2nd Kings chapter 4 2nd Kings chapter 4 We'll read together this evening, the verses one through 17. Our text is taken from the verses one through seven, the first seven verses of our reading. 2 Kings chapter four, reading from verse one. 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, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? she said, thy handmaid hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil. And 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 shalt 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 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 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. And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem, where there was a great woman. And she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was that as often as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her husband, behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. let us make a little chamber I pray thee on a wall and let us set for him there a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick and it shall be when he cometh to us that he shall turn in thither and it fell on a day that he came thither and he turned into the chamber and lay there and he said to Gehazi his servant call this Shunammite And when he had called her, she stood before him and he said unto him, say now unto her, behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care. What is to be done for thee? Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people. And he said, what then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered verily, she hath no child, and her husband is old. And he said, call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door. And he said, about this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, oh, nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid. And the woman conceived and bear a son at that season that Elisha had set unto her according to the time of life. Amen. Thus far we read in God's holy and inspired word. of the congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, Elisha is exceedingly busy in his work in Israel. And that becomes very plain as you read these various parts of his life. We saw it, for example, at the end of chapter two, where Elisha at that point in time had come from Jericho, we had spent time there, and he'd travel up and then he was at Bethel. But then we read that he then went up to Mount Carmel, which is about 100 kilometers away from that point. And having been to Mount Carmel, he then traveled back to Samaria, another 60 kilometers that he travels. It seems that Elisha was constantly on the move. And we read that too in this chapter, in the part that Lord Willing will look at in the future there, that he was constantly traveling and passed by this place called Shunem and constantly did so. So on the move, visiting various centers, encouraging and instructing the faithful, giving warning against those who were involved in idolatry. I'm calling all back to a true worship and service of Jehovah. In Samaria, it appears that Elisha had a base, that Elisha actually had a house there. If you read in 2 Kings 6 in verse 32, it talks about Elisha's house that he had, and that was his base, but he didn't remain there, it seems, for any length of time. He would come back there and be there for a time, and then he'd be off again in the Lord's service. We've only just read chapter three, what we looked at last week, the account of him being with those armies involved in the invasion of Moab. And that was hundreds of kilometers away from certainly Samaria, way down to the south. And now in our text, we read that he's with one of the schools of the prophets again. and hence he is at either Jericho or Bethel. This is where he's at now. But it's here that we're introduced to this poor widow and her very serious plight. She comes to Elisha to plead with him for help to be given to her. This woman has been a wife of one of the sons of the prophets. That is, this man who had died had been one of the faithful ones in Israel. He had been, as she says, a man that feared the Lord. that he feared and loved the Lord despite the horrible apostasy going on around about him in Israel. And he was being trained up to take out the Word of God to the people of Israel, but sadly he had died. And as was often the case in those days, his widow was left in a very poor state. There was no sort of government benefits, no social security or anything like that in those days. Certainly, in God's law that you read of in the Old Testament, there was meant to be a provision made for widows in Israel. But remember, the nation of Israel is in an apostate condition at the moment. And it's so often the case when men move away from the things of God, then also within communities there is a lack of a proper love and care extended to neighbours. So this woman, being very conscious of her precarious, really impossible situation, she cries out to Elisha. Elisha comes to visit and she knows that he's there, so she comes hurrying to see him. She cries out to him, help me, I pray. And he responds with instructions, not just simply instructions from himself, but really instructions from the Lord in which God will perform a wondrous miracle. One that will give oil, olive oil, to meet her every need. Let's take up our text under the theme, therefore, oil for the poor woman. Under that, we'll look at three things. First of all, her very sorrowful condition. Secondly, we look at God's amazing provision for her. And thirdly, to look at our oil of life. Oil for the poor woman. This woman, as we've already mentioned, has been married to a very faithful, godly man who had been giving himself fully in the service of God, to worship God and to serve God, yea, even above and beyond, not simply serving the Lord in his own land and his own family and so on, but he had been part of the sons of the prophets. And not only that, but the Lord had been blessing this family. They had two young sons that were part of this family. So a relatively young family, it seems, yet still in God's sovereign purpose and according to His good pleasure, this husband had been taken away. He had died. And we should see here in passing as we see such history that is brought out in the scripture that our Savior at times brings very hard things onto those in fact who are very godly and faithful while they are yet being godly and faithful that doesn't mean that God is punishing them for some reason or has brought something terrible upon them because of what they have done wrong but the Lord can bring at times very hard things to those who are yet being faithful servants of his. But we ought to understand that for this woman this event of the husband being taken from her meant far more than simply the certainly the overwhelming sorrow of the bereavement of a husband and a father. What else did it mean? Well in those days the man was the the income earner all of the children of Israel through God's provision had been given their own parcel of land and therefore apart from the Levites who were provided for in other ways everybody else had their own patch of land where they would grow their crops and they would provide for their own home and many of them had trade so they would not only work their land but perhaps they would work a trade or they would work from someone else and through this income of the father and the husband there would be money and sufficient food for the family but if the husband is taken away, the family has no food coming in and has no income. But that wasn't the only problem. Further exacerbating this, and we don't know how, we don't know why, but this poor woman now has also a very large debt Perhaps that was accrued with time because of her poor situation, or perhaps it was already there at the time when her husband died, we don't know. But here's the problem, her sons are yet young. When you read of the word that's given for sons here, it doesn't mean those who are like older teenage sons, it means those who are quite young, perhaps seven or eight or something like that. These sons are old enough so that they're able to kind of help their mom in the house, run around and get the vessels and the pots and so on to help her with that later on, but they're not old enough to work the land, to grow crops, to be able to go out and to ply a trade or something like that, they can't earn an income for the family. So this woman now has three mouths to feed, a home to keep, she has no money, she has no means of getting any money, no income, and she has a very large debt. And finally, to top it all off, The person to whom she owed that money, the creditor, has obviously come to her and demanded the money. As it were to say, I want the payment now. You need to pay up. This, as it were, just adds a horrible burden to her grief, to her difficulty. He wants payment. Pay me now, what's in the house? Well, we already know there's a little pot of oil. That doesn't count for anything. What else is in the house? Well, there's only one other thing in the house and that's her two sons. And so the creditor says, well, that's what I want. You will pay me by giving your two sons to become my slaves. That's the way that you will pay me. So now, having already lost her husband, she's now about to lose her two sons, most likely to a very cruel taskmaster. Why would we say that he's a cruel taskmaster? Well, as Jesus puts it in the New Testament, when he's talking about the evil Pharisees, when he says, and you devour widows' houses. That's what this creditor is doing, isn't he? This is a poor widow who has nothing. And he's demanding the payment for himself. This is such a distressing narrative. When we see this story, when we see all this laid out, you cannot help but your heart go out for this poor woman and her distressing situation that she finds herself in. She realizes in the end, the end result of all of this is she's staring death in the face, isn't she? Because that's what surely lies ahead for her. She's going to lose her sons. She still has no ability for any occupation or income. She has no money. She has nothing in the house. And she will starve and die. And so she comes to Elisha. She doesn't give up. She sets her face to seek help from God through the Lord's prophet. She hears, He has come. We don't know whether it's Jericho or Bethel, but wherever it is, Elisha is here, and therefore she hurries to see him, and she pours out her heart to him. Brethren, do we see the pictures that are laid out for us here? Because we ought to. Remember, I've said before, whenever there is a miracle that is set down in the scriptures, we ought to be looking for something. Certainly miracles do set forth the mighty and sovereign power of God and we will always see that in the miracles. But there's something more, wherever there is a miracle then it also sets forth some aspects of the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some aspect of His salvation and that which He works. So I'd like you to think about this, In what way does this woman's situation very much picture our natural state? Because that's what it really is picturing. How may we take this and apply it to our lives? Have not we, as those who are the sons and daughters of Adam, Have not we fallen into dreadful and hard times as a human race? Have we not? Have we not lost all fellowship and communion with God through our sin and rebellion and our foolishness? Have we not, because we have fallen into that sin, not only lost communion and fellowship with God, but because of that original sin, and because of all of the transgressions that we have committed in our life against God, have we not accrued to ourselves a massive debt that we cannot pay, that will inevitably lead to eternal death, and that we too, by nature, stare death in the face? that we will lose everything? Are we not in slavery, in bondage to sin, to death, and the only thing that can save us is a wondrous miracle? Well, if this woman in her physical condition will hurry to Elisha, to the man of God, and plead with him and say, help me, How much more should we, in our eternal state, cry out to the Lord and say, oh Lord, help me. This is my situation. Let's see then God's amazing provision. In and through Elisha, the man of God, the Lord hears this poor widow's cries. And he answers her. He answers her through the word, the word that Elisha brings to her, and he answers her in the way of oil. In the way of oil. And that's very significant. This oil that's mentioned here is olive oil. In almost all the cases through the scripture when it speaks of oil, it's actually referring to olive oil. And olive oil had a very significant part in the biblical times. The name itself, the name for oil, actually derives from a word that means fatness or fertility and therefore richness of life. That is the kind of idea that is found in olive oil. Why was it seen in such a way? Well, you see, Olive oil was certainly used as a food. And we're familiar with that. That's the way that we would mainly use olive oil. We use it in cooking. We use it as a dressing on salads and things like that. Well, they used to use it in the same way. They used to use it in baking and cooking and so forth. So very much it's a food, but it's a lot more than that. In that dry climate, it was used continually as a moisturizer. so that often they would have a little container of the olive oil that was kept near the door of the home. And therefore when you went out and when you came in, you quite often would take a little bit of this olive oil to moisturize particularly the hands and the face. In fact, at special times when guests came that had traveled long distances, then they would come in and they sometimes would have a servant there which would wash the feet of the dirt and dry them and then put olive oil and rub it into the feet as well. And so for the feet and for the hands and for the face, that moisturizer. Hence you find in Psalm 104 verse 15, it says, and oil to make man's face to shine. And that's what it's referring to, to that blessing of having oil that would moisturize the skin. Furthermore, olive oil was also used medicinally and there are several references to that in the scripture. So it was a medicine for healing and for treatment in that way. But it was also used for burning so that they would put olive oil into the lamps and a special olive oil mixture was put into the lamps that were in the tabernacle with a wick and that would burn The oil, you see, it was so useful. It was so widely used that olive oil was counted as something very precious. And in some places it was even used as currency, like a type of money, and that they would therefore weigh it out and use it as payment as well. But now a further truth needs to be understood, not only of the value and the use of olive oil in so many different ways in life, but also the fact that in the scripture this olive oil points to the power and the blessing and the work and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Hence, as I've already mentioned, kings and priests, when they were ordained into office, they were anointed with olive oil. Anointed literally means to be oiled. That's the idea of that word. They were daubed and smeared with oil. And when the priests were anointed with oil, when they were actually anointed, it just not just smeared, but it was poured upon them. And that's the idea of like Psalm 133, where it runs down right to the hem of the garment. And the great, beautiful picture that that is. But Jesus, remember the called to worship this morning when Jesus was reading from Isaiah in Luke 4 verse 18. He said, notice the connection here, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed, He has oiled me to preach the gospel to the poor. So the connection in the Word of God between the Spirit and olive oil. And once again in our reading in Zechariah's vision of the olive trees that was supplying oil to the lampstand, a picture of God's church and it burning brightly therefore, what did God say? Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit. And so the olive oil in the scripture is a picture of the Holy Spirit, his presence and his power and his blessing and his work. So, Elisha asked this woman, do you have anything at all in your house? And she tells him, She has only one thing, a pot of oil, or it's sometimes called a cruise of oil. This word is pot or cruise, it means a very small earthen vessel. So it's usually just a little earthen pot like this, and quite often had a little handle, a little spout on it. And that's the kind of pot that would be used near the front door with this little bit of oil in it that would be poured out, little bits for moisturizing and so forth. This is immediately, though it's the only thing in the house, this is immediately the perfect means for alleviating this widow's dire problems. And he instructs her. I need you to go and gather many, many vessels. Notice he emphasizes, don't just get a few. Go around to your neighbors and borrow as many as you possibly can from all of them and gather them up and bring them all into your house. And once you're in, close the door. And then you are to take your pot of oil and begin pouring it out. And you are to fill up these vessels with oil. Now that's pretty surprising, isn't it? You've got a little cruise and you borrow these great big pots and vessels. Normally you'd pour out the whole thing and there'd be a little bit maybe covering the bottom and that would be about it. But this woman, she hurries home to do this. Not as she has to believe the truth. It seems like it's such an impossible thing, humanly speaking, and yet she does just that. She comes in, she has the boys around her ready to help her as she's about this, and she begins the pouring. She picks up the cruise of oil and begins to pour it out, and it pours, and it pours, and it pours, and it pours, and it continues to pour out of this little tiny pot until the great big pot is all filled up. And so she shifts it to the side and grabs the next one and keeps on pouring. And the cruise continues to pour and pour and pour. And she puts aside and then she says, boys, you know, grab me the next one. And so they're busy running around, grabbing this one and putting it over on the floor and grabbing the next one and handing it on. And she's so busy pouring. And eventually she said, boys, boys, this one's full too. Grab me another one. They say, there isn't any more, mum. They're all full. The whole lot of them. And the cruise stops flowing. And her whole house is full of these vessels filled up with good, beautiful, quality, golden olive oil. A huge amount that is there. What a marvelous miracle. And it provides for her, notice, in full. First of all, Elisha tells her, go and sell some of that oil. Go and sell it. And having sold it with a very good price for it, she's then able to go to the creditor and say, here is everything I owe you. What a wonderful thing. The creditor is gone. He has no hold over it anymore at all. There is no debt, no money owed at all. But notice that there is so much more oil still left there and she can sell this oil and use it to provide an ongoing living for herself and her two boys until they are old enough to be able to work the land and to ply a trade and not only provide for the home, but hopefully care for her as well. Do you see here the beauty of the gospel set forth? First of all, it's the gospel right there for the Old Testament saints, not just for us in the New Testament, but for the Old Testament saints as well. that they already knew the value of olive oil and they already knew also the pictures that were given in so many different ways in the Old Testament of that anointing with the olive oil. They're well familiar with all of that. But besides that, they're also very familiar with their own history. Who were they? They were Israel. Where was Israel? Bond slaves in Egypt facing certain death. having that horrible captivity over the top of them and Pharaoh and his desire to destroy them. And yet, in a most marvelous and powerful way, they had been redeemed out of Israel. even though they deserved in fact death and that was the whole picture of the Passover, they sheltered under the blood of the Passover lamb and they were redeemed and brought out and through the Red Sea and then they were brought not only out from that slavery and that bondage and that certain death in Egypt, but the Lord brought them through to the Promised Land. And He gave them a land that flowed with richness of milk and honey into vineyards that they hadn't planted and into orchards and into fields prepared and houses built. And they entered into the richness of life that they had with God. God provided everything to them in abundance, though they didn't deserve it. They were disobedient and unfaithful. And so this picture and this story as it comes and as this whole history is right there before others who hear of what happens here, it speaks to them. It's the same for us, is it not? not just for the Old Testament saints, but we are the sons and daughters of Adam, as we've already looked at. We lost communion with God, fell into debt, a massive debt that we couldn't pay, bond slaves to Satan. We and our children are without hope in the world unless God provides. We notice the richness that is given to the people. But notice where Israel was at the moment, notice the need that they had of this gospel being preached to the people of Israel at that time. God had given them the land but where were they as a nation, this northern nation of Israel? They were forsaking God. Both the king, Jehoram, and also most of the people, they were losing their life. Remember that God had made clear in the Old Testament that He was husband to His people. And hence, by their rebellion and by their turning away from God, they were losing their husband. And as a consequence, they were facing destruction and eternal death. But here, in this miracle, God again speaks in a very plain way to the people, to Israel, and says, there is forgiveness of your debt with me. There is abundant life to be found with me still. Turn to me and live. And this is also the wondrous miracle and the blessing that the Holy Spirit applies and performs for us also. When we cry out to the Lord in our wretched state of sin and misery, He answers with words of encouragement and forgiveness and life. We can be assured of that. He will never turn any away that come unto Him. And it's in the way of our believing His truth. It's in the way of walking in His ways, of trusting and entrusting ourselves to Him. He will abundantly pardon and bless with life for us and for our children. And I want us to consider just a little more of that in our last point, to consider our oil of life. The Lord says before us really here, the two pathways, isn't it? Death and life. And he shows that the way to life through his provision, through the richness of his grace, is wide open. It's very much talking about the grace of God's provision here. Notice, how many widows do you think were in Israel at that time? How many poor widows? There would have been many. And yet Elisha didn't go around and visit every single poor widow and give them all lots of olive oil. It's just this one widow which points out that it's not so much the importance of the physical provision to this woman, but what's important is the spiritual truth which is being taught through this miracle. By this miracle, God is commanding Israel through Elisha, return unto me. You are in a dreadful state of widowhood spiritually. Your future is hopeless without salvation, without redemption, without your debt being paid, without life from me. And so God is saying to all men, You have been estranged from me by your sin. You're living in a state of bondage, subject to eternal death. Cry out unto me, come to me through my truth, through my word, through my promises, which are represented in Elisha the prophet. And I will hear you and I will bless you richly. Can you see the picture of that faith in Christ that we are to have? Notice that this is something that personally this woman had to do. Elisha could have done this. Go home, the Lord has filled your house with lots of vessels of oil. But that's not what he did. He actually says to the woman, go home, and get all of these vessels and go into your house and close the door. And it's interesting that, isn't it? The closing the door, it speaks of that very personal thing. The same as when God tells us, go into your closet and close the door and pray unto me. This is talking about a personal, truly, sincerely coming before the Lord ourselves. We are not saved because we're the member of a church. We're not saved because our parents are Christians. We're not saved simply because we live in general Christian community. No. No, this is very much a personal thing. God calls every one of us, come unto me. Come unto me personally. Each one of us personally. how to cry out to the Lord, believe in Him, in the promises of His salvation, ask, O Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner, and trust in that way of salvation, and God abundantly and surely answers. just as that olive oil was more than enough to pay that woman's debt, so the Holy Spirit comes and applies to us through faith the perfect payment of Christ and His blood is more than enough to cover all of our debt, massive though that debt may be of requiring an infinite punishment, an eternal hell, yet Christ's blood applied by the Holy Spirit pays that debt in full and there is nothing left. No longer do we face death. No longer are we bond slaves to sin and Satan, but we are free to rejoice in that great burden gone forever. Can you see that woman who had such a burden upon her when she came to Elisha? That huge debt and the fact of her sons being taken away. Can you imagine what it would be like to actually have that debt fully paid? To have that lifted off her shoulders and off her heart? Do we know that? Do we know the rejoicing of the fact that we are free, that our burden has been taken away, that our sins are forgiven, that the debt is paid in the death of Christ Jesus. What a wondrous thing. But there's even more here. You see, this woman not only had her prayer answered in the way of the creditor being repaid and her sons remaining with her, but God gives so much more. She had a source of life and indeed fullness of life given unto her from the Lord. She had no source of income. She had no source of life. God provided this through the oil. Now she was able to truly live. She could sell that oil and she could have food every day on the table through God's provision. She could actually, instead of just having at home just a pot of oil, now she could furnish her home and actually make her home comfortable and to have a life there to provide for her sons. Do you see it's the same with us? We receive not only the marvelous miracle of having our debt paid, the marvelous wonder of being reconciled to God so that no longer does His punishment hang over us like the great executioner's axe, and that's taken away and the burden removed, but God giving us a richness of life with Him. And that's the point of the olive oil. The olive oil points to that richness, that fatness, that fullness, of life that is to be found with Him. Just the same as olive oil is that which provides a nourishment. a wonderful richness to the food and so forth. So it is that we are made rich in the nourishment of the truth of the Word of God as it speaks to us. Just as much as the olive oil comes and refreshes us when we are feeling so dry and chapped, you know, from the weather and the olive oil comes and it's a balm. and it gives relief from those things and makes our face to shine. So it is that the Holy Spirit does that through the wonderful truth of God's Word applied to us, just the same as olive oil is a medicine. It was used medicinally to heal. So it is that in all the diseases of this life and the troubles that we go through, this Word of God applied by the Holy Spirit to our souls is able to heal. We have been anointed in Christ, set apart to God, and our Heavenly Father gives us abundant life, even in the midst of hardships, so that even the loss of the husband and the father, can you see that now? The purpose of God at the time, so hard for this woman to lose her husband, to have all of these things come upon her, What God had planned for her was to bring her through this with Elisha, that she may know the richness of the blessing of God upon her and see the spiritual truths laid out for her in such a way. What are we rejoicing in the riches of Christ's grace, in the riches of the oil of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who comes and applies Christ to us in all of His truth, in all of the goodness given unto us. We have received much more than olive oil to pay off our debt. We have received God Himself into our souls in the way of the Lord Jesus who dwells with us by His Holy Spirit. We have union and communion with Him now and forevermore. So often we don't experience that like we should, do we? So often there seems to be a dullness to life instead of the richness that we ought to know of as we truly lay a hold upon what is set before us so gloriously this evening. May we seek, lay hold upon, rejoice in the oil for poor sinners such as ourselves. Amen. Let's stand to pray. Our dear heavenly Father, we do thank you for your Holy Spirit, for that oil, which is able not only to fully pay our debt and reconcile us, but that is able to give us a richness and fullness of life. We pray, Lord, that you may bless to us not only what we have heard, but as we meditate upon these truths, that you would continue to strengthen and encourage us to make us joyful in that which we have received and go on receiving in Christ our Saviour. In his name we pray, amen.