, a prophet of God, and his dealings with the kings of the north. It is not surprising that we find no prayers until Elijah comes on the scene, considering the faithlessness of all the kings.

King Ahab had set up idols and temples to the god Ba’al. Elijah appears before the king and warns him that YHWH is God, not Ba’al. To prove his words and the errors of Ahab, a famine comes upon the land. Ahab refused to listen to the prophet.

In response to Elijah’s criticism of her husband, Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, began a pogram to wipe out every prophet of God in the land. Elijah escaped to a cave, and, when the drought worsened, he went further away into Phoenicia (a foreign land that also worshipped Ba’al). There, a widow gave him water, but she had no food. Elijah reassured her, and God caused her bottle of oil and the jar of flour to supply endlessly, saving both her and Elijah from the drought conditions. In the land of people who worship Ba’al, Elijah finds help, while Israel drives him out because they worship Ba’al.

The woman’s son became ill and died, and she called for Elijah. In the ancient world, people often thought that sickness was the result of sin—a deity punishing someone. She believes Elijah has brought the illness because of her past sins. “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!”

Meaning

Elijah knows this is untrue, and bad theology. The Bible does not support such a strict cause-and-effect between sin and suffering.¹ While sickness may sometimes come from sin, it can also be underserved suffering. Bad things sometimes happen in a fallen world.

Elijah is upset at this turn of events. He utters an emotional lament, a cry to God for the injustice of it, then prayers an intercession for the child’s life. This is the fourth lament we have encountered. Like the other two, it is a cry, in the midst of tragedy, which asks God “why?!”² Hagar, banished to the desert with her son to die because of the jealousy of Sarah, cries out. Joshua, seeing his army routed when they thought God was on their side, cried out and complained to God. The people of Israel lament that one tribe was wiped out. Like them, Elijah does not understand the unfairness of the situation. Hagar did nothing wrong. Joshua had no knowledge that one of his men had done something wrong. The people did not understand the consequences of their vow.

Elijah asks God why he would allow this widow—the one who had saved his life—to be the recipient of such a calamity. God heals the boy, and the widow says that she knows he is a man of God and a prophet of YHWH. It is ironic that a Phoenician woman, who surely worshipped Ba’al, sees the truth of God, while the King of Israel, who should be worshipping YHWH, fails to see the truth.³

Application