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 small jar of olive 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 the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.” 5 She left him and 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)
Have you ever felt completely used up? As if you simply can’t think of one more thing you could do? Perhaps that is exactly where you are right now, and you are ready to give up. When the curtain rises in 2 Kings 4, what comes into view is a scene of poverty, misery, lack, dead ends, and despair. But as the story unfolds, through God’s wonderful intervention this widow finds her way from rags to abundance. At the beginning of the account we see a woman buried in debt and trapped in a hopeless situation; by the end she is free of her debts, grateful to God, and filled with joy.
This short story is remarkable, because from it we can learn not only how wonderful God is, but also a few principles for getting free of debt if we have fallen into it.
HONESTLY ASSESS HOW SERIOUS YOUR SITUATION IS
The first thing we must do when we fall into debt is to weigh the seriousness of our situation. That means sitting down together with our husband or wife and drawing up an account of our monthly expenses — electricity, water, phone, heating, and every other bill: day care, food, clothing, entertainment (television, video, internet, and so on). Then we must draw up one more account — the one for our income. Finally, we must compare the two. If our expenses are greater than our income, that is a sure sign that we are in the process of falling into debt. In that case we must either look for ways to increase our income or cut some of our expenses. And it is very important that we look at our financial condition together, as a family. Don’t leave only one member of the family responsible for the money. Both must know exactly what their financial situation is at any given moment; otherwise the one who doesn’t know how desperate things are may go off to the stores, to Metro or to Billa, and buy something that caught his eye. Then he comes home thrilled with his new purchase and wonders why the other doesn’t share his enthusiasm, but on the contrary is irritated and even angry about it. All of that could be avoided if there were better communication between the two of them about finances. Nobody likes to talk about money, because the news on that subject is usually bad. But the only way to turn bad news into good is to understand where exactly we stand, how deep we have fallen, to decide that we do not like where we are, and to agree to do something about it.
Let’s look at what had happened to this poor widow. First, she had recently lost the person closest to her (v. 1).
Your servant my husband is dead. (2 Kings 4:1)
She is described as the widow of a man from the company of the prophets. In our day she would be a pastor’s wife whose husband had died. Her husband, who was her natural provider and protector, was gone now, and she felt it keenly.
Second, this poor widow’s family had sunk into debt, and there was a real danger that her two sons would be carried off as slaves.
But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves. (2 Kings 4:1)
As inhuman as this may seem to us, the law of Moses permitted a creditor to enslave his debtor and his children until the year of Jubilee, so that through his labor as a slave the debtor could pay off his debt (Leviticus 25:39-41). Remember that in the parable of the unmerciful servant it is said of him (Matthew 18:25):
25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. (Matthew 18:25)
This woman had watched all her possessions be sold off to meet the demands of her bank, and now she was about to be parted from her sons. All that was left to her in the house was a single jar of olive oil.
Third, the poor widow was utterly bewildered — she simply did not know what to do and saw no way out of her situation. Widowed, in debt, confused. The language of verse 1 sounds as though the woman cannot understand why all this misfortune has befallen her, and she has even begun to blame God.
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 Kings 4:1)
It is as if she is saying to Elisha: “Elisha, why did God allow all this? You know my husband feared the Lord; he was a good and upright man. Then why did God let him die and let us come to this desperate place where my sons will have to be sold into slavery?”
Do the circumstances of your life make you call God’s goodness and providence into question? Whatever happens, even when we cannot understand it, we must know that Jesus loves us. Once a preacher had to go to a mine where a collapse had taken place. While he was there, someone pressed into his hands an embroidered cloth with the words “God is love” stitched on it. The minister held it up so that the grief-stricken people at the scene could see it. Then he turned the cloth over, and all that could be seen there were the knotted ends of the threads — nothing that made any sense could be made out. Often our life is like such an embroidery. We do not know exactly what is going on. We cannot explain it, and we often ask, “Why?” But we must know that even if nothing can be seen on this side of the fabric, on the other side it reads: “God is love”!
SEEK HELP IN TIME FROM A COMPETENT PERSON
The second thing to do when we have fallen into debt — after a sober and accurate assessment of our financial condition — is to look for a way out of the situation, to turn for help to a competent person. And here we must keep several things in mind. First, we must not wait until it is too late. To seek help is not a sign of weakness but of wisdom.
Second, we must turn to the right person — not to some bank clerk who hands out loans, but to a person who we know actually manages his own finances well, and who can give us sound advice. Instead, what do we do? We gather with other people who have the same problems we do and take comfort from the fact that we are not the only ones — see, there are other people who have fallen into debt like us, some are even worse off, so, no problem…
In this case the woman turned to Elisha. Here he acts as a man who has a genuine concern for this widow (Psalm 146:9). In Psalm 68:5 it says:
5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. (Psalm 68:5)
Third, when we seek help from an adviser or counselor, we must hide nothing — we must give him all the information we have, so that we make it easier for him to form correct and accurate advice on his part.
At the very beginning we see that the poor widow “cried out” to Elisha. This showed her desperation. She hid nothing of the weight of her situation. The woman feverishly explained her circumstances, setting out the facts sincerely and honestly (v. 1). When we are in need, let us also hide nothing from the Lord and from those to whom we have come for help!
Fourth, we must be obedient — to follow the advice we have received, even if it seems foolish to us or far too unusual.
Elisha paid attention to this widow’s need. Yet at that stage the situation did not look promising at all, because all that the prophet’s widow had was a single jar of olive oil. And even so, that was precisely what proved to be the key to the change.
MAKE USE OF WHAT YOU HAVE
The third principle that will help us get free of our debts is to learn to make use of what we have. Even if it is something quite small or insignificant, that very thing may turn out to be the means of our deliverance. For example, if you have a job, don’t complain about it — make use of the opportunities it provides for you. Don’t look far off. Look at yourself. In Proverbs 17:24 it says that
A discerning person keeps wisdom in view, but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth. (Proverbs 17:24)
Notice where Elisha looked when he sought a solution to the widow’s problem (v. 2):
2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” (2 Kings 4:2)
Elisha turned the widow’s attention away from what she had lost toward what she still had. And that is exactly the direction in which we must look in order to receive God’s blessings.
“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.” (2 Kings 4:2)
It is easy to be a pessimist and always want what someone else has. Perhaps the positive thing we have is something very small and insignificant in our eyes, and perhaps we even have to work to discover it; but we must find it and begin to build on it. Look at what resources you have at your disposal — opportunities you have not yet made use of, skills that lie locked away inside you… Check whether you are making good use of your time. Perhaps your problem is not so much in the money you earn as in the time you waste. Your debt may not be in money, but in time, discipline, and your relationships with your friends. Are you making use of what you have at your disposal, or are you just waiting for some miracle to happen?
EXERCISE YOUR FAITH IN GOD
Of course, what Elisha did was not simply to give the poor woman a piece of advice to help her handle the situation on her own. What he did was to work an incredible miracle. Beyond all the wisdom and counsel of this world, we have something more, something other people do not have. We have a living God, a God who works miracles! However small the thing we have, when we place it in God’s hands, it becomes supernatural.
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 the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.” (2 Kings 4:3-4)
Don’t miss what is actually happening at this moment. God’s instructions are like this all the time. They always require faith.
- “Noah, build a boat large enough to hold pairs of all the animals on earth.”
- “Abraham, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, take him to the mountain I will show you, and there offer him up as a burnt offering before me.”
- “Moses, go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to set my people free.”
- “Joshua, march around the walls of Jericho once a day for six days, then on the seventh day march around it seven times, blow the trumpets, and shout.”
- “Gideon, your army is too large. I want you to send it away and keep only three hundred men, then go and fight the countless Midianites with them alone. And take no weapon, only water jars with lit torches and trumpets.”
We could go on and on. Jesus was constantly telling people to do things that stretched their understanding and made them think, “Oh, no!” They would not have carried out His instructions if they had no faith. Faith — not in themselves, not in their abilities, not in their friends, but in Him alone. Faith in God. God’s people cannot do without it. This is what we too must have in order to see God’s miracles come to pass in our lives.
For her need to be met, the prophet’s widow had to be diligent and obedient (vv. 5-6).
5 She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. (2 Kings 4:5)
“She shut the door behind her.” The fact that she had to act alone and perform the miracle herself, rather than wait for the prophet to do everything, undoubtedly grew her faith. That Elisha was not there when the miracle happened shows that the power comes not from a man, but from God alone. Don’t wait for the pastor or someone else to pray for you. Go into your secret room, shut the door behind you, and call upon your heavenly Father. So Jesus taught us (Matthew 6:6):
6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:6)
Notice that the widow obeyed immediately after receiving Elisha’s instructions. She set about carrying them out without reservation, no matter how unusual the prophet’s directions were.
Here we see that she took two steps of faith. First, she had to go and ask her neighbors for empty jars. Picture her knocking on her neighbor’s door and saying, “Would you give me all the empty vessels — jugs, bottles, jars — that you have in the house?” Perhaps her neighbors looked her up and down and thought that maybe her overwhelming grief had driven her out of her mind. But in spite of it all, she carried out Elisha’s instructions to the letter.
Do we carry out God’s directions to us in this same way — the ones we find written on the pages of the New Testament?
The poor widow had to prepare for abundance. That is what Elisha had told her. We often think in limited terms. Our expectations are for something insignificant. But often it may be our very own small expectations that are the only limit on what God has prepared for us! God will fill as many vessels as we prepare for Him!
Second, she had to trust Elisha’s words completely and begin to pour a single jar of oil into dozens of others. It may have looked foolish to pour her few hundred milliliters of olive oil from one vessel into another, but she did it. Perhaps she began a little hesitantly at first. But once she saw the first vessel fill up, she boldly went on with an expectation that ran against the natural laws — that the oil in her jar would not run out. She grew so used to it that it became second nature to her. This supernatural process became something natural for her. All she needed was more and more vessels.
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. (2 Kings 4:6)
If there had been even one more vessel, the oil would not have stopped.
Whether we are facing the death of a loved one, debts, or even doubts and disappointment, let us remember that:
- God can provide (Philippians 4:17),
- He can deliver us (Psalm 50:15),
- He can strengthen us (2 Corinthians 12:9),
- He can save us (Hebrews 7:25),
- And He can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
WORK HARD AND TIRELESSLY
After the miracle happened, the woman went back to the man of God. How do you suppose she came to him? In some quiet, unremarkable way: “Elisha, such and such…”? No. She ran with great joy and cried out: “Praise God! I did what you told me, and God worked the miracle. Now I have a whole house full of vessels, but I don’t know what to do with them.” (v. 7).
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 4:7)
This woman tasted God’s grace and His ability to meet our needs in an incredible way. What was she to do with the miraculously multiplied oil? Give it away to the poor? No. The prophet gave her the wisdom to sell it. With the money from the olive oil, she was able to repay her debts and to live with her whole family until the crisis had passed.
I do not know what this mother expected when she came to Elisha. Perhaps she expected him to work some miracle by which she would be rid of her debt. He could have prayed for God to tell him where to find a lump of gold, dig it up, and give it to her. Or he could have gone to the creditor and told him that if he did not forgive the poor widow’s debt, leprosy would fall upon him. Instead, his instructions to her involved an incredible amount of work. She had to carry clay vessels, which are heavy and fragile. She had to arrange them in her house. Then she had to fill them very carefully, one by one. After that her whole house was full of vessels, and she had to pick her way very carefully among them so as not to set off a domino effect and lose everything. Then Elisha told her to sell all that olive oil.
God used her desperation to teach her something — her and her sons. He could have worked the miracle without their lifting a finger. But it seems that it was more important to the Lord to teach them to fish for themselves than to give them a fish a day. Elisha told her to pay her debts with the money from the oil she sold and to live on what was left.
“Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.” God was interested in more than her simply paying off her debts. He was interested in her life and her family. His will for us is not only that we live free from debt, but that we live a full and abundant life — a life in which we have so much that we ourselves can lend to others.
Yes, God works financial miracles in our lives, but once they have happened, we must not be foolish and squander the money in a short time. After God blesses us, He expects us to be wise about what He has entrusted to us, to spend it wisely and sensibly, to cut our coat according to our cloth, and to be careful not to fall back into debt.
FIVE PRINCIPLES FOR GETTING FREE OF DEBT
In this short story we can find wisdom for how to come out of our debts.
- First, we must honestly assess our situation.
- Second, seek wisdom from a competent person.
- Third, discover the little that we have and use it to come out of our crisis.
- Fourth, exercise our faith in God. He can do immeasurably more than we ask or think.
- And finally, work, and work, and work, and work again.
I believe that if we apply these five principles in our lives, God will work a miracle for us too, just as He did for the poor widow; He will free us from our debts, just as He did for her.