1 Kings 17:13

1Ki 17:13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go [and] do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring [it] unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.

Ver. 13. But make me thereof a little cake first.] Here "the trial of" this poor widow’s "faith, being much more precious than that of gold which perisheth, though it be tried in the fire, is found to praise, and honour, and glory." {1Pe 1:7}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ki_17:13

Make me thereof a little cake first.

Faith tested

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 (2Ki_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 Gods 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 (Mat_10:37).

3. It was more than a test of faith; it was a test of trust. This is something more. The prophets 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 (1Ki_17:15).

II. The truths which the prophets 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. Chrysostom 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. Gods 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. Augustine); 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 (1Jn_5:3), but we may have made obedience difficult through having abused our powers. God asks little, but makes a large return (Mat_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 (Rev_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 widows two mites were more to Christ than the large gifts of the rich, because it was her all. (The Thinker.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ki 17:13-14. Make me thereof a little cake first — This he requires as a trial of her faith, charity, and obedience, which he knew God would graciously and plentifully reward; and so this would be a great example to encourage others to the practice of the same graces. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel — In whom I perceive thou trustest. The barrel of meal — The meal of the barrel. So the cruise of oil is put for the oil of the cruise.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17:13-14 Despite the woman’s dwindling supplies (17:12), Elijah asked her to serve him before herself and her son. Like the poor widow who gave two small coins (Luke 21:1-4), this woman was asked to give all that she had to the Lord’s prophet. True faithfulness means placing God’s Kingdom ahead of personal concerns (Matt 6:33).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 13. But make me thereof a little cake first] This was certainly putting the widow's faith to an extraordinary trial: to take and give to a stranger, of whom she knew nothing, the small pittance requisite to keep her child from perishing, was too much to be expected.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. do as thou hast said] i.e. Set about preparing bread from the meal which remains, but instead of taking first for yourselves, bring what is first ready to me.

and bring it [R.V. adds forth] unto me] It appears from what follows that Elijah dwelt afterwards in the house of the widow, but at first he waited outside till she made ready the food, which it must have needed much faith to give forth for the supply of the stranger. For ‘after’ R.V. reads ‘after ward’ to bring the language into accord with modern usage.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Elijah said unto her, fear not,.... That she and her son should die, it would not be the case:

go and do as thou hast said: mix her meal and her oil, and make a cake thereof, and bake it:

but make thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son: which was not said from a selfish spirit of the prophet, but to try the faith of the woman; and besides, as Abarbinel observes, the prophet was not only hungry and thirsty through his journey, and so required to be served first, but it was for the sake of his sustenance, that the Lord would command a blessing on the meal and oil; wherefore, if she dressed it for herself and her son first, there would have been none left for the divine blessing to descend upon.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

First. He puts the faith of the widow to a severe trial; and the gospel requires nothing more perfect than what she practised. The true faith, which she then received, was her first and most precious recompense; and we shall soon see, that her guest drew down blessings upon her. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Make me thereof a little cake first; which he requires as a trial and exercise of her faith, and charity, and obedience, which he knew God would graciously and plentifully reward; and so this would be a great example to encourage others to the practice of the same graces upon like occasions.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. Make me… a little cake first — Here was a sore trial of her faith. What! share her last morsel with a stranger?

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Elijah said unto her This looks at first like a further test. But it is pretty clear that the prophet now knew that the widow of whom God had spoken was before him, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said Heb. according to Shy word but Heb. only, however: make me thereof Heb. thence, i.e., of the oil as well as the meal. The former took the place of butter. Bread was sometimes baked in oil a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and thy son. The "first" and "afterwards" are emphatic by position. When Bahr says that Elijah would never have made this demand, and that still less would the widow have paid any attention to it, had she been a heathen, he appears to forget the words that followed (ver. 14). When one in the garb of a prophet swore, as this man did, by the sacred name, a heathen, with the belief of the heathen in miracles, might well be persuaded that the word was truth. Elijah"s manner alone would carry conviction with it.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But make, &c. - This he requires as a trial of her faith, and obedience, which he knew God would plentifully reward; and so this would be a great example to encourage others to the practice of the same graces.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

In order, however, to determine with indisputable certainty whether this believing Gentile was the protectress assigned him by the Lord, Elijah comforted her, and at the same time desired her first of all to bake him a little cake משּׁם, i.e., of the last of the meal in the Kad and of the oil in the pitcher, and then to bake for herself and her son, adding this promise: Jehovah the God of Israel will not let the meal in the Kad and the oil in the pitcher fail, till He sends rain upon the earth again. And the widow did according to his word. She gave up the certain for the uncertain, because she trusted the word of the Lord, and received the reward of her believing confidence in the fact that during the whole time of the drought she suffered from no want of either meal or oil. This act of the pious Gentile woman, who had welcomed with a simple heart the knowledge of the true God that had reached her from Israel, must have been the source of strong consolation to Elijah in the hour of conflict, when his faith was trembling because of the multitude of idolaters in Israel. If the Lord Himself had raised up true worshipers of His name among the Gentiles, his work in Israel could not be put to shame.

The believing widow, however, received from the prophet not only a material blessing, but a spiritual blessing also. For, as Christ tells His unbelieving contemporaries to their shame (Luk 4:25-26), Elijah was not sent to this widow in order that he might be safely hidden at her house, although this object was better attained thereby than by his remaining longer in Israel; but because of her faith, namely, to strengthen and to increase it, he was sent to her, and not to one of the many widows in Israel, many of whom would also have received the prophet if they had been rescued by him from the pressure of the famine. And the miraculous increase of the meal and oil did not merely subserve the purpose of keeping the prophet and the widow alive; but the relief of her bodily need was also meant to be a preparatory means of quieting her spiritual need as well. On the Chethb תתּן, see at Kg1 6:19. In Kg1 17:15 the Keri והוּה היא is an unnecessary emendation of the Chethb והיא הוּא; the feminine form ותּאכל is occasioned primarily by the preceding verbs, and may be taken as an indefinite neuter: "and there ate he and she." The offence which Thenius has taken at ימים (days) has no foundation, if we do not understand the sentence as referring merely to their eating once of the bread just baked, but take it generally as signifying that in consequence of their acting according to the word of Jehovah, they (Elijah, the widow, and her family) ate for days, i.e., until God sent rain again (Kg1 17:14).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

A small cake first. There is a Midrash Aggdah in Bereishis Rabboh (why he wanted it first) on [the verse], “And Leah said, ‘Unexpected success has come.’”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.