.png)
Nothing but a jar of oil
The Verse:
The wife of a man from a group of the prophets came to Elisha. She said, “Your servant, my husband, is dead! You know he honored the Lord. But now the man he owes money to is coming to take my two boys. He will make them his slaves!”
Elisha answered, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
The woman said, “I have nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”
(2 Kings 4: 1, 2 ICB version)
The Story:
Now Elisha told the widow to go and borrow empty vessels from all her neighbors. She gathered so many empty vessels her house was overflowing. She shut the door behind her and her two sons.
She began to pour oil from her jar into the empty vessels. She set aside the full vessels and kept pouring into the empty vessels from her jar. The amount of oil multiplied. It was a miracle!
When she filled the last vessel, the oil from her jar stopped flowing. So she went to the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest."
Did you know olive oil is a gift to us given by God. Olive oil had many uses throughout the Bible. No wonder the widow was able to sell enough to pay off her debt and then live on the rest.
God + math = miracles! Only God could multiply one jar of oil to fill so many empty vessels.
Sometimes, when we look around our homes, or even inside ourselves, we think we have nothing. But like the widow who had only one jar of oil, we all have something ordinary God can take and multiply to make it extraordinary. Whether it is a treasure or a talent, offer it to God.
Parent tip: Google search a kid-friendly olive oil bread recipe for you and your child to make together. Talk about flour and oil and the miracles God granted through Elijah and Elisha to the two widows in Israel during a time of great division, drought, and famine.