2 Kings 4:1-7 (New King James Version)
2 Kings 4
Elisha and the Widow’s Oil
1 A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.”2 So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”
3 Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few. 4 And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.”
5 So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. 6 Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.”
And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased. 7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”
1) God's people is not exempted from needs. (v 1)
You see, we are still humans. We have needs to fulfill. There is no one in the bible who does not have needs to be fulfill. The basic daily meal, for instance, bread for lunch or dinner is a need. In v 1, we see that the widow is being chase by creditors and her sons are about to be taken as slaves. Slavery is actully permitted in Old Testament but it's very humanely dealt with in God's eyes and law according to the Book of Exodus (Exodus 21 v 2). The question of why does she owe people money we don't really know and we don't want to speculate anything but she needs the money to fufill meet the her and her family needs though her husband is a prophet. God's people are not exempted from needs.
2)God's desire is always to meet the His people's needs. (v 2)
God do care about us. Elisha didn't ask the woman to go away but to know how can her situation be helped. God do provide to our needs but many a times, we never see it through God's perspective. We are always complain that God never give me this or God never give me that and God is very bad don't give me everything I want but note, is it really a need? Our earthly parents can be the best expression of how God is. Our earthly parents doesn't give us everything we want because they know what is best for us and what we really in dire need of. God could be express through this and many times better than what our earthly parents is because humans have flaws but God is perfect. God always answers in 3 ways:
YES I'll give you now.
WAIT I'll give you later. You are not ready to handle it.
NO I'll give you BETTER than what you could ever imagine.
3) God's miracles always requires our partnership and effort ( v 1 - 6 )
We have to first make known our needs to God. Although God knows what we are thinking and what we really need, we have to ask also (Matt 7 v 7). Secondly, God requires our partnership in the process. Like the widow, God ask her to borrow vessels from her neighbours. She went obidiently and do it but put yourself in the shoes of the widow, people knows she owe creditors money and most likely will turn her away emptyhanded. She will face a lot rejections, mocking and even maybe being beaten up.
Like the kid in New Testament who offered the 5 loaves of bread and 2 Fish. Maybe it is the only meal he have for the day before he return home but he step up, have faith and offered it all to Jesus and the miracle of feeding the 5000 people came through.
It's never easy but the first step of doing it is the step of partnering and giving our effort into it. We always say we wanna change this and that in Ipoh and Malaysia but we have to have faith, obediently step out, offering fully whatever we have though we are lacking and just do it when God calls you to.
4) God's provision should be utilized accordingly.
(v 7) Look at the instuctions given by Elisha:
a) Sell the oil.
God knows the widow needs money to buy food to live on. To buy, she needs money. Selling off will generate the money. (Coverting the miracle to fit our necessity -God is very specific)
b) Pay the debts.
The widow could have just runaway with her sons with the money from the oil. But Elisha specifically told her to pay the debt. It is a just debt (fair debt plus interest).
"Render to Ceaser what is Ceaser's, Render to God what is God"
God wants us to be righteous and just people. Pay your bills, pay your income taxes, pay what you owe people, pay what you owe the bank, PAY YOUR TITHES- don't rob God. This is a reminder for the future, don't runaway and cheat taxes and debts. No bribes, no kopi money, no under table money. You think you can get away now but wait till you face God. How righteous will you be? How just will you be?
c) Live on the rest.
Don't indulgence the rest leftovers. Use to the optimum of it. Don't misuse what God has given regardless of money, talent etc etc.
