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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadSpurgeon Verse Expositions - 2 King 4:1 - 4:7
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2Ki_4:1. Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophet 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.
It is sad for anyone to be in debt, and yet there may be circumstances under which even a man who fears the Lord may die in debt, and leave no provision for his wife and children except a large portion of sorrow. In the case of this poor widow, it was not long before she cried to Elisha, “The creditor is come.” He generally does come pretty quickly, and he had come to her to take away her two sons whom she needed to support her, to make them bondmen,-slaves, to serve him for a certain number of years till their father’s debt was worked out, and this hurt the poor woman’s heart, so she came to see what the Lord’s servant could do for her. She could not bear to see her sons taken away to serve as bondmen to a stranger, through no fault of their own; and, possibly, through no fault on their father’s part.
2Ki_4:2. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee?
Elisha was probably about as poor as she was, so what could he do for her?
2Ki_4:2. Tell me, what hast thou in the house?
“Whatever there is in the house must go towards this debt, so ‘tell me what hast thou in the house?’”
2Ki_4:2. And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.
Her husband had been a God-fearing man, a true servant of Jehovah, yet he had died in such dire poverty that his widow had to say to Elisha “Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.” Those were indeed bad times for the sons of the prophets; for, in those days, men cared more for false prophets and for the priests of Baal than for the servants of the Most High God.
2Ki_4:3. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
“Get as many empty oil jars as ever you can, it does not matter how great nor how many they are, but they must be empty.”
2Ki_4:4-6. 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. 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. 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.
There was no reason why “the oil stayed” except that there was “not a vessel more” to receive the flowing stream.
2Ki_4:7. Then she came and told the man of God.
She must have understood that the oil was to be used for the payment of her debt; but she was a woman of delicate sensitiveness, with a tender conscience, as honest people usually are, so she wanted full permission from Elisha before she would dispose of the oil. She regarded it, in some sense, as his oil: as it was through using the means that he had directed that her little store of oil had been so miraculously multiplied; so “she came and told the man of God.”
2Ki_4:7. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.
What a merciful deliverance that was for the poor widow and her sons! And there have been many other deliverances, in the experiences of God’s people, which, if they have not been quite so miraculous as this one, have nevertheless been very remarkable, although God has appeared to work them the common way in which he is constantly working. Yet they have been uncommon mercies all the while. Now let us read Paul’s letter to the Christians at Philippi who had been the means of supplying his necessities, though not in the miraculous manner in which the prophet Elisha had supplied the needs of that poor widow.
This exposition consisted of readings from 2Ki_4:1-7; and Philippians 4.