I’ve been teaching a series on Elisha at our mid-week Bible study at my church. Elijah and Elisha are powerful men of God, I highly recommend you review these chapters of the Bible when you can. I find myself pondering the stories I’ve taught throughout the week and often have sudden revelations, I’d like to share the most recent one.
Read 2 Kings 4:1-7
A woman came to Elisha because her husband died. Her husband was one of the prophets under Elisha, her husband had a debt, and now this debtor was coming to her to collect. In those days, it was perfectly legal for the debtor to take this widow’s sons, almost as “collateral” to work for him until the debt was paid. This widow cried out to Elisha, desperate, she lost her husband and was now about to lose her two sons, also. She couldn’t take it.
Elisha asked what she wanted him to do and asked what she had in the house. She said all she had was a jar of oil which was almost empty. (This makes me think of how the Lord will use what you have, as He used the staff in Moses’ hand… but that’s a blog for another time.) Elisha instructed her to go to all of her neighbors and gather empty vessels, “not just a few”, and pour oil into them.
Now, we have no idea what this lady was thinking, we don’t know what her sons were thinking, and we don’t know how her neighbors reacted. But for the purpose of this blog, imagine with me the following scenarios.
Neighbor A – “A” is for Annoyed. This neighbor comes to the door after the widows consistent banging and barely hears the story she’s telling before they hand her an empty jar, because they heard that much from her story and figure it will get her back out the door. Neighbor A is busy and doesn’t have time to listen or invest, they just want her to stop bothering them.
Neighbor B – Neighbor B heard her coming, saw her sons go to another door and decided to hide behind the curtain in the kitchen in hopes that she didn’t see them come home from the market earlier. Neighbor B ignores the knock and continues what they’re doing in the house, never responding to her plea.
Neighbor C – Neighbor C opens the door and welcomes her inside, she listens to the whole story, and excitement wells up within her as she links her faith with the widows. Neighbor C hunts down every jar, pot, and empties out anything she can to give the widow more vessels. She waits expectantly for what the God of Israel is going to do through this prophet as the widow leaves her home, arms full of jars.
The neighbors above remind me of Luke 11:5-8, Jesus tells a story of a man who has a late-night visitor, he doesn’t have any bread for this friend. He goes to a neighbor who is already in bed and tries to brush off the man. However, because of the man’s persistence, he gets up and gets bread.
What kind of neighbor are we?
What kind of neighbor are we might be the second question. Who is our neighbor might be the first. Again, Jesus teaches us in Luke 10 that our neighbor is anyone in need.
Will we be the neighbor who completely ignores those in need?
Will we be the neighbor who is annoyed and brushes off or rushes out those in need?
Or will we be the neighbor who is excited for whatever the Lord is about to do in our neighbor and link our faith with theirs?
In our story in 2 Kings, we see that the Lord worked a miracle in this widow’s life. Elisha instructed her to go into her house with her sons and shut the door behind her, then pour oil from her mostly empty jar into the other jars. As she trusted the Lord and didn’t let the thoughts of, “Pour drops of oil into all these jars you just had me collect? Are you nuts?”, consume her thoughts, a miracle occurred. She had enough oil to fill every jar to the brim. Once the jars ran out, the oil stopped.
Imagine the conversation with Neighbor C when the widow returned from selling the oil. The testimony of what the Lord had done, the songs of praise the were lifted because of His faithfulness.
Again, I’ll ask, what kind of neighbor are you?
Maybe you’re Neighbor A or B today but see the need to be Neighbor C. I’d challenge you to go back and read through the scriptures discussed today, take some time to write out what sticks out to you from each story. Write out what each story tells us about the character of God and then write a prayer asking Him to do a work in you.