CHAPTER 17 Aug. 22 
Elijah is Sustained during the Famine
Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the foreigners of Gilead, said to Ahab, As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. 2The word of Yahweh came to him saying, 3Go away from here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan. 4It shall be, that you shall drink of the brook. I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. 5So he went and did according to the word of Yahweh; for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan. 6The ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. 7It happened after a while, that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. 8The word of Yahweh came to him saying, 9Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you. 10So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks: and he called to her and said, Please get me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. 11As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. 12She said, As Yahweh your God lives, I don’t have a cake, but a handful of flour in a pitcher, and a little oil in a pitcher. Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. 13Elijah said to her, Don’t be afraid. Go and do as you have said; but make me of it a little cake first, and bring it out to me, and afterward make some for you and for your son. 14For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of meal shall not empty, neither shall the jar of oil fail, until the day that Yahweh sends rain on the earth’. 15She went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, ate many days. 16The jar of meal didn’t empty, neither did the jar of oil fail, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by Elijah. 
Elijah Raises the Widow’s Son
17It happened after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so severe, that there was no breath left in him. 18She said to Elijah, What have I to do with you, you man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son! 19He said to her, Give me your son. He took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the room where he stayed, and laid him on his own bed. 20He cried to Yahweh and said, Yahweh my God, have You also brought evil on the widow with whom I stay, by killing her son? 21He stretched himself on the child three times, and cried to Yahweh and said, Yahweh my God, please let this child’s soul come into him again. 22Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the room into the house, and delivered him to his mother; and Elijah said, Behold, your son lives. 24The woman said to Elijah, Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of Yahweh in your mouth is truth.

Commentary

17:1 There shall not be dew- Elijah was motivated in this by the way Gideon asked that there should only be dew upon the ground (or perhaps even upon the whole land of Israel) according to his word of faithful prayer (Jud. 6:37-39). It is quite possible that we, too, may be given certain prompts in life by reason of particular experiences repeating those of a Biblical character.   David also prayed just the same things (2 Sam.1:21). When it comes to prayer, there is a positive pattern of influence and example both amongst us as believers and from our absorbing the spirit of Biblical examples. 
But according to my word- His faith was based upon being attune to the will of God and His ways of working with His people, to the extent that he knew that because God’s word abided in him, he could ask what he wanted and it would be heard, because he asked according to God's will (Jn. 15:7). But when the time comes for rain, we read that "the word of Yahweh [not Elijah's word] came to Elijah... saying... I will send rain on the earth" (18:1). God’s word reveals His will, and therefore the more in touch we are with His will the more we will be able to confidently ask for things in prayer.  
17:6 Ravens- These were unclean animals, and yet God made Elijah depend upon them and the unclean food. He was trying to teach Elijah not to trust in legalistic obedience.
17:9 God had sought to gently teach Elijah his need for others when He told Elijah to go to the widow woman in Zarephath who would “sustain you”; it worked out that Elijah sustained her. And he must have reflected upon this. God’s intention was that spiritually, his experience with that woman would sustain him. Our efforts to sustain others lead to our being sustained. 
17:12 A handful of flour in a pitcher- The idea is of a handful of meal in a very large container; it’s an eloquent picture of her poverty, and how she was down to the last little bit of flour in a large container that was once full. And the Lord through Elijah demanded this of her, that He might save her. God can be demanding, but we don’t have the same right to be upon others. She had to first feed God’s representative, and after feed herself and her son (:13)- rather than give God the leftovers after she had firstly taken what sheneeded.
17:21 Three times-  Perhaps the way that the first six prayers of Elijah for rain went unanswered and his need to pray three times for the child to resurrect, were all part of God teaching Elijah that no matter how close we are to Him, we have no right to expect automatic answers to prayer, even if they are according to God’s will.  
17:22 The woman’s son was resurrected because God heard Elijah’s faithful prayer; Heb. 11:35 alludes to this incident by saying that through faith- in this case, the faith of Elijah, a third party- women received their dead raised to life. Our prayers really can make a huge difference in the lives of others.