God is always seeking to make his presence known to his human creation. This is the Truth from the past, present, and will remain the Truth until the return of Christ for his Bride—the Church. The struggle for humanity in relationship with God has always been, continues to be, and will remain apostasy: Defiance against God’s authority and an abandonment of the core beliefs, standards, and love that must mark God’s spiritual family.
For the people in the past who resisted God’s efforts to reveal himself, they found themselves facing perilous times. The Old Testament is full of lessons where apostasy robbed those who started in a relationship with God, yet found themselves separated by their deceived choices. Faithfully, God sent prophet after prophet to gain the people’s attention—urging them to return to his care and grace. Sometimes they repented and returned and sadly sometimes they did not.
The God of the Old Testament was not harsh, he was desperately seeking to gain back his children by helping them see he was the only One who could save them from sin and death. Salvation by grace through faith has always been God’s way. Therefore, if the people would stay under the shelter of God’s covenant, they would experience the provision of his grace, as well as the tender and many times miraculous care of the Lord. Think about the Ark, the Exodus, the Wilderness, etc. All of these saving acts of God in the Old Testament point the way to the New Testament salvation opportunity brought by Jesus to save the world from sin and death.
In our passage today, the prophet Elisha is revealed as a servant of God—his ministry was focused on repentance as he sought to turn a nation from idolatry and apostasy back to God. He served the Lord as a person moved by compassion to share the grace and provision of God for the poor, vulnerable, and desperate. He restored lives. There are four miracles recorded in Chapter 4 that demonstrate God’s mercy and compassion for those who would love and serve him.
Our focus today is found in the grace of God to supply the oil that maintains a family’s freedom. This desperate woman and her sons collected as many containers as they could find and the oil kept running from a single vessel of oil until there were no more containers to fill. The collection could be sold in order to pay off the debtors and live on the rest of God’s supply. God is always able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask of think; his ways of meeting our needs are just very different than we may anticipate (Eph 3:20).
In this present time, God is still revealing himself in his Word and in his world. All the authority of heaven and earth have been given to Jesus the Messiah. For this reason, it is essential that we place our faith in his tender care for those who will step out of apostasy and into discipleship. Our faith determines a great deal. God blesses our faith. So, let’s really think about trusting God more, ourselves less, and set our faith out for exceedingly abundantly more that we could ask for or imagine. God’s provision is large when our faith in him is great, because nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37).
2 Kings 4:1-7 NT Elisha Helps a Poor Widow
1 One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.”
2 “What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”
“Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied.
3 And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. 4 Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.”
5 So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. 6 Soon every container was full to the brim!
“Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons.
“There aren’t any more!” he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.
7 When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, “Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.”
Prayer: Lord, thank you for this wonderful lesson from the prophet Elisha that reveals your tender mercy and compassion for the hurting and brokenhearted. You are our supply of oil; you are the Anointed One we so desperately need. Today, I pray for our hearts to hold more of your grace and provision for us. You know what we need before we even pray; we can find ourselves so empty, but we proclaim you to be our Supply. So, please refresh us and refill us to overflowing, so we may continue to serve you and love others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.