6-24-2026
Last Sunday, as we continued with Elijah’s story, we learned about the faithfulness of God toward the widow at Zaraphath. Here’s a more recent story of that same faithfulness in a completely different situation.
During their agonizing imprisonment at the Nazi camp in Ravensbruck, Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsy suffered from ill treatment and lack of medical care. They were treated worse than common criminals, even though the only reason they were there was because they had sheltered some Jews who were trying to escape the murderous torture of the Nazis. The prison where Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsy were confined was an overcrowded, rugged place. The living conditions in the barracks were atrocious. It was filled with disease and malnutrition. And they feared that they, like so many of the prisoners around them, would soon die themselves. In the misery that they experienced in Ravensbruck, often they were forced to depend wholly on God every single day to meet their need. And God heard and answered their prayers, sometimes demonstrating in a miraculous way His protecting power.
For instance, on one occasion when Betsy was desperately ill, Corrie realized that the tiny bottle of Davitamon oil, which is vitamin K, which was critical to her sister, was down to the very last drops. Corrie wrote in her book, quote, “My instinct was to horde it. Betsy was growing so very weak, and she needed this medicine. But others were ill, just like Betsy was, and it was hard to say no to eyes that burned with fever and hands that shook with the chill. I tried to save what was in the bottle for the very weakest, but even these soon were numbering 15, 20, or 25”. Corrie’s heart went out to them, but she desperately feared that if she shared all these precious drops with all the other sick people, she would rob Betsy of the only chance she had to live through the experience of Ravensbruck.
Betsy, herself, was a woman of great faith, and she recognized her need for medication, but she reminded Corrie almost every day of the account of the widow of Zarephath, who shared with Elijah and whose handful of meal and small amount of oil lasted as long as there was a need. And Betsy was convinced that God could perform a similar miracle for her. Corrie initially laughed at her sister and thought it was crazy. She said, “God doesn’t do stuff like that in modern times”. But then she said, “Pretty soon, I was a believer. Every time I tilted that little bottle, a drop appeared at the top of the glass stopper. It just couldn’t be”. She said, “I held it up to the light, trying to see how much was left, but the dark brown glass was so thick, I couldn’t see through it”.
Each day, she continued to dispense what she thought was the last drop in the bottle, until one day when a female guard, who had shown kindness to the prisoners before smuggled a small quantity of the medicine into the barracks for the prisoners. Corrie was thrilled. Now she had more of what was necessary to keep everybody alive, but she first determined to finish the drops in the bottle, and that night she said, “No matter how long I held it upside down or how hard I shook it, not one stinking drop would fall out of that bottle. It was empty”.
God had proven himself to no less than a woman in the same way He had proven Himself thousands of years before to the widow of Zarephath. If He would do that for the widow and for Betsy and Corrie, He will do it for you. Trust Him, for He is faithful!