2 Kgs 4:1-7 · Read 4 min · think and write 15 min
The LORD said to Elijah: “anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah to be prophet in your place” (1 Kgs 19:16). When Elijah found Elisha, he was plowing; Elijah “went over to him and put his mantle on him” (1 Kgs 19:19); Elisha “arose, and went after Elijah, and served him” (1 Kgs 19:21). This is in Elijah, Lesson 6.
When Elijah was about to be taken up, he asked Elisha what he wanted, and Elisha said: “Please let a double portion of your spirit be on me” (2 Kgs 2:9). “Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kgs 2:11). The sons of the prophets at Jericho saw Elisha and said: “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha” (2 Kgs 2:15). These things are in Elijah, Lesson 7.
This lesson reads about the wife of one of the sons of the prophets, who came to Elisha.
1Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared the LORD. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”
2Elisha said to her, “What should I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.”
3Then he said, “Go, borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Don’t borrow just a few containers.
4Go in and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour oil into all those containers; and set aside those which are full.”
5So she went from him, and shut the door on herself and on her sons. They brought the containers to her, and she poured oil.
6When the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” He said to her, “There isn’t another container.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7Then she came and told the man of God. He said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”
A widow. “Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, ‘Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared the LORD. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves’” (v. 1). When she spoke of her husband, the first thing she said was that he “feared the LORD”.
What do you have in the house? “Elisha said to her, ‘What should I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?’” (v. 2). She said: “Your servant has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil” (v. 2).
Empty containers. “Go, borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Don’t borrow just a few containers” (v. 3). Elisha went on: “Go in and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour oil into all those containers; and set aside those which are full” (v. 4).
The door shut. “So she went from him, and shut the door on herself and on her sons. They brought the containers to her, and she poured oil” (v. 5). The passage does not record anything she said; it records only that she did as she was told.
The oil stopped. “When the containers were full, she said to her son, ‘Bring me another container.’ He said to her, ‘There isn’t another container.’ Then the oil stopped flowing” (v. 6).
Live on the rest. “Then she came and told the man of God. He said, ‘Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest’” (v. 7). The creditor had come to take her two sons (v. 1); the man of God spoke of paying the debt, and also said that what was left would be enough for them to live on.
Afterwards. Elisha often passed through a place called Shunem. The next lesson reads about a woman there.
Moses said this of the LORD: “He executes justice for the fatherless and widow and loves the foreigner in giving him food and clothing” (Deut 10:18).
Readers can see this: the one who came pleading to Elisha was a woman whose husband had died, and whose two sons the creditor had come to take (v. 1).
Perhaps you are weighed down right now by a debt or some hardship: a job lost, someone at home fallen ill, or one person holding up a whole household. You open the cupboard and something in you says, ‘nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.’
This lesson does not say that the more containers you prepare, the more God will give; nor does it say that if your faith is big enough, the hardship is sure to be solved. What it shows you is this: a woman whose husband had died said her trouble out loud (v. 1); Elisha first asked her what she had in the house (v. 2); the oil did not stop until “There isn’t another container” (v. 6), and it was enough for her to “sell the oil, and pay your debt”, and enough for her and her sons to “live on the rest” (v. 7). The New Testament says too: “Give us today our daily bread” (Matt 6:11).
This week: Think of one hardship in which right now you have ‘nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.’ This week, pray about it once every day; and find someone you trust and tell them about it.
Scripture: World English Bible.