Hebrew Word Study – Sustain – Laqlaqlaq – Lamed Kap Lamed Kap Lamed Kap

I Kings 17:10; “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.’”

I Corinthians 10:13: “There hath not temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able to escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

Hebrew Word Study – Sustain – Laqlaqlaq – Lamed Kap Lamed Kap Lamed Kap

I Kings 17:10; “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.’”

I Corinthians 10:13: “There hath not temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able to escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

Michael Singletary who, I believe, is presently the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers (I really don’t follow football) once told how he had hired a personal trainer to help him become the best football player in the NFL. This trainer was one of the best in the business.  He closely evaluated Singletary, tested him, and put him through rigorous physical examinations.  In the end, he knew and understood Singletary’s limitations and how far he could push him.  He then made him run up and down a hill over and over again. Singletary went up and down that hill until he could barely move yet, this coach kept pushing him to keep moving.  When Singletary knew he could not go up that hill one more time this trainer pushed him to go up that hill again. When he reached the point that he could not move another step, something happened, he suddenly felt a surge of energy and was able to climb that hill again. He called it getting his “second wind.” 

As I face a very insecure future, personal sorrows, and life-changing decisions, I feel like Michael Singletary unable to climb that hill once more, and God as my coach pushing me to do it once more.  As I shake my head and weep. telling God: “I can’t do it, I can’t go on. I am tired of being the good soldier.” He reminds me that He would give me a “second wind.” He also reminds me of the story of Elijah and the widow woman.

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You remember the story. You hear it every time there is 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. My study partner pointed out a good starting point which is the name of the town, Zarephath. 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 and sees a poor widow collecting sticks, carrying a jar of flour and a flask of oil. If she did not have enough to carry, Elijah commanded her to get him some water. Note Elijah says: “Fetch” me some water. That word in the Hebrew is which has the idea of seizing, or capturing. Remember this community was in the midst of a drought, there was little water to be had, and what water there was to get, you had to be pretty aggressive to get it. If I were this woman I would have said: “Lakach your own water, I’m ready to fix my last meal and croak.” Why, in the midst of her suffering did she offer to help this perfect stranger and not only that allow him into her house?

The answer to that is found in verse 9. God had commanded her to “sustain” Elijah. This word for sustain tells us something even deeper. It is laklaklak. This is a Lamed Kap used three times.  Lamed Kap represents your cup being filled with 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.  She had a promise from God and she was saving the 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 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, she was not collecting a bunch of sticks, she was only looking for two sticks or two asah. An asah 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 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 the 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 its root was either mth for death, or nathan which has a final nun meaning to give and to receive so you can give again. This woman was carrying on an esoteric conversation with Elijah and could very well have been saying: “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. Coach 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 on in her faith to get her “second wind” and become the best in the league. 

Do you ever feel like this widow woman?  I know I do. I feel at times like I’ve reached the limits of my faith, I just can’t go any further and I am strongly tempted to take matters into my 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 I do just how much I can take, and if I just hang in there, I will get my “second wind.”