Deny to Supply 2025

I. The Widow’s Crisis (4:1-2) – Her Desperation

A. A Painful Reality – She was a destitute widow with debts (v. 1)

Understand this with me… Ex. Dave Ramsey.

(Widows and Single parents) The united states has the highest rated number of children living in single parent homes...

Poverty is hard, but debt is horrible.

Charles Spurgeon

As of January 2025, the U.S. national debt was over $36.2 trillion...

The cry of this woman was a real cry of agony...

The word “cried” means “to moan; to weep uncontrollably; to shriek out of grief.”

This word identifies the sound of a broken heart. This woman comes to the man of God at the lowest moment of her life. She is in desperate straits!

She was married to one of the “sons of the prophets”.

These were the men who were in training under Elisha to be the prophets and preachers in Israel.

“thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord:”

Ex. Men if you died this week… Could your wife and family say my husband was a man who feared God?

Her husband, her lover, her friend, her provider, her protector, had been taken away from here in death. She is broken because a loved one has been taken away.

“the creditor is come”

When you are in debt you become enslaved to that debt...

Ex. Man who had his credit card stolen, but he decided that he would not report it because the thief was spending so much more less than his wife...

I understand debt is unavoidable at times in our day and age, but understand it brings a tremendous burden and at times its just not worth it...

Since her husband is dead she cannot pay her bills. As a result, her creditors are coming to take her sons away as slaves so they can work off the debt. This was allowed under the Jewish Law.

Creditors could enslave children as kind of a substitute payment in the forms of child labor. Debt slavery was a common practice in the ancient world

She has been deprived of her husband, now she is about to lose her sons as well. She is over her head in debt and she doesn’t see how she can make it.

B. A Pressing Request – She cried out to Elisha for help (v. 1-2a)

She was in an economic, emotional, familial, and spiritual crisis. Her destitution may have resulted from the fact that true prophets were not honored in the largely apostate northern kingdom of Israel. In going to Elisha, she was seeking a spiritual solution for her dilemma.

What Shall I do for thee? (Elaborate)

James 1:27 KJV 1900

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Elisha being a man of God wanted to reflect the spirit of God and help meet this woman’s need

C. A Poor Resource – All she had was a little oil (v. 2)

What hast thou in the house?

God is always going to ask us what we can do by faith before He does miraculous things...

We have got to answer what is in our house? I want you to understand that if you can only give $5.00 dollars to deny to supply, but you do it because that is all you can give. Understand God will bless you for that.

God wants us to give what we can and in this case the widow woman would give what she could and God would do the rest...

“Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” - Paul Chappell

There is some evidence that this jar of oil was not a larger supply held for cooking, but a smaller vessel that held only oil for anointing.

“A unique word here, possibly for a small anointing flask.” (Wiseman)

Oil was a great commodity… It is thought by some scholars that the amount of oil this woman had was just enough left for her burial...

God will look at us and say… By faith let’s step out together

Hebrews 11:6 KJV 1900

6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

II. The Prophet’s Command (4:3-5) – Her Dependence

A. A Strange Instruction – Borrow empty vessels (v. 3)

Elisha told her to borrow all the empty containers from her neighbors that she could, which must have sounded like an odd response to what she’d shared but she did as the word of God through His prophet commanded her.

God fills what is empty and surrendered before Him.

2 Corinthians 4:7 KJV 1900

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

“She did what she was commanded to do: she did it in faith; and the result answered the end. God takes care to deliver his servants in ways that exercise their faith. He would not have them be little in faith, for faith is the wealth of the heavenly life.” (Spurgeon)

It’s good to remember that God’s ways are different than our ways.

Isaiah 55:8–9 KJV 1900

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts.

“You have God in the measure in which you desire Him. Only remember that the desire that brings God must be more than a feeble, fleeting wish. Wishing is one thing; willing is quite another. Lazily wishing and strenuously desiring are two entirely different postures of mind; the former gets nothing and the latter gets everything, gets God, and with God all that God can bring.” (Maclaren)

B. A Specific Implementation – Pour out the oil in private (v. 4)

Elisha told the woman to take what she had — one jar of oil (all that she had) — and pour that out in faith into the borrowed vessels. As she did this, the oil miraculously kept pouring from the original vessel until all the borrowed vessels were filled. At the end of it, she had a lot of oil.

We notice that Elisha made her do this. Perhaps Elisha was tempted to gather the vessels and pour the oil himself, but he knew that she had to trust God herself.

The original vessel of oil — the one the woman had in her house — was a smaller vessel that held only oil for anointing. This means that the distribution of the oil into the other vessels required constant pouring and allowing the oil to supernaturally fill the small vessel again.

The vessels also had to be empty before they could be filled with oil. It did no good to bring the widow full vessels...

“A full Christ is for empty sinners, and for empty sinners only, and as long as there is a really empty soul in a congregation, so long will a blessing go forth with the word, and no longer. It is not our emptiness, but our fullness which can hinder the outgoings of free grace.” (Spurgeon)

C. A Steadfast Obedience – She acted in faith (v. 5)

The principle of this miracle was the same as the principle of the ditches dug in the previous chapter. The amount of man’s work with the miracle determined the amount of blessing and provision actually received. God’s powerful provision invites our hard work and never excuses laziness.

Miracles often begin with small acts of obedience. Faith acts on God's word even when the instruction seems strange or unconventional.

The best measure of a spiritual life is not its ecstasies but its obedience.

Oswald Chambers (Lecturer and Missionary)

It is our faith that fails, not his promise

III. The Lord’s Completion (4:6-8) – Her Deliverance

A. A Powerful Provision – The oil flowed until vessels were full (v. 6)

Miraculously, the widow soon found that oil kept pouring out of the jar until every container gathered was full. As long as there were empty vessels, the oil kept flowing. This teaches us that God’s provision is only limited by our capacity to receive.

Philippians 4:19 KJV 1900

19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

The bible says, “God will supply our need not our greed.”

The finances are not always what I would like them to be, but God has allowed us to pay every bill. That is the power of God’s provision.

B. A Practical Plan – Sell the oil, pay the debt, and live (v. 7)

By obeying the Lord’s word through Elisha, the widow had enough oil to sell so that she could pay off her debt and then live on the remaining money.

She Was Given Wise Stewardship… She Received More Than Enough – Not only did she clear her financial burden, but she also had enough for her daily provision.

God’s provision is not just for survival; it’s for stability – He meets both our immediate and long-term needs. God doesn’t do miracles for wasteful living – She had to work by selling the oil, showing that faith and responsibility go hand in hand (Prov. 21:5

Proverbs 21:5 KJV 1900

5 The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; But of every one that is hasty only to want.

God expects us to earn through honest and diligent labor...

Conclusion:

Proverbs 11:24 KJV 1900

24 There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; And there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.

Giving is not a matter of can and can’t, it is a matter of will and won’t. This woman was being challenged by God about what she could do even if it wasn’t much because the prophet knew that God would match her faith.

In stewardship God provides the raw materials, and expects us to be faithful to Him.

This story is a reminder that God’s Word does not always seem to make sense to us. But, he’s God, and we’re not. Blessings—sometimes physical but always spiritual—come when we respond to his Word with faith and obedience.