THE MIRACLES OF ELISHA
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
2 Kings 4:1. Two sons to be bondmen—The law entitled a creditor to the slavery or service of debtors till the year of Jubilee.
2 Kings 4:2. Pot of oil—Gesenius suggests unctio—“oil for anointing,” as the rendering of אָסוךְ—instead of “pot”; no oil left for food, only enough for the anointing.
2 Kings 4:3. Borrow not a few—She had none, should borrow many. Elisha had faith!
HOMILETICS OF 2 Kings 4:1-7
THE MIRACULOUS SUPPLY OF OIL SYMBOLIC OF THE INEXHAUSTIBILITY OF DIVINE GRACE
In this and the four following Chapter s we have a detailed account of the miracles of Elisha. We catch glimpses of the quiet, unobtrusive life spent in the schools of the prophets; and we cannot but observe the striking difference in the spirit and character of Elisha’s ministry as contrasted with that of his predecessor. Elijah represented the whirlwind, the earthquake, the fire; Elisha, the still small voice—less terrible and imposing, but more extensively influential for good. As Stanley beautifully puts it: “The whole appearance of Elisha revealed the difference. The rough mantle of his master appears no more after its first display. He uses a walking staff like other grave citizens (2 Kings 4:29). He was not secluded in mountain fastnesses, but dwelt in his own house in the royal city (chap. 2 Kings 5:9; 2 Kings 5:24; 2 Kings 6:32; 2 Kings 13:17), or lingered amidst the sons of the prophets, within the precincts of ancient colleges, embowered amidst the shades of the beautiful woods which overhang the crystal spring that is still associated with his name; or was sought out by admiring disciples in some tower on Carmel, or by the pass of Dothan; or was received in some quiet balcony, overlooking the plain of Esdraclon, where bed and table and seat had been prepared for him by pious hands. His life was not spent, like his predecessor’s, in unavailing struggles, but in widespread successes. He was sought out, not as the enemy, but as the friend and counsellor, of kings. His deeds were not of wild terror, but of gracious, soothing, homely beneficence, bound up with the ordinary tenor of human life.” The miracle related in this paragraph indicates the sympathy of the prophet with the troubles and needs of human life. In treating the miracle as symbolic of the inexhaustibility of Divine Grace, the following thoughts are suggested.
I. That humanity is reduced by sin to a state of moral bankruptcy and ruin. Like the widow in the narrative, we are hopelessly in debt, and have nothing wherewith to discharge our liabilities. The law of Moses provided (Leviticus 25:39-41) that in case of inability to pay his debts, a man and his children might be sold and remain in bondage until the next year of jubilee. The laws we have outraged have handed us over to a bondage of the worst kind—the bondage of sin. “Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey.” The more sin is yielded to, the greater moral ruin it works, and the more tyrannical the slavery it entails.
II. That every provision has been made by Divine grace to restore humanity to a state of moral solvency. Great as is the havoc wrought by sin, the remedy is greater. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5). All the perfections of the Divine nature are engaged in the restoration of fallen humanity. The redemption by Christ Jesus is universally applicable. Restoration is possible to the most abandoned—the heaviest debt may be cancelled. Heaven itself is too narrow for the full display of the Divine goodness—its streams flow down to bless and replenish the neediest on earth.
III. That individual effort is demanded in order to participate in the ample supplies of Divine grace. The widow in her extremity seeks for help, and readily obeys the directions given. The vessels are collected and the oil is poured out (2 Kings 4:1-5). So Divine grace, to be enjoyed, is to be sought, and the Divine commands humbly and believingly obeyed. “Ye have not, because ye ask not.” It is not for man to question the Divine directions, but to obey; not to slight or ignore the Divine provisions, but eagerly and gratefully to accept them. The rarest treasures of earth are discovered by the diligent and persevering seeker. The blessings of heaven are worthy of the most laborious effort. Conscious need sharpens the vision and stimulates exertion.
IV. That the supply of Divine grace is limited only by the capacity of the receiver. Every available vessel was filled with the oil. When there were no more vessels to be obtained, the supply ceased (2 Kings 4:6). The grace of God is practically inexhaustible; it is limited, not in itself, but by the capacity of the individual receiver. Copious as may be the rain-fall, a very limited quantity will suffice for the needs of a single flower. To a certain extent it may be true that the grace of God enlarges the vessel which it enriches with its blessings. The enjoyment of spiritual good increases the desire for more.
V. That the reception of Divine grace furnishes the loftiest motives to an upright and useful life. “Go, sell the oil and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest” (2 Kings 4:7). One of the first and simplest principles of true religion is honesty—it teaches a man to pay his debts. He is to do justly Some time ago the clothes of a gentleman were found on the seashore where he was accustomed to bathe, but no trace of his body was discovered. After due delay the amount for which his life was insured was paid. He swam out to a passing ship, assuming to be a political offender of whom the police were in search, and was taken on board. Under a new name, in the United States, he prospered; and, what was more, he became a subject of renewing grace. In a short time after he remitted to the insurance office a sum of money—principal and interest—of which it had been robbed under such false pretences. It brings religion into disgrace to neglect to pay just debts when fully able to do so. “For the grace of God was manifested, bringing salvation to all men, disciplining us, in order that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, justly, and godly in the present world” (Titus 2:11-12).—Alford. Religion supplies the most powerful motives to live the highest life, and teaches us how to act in all our relationships and duties.
LESSONS:—
1. The grace of God is universally needed.
2. Is boundless in generosity.
3. Has wrought marvellous changes in the condition and prospects of humanity.
THE WIDOW’S POT OF OIL
VERY abrupt and striking were the transitions in the life of Elisha. Yesterday he wrought a stupendous miracle which supplied the wants of a whole army, and was the means, more than the sword of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat, of subduing the rebellious kingdom of Moab; to-day he works a miracle for the relief of a poor and friendless widow, to save her sons from slavery and herself from starvation. In this respect Elisha is a type of the faithful Christian minister, who has to pass through scenes as chequered and transitions in their own way as sudden and remarkable, who, abstracted from common interests and habits, and lifted by his unworldly character and mission above all human precedences, is debtor alike to the rich and the poor.
I. To this widow Elisha stood as the representative of the compassionate Saviour, before whom all the world’s glory pales, and whose presence alone can, without disturbance to the order of society, equalise all human ranks and level all their conventional distinctions in the dust. She was in circumstances that made her feel with peculiar painfulness the gradations of ranks and the vicissitudes of life. If we are to believe the voice of tradition as expressed by Josephus, she was one who had seen better days, being the widow of Obadiah, the lord high-chamberlain of Ahab. While her husband lived she breathed the atmosphere of a court, and was nourished in the lap of luxury. But when he died, she seems to have been reduced to the utmost poverty. On account of these trying circumstances, her case was one that peculiarly warranted the interposition of heaven. But she had another claim still, beside that of her wretchedness, upon the sympathy and help of Elisha. Her husband feared the Lord while he lived. He was the son of a prophet, and cherished the deepest regard for the person and the work of those who filled that sacred office. If he was indeed Obadiah, the steward of Ahab—and there seems no reason to doubt the Jewish tradition—then the sacred story informs us that during the fierce persecution of the prophets of Israel by Jezebel he took an hundred of these prophets, and, at the peril of his life, hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water during the whole continuance of the famine. He may have spent upon the prophets of the Lord what he meant for his own wife and children. Like Joseph in Pharaoh’s court, like Daniel in Babylon, the upright and pious chamberlain in the palace of Ahab did not take advantage of his opportunities of enriching himself, as the officers of Eastern monarchs have so often done. On the contrary, he spent his fortune in benefiting the needy, and died poor. On this ground his widow might well appeal to Elisha for assistance.
II. Elisha willingly acknowledges the claim. He is filled with pity for the poor broken-hearted widow. Who knows what terrible privations she underwent without complaining while she had the company of her sons to cheer her? But when they were about to be taken from her, she could no more hide her suffering. She must get help, else she will die. Elisha’s first question to her evinced a wonderful knowledge of the human heart, and of the best mode of dealing with poverty and suffering. Instead of volunteering to give her aid at once, as most persons would have done, carried away by an overpowering impulse of compassion at the recital of the tale of sorrow, like a wise and judicious friend he enquires how far she herself has the power to avert the threatened calamity—“What hast thou in the house?” His assistance must be based upon her own assistance. He will help her to help herself. And this is the only true way to benefit the poor. By reckless and indiscriminate almsgiving, by wholesale gifts of money, we run the risk of pauperising the objects of our charity. Our assistance, therefore, should be of such a nature as to call forth the resources which they themselves possess, and to make the most of them. No help from without can benefit, unless there be a willingness of self-help within. Of course such a mode as this of administering charity is more troublesome, and requires a greater expenditure of time and self-denial, than the plan of throwing a dole to a beggar to get rid of his importunity. But putting him in the way of helping himself will be truer charity than any gift of money.
III. The widow of Obadiah had nothing in the house save a pot of oil. Out of this last pot of oil—the sign of her utmost poverty—Elisha furnished the source of her comfort and happiness. Like Elijah, who made the handful of meal and the cruse of oil already existing an unwasting provision for each new day’s want; like a greater than Elijah, whose miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes took its point of departure into the supernatural from the common barley loaves and fishes before Him; so Elisha, in the case of Obadiah’s widow, made the produce of nature and of man’s labour the basis of his wonderful act. In the fables of all nations we are told that a magician, by a mere wave of his wand, or by pronouncing a certain charm, produces at once wealth and luxuries that had no existence before. Aladdin rubs a ring, and immediately a genius appears, and at his command provides a rich feast for him out of nothing. He rubs an old lamp, and at once a gorgeous palace rises up before him in substantial reality created out of the formless ether around. By putting on Fortunatus’s wishing cap, the lucky possessors of it can get anything they want, and create things unknown before. But there is nothing like this in the miracles of the Bible. The prophets and godly men of old were no such magicians as these. Their most wonderful works are in beautiful accordance with the wise laws of labour and economy which pervade the ordinary arrangements of life. Even the miracles of Christ, which approached nearest to creations out of nothing, rested upon a fulcrum of existing materials, by means of which their supernatural leverage was exerted. In miracles, man must be a fellow-worker with God in subduing the earth, and in removing the limitations and disabilities of the curse. In these actions men prepared themselves by the miracle wrought within them—the triumph over natural unbelief and the objections of reason—to believe in and to benefit by the miracle about to be wrought without. They heated the iron, as it were, which the hammer of Omnipotence was about to strike and to mould for His purposes.
IV. The widow of Obadiah might well be astonished at the command of Elisha. But, in spite of all the objections of reason and common sense, she hastened to obey the prophet. Her faith triumphed over all difficulties. It is a significant circumstance that he should have commanded her to shut the door upon herself and her sons. Reverence, stillness, and solitude are needed for the miracle, and therefore the door must be shut, and the unsympathetic world must be excluded. It is not in the crowd that God works His wonders in nature and grace; it is in the lonely place, to the solitary individual. Who is it that sees the grander revelations of nature, but he who turns his back upon the human multitude, and seeks communion with her alone in the sanctuary of her hills and desert places? But, besides being necessary to prepare the widow of Obadiah for receiving the benefits of the miracle, the solitude and secrecy which Elisha enjoined were significant of the mysterious character of the miracle itself. It was veiled in the same obscurity as all creative acts—as all beginnings. The seed germinates—or, in other words, multiplies itself—in darkness; animal life begins in the mysterious secrecy of the womb; formless matter crystallizes in the sunless caves of the earth into more than the glory of living flowers. Who catches the exact moment when the evening star first twinkles in the transparent blue? Who has noticed the unfolding of the full-blown rose from the bud? God’s arm wrought unseen for Israel in the bosom of the dark cloud which rested over the Red Sea all the night; and in the morning the dry path was revealed between the crystal walls of water. The veil of darkness concealed the falling of the manna from heaven; and the dawn only disclosed it as it whitened the tawny sand of the desert around the tents of Israel. Verily God hideth himself—shuts, as it were, the door upon all His origins and commencements, and leaves us baffled outside. Science and religion and all life bring us back to unfathomable mystery—a closed door, whose magic “sesame” no human being can utter.
V. How great must have been the astonishment of the widow when, pouring into the first vessel a quantity of oil from her pot, the vessel filled immediately after the first few drops; and the same thing happened as she passed from vessel to vessel, each filling to the brim as soon as she poured a little from her own store into it; until at the end, pouring the last remaining drops into the last vessel, her own stock of oil and the supply from heaven failed together. The process by which the oil was multiplied we labour in vain to conceive. We cannot explain the phenomenon by the observation of any known laws; and yet, in truth, the miracle is not more strange, save in the rapidity with which it is effected, than that which is every day going forward in nature in those regions where the olive tree grows. You sow the seed of an olive tree; that seed contains a very small quantity of oil. It grows and becomes a tree and produces an immense quantity of fruit; so that from the little drop of oil in the small vessel of the seed, you have thousands of vessels in the shape of the berries, each filled with oil. The miracle teaches us that the natural process is not the result of an impersonal law or of a dead course of things, but the working of our Father in heaven; while the natural process in its turn shows to us that God in the miracle is working in the line of the ordinary events and dispensations of His providence.
VI. Awestruck and filled with amazement, the widow went and told the Man of God what had happened. She asked for counsel in the strange and unexpected emergency. She needed assurance of the reality and permanence of this marvellous good fortune. The oil might vanish as mysteriously as it came. How calmly the prophet receives her! He knew what would happen. And does not this show a wonderful amount of faith and confidence in God on the part of Elisha? He told the widow to sell the miraculous oil and pay her debt with the price of it, and use what she could not sell as food for herself and her children. The miracle goes no further than is absolutely necessary. It blends with common life. It does not permanently enrich the poor; it provides only for the temporary necessity. How strikingly does this incident show that we must be fellow-workers with God throughout, from first to last, in our own deliverance and blessing? Thus, in a most interesting manner, was the bread cast upon the waters found after many days. The widow proved in her experience the truth of the Saviour’s words: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy;” or, as the phrase should be translated literally, “Blessed are the olive givers, for olives shall be given to them.” Obadiah had poured the oil of his bounty into the afflicted heart of God’s servants; and God’s servant in return gave his widow the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
VII. We might make many practical uses of the widow’s pot of oil, for it is full of significance, but we prefer turning the incident into a parable, and using it as an encouragement to prayer. We are all in the condition of the poor widow; we are destitute of everything, and are ready to perish. But God is far more tender and considerate to us than Elisha was to the widow. If we have but the feeling of want, but the desire for God’s help, that very want or desire will be to us what the pot of oil was to the widow—the source of an abundant supply of all we need. If we come to God with the longing of our hearts for His salvation, He will come with the fulness of His Godhead, and supply all our needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. If we provide vessels, God will furnish the oil with which to fill them. For our own little oil He will give us overflowing measure; for our feeble desire, He will do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. Let us, borrow, then, many vessels; let them be empty, nothing of self in them, and let us lay them before Christ, and He will fill them to the brim with the oil of His grace. Gethsemane, the place where He suffered the last agony, means a press for olive oil. From that oil-press of sorrow He will provide a sufficient supply of the oil of gladness for us.—Condensed from the Sunday Magazine for 1873).
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2 Kings 4:1-7. The widow’s cruse. I. The widow’s difficulty.
(1). The nature of it. A debt. One that she could not pay. Might not be much, but she was poor.
(2). Had come upon her suddenly. Otherwise her husband would not have left her thus. Some provision would have been made.
(3). Aggravations of the difficulty. Her sons, instead of being her stay and support in her widowhood, must now work for another. Instead of being prophets, they must be bondsmen. It does not necessarily follow that her creditor was hard-hearted. He may have been; he seems only to have wanted his own. He may have been poor. On the other hand, he may have rejoiced at breaking up such a home. II. The widow’s helper. God.
(1). Agreeable to His nature, knows what we have need of. A just God. Would equally defend the right of the creditor, as well as the case of the widow.
(2). In harmony with His Word. Widows and orphans are His special care.
(3). In aiding her He employs the prophet. It may be that her husband’s connection with the prophets had brought her into this strait. If so, there was a fitness in the selection of her instrument of deliverance. Man the helper of man. Man blessed that he may become a blessing.
(4). He aided in answer to prayer. She sought and found. She came first to Elisha. Trial of faith and reward of it. III. The widow’s deliverance.
(1). Speedily effected. Not long years of hard service of her sons and herself. This prompt help shows the prophet’s sympathy and sense of justice too.
(2). Strange method. Vessels borrowed. Great many. All her neighbours’.
(3). The command. Close doors. No prying eyes of people who might misunderstand the whole case. “Pour out.” She does so, and her cruse fills all the vessels. Sells the oil and pays the debt.
(4). The effect. Her character for honesty vindicated. Her sons saved to her and to their high vocation. She is saved from the need of hard and unaccustomed toil. The Divine friend of the helpless and poor is, by this history, commended to all widows. The story is one of many encouraging events that may lead widows, and such as are friendless, to trust in God. Many sad hearts, empty of comfort, have been filled with the oil of joy out of her cruse.
LEARN:—
1. The best people are sometimes exposed to trial.
2. God is a present help in the time of need.
3. We should sympathize with the sad as Elisha with the widow.
4. Our little may go far, with God’s blessing.—The Class and Desk.
2 Kings 4:1. The griping tyranny of debt. I. May fasten upon those who do their best to avoid it. II. Is the more keenly felt in proportion to the desire to do everything in the fear of the Lord. III. Brings suffering and slavery upon the family.
—How thick did the miseries of this poor afflicted woman light upon her! Her husband is lost, her estate clogged with debts, her children ready to be taken for slaves. Her husband was a religious and worthy man; he paid his debts to nature, he could not to his creditors. They are cruel, and rake in the scarce closed wound of her sorrow, passing an arrest worse than death upon her sons. Virtue and goodness can pay no debts. The holiest man may be deep in arrearages and break the bank, not through lavishness and riot of expense, but through either iniquity of times, or evil casualties. Ahab and Jezebel were lately on the throne; who can marvel that a prophet was in debt! It was well that any good man might have his breath free, though his estate were not. Wilfully to overlash our ability cannot stand with wisdom and good government; but no providence can guard us from crosses. Holiness is no more defence against debt than against death. Grace can keep us from unthriftiness, not from want.—Bp. Hall.
2 Kings 4:3-5. In temporal affairs experience must precede and faith follow; in spiritual affairs faith must precede, and then experience follows, for we do not find out the truth unless belief in God’s Word has preceded (John 7:17). Whatever a man does in the obedience of faith, whether it appears foolish or vain in the eyes of the world, is nevertheless blessed by God, and redounds to his soul’s health.—Cramer.
2 Kings 4:5. It was time to shut the door, saith a reverend man, when many greater vessels must be supplied from one little one. But why must the door be shut?
1. That she might be the more free to pray (Matthew 6:6).
2. That she might manifest her own faith, and not be hindered by the unbelief of others (Mark 6:5-6).
3. That it might not be thought that the oil was by anybody secretly conveyed into the house to them.
—The secrecy of the Divine workings. I. Strengthens the convictions of their supernatural character. II. Demands a more implicit faith. III. Does not prevent their beneficent results being apparent to all.
2 Kings 4:6. Out of one small jar was poured out so much oil as by a miraculous multiplication filled all these empty casks. Scarce had that pot any bottom, at least the bottom that it had was to be measured by the brims of all those vessels: this was so deep as they were high; could they have held more this pot had not been empty. Even so the bounty of our God gives grace and glory according to the capacity of the receiver. When he ceases to infuse, it is for want of room in the heart to take it in. Could we hold more, O God, thou wouldst give more: if there be any defect, it is in our vessels, not in thy beneficence!—Bp. Hall.
—This is a good emblem of the grace of God. While there is an empty, longing heart, there is a continual overflowing fountain of salvation. If we find in any place, or at any time, that the oil ceases to flow, it is because there are no empty vessels there, no souls hungering and thirsting for righteousness.—Clarke.
2 Kings 4:7. If means are given thee to satisfy thy creditor, let it be thy first duty to pay him before thou carest for thyself! He who can pay his debts but will not, takes what does not belong to him, and sins against the eighth commandment. When the Lord gives there is always something left over and above. He never merely takes away distress, He gives a blessing besides. He desires, however, that the obligation to our neighbour should first be satisfied before we begin to enjoy His blessing.—Lange.
—Some of the ancient interpreters find in this widow an image of the Gentile church. The husband being dead signifies that she was no longer joined to her ancient idolatries. Her coming to Elisha and obeying his word is explained as a type of the eagerness with which the Gentiles sought salvation at the hands of Christ and His apostles; and the abundant supply of oil represents the bountiful provisions of the Gospel to deliver all nations from the bondage of sin.