Elijah and the Widow

This reading sits firmly within the Middle Eastern spirituality that says that one must always make provision for the stranger. Hospitality is not just manners it is an obligation. When a ragged stranger turns up on the widow’s doorstep looking for food, little as she has, she must help! No such thing here as fear of the stranger or the refugee, the law of faith is that, little though she has, she must help!

When the New Testament book to the Hebrews says: Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. It is quoting ancient sayings and practice.

 Elijah meets a widow who is in such desperate circumstances that she is making preparations to cook what she believes will be the final meal before she and her son, with nothing left to sustain them, starve to death. Elijah comes to them asking for food and drink and though we might see him as arrogant, he was only doing what was normal and appropriate in his culture at the time. He was fully entitled to ask for such help from a stranger and to expect assistance.