Empty Yourself! Part 2

2 Kings 4:1-7
1 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a little oil.”
3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars, Don’t ask for just a few.
4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
5 She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring.
6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

2 Kings 4:1-7 talks about the Widow’s Oil. This particular widow was in heavy debts and the creditor was coming to take her sons as slaves. She was desperate and did not know what to do. Then came Elisha, who told her to look for empty jars, not just a few, but more than that. Now, let’s look at this situation from the widow’s perspective. She was so poor that she had nothing in her house, and now Elisha came to ask her to look for more empty jars? The widow’s house was already full of emptiness and now the prophet of God wanted her to find more emptiness? To make matter worst, Elisha wanted her to find more than just a few! What could the widow do with so many empty jars? She must have thought that Elisha was mad!

Being desperate, she listened to Elisha and went around looking for empty jars. She came to this particular neighbor’s house and she knocked. The neighbor opened and she asked him for an empty jar. Knowing of the widow’s situation, he thought, “O poor thing, she had nothing left in her house. She must be starving now.” So he brought a jar filled with soup for her. When the widow saw it, she said, “No! No! No! What I want is an empty jar; I do not want the soup in the jar.” The neighbor thought that the widow was too shy to take it so he insisted, “Take it, you must be very hungry now. You need to feed your sons too.” Left without a choice, the widow took it. Immediately after the neighbor closed the door, the widow poured the soup away and kept the empty jar.

She went home and did as instructed. She began pouring that little oil that she had left into a jar. To her amazement, the jar was filled. She filled another, and another, and another, and another, until all the jars had been filled. She asked her son to pass her another jar, but there was none. She told him to ask from the neighbor for an empty jar. He went and came back with it after a while. She wanted to pour oil into that jar, but there was no more oil. She thought, “If only I had gotten more in the beginning…”

Elisha told her to sell the many jars of oil she had. She did and not only can she pay all her debts, she still had money left to support her sons!

Next: Empty Yourself! Part 3