A Meditation, an Encouragement and a Prayer for Prodigals from I Kings 17:1-24
17 Now it came about after these things, that the son of the woman,
the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe, that
there was no breath left in him.
18 So she said to Elijah, "What do I have to do with you, O man of God?
You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance, and to put my son to
death!"
19 And he said to her, "Give me your son." Then he took him from her
bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living, and laid him on
his own bed.
20 And he called to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, hast Thou also
brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to
die?"
21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to
the LORD, and said, "O LORD my God, I pray Thee, let this child's life return to
him."
22 And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child
returned to him and he revived.
23 And Elijah took the child, and brought him down from the upper room
into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, "See, your son is
alive."
24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God,
and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."
Verses 17 and 18 “ What do I have to do with you?”. This is an idiom that
means “ What is between you and I” or “what do you have against me?”. If you are
a mother (or a father) who for years and years has been standing in intercession
for a backslidden son or daughter, you may just have said the same thing to God,
maybe not in words, but you have felt that He had let you down or forgotten you.
You have doubted His goodness in your heart and – in your grief – even felt so
condemned to the point of thinking that your sins and your failures in raising
up your children are too great for God to forgive and therefore your prayers for
them are unanswered.
You have been listening to the accusations of the devil who wants to steal
your faith and your hope.
In Luke 4:34 we read that the demons said the same thing to Jesus. “What do
you have against us, have you come to destroy us?”. Yes, Jesus came to destroy
the works of the devil, but He did not come to destroy or take the life of the
widow’s son in this passage, neither did he come to put her iniquities to
remembrance. Likewise, He cares for our prodigals and for us who mourn in prayer
for them and who have held them in our bosom of intercession in the deadness of
their condition, refusing to bury all promises in total discouragement and
grief. Our hearts are still hanging on to hope.
So, like Elijah said to the woman , Jesus says to you and I: “give me your
son, give me what you are carrying in your bosom. When we do, He carries them in
the “Upper Room” where intercession is made and the Spirit is outpoured. (Acts
1:13-14). Didn’t He say that in the last days He will pour out His Spirit on our
sons and daughters? (Joel 2:28).
Like Elijah, He carries them to the place where He Lives (verse 19),
His dwelling place, the place of His Presence, the place where He resides in the
fullness of His Resurrection Power. Then He lays them on His own bed,
that bed on which He laid for a short time in His death, but from which He arose
triumphantly on Easter morning.
The bed speaks of rest and restoration. There a person lays down when weary
or sick. Jesus is our rest. “Come unto Me”, He said in Matt. 11:28, “…and
I will give you rest”.
“O my God, lead back our prodigals, who are restless and weary of sin, to the
rest that can only be found in You!”
Verse 21. “The Elijah stretched himself upon the child 3 times and
called to the Lord.” He stretched himself upon the child in total
identification with his death. Jesus – our Elijah – identified with their death
for they were in Christ when He carried their sins on His body “stretched” upon
the Cross.
“…and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all”. (Isaiah
53:6). Death was laid upon the “LIVE ONE” that Life may be stretched upon the
dead ones. “He poured out himself to death, ….. He himself bore the sin of
many, (thus He) interceded for the transgressors.” Isa 53:12
(parenthesis added).
Then Elijah prayed, “Lord O my God, let this child’s life return to him.
Would you bring calamity to the widow with whom I am staying?” (my
paraphrase). Would indeed the Lord bring tragedy to His people with whom His
Spirit dwells? NO!
The Lord heard the voice of Elijah, just as He accepted the intercession of
Jesus on the Cross. The Lord has heard the voice of our Elijah so now the dead
can hear the voice of the Son of God and live. “Verily, verily, I say unto
you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the
Son of God: and they that hear shall live” John 5:25
When we approach His throne of mercy on the merit of the body of His death
and of the pouring out of His Life in His blood, the life of our prodigals
returns and they are revived.
God hears the intercession of the Holy Spirit through us. He will bring our
sons and our daughters back to us alive. Then, like the woman said to Elijah, we
will also say, “now I know that the Word of promise You have spoken to me
regarding them, is Truth!
These are the days when our eyes shall see the salvation of the Lord coming
in Resurrection power and then our faith will reach a level far above the one we
have now.
This is the faith we are going to need to “…rebuild the ancient ruins, …
raise up the former devastations, and to repair the ruined cities, the
desolations of many generations. Isaiah 61:4.
Father, thank you for the body and the blood of Jesus that He so freely gave
so that we may have confidence in the strength of Your Covenant, which assures
us that in Jesus all promises are yea and amen. 2 Corinthians 1:20.
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