I want you to turn with me, if you will please, in your Bibles to 2 Kings and chapter 4. I want to remind you that we are thinking at the moment concerning Elisha, the great prophet of God. We've thought about Elijah and his ministry, and the Lord has led us to continue our study on with the next great prophet, and that of course is Elisha. And the Lord has already blessed us around his precious word. the Lord be pleased to bless us again this morning as we look into his own precious word. I'm going to read to you the first seven verses and then give you my text and speak upon the passage. 2 Kings in chapter 4, 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 a creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. 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 anything 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 shall 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 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. May once again the Lord be pleased to help us to understand his own precious and holy words. The little phrase that I want to begin with this morning as my text is found in verse 6 where it says bring me yet a vessel and he said unto her there is not a vessel more. There is not a vessel more. I think it's true to say that our text that we want to consider together in this passage really indicates that this woman was showing full obedience And we know the fact that full obedience always brings full blessing. It's interesting by way of introduction here that here is a woman who believed the Prophet's word and reaped the reward. And sometimes I think that we don't believe God's word and that's the reason why we don't reap the blessing from his own word. Let me begin by saying that Elisha, the prophet that we are considering together, must have been a very busy man. We've already seen something of his life and we met him at Jordan and where he received the mantle from Elijah and then with the mantle parted the waters. We saw the story at Jericho where he lifted the curse and he healed the waters. And then immediately after that we see him at Bethel where he dealt with the Baal worshipping, mocking men from that city who were mocking God and indeed mocking him as well. And in the previous chapter to this, last week, we saw how the three kings had joined together. the king of Israel, the king of Judah, and the king of Edom. And their purpose was to fight against Moab, who had rebelled against Israel. And they came to Moab, you'll remember, and they were on the outskirts of Moab, when suddenly they realized they had no water. the river that they thought would be there for their needs had dried up. And so here is this large host of soldiers with their animals and there was no water for them at all. And if it had not been that Elisha was there, the people would have lost their lives. No question they would have lost the battle. But it turned out, because Elisha was there and because he sought the Lord, that water came and victory over Moab as well. In fact, in the light of the history of Israel, that was one of the great victories for Israel and for Judah over this ancient foe called Moab. Now when they get back again it's interesting to note and to ask yourself what sort of reward did they give Elisha? Remember here is one man who saved the whole of the nation. What honour did they bestow upon him? And of course the answer is none whatsoever. Elisha didn't even get recognised for all the tremendous work that he'd done. The whole nation or nations owe their lives to Him and to His prayer. But nobody remembered Him. Nobody whatsoever. You know, it seems to me that this often happens, doesn't it? Men of God, women of God, who've done great work for their Lord and for nations as well and for individuals and yet nobody seems to remember them whatsoever. Of course, there is exceptions. Remember Joseph, how the Lord indeed raised him to a high position in the land of Egypt because he was able to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh. And you'll remember Daniel in a similar sort of situation, how he was made Prime Minister of the land simply because he interpreted the dreams of the king there as well. But usually you will find that when people do good, when people seem to do the right thing, they're not remembered and they're not acknowledged by the world at all. I remember reading the story of two missionaries who returned home. Their home was in the United States of America and they had been 54 years on the mission field with hardly a furlough at all because it was a great distance in those days. and they could not travel home at all. They travelled home by this great liner, this great ship. As the ship was docking in New York, there was a great reception. There were trumpets, there were cheers, there were speeches. And you could imagine these two, how they must have felt coming home after 54 years of service. I don't get the wrong impression. All of what I've told you was happening because the President of the United States of America was also on the boat. And the reception was for him because he attended a meeting in Europe at that particular time. They just walked off unacknowledged and with no one there to cheer whatsoever. I think there's a lesson there for us and the lesson is simply this. Don't expect accolades in this life even if you're right in the service of God and you sacrifice and you do everything you can. reception. Our acknowledgement is to come when we receive those wonderful words from the Lord Jesus, well done thou good and faithful servant enter thou into the joy of my Lord. You know there's a contrast here as well by way of introduction I want you to see. The contrast is this in the ministry of Elisha and again it teaches us Christians a lesson because we're called to all sorts of different people Here's a man who had mixed with three kings. They had come down to see him, hadn't they? And they start to deal with him. What a remarkable occasion that here is the prophet Elisha, who really in one sense is an obscure man, but now the three kings come and beg him to do something about this. But after it's all over, what does he do? Now he's sent by divine commission, by divine order to wipe away the tears of a widow woman and to put joy back into her heart. So now he's not dealing with the nation, but he's dealing with one anguished soul. But that's exactly what we do, isn't it? We're prepared to tell anybody the gospel, whether they be high or low, whether they be rich or poor, because we know that every man and every woman has the same need. I always like to give a title, a subject to the message. And the subject this morning is Little is Much in God's Hands. Little is Much in God's Hands. I want you to notice first of all the poverty of this widow woman. Look at verse 1 again. And they cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha said 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. You know we don't know exactly where this actually happened. We do know that it was a place of the sons of the prophets and we've already come across three or four places where the Sons of the Prophets were. One was in Gilgal, one was in Jericho, one was in Bethel and probably there was another one as well. One thing that we do know and that is this, that these places for the Sons of the Prophets, as they were called, were started by Samuel. In fact at your leisure you could look up 1 Samuel on chapter 10 and verses 9 to 12 and you will see there how it speaks about him starting these places. They were for spiritual training of men who felt called of God. They were to train for the ministry of being a prophet. And although we understand of course there was Elijah and after him there was Elisha, there must have been other prophets all over the land. And these young men had banded together, they lived together, they supported themselves, probably working in the fields or with the vines or with the olives or whatever they could find to do. They supported themselves while they trained to do God's work. It's a lovely picture because that's what we try to emulate even in these days. But it's the woman I want us to concentrate on. First of all, I want you to think about her condition. Here's a woman who comes to Elisha and she's in great sorrow. Her husband had died. I'm sure that we can appreciate what this really means when we've read these words. But more than that, he was a son of the prophets. He was one of these people who met together. And also in verse 1 it says that he feared the Lord. So he was a good godly man. He was a student who was preparing for the ministry. He was also known to Elisha because she says that, thy servant my husband is dead and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord. So Elisha obviously knew all about this particular man. But here's a woman who is now totally dejected. She's a daughter of Abraham. And this tragedy had happened in her life. And I think that you can read between the lines and you can see that she was heartbroken. Probably they were a young couple. They had two little children. And this is the sort of picture that you have here. This woman could have thought, and we may think ourselves, how unfair. Here's a man dedicated to God. Here's a man who gives his life and yet suddenly snatched away. You may think that it's unjust. But what we must remember always when this sort of thing happens Because it could happen in our lives, couldn't it? But what we must understand is simply this, God never makes mistakes. I know that's a hard thing, but it's true, isn't it? And Christians are not exempt from trouble and trial and difficulty and sorrow. We're not exempt from that at all, are we? Here's the providence of God that is working. And we must trust the providence of God because it is really our defence. You know the Arabs have a saying, all sunshine makes a desert. And it does. It makes a desert. And that's why we don't need just sunshine, we need rain, don't we? If we're to see the green grass and the trees grow and so on, we need rain as well. And that's in our lives. That's why sometimes we're up, sometimes we're down. We need some of these things in our lives. And another thing that I note here is, what did sorrow do for her? Well, it drove her to the Prophet, didn't it? Sorrow did that. She wouldn't have come to Elisha otherwise, but sorrow drove her there. And sometimes God has to deal with us in that particular way. When we've gone astray, when we've gone away, suddenly something happens in our lives and makes us pray. And we haven't prayed for a long time. Maybe that's why these things happen to us. Now the second thing I want to consider with you is her concern. Look at this verse 2. And Elisha said, what shall I do for thee? Tell me, and what hast thou in the house? We'll come back to these words in a moment. But what you'll see there as we go on in that verse is, and she said, Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil. She was poor, wasn't she? She was destitute, no question about that. If you were to go in her house, it would be naked walls and empty shelves. She'd sold everything just to keep her little family together and to keep them going. And now, she has nothing whatsoever. And more than that, she's in debt. Now, I don't know how this debt occurred, of course. I don't know at all. We have a little hint And maybe the hint is this. She only had one thing left, a pot of oil. And we're going to think about that in just a moment. Just a pot of oil. It was just a little pot of oil that she had. Perhaps her husband was an oil grower through the olives. And perhaps that's what he did to get money. And he sold the oil. But there'd been a failure in the crop. And so he'd gone into debt. Perhaps it had been difficult because of the persecution of the priests of Baal. And they stopped him selling. And now he died. And he was in debt. And the only thing that she had left was a pot of oil. You know the word pot here is cruet. We think of salt and pepper and the little containers that we have for salt and pepper. That's a cruet. And it's a small jar. Now that's exactly the word in the Hebrew that is used here. It's a small jar. And that small jar had oil in it. Oil of course was used for many things. It was used for food or to cook food and to be with food. It was used also to anoint the body because they would anoint the body and that would help them in the sun. It was something that everybody bought or made or had. Everybody had oil in some measure or other but she just had a little oil. She had a little pot. She had no opportunity to work. She was a woman and because of that she would be stopped working. And more than that she had two sons who obviously were small and she had to look after them. And her husband had been torn away and she was in deep debt. She had nothing. Could you think of anything which would be more hopeless? You see, humanly speaking, this is a hopeless situation, isn't it? What could you do? And then the third thing that we see about this woman is her consternation. Look again at verse 1, at the last part of that verse. And the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. Her creditor is urgent. He wants his money back. He has a request to be repaid and if she would not pay, then he would invoke the law. And the law was in Deuteronomy and in other books. He was able to take the two sons in lieu of the debt. Now interestingly enough, it must have been a big debt for two sons to be in lieu of this particular debt. But how could she mitigate this debt? Well, you know there's lots of scriptures which show the mercy of God and the compassion which these people must show. But this man is showing no compassion and no mercy whatsoever. Leviticus 25 and verses 39 and 40 it speaks about that sort of debt. Here's a woman who's heartbroken. by her loss of her husband. She was embarrassed by her debt and she's fearful that her sons and maybe herself as well would be made slaves. What could she do? What could she do? Well, she turns to Elisha, doesn't she? We learn that from ourselves that's exactly what we must do. Elisha is the man with the word. and she turns to Elisha. We need to turn to the book because this book, our Bible, has the answer to every problem that we have in our lives. So that's the poverty of this widow woman. I want you now to notice the plan for the widow woman. It's really in verses 2 right through to verse 6 and we'll read them as we come to them. She went to the right place, didn't she? I've already said to you, this prophet Elisha, we've heard in the previous chapter how Jehoshaphat, that godly king, he said, the word of God is with him. Would you prefer to go to a man with the word of God is with him? Would you prefer to go to the book where the word of God is? And so she goes to a man with the word of God. And also, he was a man of prayer. You know, it's interesting that in the Old Testament, the people would come to the priest. But the priest here were the priests of Baal. There were no priests of God. And in place of a priest, they would go to a prophet. Because the priest or the prophet would pray for them. They would be people who would pray. In the Old Testament they had no conception themselves or no concept of the nearness of God and they themselves could pray. And of course this woman was like that. She must go to the man of God. But we must go to the throne of grace. And she remembers how that the children of Israel came through the wilderness and they had water out of the rock. They had manna from the sky. And she remembers, she remembers this. And then she must recall as well, hearing the story of Elijah, this would have gone round. How that he went to the woman of Zarephath and at Zarephath he met a widow woman, just the same thing. And she only had a barrel of meal, a little meal, a handful of meal, that's all it was. And a little oil, that's all she had. But we understand that the barrel of meal failed not, and the oil failed, never failed, because God had performed a miracle. If God was able to do that with the women of Zarephath, wouldn't God be able to do that for her as well? Now notice, it's interesting when you read this, and you must read every word to understand this. Let me just read it again. 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. Now what you notice in that, and I hope you do notice that, she never made any request whatsoever. No request. When we come to pray, we're full of requests. Don't you think the Lord knows all about us? Don't you think he knows every request of our hearts? Don't you think he knows your condition? Don't you think he knows every detail about your life? Did I show you all about this woman? He knew every detail about her. So she makes no request, but she just tells him the position. I wonder if sometimes we ought to just do that. Just to tell the Lord our position, just to tell Him. Because the Lord knows and He knows what to do in every sense and every way. So first of all, I want you to notice now in Elisha's reply to this, the question. Or should I say the questions? Because really there are two questions. Elisha said unto her, what shall I do for thee? Tell me. What hast thou in the house? You'll notice that there are two questions here. But before you come there, just again notice in verse 1, now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets. Cried. You know, sometimes we read over these words, but she cried unto him. I don't know if you could imagine in the psalms when the psalmist cried unto the Lord. He wasn't speaking in the modulation which I'm speaking at, was he? He cried unto the Lord. It was out of the agony of his soul. And here's a woman who cries unto Elijah. It's the agony of soul. All that we ourselves might know something about that agony of soul when we come to pray. not just to say our prayers or to read our prayers, but rather to cry unto the Lord. You know, so many people would turn to other things, wouldn't they, especially in this day. Here's a woman who's now a widow, she's in debt, her two sons are going to be taken from her. She's in trouble, isn't she? And what would people do today? Turn to booze, or turn to drugs, or turn to the psychiatrist, or write to the paper, an agony art, or whatever it may be, for the answer. But she doesn't do that. No, she knows that Elisha is the only one who can help. So what does Elisha do? He asks two questions. The first question is about her desire. What shall I do for thee? What is your desire that I should do for thee? Ah, now comes a request. Isn't it remarkable that the Lord says that to us? And this morning he would say to us in our life, what do you want me to do for you in your life? Don't think about earthly things, think about spiritual things, think about heavenly things. What do you want the Lord to really do in your life? That's desire. And then the second question is about discovery. Because he says, what hast thou in the house? Tell me, what have you got? Isn't that how the Lord works? It is, isn't it? Remember when the Lord met Moses and Moses said, I can't do it. I can't deliver the people of Israel. I can't speak. I can't do anything. There's nothing I can do. I can't do it. And the Lord said, what is in mine hand? What is in mine hand? And he said, rod. Well, here it is, you see. What has thou in thy home? And that's all about discovery. What do you really want and what have you got? Where are you today? And she has to say, my handmaid hath not anything in the house. And then she remembers. Save a pot of oil. Save a cruet of oil. That's the only thing that I've actually got in my house. You know, it's a wonderful fact that the Lord always takes that which we have and He multiplies it. We sometimes sing, don't we? Metal is big when God is in it. That's the truth of this chapter, you see. Little is big when God is in it. She has nothing save a little pot of oil. And God is always pleased to use little things. Moses and his rod, a shepherd's rod, an old rod. It's been with him years. And that's all he has, a rod in his hand. But God's going to use it. What about David going to meet Goliath? What does he use? A little pebble from the stream, from the brook. And with Elijah, remember when he goes to Mount Carmel, on the top of Mount Carmel, he's praying and he says, go and look, see if you can see rain. And the servant comes back and says, I see a cloud as big as a man's hand. He says, get down, there's going to be rain. And from that little cloud as big as a man's hand, there was great rain in the New Testament. We often quote this because it's so relevant. That little boy, five loaves and two fishes, fed the multitude. Little is big when God is in it. The question. The second thing you see is the instruction. Look at verse 3. Then Elisha 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. You know this is a test of faith to this woman. Can you imagine this? To the human mind this is foolishness. God says, borrow every vessel you can ever get, bring it in, and then pour out of that cruet into each one of the vessels. I mean, you'd get a drop in each one, wouldn't you? I mean, that's what human mind would say. And it's also foolish for this reason. Here is a woman, with her husband, had borrowed enough. She'd borrowed too much. That's why she was in debt. And yet, the Prophet says, borrow more. Borrow more. Was the Prophet mocking her? No, of course. But here's something else as well. What could empty vessels do? You must borrow empty vessels. What could empty vessels do? She didn't want empty vessels, she wanted full vessels. And anyway, the neighbours would laugh at her, wouldn't they? Borrow my vessels? What are you talking about? And she wasn't to borrow just a few, but as many as she possibly could. She was to go to everybody, And she was to borrow everything, but they must be empty vessels. You know, just a point here, we must be empty for God to fill us. And if we're not empty, God won't fill us. And sometimes we're full of other things, the world, the flesh and the devil. And if we're full of everything else, God's not going to bless us, but we've got to be empty for God to fill us. Now, what it really means is, how big was her faith? Could she believe God? And can you believe God? How big was her faith? Isn't it marvellous? His ways are different than our ways. Remember when Gideon went to fight the Midianites, who were like grasshoppers for a multitude? He had 22,000 men willing to fight against the Midianites. How many did he end up with? 300. How could he fight the Midianites with 300? Because God uses little things. You see, little is big when God is in it. How amazing. We must have full obedience. Or not at all. This obedience must not only be full, it must be complete obedience. It must be urgent obedience. We must obey God. of where to receive the blessing. We've seen the question and the instruction, now the submission. Look at verse 5, And 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. She must shut the door. That's interesting and significant. You see, obedience to God is a private thing. It's always a private thing. It's between God and me. It's between you and the Lord. She didn't make a big show about it. Sometimes in our churches today we want to make a big show, a big entertainment, big star attraction. God doesn't work like that. God works in the shadows, sometimes behind closed doors. There's only the widow woman and her two sons must see this. This is a revelation from God. When Christ healed Jairus' daughter, he went in and said, shut the door. The world mustn't see this, they don't believe. Look at when he had the disciples together before the crucifixion. Where did he go? In the upper room. The door was shut. Remember when he went to Gethsemane just with the few disciples and he went into Gethsemane by himself with these few. Shut the door. Sometimes we need to shut the door and get right with God and do what's right with God. You know, unbelief cannot see God work. But we do because we believe God. And all the neighbours wouldn't have believed this. They'd have laughed at her. What a foolish thing to do, to start to pour oil out of this little crick into these great big jars. Impossible. That big jar there is ten times or maybe a hundred times bigger than this little crick. How could you do it? No, she's got to submit to the will of God. And unbelief will never be able to see this. And she begins to pour. Do you think she was apprehensive when she poured? I guess, you know, you would be, wouldn't you? I mean, imagine pouring out into all these vessels, apprehensive. But this is an act of faith. God said it, I must do it. And so it's an act of faith. She obeyed. And the result, of course we know, all the vessels are filled. And now she's got a taste for it, hasn't she? And she says, give me another vessel, give me another vessel. But they're all gone. Our text, there is not a vessel more. There is not a vessel more. She had used every one. You see, I think what this tells us is God fills what we give to Him and what we dedicate to Him. Are you prepared to give yourself to God? Are you prepared to dedicate all that you have to God? Because if you are, God will fill you. God will fill you with His Holy Spirit. This morning we've looked at the poverty of this widow woman and then the plan for this widow woman And we've said, little is much when it's in God's hands. And the final thing that I want to speak about is the provision to the widow woman. Verse 7, Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go sell the oil and pay the debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. You know, we're not told how she felt, but you could imagine it, couldn't you? You imagine yourself in that position. But you could be in that position. That's what the Bible teaches. And here's a woman. Can you imagine how she felt? Her needs had been supplied. Her sorrow had been lifted. The danger of taking her sons away had gone away. And now she has a life for the future. Because she obeyed God. Because she lived for God, because she did what he said. But what do we find in that verse I've just read to you? First of all, the desire that she had. Then she came and told the man of God. That's her desire. She must tell the man of God. She told Elisha of her problems, but now she must share her prosperity with him as well. You know, some people pray in desperation, don't they? And then when the answer comes, they forget God altogether in the good times and they don't even turn to Him again. How awful that is! But this woman didn't know she came back to the man of God. Why did she come back? To thank Him, to praise God and to give glory to God that God had done it. And I want you to notice this, this is not behind closed doors. This is now public, public. She didn't shut the door when she did this. No, this is public. And that's how our testimony must be. Yes, God has done it in our private lives behind the closed door. Our praise must be public and our thanksgiving must be public to God so all may know what God has done. All must see this. And now she comes to Elisha. Why? Because she needed further instructions. She comes to the Word, Elisha. Elisha has the Word of God. And so what does God actually tell her? And he said, go sell the oil and pay the debt and live thou and thy children of the rest. You see how wonderful this is. God tells her what to do. He's in charge now. how she must use her fullness. She's full now. And so the second thing you see here, the deliverance that she experienced. She could sell the oil, she could pay the debt, and she could live on the remainder. She's free from the curse of debt and from the danger of slavery. You know, God doesn't pay our debts, but he does meet our needs. And that's what you've got to understand. and understand it clearly. Her cup was full and running over. God's provision and her obedience had been it. God is always willing to give if we are prepared to obey. Trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. The final thing I want you to notice here is a demonstration She manifested. You know, this is a lovely, lovely picture of the gospel. I could preach on this, but I just want to give you just the outline of it. First of all, here is a woman who is in debt. We're all in debt. We're in debt to God. We're in debt to the law, because we've all broken the law of God. We're in debt. How can we get rid of this debt, which will take us to hell, unless Something happens. We need a miracle, don't we? And that miracle happened upon the cross at Calvary, where Jesus shed his precious blood on our behalf. It was an expensive thing, because it took the blood of the Son of God to come here and be made man, to give himself. But you know, look at this woman again. When it was all over, she had sufficient oil, didn't she? To pay the debt. and to live forever after in happiness and joy with the Lord. And you know, salvation is sufficient, isn't it? It satisfies God's righteousness and it satisfies our heart and we know that we are forgiven, cleansed in the blood of the Lamb. Ah, but listen, there was something needed by this woman, faith. Supposing she said, I don't believe that. How can I get all these vessels? And people are laughing at me now because I'm in debt. Surely I can't do that. And surely I'm not going to pour out of this little cruet into those many vessels. No, she had faith, she believed. And to be saved you have to believe. You've got to have faith to believe that Jesus died upon the cross and he died for you. And then after it's all over, she's got oil for the rest of her life. You see, once you receive Christ as your saviour, we have the oil. Oil always speaks in the scripture about the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is given to those who trust Christ. And so we have that paraclete, that parallel with us day by day. And we live in the strength and the power of the Holy Spirit. There is not a vessel more. Why? She did everything she possibly could. I wonder tonight, today, if you are giving everything you possibly can to the Lord himself, that he might fill you right to the very brim.