GO GET THE OIL!

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.”

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 small jar of olive oil.”

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.”

5 She left him and 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.

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.”

                                                                                                   -2 Kings 4:1-7

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place!  This widow was in nothing less than a dilemma.  She has suffered the loss of her husband, he owed his creditor apparently a significant amount of money that she does not have, and the creditor was on the way to turn her beloved sons into slaves in order to pay the debt.  I can only imagine how much this momma’s head was spinning!  She can’t even slow down long enough to mourn the death of her husband before her heart begins to race and pound at the anticipation of the dreadful knock on the door from the creditor.  But thank God for God’s people!

Elisha was a prophet (a person with the gift of speaking on God’s behalf) who was apparently at the right place at the right time.  He asks the widow how he can help her.  Then he asks her a seemingly odd question: “What do you have in your house?” (verse 2).  With all the stress that I am sure that this woman was experiencing, she could have easily (and understandably) went off on Elisha.  This woman needed money, and she needed a lot of it quick.  This was not a time for show and tell or taking a tour through her house.  If she was a Capital One-commercial-line-stealer (Yes, I just made that up!), she could have flipped the script and asked the prophet, “What’s in your wallet?”.  She needed either money or a miracle, and thankfully her actions lead her to both.

Instead of getting into a frenzy, the widow decides to respond to the prophet.  All she has is a small jar of olive oil.  But what could that do to help in this dire moment in time?  When the widow reveals the only thing that she has in her house, the prophet takes yet another odd turn by telling her to go to all of her neighbors and gather empty jars from them.  So, we go from a small jar of oil to empty jars.  If this woman was not already on a roller coaster ride to nowhere, she most definitely was on one now.  Yet, she obeys.  She collects all of the empty jars that she can find, and she follows suite with Elisha’s next instructions to shut her door behind her and her sons.  Once the door was shut, they were to pour the oil into the jars.  Well, at this point odd instructions are apparently the name of the game, so she doesn’t question the crazy and moves forward with obedience. 

With the door closed behind them, this mother of two begins to go through with the next step that the prophet has given her.  She takes the oil from the small jar and starts pouring it into one of the empty jars from her neighbors.  Once that empty jar is filled, she asks her sons for another jar and fills that one as well.  This continues until each of the jars are filled with oil.  Then the oil stops flowing.  Notice that the oil never runs out!  It just stops flowing after there are no more empty jars to pour into!  This leads me to believe that if there had been more empty jars available, there would have been more oil ready to be poured.  This, Lemonaders, was a miracle!! 

So, what should the widow do with this overabundant supply of oil?  Elisha the Prophet directs her to do something logical—sell the oil to pay off the debt.  Not only does she now have enough money to pay the debt, she also has enough money for her and her dear sons to continue to live. Hooray!! The small jar of oil saves the day!!

Here are my thoughts on this bible passage:

Verse 1: Be honest about what is going on when there is problem and you need help.  As the saying goes, “A closed mouth never gets fed.” 

Verse 2:  Look for a solution despite the problem.  Also, you don’t have to be the one to come up with the solution even when it’s your problem.

Verse 3: Solicit help when the problem is too big to handle alone.  Even if it’s ultimately your problem, others may be willing to help you.

Verse 4: Everything is not for everyone to see or witness, even if they helped in the process.

Verse 5: Be obedient to God’s will, even behind closed doors.  Do what you can do and leave the rest up to God.

Verse 6: If you wait for everything to make sense before you obey what God is telling you to do, you will miss the answer to your problems.  Logic will come into play if and when God is ready for it to do so. And, obedience often reaps blessings!

Verse 7: I believe that the oil represents Jesus.  Just like the oil was enough to pay the widow’s debt, Jesus dying on the cross was enough to pay for our sins.  Plus, the widow and sons not only had enough money to pay the debt because of the oil, but they also had enough money from the oil to continue to live.  Jesus does the same for us when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior.  Part of John 10:10 says that “[Jesus] came that [we] may have life and have it abundantly.”

If you have not received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, there is no time like the present. He loves you more than you can ever know, and He is not here to strike you down every time you mess up. He wants to give you a rich and wonderful life that will truly last forever and ever. There will be good days and bad days just the same, but the difference is that you will have the Creator of the universe right by your side every step of the way. If you want to find out more about my Jesus, click here.