The Miracle in Your House!
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“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.’ ‘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. And Elisha said, ‘Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. 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.’ So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. 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.” 2 Kings 4:1-6 (NLT)
God demonstrates His tender care of His followers in this miracle. Here was a poor widow who had lost her husband. He had served Elisha in the past and loved the Lord. His faithfulness didn’t exempt him from troubles anymore than does ours. We live in a fallen world. Her grief was about to be compounded by the additional loss of her two sons if she could not pay her creditor what she owed him. Under Hebrew law, poor people and debtors were allowed to pay their debts by selling themselves or their children as slaves. If this were to happen to this poor widow, she would be destitute with little to no means of support for her own life. Men were the primary wage earners in her day.
Elisha asked her how he could help her. Then he asked her an interesting question that drives home to the heart of miracles in our own lives. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” (v. 2) God often begins with what we already have! Yet, it’s so easy for us to overlook what God has given us that He may want to use to perform a miracle. God asked Moses what he had in his hand when He called Moses to do a mighty work of demonstrating God’s power to Pharaoh and deliver the children of Israel from Egypt. What did Moses have? A rod, but when he gave it to God it became more than Moses’ staff. It became the rod of God! When confronted with the need to feed over 5,000 men plus the women and children, all that one little boy had was a sack lunch. But when he offered it to Jesus, it fed multitudes!
All this poor widow had was a little flask of olive oil. The story leaves you to wonder what the woman must have thought when Elisha told her what to do next. “And Elisha said, ‘Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. 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.’” (vv. 3-4)
Despite how foolish it sounded or what she may have thought, she did what she was told, and God performed a miracle of provision meeting all her needs! As long as her sons kept bringing her containers, she had oil from her flask to pour into them! When they ran out of jars to fill, the oil suddenly stopped flowing. Can you imagine the excitement she and her sons shared as they filled one container after the next to the brim with oil! Makes me think of the magic act where the magician keeps pouring water out of the vase even though it appears empty. But this was no trick. This poor widow and her two sons not only witnessed a miracle but participated in one as well! In obedience to the word of the Lord, they gathered all the jars they could find and brought them to their mother. I can’t help but see in my mind’s eye the sheer joy and laughter they must have expressed as they watched their mom fill one jar after another! When they were done the widow had enough oil to sell that would pay off her debts and live on the rest!
What you and I have may seem insignificant. Remember, at first, when Elisha asked the widow what she had, she replied, “Nothing at all … except….” Have you ever felt like that when you needed a miracle in your life? I don’t have anything to offer God. You may want to check again? Like this widow, maybe when you do, you’ll respond, “… except ___________.” Be willing to offer whatever it is to God and see what God may do with it! Little is much when God is in it!