Gather Not a Few

2 Kings 4 is a series of miracles Elisha performs for those in the service of the Lord. One after another, those who follow the Lord despite the nationalized paganism of Israel are saved and secured by the power of God active in the prophet's ministry.

The first story is the salvation of a widowed mother in debt and about to starve.
2 Kings 4:1 (ESV) 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.”

Consider the facts of this woman's case. She is widowed. Her husband who served and feared the Lord died too soon. On top of this, she's in debt and her sons are about to be enslaved. Perhaps his service to the Lord in a faithless nation cost him dearly and now his sudden death lays heavy on his family. Perhaps he was wreckless with money or perhaps he was one of those staving prophets hidden by Obadiah in Elijah's day.

Tragic events typically lend some people the tangible proof that God does not exist. But there's context to this story that really matters. We must remember this happened during the apostasy of Israel. Their selfish age was as much to blame for this event as anything in her condition. Instead of a nation enjoying abundance and plenty, there's poverty. This was a promise of God for their wandering from Him in Deuteronomy. Instead of health, there's national sickness and death - another curse for sin. And instead of caring for the less fortunate and canceling debts as the law condoned, the nation has exploited them and is ready to enslave them. Yes, there were laws about enslaving fellow Israelites but there were great limitations on the entire procedure to keep Israel from mistreating each other.

Her condition is a symptom of a greater disease. As the nation turned from God they experienced the trouble of sin. Let us be careful that we do not blame God for what people are prone to do. 

She has no help except in the Lord and so she turns to Elisha and he turns right back to her.

2 Kings 4:2 (ESV) 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.”

What do you have in your house? What a question. I love how Elisha first asks this woman to search her own resources before offering her anything of his own. This is an important lesson concerning a person's present crisis. You have to take stock of what you STILL have before you assume what you need. 

Her response seems totally insignificant and yet Elisha once again asks something of her.

2 Kings 4:3–4 (ESV) 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.”

Elisha wants her actively involved in seeing the miracle come about. Now we could skip through this passage without really putting ourselves in her shoes. It's hard to gather vessels from neighbors, nevermind a lot of them. Could you imagine the questions they had for her? Could you imagine the foolishness that she would have felt? But this is how it works in the economy of God's provision. We do the unusual and God does the impossible.

The woman's faith in action, following the Word of God's prophet brought about the answer she needed.
2 Kings 4:6–7 (ESV) 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.”

Empty vessels that pour out oil change her life. In the New Testament, the seemingly empty vessels of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ bring about a world-changing event that provides the Oil of the Holy Spirit for all God's people today. If we will hear Christ's voice and respond to Him in faith, our home will never run out of His power.