Passage: 2 Kings 4:1-7

The Big Idea

A widow of one of the prophets faced drastic, urgent need: her God-fearing husband had died in debt, and the creditor was coming to take her two sons as slaves. Elisha couldn’t fix it himself, so he pointed her to God, asking what she had: just a jar of oil. He told her to gather empty jars, and not just a few. God filled every empty vessel she brought, until her debt was paid and there was more to live on. It’s a picture of redemption: God pays our debt in full, and His grace supplies everything we need to live. Only empty vessels can be filled.

Need

Drastic. Urgent. Real. Need.

A certain woman, one of the wives of the sons of the prophets, cried out to Elisha: “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know he feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons as his slaves” (2 Kings 4:1).

“A certain woman.” God sees each person and their circumstances.

No one is outside God’s sight.
Never feel that your situation isn’t important to Him. It is!
Never think you’re bothering God by bringing Him your needs!
He sees your need. Nothing has taken Him by surprise: not your accident, not losing your job, not an unexpected death, not a diagnosis, not a breakup.
Even when life hurts and shocks us, God is in complete control.
The world is crazy and unpredictable. Trying to control everything will only lead to stress and sin.
But God is in control! The Almighty sees you as “a certain man” or “a certain woman.”
You’re His beloved child. He knows your needs before you ask (Matthew 6:8).
And He urges us to call out to Him. That’s what we truly need.
We don’t always need the thing we think we need. But we always need to depend on God!

Why did this happen?

Why did this happen to a good woman? We don’t know.

Her husband was a good man who feared the Lord. Somehow he ended up in debt. Some might speculate that it was their fault. Maybe, maybe not.

It doesn’t matter.
God is interested in her need because He’s interested in her!
He allowed this trial to teach her, and us, an important lesson.
She can only look to God to meet her needs. So can we.

Her human provider had been taken away.

She’d had a good husband who provided everything.
Now that was gone.
Is God being unfair? No. God has always taken care of her, and He isn’t going to stop. It will just look different.

“What Shall I Do for You?” (4:2)

Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you?”

Elisha knew he couldn’t fix her situation in his own power.
He was just a man, a servant of the Master.
That’s what each of us is: weak, but learning to receive from God what we need.
Elisha wants her to see that no person can supply everything she needs.
Do you look to people to supply your needs?
A paycheck?
Love?
A sense of worth?
Security?
Only God can fully meet those needs in our souls.
God may use people for a time. But His plan is always to free us from depending on people, or ourselves, and to depend on Him.

Empty Vessels (4:2-4)

“Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.” Then he said, “Go borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors: empty vessels. Don’t gather just a few.”

Why empty vessels?

Because God wants us to bring our emptiness to Him.
He can and will use empty vessels!
God’s ways don’t always make sense to us.
He told Gideon he had too many soldiers. If Israel won with that many, they’d think they had won by their own strength (Judges 7:2).
That’s one of the greatest problems in the church today: we’re too full of ourselves.
Notice: Elisha didn’t care about her one full jar. Only the empty ones were useful.

When the church finally confesses its emptiness and need to God, it will be a joy to bring Him our emptiness. We won’t be embarrassed for God to see our needs and shortcomings.

Don’t gather just a few.

The more areas of life we bring to God to be filled, the more we’ll see Him fill.
We’re often satisfied with just a few, asking God to fill only our most obvious needs.
Instead, we should take time to find empty jars!
Let God’s Word show you where you fall short. Read the commandments. Read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Let your heart be honestly exposed, and bring every broken piece to God for forgiveness and healing.

Behind Closed Doors (4:4-6)

“When you’ve gone inside, shut the door behind you and your sons. Then pour oil into all those vessels, and set aside each one when it’s full.” So she went and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought her the vessels, and she poured.

Elisha made this a private miracle.
Jesus said the world can’t receive the Spirit of truth, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you (John 14:17).
The world doesn’t understand grace. It can’t.
“Why would God help losers like them? They’re no better than me! I’m stronger than they are!”
But believers see God through a different lens, the same lens through which He sees us: Jesus.
God will always meet my need, because Jesus took my undeserving life and gave me His deserving life.

Read Psalm 88. It’s the darkest psalm in the Bible. There’s no resolution. The psalmist feels that God has turned His back on him in his time of greatest need.

But that’s exactly what happened to Jesus on the cross, so that God will never have to turn away from us. For the believer, Psalm 88 is never the final word.

Unbelievers don’t yet know or believe this exchange happened at the cross. So they can’t see the miracle. They aren’t yet inside the house.

When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” He said, “There isn’t another one.” Then the oil stopped.

The oil never ran out. The vessels did. God’s supply was limited only by the empty jars she brought Him.

Debt Paid, More to Live On (4:7)

She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”

God redeems us.
He brings us back into being His children.
Remember Eden: God was responsible to provide everything for Adam and Eve.
When we’re redeemed, we’re brought back into that relationship. We stop trying to do everything on our own, and learn to receive everything we need from Him through the Holy Spirit.

God pays our debts. He doesn’t make them disappear by pretending they don’t exist. He pays them.

Jonathan Edwards wrote that the redeemed depend on God for everything they have, wisdom, pardon, deliverance, acceptance, grace, holiness, comfort, happiness and eternal life, all received through a Mediator, and that Mediator is God Himself. “God is both the purchaser and the price; for Christ, who is God, purchased these blessings by offering Himself as the price of our salvation.”

A Picture of Redemption

Look again at how this story pictures our redemption:

The widow used to be fine. She had everything she needed.
She lost it all.
The creditor demanded payment with the lives of her sons.
She could rely only on the grace of God. He would have to pay for her. That’s redemption.
Grace paid the debt in full. The creditor was satisfied.
The debt was paid, and there was more to live on!

Grace is enough to pay our debts and give us a new supply to live godly lives!

Grace Takeaway

What do you have in the house? Maybe only a little oil, and a whole lot of need. That’s enough. Bring God your empty jars, every one you can find, and don’t gather just a few. He’ll pour until the last vessel is full. Jesus paid your debt in full at the cross, and His Spirit gives you more than enough to live on. The oil only stops when we stop bringing empty vessels.

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Elisha’s Fifth Miracle: The Pot of Oil