What is Your Oil?

[Maryanne Winder Lester]

What is Your Oil?

We fell asleep last night watching TBN, so when we woke up, it was still playing. There was a message being delivered this morning by Pastor ReAnn Ring about the widow in 2 Kings 4:1-7. I was inspired by this message and I want to share this story with you.

There was a woman, a widow, who was in debt. I mean, this woman had absolutely nothing left. There was no furniture in her house, no cooking utensils or food to cook. She had no beds or mattress or linens or even a lamp. Everything she owned was gone, except one jar of oil. This wasn’t cooking oil or lamp oil or heating oil, it was olive oil and it had only one use. It was to be used for anointing. It wasn’t worth very much. But of all the items she had chosen to keep, it was this one small jar of anointing oil. It must have been valuable to her. She was so far in debt that the creditor was on his way to take her 2 sons as his slaves in order to pay her debts. If her sons were taken, that would have been the end of her future support. This woman was desperate! We don’t know the history of how this woman came to be in such debt, but we know that her husband was dead and according to Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary, these debts were left by her dead husband. She had no means of support. But, her husband had been a servant of God.

The Scripture reads in 2 Kings 4:1 that this woman “cried out to Elisha.” She didn’t calmly walk up to Elisha, she cried out. She screamed, probably with tears streaming down her face. The first thing she told Elisha was not that her house was going to be taken or that she had lost everything, it was that her sons were about to be taken by the creditor to be his slaves. That’s the first priority to a mother, her children.

Elisha was a prophet of God. During this difficult season God empowered Elisha to perform a number of miracles. He rubbed elbows with Kings and commanders and “very important people.” But he followed the laws of God. James 1:27 says, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” Elisha instructed the widow to leave her home, go everywhere and borrow empty vessels from all her neighbors. In verse 3 Elisha is very specific “Do not gather just a few.” He still had not revealed to her what was going to happen or how gathering empty vessels was going to keep her sons from becoming slaves, but she trusted the prophet. The poor desperate widow had to go out of her comfort zone to gather all these vessels. She had to knock on every door, even the doors of strangers to complete her task. We all know how it feels when a stranger knocks on our door. How many times do we just peep out of our curtains and pretend we aren’t even at home? I’m sure the widow encountered this same rejection and probably even felt humiliated. But she couldn’t become discouraged. She had been given specific instructions by the man of God.

When the widow had gathered the empty vessels, she returned to her home and shut the door behind her and her sons as instructed. Jesus spoke in Matthew 6: 6, “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” So, behind her closed doors, the sons brought the empty vessels to her and she began to fill the borrowed empty vessels with the oil from her vessel. She poured and she poured and filled all the empty vessels. Verse 6 says, “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.“ The oil ran out at the exact moment that all the empty vessels had been filled. There was no extra oil and there were no extra vessels.

The widow then returned to Elisha, having seen the miracle that had been performed. Her problems were over, God had provided for her needs through the intervention of Elisha. In verse 7 Elisha said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.” Look at what God did in that day. Not only did He provide a solution for the widow’s immediate problem of losing her sons and paying her debts, but He also provided for her future. Look at the Testimony this widow has to the glory of God. What an awesome God we serve. Psalm 68:5 says it best, “A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in His holy habitation.”

Now, as my title asks, what is your oil? When you are down and out, desperate and in debt, what is the last thing you have? What gift has God given you to use? It might be a skill that you thought was of no value. He will provide a miracle in your life. Just look around you. He has already provided everything you need.

Pray with me.

Heavenly Father,

You are my Provider and my Protector. I praise You when I have just a little because I know You will provide more. Your miracles surround me every day. Please help me, O Lord to recognize the gifts You have given me so that I can use them to bring glory to Your precious name.

I pray in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, Who was the greatest Gift of all,

Amen.

Maryanne Winder Lester 4/15/2010