One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the LORD. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.” “What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” “Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied. And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.”
So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. Soon every container was full to the brim! “Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons. “There aren’t any more!” he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing. When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, “Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.” – 2 Kings 4:1-7 (NLT)
I love this short but powerful story in the Bible. It reminds us that there isn’t a need we have that God doesn’t know about, isn’t concerned about, and isn’t unable to meet, no matter how dire the situation might seem to us.
And dire is an apt description of this widow’s circumstances. In modern day speak, she has lost her husband and has no income. She has bills to pay, two sons to feed, but no food or money. She’s receiving calls day and night from companies wanting to know when they will be paid. The power company has threatened to turn off her electricity. She has creditors showing up on her doorstep and threatening legal action. She’s vulnerable. She’s in over her head and needs help, but she has no one to turn to.
“Maybe this man at church who my husband served under can help.” We can only hope. If the Lord cares about the widows and orphans, and the Bible insists that He does, should not the church?
Elisha, surely he can help. And surely he does. He asks if perhaps she has some items that she can sell for some quick cash. Yet he doesn’t respond in shock or dismay when the widow explains that all she has in her house is a small flask of olive oil. He knows that this is more than enough for God to work with. And so he gives her two commands. “Go see all of your neighbors and borrow as many jars as you can get,” he says. “Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you.”
Now don’t you find that second command the least bit odd? Why on earth would Elisha want the widow to close the door to her house? It was fairly common in those days to leave the door open if someone was home, at least during the summer months. It’s almost as though Elisha was telling her that this private matter was between her and God, and would be resolved privately between her and God.
And this is precisely why he gave her the second command. The Lord’s work wasn’t to be a public demonstration, but rather a private provision of grace shown to this widow. All that was required of her was what little oil she had and to do what Elisha had commanded.
As I picture the oil from the small flask continuously filling the many empty jars, I wonder if the widow, in her complete befuddlement, had been tempted to look inside the flask to see how so much oil continued to flow? I’m sure I would’ve. But the oil from the flask continued to pour out as though it was flowing from a barrel tap. Jar after jar, the two sons kept handing them to her, until finally there were no more. And upon filling the last empty jar available, the flask was empty.
When she saw Elisha, she told him all that happened. He said to her, “Now go, sell the oil and pay off your debts. You and your sons can live off of what’s left.”
We may not think much of it today, but olive oil back in Elisha’s time was incredibly expensive, a luxury. It had a number of medicinal uses besides oil for cooking or making bread. So several jars of oil was worth a considerable amount of money, enough so that this widow and her sons could pay their debts and live.
The God of abundance chose the most unassuming item – a small flask of oil – to show kindness and grace to a poor widow and her two sons who were destitute. The echos of this story might’ve been heard a thousand years later with another story involving five loaves of bread, two fish, and a bunch of baskets.
But as for this widow on this day, a small flask and big faith proved more than sufficient.
Former Blackout Artist 