2 Kings 4:1-7 - God’s Provision of Grace

2 Kings 4:1-7

Elisha and the Widow’s Oil (cf. 1 Kings 17:14–16)

1 A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.”

2 So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”

3 Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few. 4 And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.”

5 So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. 6 Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.”

And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased. 7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”

This widow was of one of the “sons of the  prophets” which was likely a prophet in training of sorts or an actual son of a known prophet used by the LORD to deliver His word to the people of God.  What we do know is that Elisha was a prophet and her affiliation brought her plea for help to his attention.  Because she called her dece husband the servant of Elijah specifically and that he knew he was a servant who feared the LORD, the ancient accounts say that her husband was Obadiah (1 Kings 18:12) who feared God and hid the prophets from Ahab and Jezebel in caves.  Either way, Elisha honored her as the widow of a servant of God and met her needs to keep the debt collectors from taking her sons to pay her debts as slaves.  He heard she only had a single pot of oil in the house, and was directed by the LORD to have her gather as many empty pots as possible from her neighbors.  She then poured out the single jar into the others until she ran out of empty ones, a miracle as profound as the Lord Jesus Christ with the loaves and fishes feeding thousands later.  It was God’s gift of provision to honor her and her deceased husband who served Him in this case, enabling her and her free sons to live on after paying her debts with the proceeds of selling many jars of the valuable oil.  Such is God’s gift to us in His daily bread of provision for our needs even now, and especially for those who set aside their lives in service to Him and the gospel to set men and women free (John 8:36, Romans 6:18, 22) from enslavement to sin and provide all we need in support of body and soul (Matthew 6:31, 33, 2 Peter 1:3) for living and for godliness.  This is an example of God’s provision of grace honoring those (1 Samuel 2:30, John 12:26) who honor Him.