Introduction: widows, especially those with young children, have faced hardships for many, many years. This young wife was now widowed, and even worse, she had a creditor demanding either payment of a bill—or she would have to give up her two sons. The LORD, however, had another plan to help this young widow, and that involved some caring people.
Text, 2 Kings 4: 1-7, KJV: 1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. 2 And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. 3 Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. 4 And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. 5 So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. 6 And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. 7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.
Thoughts: This event took place in the days of Elisha, who followed Elijah as God’s prophet to Israel, or the northern 10 tribes. The writer does not describe the economy or financial situation in the text, but he does relate that this widow was the wife of a son of the prophets. These were men who stood firm for the True and the Living God, the God of Israel, even though many of their countrymen had been worshiping idols for generations. This widow’s husband may well have been a student of Elisha’s at the school of the prophets. There were at least three of these schools in Elisha’s day, one at Bethel (2 Kings 2:3), another at Jericho (2 Kings 2:5, 15), and one in Gilgal (2 Kings 4:38). Although we many never know who these men were, what they and their families endured, or how they were able to minister, their faithfulness speaks volumes to every believer in the Lord. Prophets of those times, we salute you.
But now this prophet was dead. And left behind was a widow, plus two young boys, and even worse, an unpaid bill.
The creditor wanted his money, and rightly so: everyone had and has an obligation to pay what is rightly owed. Having said this, the Law of Moses had a provision that at the end of every seven-year period, all debts were to be canceled (Deut. 15:1-6) but the creditor must have been heartless to demand this widow’s boys in payment for the bill.
With all this in view, the widow “cried” unto Elisha, probably so full of grief that she couldn’t really say all that was in her heart. The text may be quoting her as simply stating a fact, but it is also possible she’s accusing God for taking her husband away. He “feared the LORD” but the creditor apparently didn’t, and she’s about to lose her sons as payment for the debt her husband had left behind.
And then she stopped. What else, actually, could she say?
Elisha then asked what she had in her house. Her reply is one of the most heartfelt cries of despair recorded in the Bible, “The only thing I have is a pot of oil”,
No money, no food, no clothes, no mention of furnishings. No, just a pot of oil.
What could she possibly do with one pot of oil? She couldn’t eat the oil! She couldn’t make clothes out of it! She must have thought this was possibly the most useless thing she had ever had in her life!
Then Elisha told her, “Go, and borrow as many vessels as you can get from all your neighbors. Don’t stop with just a few of them. Then when you get home, start pouring your oil from your pot into the vessels you has borrowed and once they’re full, set them aside.” The rest of the story tells how she did just that, and when there were no more vessels to fill, Elisha told her to sell the oil, pay the debt, and live on the rest or the profit from the sales.
The unsung heroes of this story are the unmentioned neighbors who helped this widow and single mom. She needed help, and they provided: they provided the vessels so she could use them, and I can’t help but believe some of these same neighbors bought her oil. Everybody won in this case: the widow received enough money to pay the bill and keep her boys, the neighbors received plenty of oil, and they got their vessels back! Although never stated, surely these neighbors, these unsung heroes, will receive a reward for helping a widow truly in dire straits.
You and I could do something similar, couldn’t we? We may not have pots of oil to sell, but there are other ways we can help meet the needs of others. I pray the Lord gives us the wisdom and discretion to find the best ways to make this a reality!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).