2 Kings 4:1-7--Elisha and the Widow's Oil

2 Kings 4:1-7
English Standard Version

Elisha and the Widow's Oil
4 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.” 2 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.” 3 Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. 4 Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” 5 So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. 6 When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. 7 She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”

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Apparently this woman was devout and righteous, but it would seem that her husband did not since he was in all kinds of debt which should not have happened.  She cried out to Elisha to help her make petition to the LORD because she was in a situation beyond her ability, lest she and her children be sold into servitude to pay off the her husband's debt that he could never pay off since he is now deceased.

Elisha first asks what he can do for her, and then asks her what she does have in the house.  She had nothing other than a small jar of oil (probably for cooking).  Elisha told her to gather all the vessels--anything that she could pour into.  She was to find everything she owned and borrow everything that she could from her neighbors, as many as possible.  Once that had been done, she was to bring them all into her house along with all of her sons, and they were to close the door behind them.  There were then supposed to start pouring oil from the jar into all the vessels that she had just collected.

She did as she was commanded and as each vessel was filled, she would set it aside and tell her sons to bring her another vessel.  This was repeated until there were no more vessels to be filled.  Only when all the vessels were filled did the oil stop flowing.  She came and told Elisha what had happened and he told her to go and sell the oil (it was very valuable) and pay her debts (the debt that no belonged to her because of her husband), so that she and her sons could live without threat of being taken into servitude, and there should be enough left for them to live on.  We don't normally think about this last part, but the death of her husband was also the loss of her ability to make money in that society, so the LORD provided enough for them to live off of as well.

According to the Law it was the responsibility of the kinsman redeemer to have taken care of the debts of the close relative and to make sure the family was taken care of, but we get the sense that Israel hasn't read the Law for a very long time (for they no longer celebrate the Feasts where it would have been read) and if they know it, they don't much care for it, probably imagining it to be antiquated and outdated.  They now serve gods that they make with their own hands who love the things they love, hate the things they hate, and have little in terms of laws and obligations for them to follow (this is idolatry, for though it is the worship of demons, it is also the worship of self).  This woman was facing a godless culture which never would have let her husband go into that kind of debt in the first place, and would have taken care of her and her kids if there was debt if they were being the people that God had called them to be.  Once again we see that God cares about the widows and orphans, especially those who believe and are called by His name, for His name is on the line when the world looks at how the LORD treats His followers.

In the New Testament church age that we live in now, it is the responsibility of the local church to which this family would belong to have the responsibilities of the community that I mentioned above.  There should have been other believers who cared about the family to should have intervened when the husband went into so much debt.  There should have been people there to help out the family once he died, both to pay the debts and provide for the needs, and there would still be room even in this for the LORD to open up the storehouses of heaven and pour out the innumerable riches of Christ.  God can still do miracles today, and does.  One way to look at this passage is to look for symbolism that the Spirit is the oil and that the Spirit will never run out until we run out of "containers" for Him to fill.  I see this application, but this story specifically is about the LORD miraculously paying off the debt that someone else owed to provide salvation for them--let's not miss the obvious interpretation that LORD does for us spiritually what He did for this woman financially.  Here's a song by Matt Papa that talks about this idea.

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