HEBREW WORD STUDY – TWO STICKS – SENAYIM ‘ASTIM  שנים  עצים  Shin Nun Yod Mem    Ayin Sade Yod Mem

I Kings 17:10,12: “So he arose and went to Zarephath, and then he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, ‘Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. (12) And she said, [As] the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I [am] gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

You may remember the story from Sunday School, or during an appeal for offerings for some new project.  Elijah came into a town where there was a widow woman who only had enough bread for one last meal which she and her son would eat and then starve to death. Elijah said: “That’s tough, but I am a man of God and I am hungry, you feed me first and you and your son can have what’s left.”  Then, of course, she is blessed a hundredfold. 

Maybe the story can be told in a little less offensive way.  Let’s start with the name of this town, Zarephath. Zarephath is really known as Sarepta a town that was located in what is today Northern Lebanon and at that time a part of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The name means gold refining. Spiritually you could say this was a place where God would refine one into pure gold. Elijah enters this town, sees a poor widow collecting sticks, carrying a jar of meal and a flask of oil. If she does not have enough to carry, Elijah commands her to get him some water.

Was Elijah being cruel to this poor woman? The answer to that is found in verse 9. God had commanded her to sustain Elijah. In this text, the word sustain is found as laklaklak from the root word lakach. This is a Lamed Kap used three times.  I read in Jewish literature that Lamed Kap represents your cup being filled by the blessings of heaven.  This is expressed three times, one for Elijah, another for the widow and another for her son. God had revealed to this woman in some way that a man of God would come into her community and if she blessed him He would bless her and her son in like kind. So she and her son waited expectantly for Elijah. He never came, her food was running out and now they were down to their last meal.  Yet, she had a promise from God and she was saving her last portion of the meal to give to the prophet so she would get her miracle. 

So why was she out collecting sticks to build a fire and make the bread for herself and her son? It would appear, like many of us, she began to doubt her miracle.  Maybe she just imagined God gave her a promise, maybe in her desperation she dreamed up the whole idea of a prophet coming into town and giving her and her son a miracle?   

But soft, look in verse 12, we find she was not collecting a bunch of sticks, she was only looking for two sticks or senayim ‘atsim.  An atsim could be anything from a stick to a tree.  There was an ancient pagan ritual which may have been an outgrowth of the shewbread in the temple and adopted by the Northern Kingdom of Israel when they separated from Jerusalem.  The ritual was to tie a cloth to two sticks and put two pieces of bread on the cloth and the husband and wife would carry it to an altar and eat the bread with their god as an offering to their god. It is very possible that she and her son had waited for the fulfillment of God’s promise to the point of starvation, but the man of God never came.  So in a last act of desperation, they were going to resort to some ritual in hope that God might be moved to give them their miracle. Note in verse 12 she says: “That we may eat it and die.” The word die is in a strange form.  Without the vowels, you could say it’s root was either moth for death or nathan which has a final nun meaning to give and to receive so you can give again.  What she may have been saying is: “I am about to offer my final meal to God. God may show mercy and return the meal so we can live or He may not and we will die.” 

This woman’s faith had reached its limits, she could not continue waiting for the miracle and decided to take matters into her own hands. The man of God showed up at the eleventh hour. God had taken this woman to the very limits of her faith. He knew how far she could go. He would not allow her to be tempted beyond what she could bear, but He knew better than she just what her limits were. Without reaching her limits, she could not move forward in her faith.

Do you ever feel like this widow woman?  You’ve reached the limits of your faith, You just can’t go any further and you are strongly tempted to take matters in your own hands and resort to something that is not in strict obedience to what God instructed.  Yet, this story tells me that God knows better than we do just how much we can take and if you just hang in there.