“Depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles.” (Acts 22:21, NKJV)
The most typologically prominent relationship of spiritual fatherhood and sonship in the Scripture, namely the relationship between Elijah and Elisa, is currently under discussion. In the previous teaching the focus was however only on Elijah’s spiritual journey in acquiring his spiritual mantle.
Around 1 Kings 17:9 Elijah receives his first assignment from the Lord: “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” Interestingly enough Zarephath means “refinery” in Hebrew, and Sidon means “catching fish; fishery”. After the period of separation during which the mantle was prophetically confirmed and established, the person who had received the mantle had to walk within it, and reach out to others. It is as if by wearing the mantle, and moving within it, one unlocks it. It becomes a “refinery”, as Mal. 3:2-4 suggests. This will necessarily lead to being woven into the kingdom of God, and the Body of Christ (both of which are often likened to fishing and fishing nets).
Pirke Eliezer, a Jewish rabbi, articulated the idea that the widow is the prophet Jonah’s mother (John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible), but this is alas not the case. There is one very important detail concerning the widow which is not reflected in 1 Kings 17 – she was not a Jewish widow. This information we first receive from Jesus in the New Testament, in Luke 4:25-26: “But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.” The fact that Jesus particularly notes “I tell you truly” places a lot of emphasis on this statement that the widow, “a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible), is God’s choice for the prophet to go to. Long before Jesus came to earth, when Israel was still the people through which God wanted to display his characteristic nature as good God and Father to the heathens, He indicated that His heart is for all people and nations. That which Saul heard from the mouth of Jesus in Acts 22:21 has always been God’s attitude: “Then He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles.’” For God so loved the world!
But as with Paul, where, the Jews raised their voices and shouted, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live!” (verse 22), “so all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath” (Luke 4:28) when Jesus explained the true state of affairs with Elijah and the heathen widow. The Jews had clearly forgotten that this was an important part of the promise God had made to Abraham: that all the nations of the world would be blessed in Him (Gen. 18:18; 22:18; 26:4), including us, the heathen!
- Selah: What caused the Jews not to acknowledge God’s love for other nations?
- Read: 32-34.
- Memorise: 32:38 &40 (note the synchronicity!)
