LEARNING DAILY

2 Kings 4:1-3, Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves." And Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?" And she said, "Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil." Then he said, "Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few.”

The widow of one of the prophets is in trouble. Pastor Ed Newton explained this weekend that this situation was caused by the death of a man belonging to the company of prophets had died and left his widow with debt. The debt was going to have to be paid by her two sons being placed into slavery. She approaches the prophet Elisha, seeking his help because her situation is very serious.

Pastor pointed out that Elisha did not ask what her debts were. He did not ask where her husband was so he could raise him from the dead. He asked, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” Her answer was that she had a jar of oil. Pastor made clear that her husband was a prophet; he carried oil with him to be used in ministry. Elisha tells her to have her sons go borrow all the vessels they could from the neighbors. “He does not tell them a specific number nor the size of the vessel – the vessel only needed to be empty” (EN).  The sons were motivated to get as many as they could; they did not want to go into slavery. I imagine they asked and searched for all the “empty” vessels they could find. Doing this is crucial as it would take an act of faith on the widow and her sons to follow his guidance diligently.

The scripture does not tell how many vessels were collected; the assumption is many were collected. Elisha instructed them to go inside and shut the door behind them and pour the oil from their own vessel into the ones collected. They did as instructed and the oil did not stop flowing until all the vessels collected were filled. Pastor noted the obedience of the wife and sons and said, “The miracle takes place in the home. The anointing oil was poured out in private, not in public. There are times when a miracle is given in private – just for the person receiving the miracle. Solitude may be necessary to receive miracle!”

The oil flowed until there were no more vessels. “Then the oil stopped flowing” (verse 6). “The oil flows with the purpose to fill an empty vessel. The source of the flowing oil was heaven” (EN). The need was for a vessel to be filled (EN). There is no doubt that if the sons knew what was going to happen, they would have done their best to find more vessels. The oil was there all the time; they just needed to have the vessels to be filled. Notice that Elisha told them to sell the vessels, pay off the debt, and live off what was left over.

Jesus covered the debt each saved person had – past, present, future! The oil is a reference to the Holy Spirit. When one is saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live with him/her. “The Holy Spirit never leaves the Believer; when the Believer sins, he/she does not spring a leak and lose any of the Holy Spirit” (EN). Because Jesus paid the Believer’s debt in full, he/she can live in the abundance of His sacrifice and the filling of the Holy Spirit in their life.