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2 Kings 4:1-6
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.” 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.” Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. 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.” So, she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured, they brought the vessels to her. 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.
James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Cogitations—
The unspoken thread coursing through the Elisha adventures is the spiritual coldness of the people. Of course, the wayward kings of Israel, like Ahab, Ahaziah and Jehoram, garner the most attention for their dereliction of covenantal stewardship. Consequently, it is this poor leadership that accents the spiritual deficit in the people.
The encounter between Elisha and the unnamed widow of one of “the sons of the prophets” underscores the poverty that’s writ large in Israel of that day (4:1-7). As an interesting, though unimportant side note, the rabbis have mused that the woman is the widow of Obadiah, who bravely hid away, and fed the prophets of God from the murderous designs of Queen Jezebel (1 Kings 18:1-16). Whoever he was, he was a disciple of Elisha and had likely left everything to follow his master. A poor lot, these sons of the prophets.
This widow says to Elisha (4:1), “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.” Here’s the first hint to trouble: In Israel, a financially strapped person could take “the nuclear option” and indenture themselves to pay off a debt. Nevertheless, the Law stipulated that freedom was to be restored after six years of labor on the seventh year. However, to enslave children from a widow was not done in Israel. That the creditors would be this morally tone deaf is indicative of the cold distance between God and His People.
The next clue to the moral molder in Israel becomes evident when Elisha asks her “What can I for you?” She replies she has nothing to her name save a single jar of life sustaining oil. When that was consumed, starvation would be the next stage of her pitiful life. Elisha says (4:3), “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few.”
Here’s the rub: This miracle could have easily come about through a single jar already on the shelf in her house. Elisha could have blessed the current jar bottomless, just as Elijah did for the widow at Zarephath in 1 Kings 17:12-16. There, it says, “the jar of flour was not spent, and neither was the jug of oil empty, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah.” It lasted three years! Not here, though. Elisha says go out to your neighbors and borrow as many empty jars as you can find. Empty jars, with the emphasis on “empty.” As many of your neighbors as will allow you the use of their vessels, bring them in, and God will fill them.
A strange, but revealing request from the prophet. I think it is a prophetic revelation of the continuing rot in Israel. By this, I’m getting at the covenantal neglect of her neighbors: They should have cared for the widow. There is this near starving woman in their midst, and they didn’t seem to care. James, the Lord’s brother, in his epistle in the New Testament, reminds his readers, that “religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27). Obviously, Israel was stained by the world in this regard! The empty jars from the neighbors seems symbolic of their spiritual emptiness!
As far as the woman herself, she doesn’t fare much better than her neighbors here. The text doesn’t tell us she went out to borrow jars. With no mention of seeking out jars, it skips directly to (4:5), “so she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her.” Apparently, she used a few empty vessels already on hand (4:6): “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.” She could have had much more, but she did not follow through on the prophet's instruction. Perhaps she didn’t really think the exercise would meet her needs? Despite the cut off of the flow of oil when the empty vessels ran out, it was enough to provide for the widow. She could pay off the debt for her sons, and live on the rest.
This is a dark time in Israel. And yet, even as the darkness seems unending, God sends his prophet into the Land to do what the kings were not doing: Shepherding and providing for the people. As you look back on all the miracles done by the hand of this prophet, there is the realization that the bulk of Elisha’s miracles and interactions are so mundane. So every-day. So personal. The multiplication of food. Making water sweet. Curing “death in the pot.” Upholding basic God 101 laws for justice and righteousness. Even in this present darkness of idolatrous Israel, God lights up the way. God never abandons his people, even when they abandon him!
I am reminded of this when I think of the way the Gospel of John presents the Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (1:5)
John the Baptist “was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” …Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (8:8-9, 12)
And the words of Jesus, which could have (and in a way, did) come from the lips of Elisha: “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” (12:46).
