Miraculous Multiplication

Text

2 Kings 4:1–7 NKJV

1 A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.” 2 So 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 but a jar of oil.” 3 Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few. 4 And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.” 5 So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. 6 Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased. 7 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 live on the rest.”

Intro

An End-time In Need of Apostolics!

The general idea of our text this morning is that there was a serious social issue that God addressed through a child of God.

God cares about the issues of life, including the major issues of our world.

From the prayer of the school student about a test to the prayer from a saint about a deadly health issue - God cares!

And falling under His care is every major world issue that you’re hearing about ever day.

The sick (COVID-19)

The division (political)

The violence and hatred (racial)

To all of these things, God is not silent. To all of them, He has very clearly provided an answer: THE CHURCH!

It is so very evident that what is all around us is the full evidence of the end times.

But you know what… the end time is need of Apostolics!

To every problem that we’re seeing, there is an Apostolic, god-ordained answer!

We are God’s answer in the earth!

Without the church, this world doesn’t stand a chance today!

Body

The Widow Was Left With Insurmountable Debt

Who Was This Widow and Her Husband?

The scripture tells us that the husband was a member of the “sons of the prophets.”

We hear of these younger men several times between 1 and 2 Kings. Each group was led by the same prophet, and when he died (or was taken, as with Elijah), another guild member took his place (Elisha).

These groups had roots as far back as the time of the prophet Samuel, who wrote about a “company of prophets.” They were equivalent to a modern-day Bible college.

Now these men had homes, families, and responsibilities like the regular person. And although the deceased husband is not named in the text, at least two historical sources seem to identify him as Obadiah (1 Kings 18:3-16).

We know that Obadiah would borrow money to buy food for the prophets, which may explain why his widow went to Elisha with the problem.

And she approached Elisha with language that seems to imply that he had good reason for taking on the debt: “Thy servant is dead, and you know he did fear the Lord.”

Creditors Were Coming

While we are not 100% certain of the identity of these people, we are completely certain that she was the wife of a prophet who had died, leaving her strapped with debt.

She had sold everything of value and still lacked enough to pay the creditors.

And when she came to Elisha with the problem, he did not offer immediate help.

But what’s very interesting… is that he wanted to find out if the widow had any available resources...

The Threat of Losing Her Sons

It’s very important that we understand the terms of her debt today.

The creditors in our story here were demanding the remaining balance of the debt be paid by the involuntary servitude of the widow’s sons. This was legal under Jewish law. You could sell your children to pay off debt, if it came to it.

What a serious predicament she was in! The parents had never hoped it would come to this...

We already know that all debt is a wager that all conditions will remain constant. Therefore, all debt carries a hidden risk. Because situations are subject to change at any moment.

And really, all life is subject to change at any moment.

If I could put a caption underneath the year 2020, it would be “Life is subject to change!”

At times We Will Face Difficult Challenges

This widow was in desperation. And to calm that, Elisha asked a question: “What do you have in the house?”

In other words, he wanted to do a resource evaluation!

When you’re in the middle of trouble, and you’re panicked, that panic can really skew your thinking.

When things start going wrong, our first instinct is to use words like always and never (as in “it will never work out” or “everything always goes wrong”). And those words don’t help us find positive solutions.

Most often we want and expect instant help from God from resources other than our own, and we will suggest several different solutions.

But I want to present you with a different option today… What if we surveyed our own resources???

What do we have to work with?

Perhaps we already have in our possession the elements of our own deliverance!

Spiritually Rich

I want to point out another thing in the story, here. The man who had passed away, one of the “sons of the prophets,” may have left his wife and sons deep in debt, but he left them something far more valuable than gold: a testimony and a legacy that he feared God and was faithful!

You may not have a whole lot today - but if you are just living for God - you’ve got more than you think you do!

Poverty of things can be endured if one has an anointing of oil!

Did you hear me today?

I said POVERTY OF THINGS CAN BE ENDURED IF ONE HAS AN ANOINTING OF OIL!

...

Something else I’m seeing from this chapter is that the Lord helps unnamed, ordinary, everyday people!

In our Bible, we learn lessons both positive and negative from kings and prophets. But we also learn lessons, both positive and negative, from unidentified people like the widow in today’s story!

To us, she may look like a nobody - but to God, she was somebody!!!

And her only resource was a teaspoonful of oil!

The Oil

In Bible times, there was no mineral oil or petroleum oil… but there was olive oil.

The olives were picked before they were ripe and then pressed by foot, pestle and mortar, or by a stone press.

One tree could yield up to a half ton of oil, which was then used for commerce, light, anointing rituals and consecrations, tithing, and of course, cooking.

And they were specifically instructed (Leviticus 5:11) that when they made sin offerings, oil was not to be used. Because unlike sin, oil pleases God!

Throughout the scriptures, oil was a universal spiritual symbol of the Holy Spirit and that is found throughout biblical times!

Oil was used in the Tabernacle

Oil was used to anoint kings

Oil was used to pray for the sick

James 5:14–15 NKJV

14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

The book of Isaiah says that it’s by His stripes that we are healed. And every time you see somebody anoint someone who is sick with the oil - it’s not because the oil has some special power in itself! It’s not holy oil! It’s obedience to His word: “let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”

And when we put that oil on our finger and we anoint them with oil, that oil has always been God’s chosen symbol of His Spirit - what are we doing??? We’re invoking the Spirit to come and work a miracle in that person’s life!

OPTIONAL ILLUSTRATION: One of my first jobs was at an Italian Restaurant. There were containers of oil on tables. A customer told me one day that they believed that the oil had gone bad. I didn’t know anything of it, but yes, oil has an expiration date. And I learned that we had to start putting fresh oil in those containers. We changed them out often.

So let me say this: we need FRESH OIL in our life!

Sometimes, you’ll see a lot clearer it you’ll get you some fresh oil!

You’ll be a better disciple if you’ll get fresh oil in your spirit!

Have you ever tried to start a charcoal grill with old charcoal?! Not fun!!!

The Widow Cried Out To Elisha

What Do You Have In Your House?

Now - a “pot” of oil was not much. It may have been a very small pot, and it may not have been full - it was only an “anointing” of oil, the scripture says.

Her resources were severely limited. Definitely not enough to settle an insurmountable debt to save her sons from slavery.

But we already know what God can do with a small amount of oil...

Elijah lived throughout a famine with only a small cruse of oil and a handful of meal.

And in Elisha’s story here, the widow’s sons were saved from slavery with even less oil.

In the New Testament, Jesus miraculously multiplied five common barley loaves and two fishes.

And in none of these and other miraculous instances did the Lord change the thing He was multiplying; He just multiplied the original thing into miraculous amounts.

“Sister Obadiah” (we’ll call her) was willing to give all she had.

She was also willing to obey, despite the doubts she may have had about the seemingly foolish command to gather empty pots, pans, jars, and jugs from the neighbors.

It’s important to not here that, she was quick to seek godly advice - and quick to OBEY godly advice.

God Will Always Start With What We Have In The House

God can multiply our ordinary into the extraordinary results, if we will willingly put WHAT WE HAVE into His miraculous, multiplying hands!

He starts with what we’ve got in our house!

I want you to consider today:

A staff that was already in the hand of Moses!

A small amount of blood put on doorposts in Egypt!

A small boy with five loaves and two fish!

And Paul the Apostle, who considered himself the least of all his peers!

God takes our ordinary and turns it into the EXTRAORDINARY!!!

Borrowed Vessels

They Filled All The Vessels

Now, after determining that the widow had something to work with, Elisha next gave her a curious task:

2 Kings 4:3 NKJV

3 Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few.

And Elisha did not explain that to her. He didn’t say how the miracle was going to be performed.

So the exercise was an act of faith.

The widow went around beating on neighbors’ doors. “I need some pots and pans!” Not from a few, but vessels from “all” her neighbors. And she really pursued this thing!

And to some, it would make more sense to borrow FULL vessels. I mean, if you’re already there getting a pot, just go ahead and get a pot that’s full of oil. That’s what you really need...

But the command was to borrow empty vessels! Because God works with and blesses vessels that are empty!

And when the widow’s house was full of empty, borrowed vessels:

2 Kings 4:5 NKJV

5 So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out.

What she was about to do was not for public display. (Every widow in the neighborhood would have formed a double line in front of Elisha’s door if they had witnessed the miracle!)

And the widow didn’t know it yet, but the amount of oil she received would be decided by two things: how many neighbors she had visited and how many empty vessels she had compelled them to loan her.

The more neighbors she visited, the more vessels she gained. The more vessels she gained, the more oil she could pour out. The more oil she could pour out, the more money she could gain to pay off the debt and save her sons from the creditors!

It all depended on how much priority she had on making room for oil!!!

HOW MUCH ROOM WILL YOU MAKE FOR THE ANOINTING IN YOUR LIFE?!

We can all imagine the scene here: empty pots, pans, jars, and jugs sitting on every surface - tables, benches, chairs, counters, and in the sink! Even the water pot was emptied out and waiting!

The widow looks at the empty vessels and then at her teaspoonful of oil in the cruse. She sets her doubt aside, takes a deep breath, and starts to pour.

The first kettle was the hardest. She tipped the little cruse of oil on its side above the kettle, and the oil began to flow… and kept on flowing!

Once the first vessel was full, her faith began to build. She was afraid to tip the oil back up because it might stop flowing! So her sons kept changing the containers while she held the miraculous cruse of oil on its side!

“Hurry! Bring another vessel!” she told her sons.

One of the boys responded, “There are no more vessels!”

And before she could react, the oil stopped - not because the oil ran out, but because the empty vessels ran out!!! The oil was good to the last drop!

I can imagine the widow might have wished she could have gotten every pot in the region! The miraculous multiplication of God could have filled many more!

The Widow Paid Her Debts

2 Kings 4:7 NKJV

7 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 live on the rest.”

The story ends on a positive note: the widow sold the oil, paid the debt, saved her sons from slavery, and lived day to day on the rest.

It’s interesting that she didn’t consider the abundance of oil was hers to do with as she liked; instead, she went to Elisha, told him what had happened, and obeyed his advice.

We shouldn’t feel possessive of God’s blessings. We can use His instruction on how to use them.

God Will Multiply What We Have In The House

I really believe that this story illustrates and teaches us what to do in the middle of a crisis:

Seek godly counsel and obey godly advice.

Use whatever resources we already have, no matter how small they may seem, and keep the faith!

And WHEN HE’S POURING OUT THE OIL, LET IT FLOW ON YOU!

The Lord has unlimited resources; our task is to make a place for His miraculous multiplication to work!

God Can Use Whatever We Have

What You Have Is Enough

God’s miraculous power is perfect for any need we might have. The problem might be our lack of providing a place for Him to work!

What if the widow had collected only five empty vessels? Or what if she had collected twice as many?

And here’s a powerful point: THE MORE EMPTY THE SITUATION, THE MORE SPACE GOD HAS TO WORK!!!

What you have, where you’re at, in your state - IS ENOUGH!!!

Trust God To Multiply And Bless

Look at creation:

Genesis 1:2 NKJV

2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

But when God’s creativity met a massive emptiness, ultimate change took place!

The more empty space we give God to work His miraculous multiplication, the more creative He can be!

We tend to tell God how it should be, what the answer is...

But the widow suggests to us today that we should just apply what oil we have to faith and let God handle the rest!

If God’s power is truly unlimited, why would we want to limit Him to our ideas of how He should answer the dilemma???

Conclusion

God is in need of vessels today.

He needs Apostolics. But not just any Apostolics. Apostolics He can USE.

To do this:

Empty our vessel

Fill it up with His oil

Be willing to be poured out, however He wants.

BE AVAILABLE!