God’s Biblical pattern using and multiplying what we already have,
to provide for us what we need
The Old and New Testaments contain numerous accounts of many different types of miracles that God does. If we were asked by someone,could we easily give a definition of what is a miracle without referring to one specifically, what would our answer be? A miracle that is recorded in the Bible is an historic event or natural phenomena which violates or transcends God’s natural laws. At the same time a miracle reveals God’somnipotence to all and His grace and love to the faithful.
In many instances when God preforms a miracle, He uses things that those involved in the miracle already have. The following are only six examples; please take the time to read each one.
Old Testament
1 Kings 17:7-16, Elijah and the widow’ oil and flour.
2 Kings 4:1-7, Elisha and the widow’s oil
2 Kings 4:25, The feeding of the hundred
New Testament
John 2:1-11, Jesus turning the water into wine
John 6:1-13, Jesus feeding the five thousand
John 12:1-14, Jesus and the catch of fish
As with the other five examples, 2 Kings 4:1-7, Elisha and the widow’s oil, we can learn many spiritual truths about who God is but also how God uses us in spite of our inadequacies and the seemingly impossible situation to perform His miracle.
Verse one not only tells us about the background of a desperate mother and her situation, but it also shows us how this mother saw her situation and that she went to the only person, Elisha who she thought could help her and her two boys.
1 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
This mother of two boys was a widow who did not have enough income nor did she have the means to generate enough income to pay her debt. Putting the situation in today’s context, there was not enough in the checking or savings account, nor a future paycheck to pay the outstanding debt.
Her deceased husband was “from the company of the prophets” of which Elisha was the leader to whom she made her appeal. The widow also made the point known to Elisha that he knew how her husband served him and “revered the Lord”, or honored and respected God.
Apparently, there was no other family member or relatives to which this widow could turn to for the financial help, she needed to save her two young boy’s from going into slavery and Elisha was her only hope.
For the reader today, the last sentence of verse one sounds cruel and heartless. We must be careful not to interpret what we read in the Bible with a contemporary mentality. What was going to happen to the widow’s two boys because she was unable to pay her husband’s creditors wasacceptable to what the Biblical Law taught. “According to Hebrew law, a creditor could take the debtor and his children as servants, but he was not to treat them like slaves, Exodus 21:1-11; Leviticus 25:29-31; Deuteronomy 15:1-11.”
2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a little oil.”
Elisha’s answer to the mother’s plea was a question of an incapability, “How can I help you?” or in other words, “I can’t do anything for you?”. At first thought, the material or other means Elisha had available to him, could not help the widow. But asking the secondquestion, “Tell me, what do you have in your house?” is where we clearly see God speaking to Elisha.
Today some would be offended by Elisha’s second question. They would think Elisha was leading up to the suggestion of selling everything the widow had in her house to pay the debt. Others might think that Elisha’s question was to draw attention away from himself to avoid any personal responsibility in the matter.
The mother’s response exposes something important not to overlookwhich can happen to anyone who is confronting financial hardship. The poverty mindset will easily express and or emphasize how little one has, that what they have is not or never sufficient to meet the demands of theirneeds. “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a little oil.” With this poverty and defeated mindset, a person only seeswhat they do not have and or what they do have as not being enough. They fail to remember and apply who God is and what His Word says to the situation they are confronting.
Elisha probably did not have the resources to cancel or help pay some of the woman’s debt, but what he did have to give the widow was advice from God. Elisha needed to trust God that what he was telling the widow to do, was what God wanted him to say.
3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
No matter how ridiculous or illogical the advice or counsel God leads us to give to others there are two important points we must always observe. First is the advice Biblical, can our words be backed up and substantiated by the spiritual truths and principles found in the Word of God? Secondly, is our advice or counsel in line with what the Bible teaches who God is and does it glorify Him?
How many of us would question the logic and or the motive of why do I need to “Go around and ask all (my) your neighbors for empty jars.”? “What would I tell my neighbor if they would ask me why I needed to barrow their empty jars?” “And why do I need so many? It is embarrassing enough just asking, but asking for more than one, what are my neighbors going to think of me?”
Were there possible occasions in our past that we missed out experiencing the miracle God wanted to do in our lives because we are so self-conscious and not God conscious?
We see in verses five and six that the widow did everything exactly as instructed by Elisha.
5 She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one. “But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
Elisha’s instructions were very clear but the purpose was still not understood by the widow. Even after filling all the empty jars with oil, the widow still did not relate how this was a solution to her financial needs and not losing her two boys. Why? Could it have been because hersituation was so overwhelming and the possible consequences would be so dreadful that she could only focus on the problem and not on the miracle that God had done right in front of her?
7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”
The widow still could not realize how a house full of oil-filled jarswould help her situation so she returned to Elisha for further instructions. Sometimes we can be so emotionally affected by the challenging situation that our hearts become so hardened that we cannot realize what God is doing for us. That is when God uses those He has placed in our lives to give us Biblical and Godly advice to help us finally move on to fully experience the full benefit of God’s miracle.
Pastor John
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
John 14:27
