In the third message of Elisha: God’s Double Agent, Pastor Jeff Anders turns to 2 Kings 4 and the fifth miracle in Elisha’s ministry: the widow’s pot of oil. A debt she could not pay becomes a picture of our sin, God’s salvation, and the Spirit of God who never runs dry.
Recap: God’s Double Agent
Elisha was a farmer minding his own business, plowing behind his oxen, when God called him. He burned the plow, kissed his parents goodbye, and followed Elijah.
- Elisha didn’t ask for money or things. He asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.
- He stuck to Elijah like glue and wouldn’t let any distance come between them. Family, friends, and distractions couldn’t pull him away.
- Only a chariot of fire could separate them. Elijah went up in the whirlwind, and Elisha picked up the fallen mantle.
- Elijah’s ministry is marked by eight miracles. Elisha’s is marked by sixteen, the evidence that he really is a man of God.
The First Four Miracles
- The dividing of the Jordan (2 Kings 2:13 and following). Fifty sons of the prophets saw it and knew this was God’s man.
- The healing of Jericho’s waters.
- The cursing of the mocking youths (2 Kings 2:23–24). The two she-bears left them marked for life. Don’t discredit God’s man who preaches God’s Word.
- The defeat of the rebelling Moabites (2 Kings 3).
Miracle Five: The Widow’s Oil
In 2 Kings 4:1, the widow of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha. Her husband, who feared the Lord and served God’s man, was dead, and the creditor was coming to take her two sons as bondmen.
Hard Lives for Faithful People
- The sons of the prophets were being trained to hear from God and walk with God. They didn’t have easy lives.
- Jezebel hated God’s prophets and had killed some of them. Others hid in caves while Obadiah secretly brought them food.
- Pastor Anders suggested, reading between the lines, that the family had been running up debt while the husband was in hiding. Now he was gone, and under the law of that day her sons would become slaves.
- Being faithful to God doesn’t mean everything will go right. If you go against the world’s values, expect resistance. The devil and his people will try to destroy you from every angle.
“What Do You Have in the House?”
In 2 Kings 4:2, Elisha asked what he could do for her, then asked what she had in the house. She had been focused on what she didn’t have. She answered as his handmaid, a humble servant, that all she had was a pot of oil.
- God is an expert at using not much of anything. If you think you’re really something, you may impress people, but you won’t be used of God much.
- God can take a little and make a lot out of it.
Borrow Vessels, Shut the Door, and Pour
Elisha told her to borrow as many empty vessels as she could from her neighbors, shut the door on herself and her sons, and pour her oil into them. She did (2 Kings 4:5–6).
- Shutting the door may have kept the miracle private and protected her sons from the creditors.
- Her sons kept bringing empty pots, and the oil kept flowing until the last vessel was full. Then it stopped.
- Elisha told her to sell the oil, pay her debt, and live on the rest with her sons (2 Kings 4:7).
What the Widow’s Oil Teaches Us
1. Our Sin
Like the widow, we owe a debt we cannot pay, and the result is slavery: slavery to sin and death. You can’t pay it off by doing right. If you think you can, then stop sinning, or just decide never to die. We have nothing to pay with.
2. Our Salvation
God provided what the widow could not, and He has done the same for us at the cross.
- Jesus bore our sins in His own body on the tree and paid the price.
- He was raised the third day, proving He is the Son of God and that atonement was really made.
- The debt has been paid, and we are set free from slavery to sin and death.
3. No Longer Condemned
- The enemy first wants to keep you lost, putting off Christ and pushing God away.
- Once you’re saved, he keeps throwing your failures in your face to condemn you and guilt you.
- God has removed your sin as far as the east is from the west, cast it into the depths of the sea, and remembers it no more.
- Like the widow, you can say, “The debt’s been paid in full,” and tell the accuser to move along.
4. God’s Supply
- God isn’t interested in our greed, but He is very interested in our need. Sometimes He lets us get in need so we’ll cry out to Him and give Him the glory.
- Life is more than money and possessions. As Jesus said, a man’s life doesn’t consist of the things he owns. Life is about loving, worshiping, and serving God, and He’ll provide what you need to do that.
- “All I’ve got is a little pot of oil.” Little is much when God gets in it. Take what you have, surrender it to Him, and He can use you.
The Pot of Oil Inside You
If you’re saved, there’s a pot of oil living inside you: the Spirit of God. He is your source, your helper, and your supply.
- In the upper room in John 14, Jesus promised the Comforter, One who comes alongside to help. He doesn’t just live among us but inside us.
- Life keeps handing you empty pots: hard times, backslidden friends, trouble at work. Surrender them to Him and watch what He can do.
- That oil never runs out.
Take-Homes
- Faithfulness doesn’t guarantee an easy life. Serving God against the world’s values brings resistance.
- Stop focusing on what you don’t have. Bring God what you do have, however little.
- Your sin debt is real, and you can’t pay it. Jesus paid it in full at the cross.
- If you’re saved, refuse the enemy’s condemnation. God remembers your sin no more.
- The Holy Spirit is your pot of oil. Bring Him your empty pots. His supply never runs dry.