In First Kings, chapter seventeen, verse twenty-two, God restored the boy to life in answer to Elijah’s prayer. The first instance recorded here in the Bible of someone raised from the dead is in Second Kings four, verse thirty-four, and Acts twenty, verse ten, respectively. The three miracles listed in chapter seventeen strikingly manifested the glory and love of God. They demonstrated to Elijah and the woman that amid tragic consequences, God’s power and love are active on behalf of those who love Him and cause for action according to His purpose.
The question is, what did Elijah say unto God for Him to answer his prayer? First, Elijah was a prophet who spoke God’s truth to others. Therefore, he has a close relationship with God. Elijah means the Lord is my God, an unshakable conviction on his life to serve. This prophet spends time in communication with God.
The prayer of Elijah begins in verse twenty of chapter seventeen of Second Kings. He cried out to the Lord on behalf of someone else. Prayer is about people. Reaching the lost souls, the unlovable, the folks who do not know God, the individuals who are sick, the ones who are hurting in some fashion.
Elijah’s prayer is different from others. God is love, and the prophet expressed that unselfishly. Elijah asked if the widow would give him her son in verse nineteen. “And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his bed. And he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.
Elijah embraced the situation as though it were his own. He pleaded for the child’s life. Elijah physically takes the child on a loft. The fact the prophet went out his way for someone else reminds us of how God sent forth his only son.