parresia

II Kings 4:1-7 A layman's

II Kings 4:1-7 A layman's commentary

Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, ""Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD; and the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.''
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Elisha said to her, ""What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?'' And she said, ""Your maidservant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.''
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Then he said, ""Go, borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your neighbors, even empty vessels; do not get a few.
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""And you shall go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour out into all these vessels, and you shall set aside what is full.''
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So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they were bringing the vessels to her and she poured.
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When the vessels were full, she said to her son, ""Bring me another vessel.'' And he said to her, ""There is not one vessel more.'' And the oil stopped.
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Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, ""Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest.''

In verse 3 we read the Prophet Elisha commanding the woman to "go, borrow vessels at large from all your neighbors, even empty vessels; do not get a few." What a powerful moral for us to learn from, even today. Let me take your attention first to those neighbors who gave the woman their oil-vessels. Certainly the neighbors knew that the woman was recently widowed, and that she would be in need of financial support. Their offering of these oil-vessels was an act of charity on their part. Some, we read, even gave the woman "empty vessels." Now these vessels were not worth much at all, they were valuable only when filled with oil, otherwise they were most likely discarded after use. So we can conclude that the neighbors who gave such empty vessels were, for all intents and purposes, not giving a heck of a lot. But they gave indeed. Is this not the call for some of us? Those of us who do not have much to give, do we have nothing to give? Or are we able to give what might be considered "empty vessels" but vessels none the less? Can we not see that even the smallest thing can be used by God to benefit His people. Consider the woman who was praised by Christ for giving nothing more than a few coins in the offering plate, because it was all that she could give:

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.
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But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.
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Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
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They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on."

So it seems that we, even those of us who have "nothing" to give, are leaving out a very important aspect of God's ability, namely His ability to use ANY gift we give for glory.

Another aspect to this passage that I wanted to point out is God's use of the "foolish things" in this world to bring about His plan.

"but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong."

Alas, how useful could empty oil vessels be? Could not the neighbors have said to themselves as they were handing out the empty vessels, "How foolish! Who would desire empty vessels?" If they would have done so they would have been missing an important lesson. Moreover, how useful could Moses, a man who could barely speak properly, be for emancipating the Jews from Egypt? How useful could Abram, a coward, be for fathering God's people? How useful could a bunch of fishermen be to disciple the learned men of the day? How could Paul possibly speak in the Aeriopigus, and be useful? How could I, a sinner of sinners, and balding at that, be of use to God? It seems to me that my life can be too often characterized as an "empty vessel." But alas, this is the comfort that we read in this passage: God will use even the fools, even the empty vessels to bring about His will.

"Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?" James 2:5

Furher, isn't it God who will not only use us fools, but he will indeed grant us all the richness of his mercy, adopting us as sons, to be heirs, even heirs in Christ!

So this story of Elisha and the poor widow is a telling tale of how much more we could be charitable and generous with our possessions-- if I could but emulate those neighbors who were willing to give, even giving things of little value, for God can use these gifts. This tale also tells of one of the greatest comforts in the Gospel-- no matter how incompetent, foolish, dull, or absent-minded, God is able, and indeed He promises, to use me, yes even me. There is much more that can be learned from this glorious passage, but better minds can tackle that another time. Amen.

Posted by jeremy stock at February 13, 2001 04:57 PM