ELIJAH JOURNEYED FOR DAYS BEFORE ARRIVING IN THE valley where lay the city of Zarephath, which its inhabitants knew as Akbar. When he was at the end of his strength, he saw a woman, dressed in black, gathering wood. The vegetation in the valley was sparse, and she had to be content with small, dry twigs.

      “Who are you?” he asked.

      The woman looked at the foreigner, not really understanding what he was saying.

      “Bring me water to drink,” Elijah said. “Bring me also a piece of bread.”

      The woman put aside the wood but still said nothing.

      “Do not be afraid,” Elijah insisted. “I am alone, hungry and thirsty, and haven’t the strength to harm anyone.”

      “You’re not from here,” she said finally. “By the way you speak, you must be from the kingdom of Israel. If you knew me better, you’d be aware that I have nothing.”

      “You are a widow; this the Lord has told me. And I have even less than you. If you do not give me food and drink now, I will die.”

      The woman was taken aback; how could this foreigner know of her life?

      “A man should feel shame at asking sustenance from a woman,” she said, recovering.

      “Do as I ask, please,” Elijah insisted, knowing that his strength was beginning to fail. “When I am better, I will work for you.”

      The woman laughed.

      “Moments ago, you told me something true; I am a widow, who lost her husband on one of my country’s ships. I have never seen the ocean but I know it is like the desert: it slays those who challenge it…”

      And she continued. “But now you tell me something false. As surely as Baal lives at the top of the Fifth Mountain, I have no food; there is nothing but a handful of flour in a barrel and a bit of oil in a flagon.”

      Elijah saw the horizon changing direction and knew he was about to faint. Gathering the last of his strength, he implored one final time, “I don’t know if you believe in dreams; I don’t know even if I believe in them. But the Lord told me that I would arrive here, and that I would find you. He has done things that caused me to doubt His wisdom, but never His existence. And thus the God of Israel asked that I tell the woman I met in Zarephath:

      “The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”

      Without explaining how such a miracle could come about, Elijah fainted.

      The woman stood gazing down at the man who lay at her feet. She knew that the God of Israel was a mere superstition; the Phoenician gods were more powerful, and they had made her country one of the most respected nations on earth. But she was happy; usually she had to ask others for alms, and now, as had not happened for a long time, a man needed her. This made her feel stronger, for it was manifest that there were those in worse circumstances than she.

      “If someone asks a favor of me, it is because I still have some use on this earth,” she reflected.

      “I’ll do as he asks, if only to relieve his suffering. I too have known hunger, and know its power to destroy the soul.”

      She went to her house and returned with a piece of bread and some water. She kneeled, placed the foreigner’s head in her lap, and began to moisten his lips. Within a few minutes, he had regained his senses.

      She held out the bread to him, and Elijah ate quietly, looking at the valley, the ravines, the mountains pointing silently heavenward. Elijah could see the reddish walls of the city of Zarephath dominating the passage through the valley.

      “Give me lodging with you, for I am persecuted in my own country,” Elijah said.

      “What crime have you committed?” she asked.

      “I’m a prophet of the Lord. Jezebel has ordered the death of all who refuse to worship the Phoenician gods.”

      “How old are you?”

      “Twenty-three,” Elijah replied.

      She looked pityingly at the young man before her. He had long, dirty hair and a beard that was still sparse, as if he wished to appear older than his years. How could a poor fellow like this challenge the most powerful princess in the world?

      “If you’re Jezebel’s enemy, you’re my enemy too. She is a princess of Tyre, whose mission when she married your king was to convert your people to the true faith, or so say those who have met her.”

      She pointed toward one of the peaks that framed the valley.

      “Our gods have lived on the Fifth Mountain for many generations, and they have kept peace in our country. But Israel lives in war and suffering. How can you go on believing in the One God? Give Jezebel time to carry out her work and you’ll see that peace will reign in your cities too.”

      “I have heard the voice of the Lord,” Elijah replied. “But your people have never climbed to the top of the Fifth Mountain to discover what exists there.”

      “Anyone who climbs the Fifth Mountain will die from the fire of the heavens. The gods don’t like strangers.”

      She fell silent. She had remembered dreaming, the night before, of a very strong light. From the midst of that light came a voice saying: “Receive the stranger who comes seeking you.”

      “Give me lodging with you, for I have nowhere to sleep,” Elijah insisted.

      “I told you that I’m poor. I barely have enough for myself and my son.”

      “The Lord asked you to let me stay; He never abandons those He loves. Do what I ask of you. I will work for you. I’m a carpenter, I know how to work cedar; there will be no lack of something to do. This way, the Lord will use my hands to keep His promise: The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”

      “Even if I wished to, I would have no way to pay you.”

      “There is no need. The Lord will provide.”

      Confused by the previous night’s dream, and even with the knowledge that the stranger was an enemy of the princess of Tyre, the woman decided to obey.