In the East the people kept their corn in earthen jars to protect it from insects which swarm in the heat of the sun. What in our translation is called a "barrel" (כד) was one of these vessels. The store in this case was run low; there was but a "handful" left; yet this was so multiplied by the power of God that three persons found at least in it sufficient provision for two and a half years. Let us inquire -

I. HOW ITS CONDITION BECAME KNOWN.

1. Elijah came to Zarephath in quest of the widow.

(1) Such were his instructions (vers. 8, 9). But was there only one widow in this city of "smelting furnaces" (comp. 1 Kings 7:14), this hive of industry, this centre of population? How, then, is he to discover the right one?

(2) God knows her, and that is enough for the prophet. The Word of the Lord who came to him at Samaria and at Cherith will now guide him. (See Isaiah 42:16.)

(3) Let us follow the light we have and God will give us more. So was Abraham's faithful servant guided to Rebecca (Genesis 24.)

2. He found her at the gate of the city.

(1) She was there on an errand of her own, viz., to gather a few dry sticks to kindle a fire to cook her last meal in this world.

(2) She was there also, though unknown to herself, on an errand from God. She was commanded to sustain the prophet of Israel

(3) Yet these two errands harmonize. God uses man's purposes to work out His own. Man proposeth; God disposeth.

3. He readily identified her.

(1) He asked her for water, which, with admirable promptitude, she went to fetch. This was the sign by which Abraham's servant identified Rebecca (Genesis 24:14). The cup of cold water has its promise of reward (Matthew 10:42).

(2) Then he asked for bread, which further request opened the way for the whole truth, "As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but," etc. (ver. 12). From these words it is evident that she recognized Elijah, at least as an Israelite, and probably as the prophet of Israel; for he was a person of pronounced individuality. His profusion of hair, probably, placed Elisha in such contrast to him that Elisha was mocked as a "bald head." (Comp. 2 Kings 1:8, and 2 Kings 2:23.)

II. How ITS RESOURCES WERE MAINTAINED.

1. By the miracle-working power of God.

(1) "The barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah." This supplied not only the guest but the widow and her son for two years and a half. As Bp. Hall remarks, "Never did corn or olive so increase in the growing as these did in the using."

(2) This miracle was similar to that of the manna. The off was used as butter for the meal, and the taste of the manna was like fresh oil (Numbers 11:8). Also to Christ's miracles of the loaves.

(3) The lessons are the same. The miracles all teach that "man lives not by bread alone, but by the word of God." That this spiritual food is the gift of God. That it differs essentially from the bread that perishes. Not only is it imperishable, but it multiplies in the using, grows as it is dispensed. How delightful were the spiritual feasts of that two years and a half in the widow's dwelling [(See Revelation 3:20.)

2. Through the faith of the widow.

(1) She was predisposed to believe. God saw this, else He had not honoured her with His command to sustain his prophet. (See Luke 4:24-26.) Let us ever live in that moral fitness to be employed by God.

(2) This disposition was encouraged. She waited for something to justify her faith in God, and she got it: "And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said," de. (vers. 13, 14). She knew that the word of the Lord was with Elijah And this instruction to make first a little cake for the prophet was according to God's order. (See Numbers 15:20, 21.)

(3) She proved the genuineness of her faith by her works. "She did according to the saying of Elijah." By works faith is perfected, And God justified the faith that justified him. - J.A.M.

First, take the narrative in its literal sense; then, examine the truths which are suggested by it; and finally, note its mystical import.

I. LITERAL SENSE.

1. Here is a test of faith: "Make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son." It was a sharp test. Famine brings out selfishness in hideous shapes (2 Kings 6:28, 29). To be asked to give to a stranger a little cake from the "handful of meal" that was left, before she met the cravings of hunger in herself and her son, must have been a searching demand.

2. A woman, too, of Zidon, like the woman in the Gospel, when Jesus came into those coasts; a woman without the privileges of the covenant of Israel and the opportunities of God's people; a flower in the common hedge, not in the hothouse, but yet a flower — able to respond to the claim of God through His prophet — "Make me a little cake first"; for "he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me" (Matthew 10:37).

3. It was more than a test of faith; it was a test of trust. This is something more. The prophet's demand appealed to the will, and not merely to the assent of the understanding. She had to make a sacrifice; it was a trifle in itself — "a little cake"; but when people are starving it was not a trifle; and she had to trust to a promise, from the standpoint of human calculation, least likely to be fulfilled.

4. "She went and did according to the saying of the prophet" (ver. 15).

II. THE TRUTHS WHICH THE PROPHET'S DEMAND SUGGESTS.

1. God to be served first. God must be loved — to use the language of divinity — "with a love of preference." As a king, St. says, should be served as a king, so God should be loved as God, that is to say, "preferably to all creatures." In the same way, the claims of God and His service must stand first. The demand, "Make me thereof a little cake first," is like that which our Lord gave on the mount, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." It is the law of the first-fruits.

2. God's commands are to be taken upon trust. His positive commands test not only our obedience, but our confidence in Him. Moral commands are echoed from within, so that not to obey them "is not folly alone, but also impiety" (St. ); but commands of which we do not see the reason, yet which must be obeyed as simply coming from God, are touchstones of trust in Him.

3. How little, after all, God requires of us! "Make Me a little cake." He gave our first parents licence to eat of every tree in the garden save one — just an acknowledgment of His Sovereignty. He turns the water into wine; we have only to fill the water-pots. His commandments are "not grievous" (1 John 5:3), but we may have made obedience difficult through having abused our powers. God asks little, but makes a large return (Matthew 25:23). "The barrel of meal did not waste," etc.

III. ITS MYSTICAL IMPORT. When Aristotle in logic, and Plato in philosophy, ruled the day (twelfth century), "Hugo and Richard de St. Victor were the great mystics of the period (Milman), and it is from the former of these I transcribe the mystical interpretation of the subject in hand. The widow of Zarephath represents the holy Church — a widow — waiting for the advent of the Saviour. Elijah came to the woman, when Christ, through the mystery of the Incarnation, came to the Church. The woman was gathering "two sticks"; for the holy Church received the faith of the Cross. The "handful of meal" is said to signify the imperfection of Divine knowledge at the time when Christ came; and the "little oil in a cruse," the scarcity of grace. But Elijah multiplied both, because Christ, "full of grace and truth," imparted both to mankind. The woman sustained Elijah; for the faith and holy works of the Church refresh the Lord: "I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3:20).

IV. LESSONS.

1. The leading lesson throughout is one of trust. "Fear not." The woman of Zarephath affords a striking instance of obedience and submission, not only of the will, but of the judgment.

2. To remember that God should have the first claim upon us and upon our substance, which increases through parting with it, as did the five loaves as they were distributed to others by the disciples' hands.

3. It is a great mistake to suppose that only the rich should give into the treasury of God. The poor widow's "two mites" were more to Christ than the large gifts of the rich, because it was her all.

(The Thinker.)