1 Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord; and the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” 2 Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” 3 Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your neighbors, even empty vessels; do not get a few. 4 “And you shall go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour out into all these vessels, and you shall set aside what is full.” 5 So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they were bringing the vessels to her and she poured.
6 When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not one vessel more.” And the oil stopped. 7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest.” 2 Kings 4:1–7
The principle here is that the Lord can use what you have to accomplish much. To accommodate what he’ll provide, we should expect a lot not a little. What is required of us is to obey his directives, even if they involve operating out of our comfort zones. For many of us, borrowing something owned by someone else, even a neighbor, is uncomfortable.
Undoubtedly, excitement grew as one vessel after another was filled with oil. God’s provisions, more often than not, are incremental, and when you are in the process, all that he’s done is not as obvious. But when you look back at where you once were, the miracle of his handiwork becomes evident. Your needs are met and then some.
I, for one, would worry about returning the vessels to their owners. In this case there would be adequate funds to compensate the neighbors. More importantly, since this miracle occurred behind closed doors, such compensation would made on the heels of selling the vessels, with an amazing story to tell. Thus, all the glory would go to God, and that was his aim all along!
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