1 Kings 17:17

1 Kings 17:17 says, And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.  The son of the woman who had helped Elijah became sick and died in spite of all she had done for Elijah.  Just because we are doing good things for God doesn't mean that we are exempt from troubles and heartbreak in life.  Verse eighteen adds, And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?  The widow woman immediately blamed Elijah for her son's death and asked if he had come to remind her of her sins and kill her son as a penalty.  We may immediately blame God or people of the church if bad things happen to us today and we are not a Christian, but as Christians, we should never do so.  We can also be certain that God will never punish others for our sins, nor us for theirs.  Verse nineteen continues, And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.  Elijah did not get angry at her accusation, but simply told her to give him her son, and he took him to the loft where he stayed and laid on him on his own bed.  If we as followers of Christ are accused of false things, we should not get angry but should act in such a way that we may bring restoration with God to those who are accusing us.  Those who are lost and are our enemies especially need salvation that can come only through Jesus Christ.  Verse twenty declares, And he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?  Elijah himself questioned God by asking if He had brought evil on the widow by slaying her son.  If we believe that every death is the result of God's action, then we would have to conclude that He had.  Of course, knowing the rest of the story, we might say that God did it to show His power over death and lead the woman to a personal relationship with Him.  I personally don't believe that God is directly responsible for every death nor that He needs to show His power in order to get people to accept Him as their Savior and Lord.  He did this for all time with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we can either accept or reject that fact.  Verse twenty-one continues, And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again.  Elijah stretched himself over the son three times calling on God to let the let the boy's soul return to him, or to live again.  It is our soul that really makes us alive and not the physical body.  Once our soul leaves our body, it is only the body that dies, and our soul lives on forever, either in heaven or hell.  Also, it really wasn't necessary for Elijah to stretch himself out over the boy, but all he really had to do was call on God by faith in Him.  There are no acts that we must perform in order to gain everlasting life, but all we have to do is call out to God by faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.  Verse twenty-two states, And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.  God heard Elijah and the boy's soul came to him again and he lived.  Of course, this was just a physical resurrection, and the boy would one day die once more.  The important resurrection is the spiritual resurrection that we have through putting our faith in Jesus Christ, and when we do, we will live forever with God, even if this old body dies.  Verse twenty-three adds, And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.  Elijah brought her son to the woman again and told her to see that he was alive.  This was good news for her, but it is not nearly as good as the news that we need to be sharing with the world today, and that is that by faith in Jesus Christ we are spiritually alive forever to live with Him.  Verse twenty-four continues, And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.  The woman said that by her son being raised from the dead that she knew that Elijah was a man of God and spoke the truth.  Once we accept that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again to defeat sin and death, we can know the truth of God.  Until we do, we will never accept His word as truth.