Death and Resurrection

Some notes on the death and resurrection of the widow’s son in 1 Kings 17.

1) This is not the first time we’ve seen a sick son in Kings. In chapter 14, Jeroboam sends his wife to a prophet to request a prognosis for Abijah. Here, there is no husband, but the mother approaches the prophet regarding a son who has become sick and is dying. The connection is strengthened by the fact that the boy is said to have “no breath” remaining in him. “Breath” here is NESHAMAH, the same noun used in 15:29 to describe Baasha’s elimination of the house of Jeroboam, of which Abijah’s death was an omen. In 17:15, we have just learned (somewhat surprisingly) that the widow has a “house,” and it appears that her house stands in stark contrast to the “house” of Jeroboam or, now, Ahab.

2) Speaking of that house, the widow is called the “Baal of the house” in 17:17. Baal, of course, can simply mean “lord” or, here in the feminine, “mistress,” but in the context of 16:31-32, the title also resonates with the name of the idol. She is, moreover, in Baal’s territory, in the region of Sidon. There is a house of Baal on the other side of the Jordan, built and maintained by Ahab and the “mistress of the house,” Jezebel. The widow’s house becomes an alternative to that house. We’re back, perhaps, at Elijah as the leader of a counter-temple movement once again.

3) Elijah “measures himself out” on the boy three times, and the word for “times” can also mean “feet, paces, steps.” There is perhaps some allusion here to the measuring out of holy space, measuring out a space for the NEPHESH of the boy to return to.

4) This is the first resurrection in Scripture, and also the first time, so far as I can find, of the notion that the soul “departs” and might “return” to the body. The “breath” that left the boy is the same “breath” that was breathed into Adam in Gen 2. When that breath leaves, it is also his soul leaving. But his soul can return. The closest analogy that I can find earlier in Scripture is 1 Kings 8, where Solomon asks Yahweh to receive His people who return to Him with all their heart and soul when they are in exile (v. 48). The departure and return of the boy’s soul looks a lot like the departure and return of Yahweh’s glory to His temple and land.

5) Throughout the chapter, obedience to the word of Yahweh has been marked by the author’s repetitions. A command is given; and obedience to the command is recorded in the same words (cf. vv. 3 and 5; 9-10; 15). In verses 21-22, this pattern occurs again, with an astonishing twist. Elijah says “return the soul of this lad on his inward parts,” and Yahweh responds: “the soul of the lad returned on his inner parts and he lived.” Elijah’s word prevails with Yahweh, in the same fashion that Yahweh’s word has prevailed with Elijah. Effectual fervent prayer, indeed.

6) The whole transaction takes place in the “upper place.” Elijah “ascends” to an upper room (the word in Hebrew is built on the verb for “ascent,” which is, of course, also the word for “ascension offering”). There is a mountain top resurrection here, and points to the resurrection of Yahweh’s son at Carmel in the following chapter. Renewal takes place in the “heavens,” and then Elijah brings the resurrected son back to earth. Or, the upper room is the “Most Holy Place” of the house.

7) There is a fairly obvious chiasm running through this story:

A. Son sick and dies, so woman cries to Elijah
B. Elijah takes child from woman
C. Elijah ascends
D. Elijah cries to Yahweh and the boy revives
C. Elijah descends
B. Elijah returns the boy to his mother
A. Woman confesses her faith in Elijah

8) It is interesting that the woman brings up the issue of her guilt when the boy first dies (v. 18). This is psychologically realistic: The woman thinks that God’s favor to her was all too good to be true, that God’s mercy cannot be for real. But it is also theologically important in the passage. By the end of the passage, the woman is confessing her faith in Elijah and Elijah’s God. She no longer believes that Yahweh is out to get her, and pummel her for her guilt. She is assured of forgiveness, and she receives this assurance through resurrection. The blessing that returns to her house with her son’s resurrection is an assurance that the Lord does not remember her sins, that he places them as far from Him as east is from west, as far as Samaria is from Zarephath.

9) Resurrection provokes a confession of faith from the woman, a Gentile.
So it is written that the Christ should suffer, die, and rise again on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached to the Gentiles.