Today is Mother’s day and I want to look at one woman in scripture who trusted in the Lord and was faithful. The story of this woman can be found in II Kings 4:1-7. This woman was a widow who had been married to a son of the prophets. When a woman became a widow in biblical days, then this became a real hardship. Unlike today when widows can get assistance from the government or other sources, this was not the case for this woman. Women in those days did not work, but stayed at home and raised the children. They had no skills and would not have been as educated as the men so that if the husband died then they had no means of income. There were no life insurance benefits, social security, or other government aids. God did require the people to leave some of the crops and oil for widows and the fatherless. (Deuteronomy 24:19-21 19 ¶ When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands.
20 When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.
21 When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.) This would help with some food, but not with money. (Deuteronomy 26:12 ¶ When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled;) Widows were often in the same category as the fatherless in scripture since they both were in the same boat and often times the widow had to now raise the children without a dad. Widows in those days were expected to be supported by their relatives, but many relatives refused their duty to take care of widows and maybe even more at this time since so many of the people had turned from God and did not obey his commandments. God reminded of this in the New Testament as well and told the church to help take care of them. (I Timothy 5:4 But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God.) This widow lived in Israel which had become a very idolatrous nation as most of the people had turned from the true God Jehovah to the false god Baal. We are not even told the name of the widow in this story as women were often times not seen as important, but God knows her name and she was important to him and he provided for her because she trusted in him. God also may have not given a name as he wants us to remember his glory that was done and not give any to the woman.
Let us look at this widow woman. (II Kings 4:1-7 1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.
2 And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.
3 Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
4 And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.
5 So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out.
6 And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.
7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.)
We see in verse 1 how this widow woman cried out to Elisha the prophet. Remember she had been married to a son of the prophets and the verse ending seems to imply that Elisha had known her husband. The widow cries out to Elisha and says you know that my husband or servant had feared the LORD and yet the creditors have come to take my two sons as bondmen or slaves. We are not told how old her sons were, but no mom wants her sons to become slaves because of debt owed by their parents and especially because it was most likely incurred because the husband died and no income was coming in, yet the bills did not stop. This widow’s husband was one of the few in Israel that did fear the LORD as most had cursed him and turned to Baal. This widow could not just declare bankruptcy like so many do today. God expects people to pay their debts and that includes his servants such as this widow’s husband had been. Just because someone has served the Lord faithfully, does not exempt them from paying their debts. (Psalm 37:21 The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.) In those days if a widow could not pay her debts then the sons were taken and used as slave labor to repay the debt. They would remain slaves until the debt was repaid. This widow knew that Elisha was a man of God and that God would hear his prayer and answer it.
In verse 2 we see Elisha asks the widow what it was that she expected him to do. He then asks her what she had in the house. This was most likely done to see what she had that could be sold. The widow said that all she had was a pot of oil. This was most likely olive oil which was used for cooking and other purposes such as lighting lamps. Elisha wanted to see what she had first before calling on God. Often times we have the things we need already in our house that God has previously given us and yet we overlook them expecting God to do some miracle or bail us out. God would do a miracle for this widow, but he used what was already in her house.
In verse 3 we see Elisha then tells her to go to her neighbors and borrow as many empty vessels as she can and do not be lazy and only grab a few. She was to get as many from the neighbors as they would let her borrow. This widow did as she was asked. She fully trusted in God and what God would have Elisha do. She did not question him or say what good will that do me. This is unlike Naaman, whose story is found in II Kings 5, who would later come to Elisha to be cleansed of leprosy and was ready to ignore the words of Elisha after he was told to go and dip in the Jordan River seven times when he wanted him to do something more. He thought that was too simple. He finally was convinced by his servants to obey and was healed, but he questioned the tactics of Elisha at first. The widow woman never did. She did not expect some great miracle or something more than getting empty vessels. The widow gathered as many empty vessels as she could. This would be important as we will soon see.
In verse 4 we see Elisha commands the widow to bring all of the empty vessels that she had borrowed and to bring them into her house and then to shut the door. She was then to empty the pot of oil into a vessel and when it was full to then set it aside. She was to keep doing this until all of the pots were full. Here again the widow trusted in God enough to know that he would use his prophet Elisha to perform his miracle. She never said how ridiculous is that knowing that there was not enough oil in the pot to fill all of the vessels. She just did what she was told to do. Let this be a lesson to all of us that when God speaks through a man then let us listen to what he says and then do it without questioning. We need to have enough faith to believe and trust in God. It would have been pointless for this widow woman to have cried out to Elisha for help and then to ignore what he told her to do, yet many people do just that as they cry out to God and then ignore what he tells them in scripture or from another godly person.
Verse 5 shows the woman obeying Elisha by having brought the vessels into her house and shutting the door. She then has her sons bring her the vessels as she pours the oil into them and then they set aside the full ones.
In verse 6 we see the woman asks one of her sons to bring her yet another vessel to be filled and placed along the many other full vessels. The son tells her that there are no more vessels to fill. Since there were no more vessels to fill then the oil stayed or stopped. Notice though that the oil never ran out. If they had had more vessels to fill then the oil would have continued to fill them up as well. This miracle is like when Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fishes and yet he ended up with more than he started with even after all of those men ate.
In verse 7 we see the woman came to Elisha after she had finished filling all of the vessels with oil and told him how she had done as he had commanded. It is important to always go back to God or in this case she went to Elisha who was being used by God. Elisha then told her to go and sell the oil and use the money to pay off her debts so that her sons would not be taken as bondmen and then the woman was to use the rest of the money for her and her children to live off of. This is probably why Elisha told the woman to shut the door so that no one could see all of the oil she had and try and steal it from her. Even this simple act of obedience in fully doing what she was told to do was significant so that she would have the oil to sell. God also may have done this as he often does his miracles behind the scenes as they are not for the heathen as most Israelites were, but only for those like this woman who trusted in him. God never forgot this widow woman who trusted in him. He provided for her when no one else did and cared for her when all hope seemed gone. That is when God does his best work, but he does require us to trust in him and place our faith in him. We saw how God used what was already in her house. She did not have to get oil from somewhere else along with vessels and then have God multiply the oil. She already had the oil. The same applies to each of us who places our trust in God as God has already supplied us with something that he can use for his honor and glory. We just need to trust him and let him do his work with what he has already given us. The problem is most do not trust God enough to do as he says he would. If this woman had refused to obey Elisha then she would have lost her sons as bondmen and most likely would have died herself from starvation. The same also applies to if she had not obeyed Elisha by borrowing as many vessels as she could. So many people want to just do as little as they can. One example is seen when the Israelite king Joash came to Elisha just before Elisha died and asked for his help in defeating the Syrians. Elisha told him to strike arrows upon the ground as these arrows represented deliverance by God from Syria. The king only struck the ground three times and then stopped. He should have kept striking the ground until Elisha told him to stop. Elisha scolded him for stopping and said he would defeat Syria three times, but that if he had struck the ground five or six times instead of stopping then he could have consumed Syria. This king should have wanted to completely defeat Syria, but he was too lazy to strike the arrows more than three times even when he was told it represented God’s deliverance. This man never truly trusted that God could deliver Israel or he would have done more. Fortunately this widow woman was not like this heathen king. The story of the king and Elisha can be found in II Kings 13:14-19. This should be a lesson for us not to stop what God tells us to do until he tells us to stop. If she had not borrowed enough vessels then she would not have been able to pay off her debt and still have enough money to live on. Notice that because of her obedience then God not only took care of her immediate need in paying off her debt and keeping her sons from becoming bondmen, but he also provided for her long term needs by making sure she had money for the rest of her life to live on and to also provide for her children. God is not skimpy with those who fully trust in him. God provides for all time, unlike people who only usually are concerned about immediate needs.
God used this widow woman who placed her faith and trust in him to perform a miracle. This woman was wise enough to know to cry out to Elisha who was a man of God and not go to one of the prophets of Baal as she knew they could not help her nor would they even care about her. May more moms be like this woman who loved her sons enough that she was willing to call out to a man of God for help and more importantly was willing to listen and do what he told her to do. If you are not saved then what better give can you give your mom on this Mother’s Day than to admit that you are a sinner in need of a Saviour and call upon Jesus to save you.
