2 Kings 4:1-7

2 Kings 4:1-7

Elisha had officially taken over in Elijah’s place, and he had already had encounters with the kings, which was one of the prophet’s major jobs. When the prophets pop up in Scripture, more times than not, they are in the middle of some situation with one of the kings of Israel or Judah (whether for good or for bad). But their dealings with the kings were not their only jobs. They also worked with the people in the land. Think back to the widow and son that Elijah met at one point. God allowed him to work a great miracle that day when the flour and oil in her house did not run out for quite some time. Through Elijah, God supernaturally met her needs. A similar story is seen in the opening verses of 2 Kings 4. Another widow (this one, a widow of a prophet who had been dedicated to serving God) found herself in a tough financial situation. She had no way to support herself or her two children, and some men were ready to take her sons away from her to use them as slaves. She called out for help from Elisha, and God worked through him like He had done through Elijah. Elisha told the woman to collect large jars from her neighbors, as many as she could find. Then, she was to pour the little bit of oil that she had in her house into those jars. The oil continued to flow long after the small jar should have emptied out. She was then able to take the abundance of oil in all the jars and sell them, thus earning enough money to meet her current financial needs.


The woman had great faith in God, knowing that He could meet her needs. She went to His messenger first, humbly asking for help. She did not let pride get in her way. Instead of feeling shameful about her current situation, she asked for assistance. Instead of trying to resolve her situation through her own strength, she turned to God. God proved in that moment that He is faithful and can be trusted. He does not enjoy watching us suffer. He knows what is best in our life and will always be there to supply our needs. We must not confuse our desires with our needs or think that we deserve more than we are given. It can be easy to think that since we do not have all that we want that God is not looking out for us, when He is meeting our most basic needs. In this materialistic culture that we live in we have confused our wants for our needs. Following God does not mean that we will always be financially set, never to struggle again financially. It does not mean that hard times, whether financial or personal, will not come up in our lives. As I have heard some say recently, “God is not a cosmic Santa Claus.” He does, however, give us what we need to survive, and we can always trust Him to at least do that much.

This is a short passage for today, as this is a longer chapter. We will next look at the story about the Shunammite woman and her hospitality. Although we only looked at a few verses today, there was a lot of truth packed into those short 7 verses. The widow showed us what faith looks like and reminded us that we can always depend on God.

Matt