Elijah (and Yahweh) go outside of the expected land...

An interesting thought...where is this passage placed, and looking at how it functions within the entire story of Elijah....

Please forgive this excerpt from a paper I wrote on the passage, I Kings 17:17-24 ..

"Canonical criticism would ask the question of what is the importance of where this story is placed. That placement leads us to see that it offers insight into Elijah (i.e. that he has the word of God, that even God listens, he haggles); into the Power of the Lord (that he has power over weather, over life and death, even outside of Israel/Judah); and makes a clear contrast between this foreign, Phoenician Woman and Ahab, the king of Israel (one recognizes the word of Elijah, recognizing the truth, welcoming him in rather than chasing him away). The story of Elijah the Tishbite is tied with other stories of this prophet[i] who suddenly appears on the scene in King Ahab’s court in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Just before this pericope about the rising of the widow’s son, the prophet Elijah speaks to Ahab and proclaiming in 1 Kings 17:1b that there “. . . shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”[ii] (NSRV) Ahab does not listen to Elijah and does not believe that Elijah has the word of God and that he is a man of God. The action of God’s to cause drought across the land was the first dramatic example of God’s control over life and death. In 1 Kings 17:14, Elijah says to the woman that if she shares her food with him the Lord will bless her, “For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: the jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” (NSRV)

The story in 1 Kings 17:17-24 specifically takes place outside the area of King Ahab, outside Israel. God shows, through Elijah, that God is more than just a local God and that God works his wonders outside of the area that might be expected. Yahweh’s power extends into the supposed jurisdiction of the Phoenician God, Baal, whose role it is to govern the weather.[iii] Not only that, in this pericope, Elijah lives with and raises the son of a widow.[iv] There is a contrast between the way that Ahab responds to Elijah, by chasing him into the desert (and out of Israel), and this foreign, Phoenician widow who ultimately accepts Elijah and recognizes him as a “man of the Lord” who speaks God’s word."

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[i] “These stories about the prophetic ministry of Elijah the Tishbite, originally independent, now form a tightly organized literary unit.” Walsh, Jerome T. and Christopher T. Begg, 1-2 Kings in New Jerome Biblical Commentary, (New York; Prentice Hall; 1990), 171.

[ii] “for it is a theme of this whole narrative (chs. 17-18) that God has control over all aspects of nature.” Carson, D.A. editor New Bible Commentary: 21^st Century Edition (Downers Grove, Ill; InterVarsity; 1994), 358.

[iii] “The first theme sounds from the beginning. Baal was worshiped as the God of storms and fertility. A Yahwist claim to control rainfall constitutes a direct assault on Baalist religion.” Walsh, Jerome T. and Christopher T. Begg, 1-2 Kings in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, (New York; Prentice Hall; 1990), 171.

[iv] “. . . a certain widow: Widowhood was a mark of dependency, since such women often lacked the means to support themselves, even more so in times of famine.” Cogan, Mordechai, The Anchor Bible:1 Kings: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New York; Doubleday; 1964), 427.