Would you like to read James McNaught’s novel Sinking Sand”? click here: Sinking Sand
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
2 Kings 4:1–7, “Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets 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. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. 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. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.”
Elisha was established as the senior prophet in Israel but there were many other men who remained true to the Lord. After all, when Elijah complained that he was the only prophet left, the Lord said that there seven thousand people in Israel who had not bowed to Baal. (1 Kings 19: 18) Among these faithful people there were some who were training to be prophets so that they could bring the Lord’s message to Israel. As a prophet is someone who brings the Lord’s message, these people were similar to a church minister or pastor today. There are also Rabbis in the Jewish faith as well. Each one of these people is trained to understand the Word of the Lord. One of these prophets died and his widow was poverty stricken as her husband had left some debts. The creditors were so determined to get their money that they were going to take the woman’s two sons and sell them as slaves to pay the debt. She had no way of preventing this by herself. She went to Elisha, after all he was the Lord’s prophet and was qualified to ask the Lord God for help. Elisha asked her what she had available in the house. The Lord can intervene in many ways but He often takes small people who can do small things in a small way and uses them to Almighty things in His Almighty way. This woman had small amount of cooking oil in her house, it seems as though she had even run out of flour to make bread. Elisha told her to collect as many bottles, jars and other containers as she could. She sent her sons to everyone she knew and they came back with all the containers that could be found among their acquaintances. As Elisha instructed, the woman started to pour the oil from her small bottle and she was able to fill all the containers that her sons had collected. When there were no more containers the oil ran out. The woman sold all the oil that the Lord had miraculously provided and she had enough money to pay all the debts and there was even enough left over for her to live off.
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