Today I read 2 Kings 4, in which because of Elisha the widow’s pot of oil multiplied, the Shunammite’s son was saved, poisonous food was made harmless, and food stretch to feed the hundred men. Today I considered that we are to use what we have, God can give us the desires of our heart we are even afraid to express, and God uses people to make food stretch to feed His people.
Use What’s You Have
The widow used what she had in the house and God multiplied it to pay off the debt (2 Kings 4:1-7). The widow of a prophet’s son asked Elisha to protect her children from being in bondage under their deceased father’s debt. Elisha asked her what she had in her house. The widow had oil. Elisha instructed her to borrow empty vessels, shut her and her sons in the house, and fill the vessels with oil. She did. Elisha had her use the oil to pay off the debt and live on the money. God can multiply what we have to pay off our debts and live freely.
Heart’s Desires Given
The Shunammite woman had accepted not having a child, did not even ask for one, but Elisha showed God’s might in the child’s birth and life (2 Kings 4:8-37). The Shunammite woman recognized Elisha as a man of God and told her husband. She fed Elisha each time he walked by and made an additional room on her house for him. Elisha wanted to thank her but she asked for nothing. She was old and without a child. Elisha blessed her to conceive a son with her husband, but she told Elisha do not lie to me. She had a son but the son got sick one day and died. The Shunammite woman laid her son on Elisha’s bed and went to find Elisha. She said to Elisha I did not ask for a son and asked that you not deceive me. Elisha went back to the Shunammite woman’s house, prayed to God repeatedly, lay upon the son, and saved her son. God allows the blessing of even our heart’s desires we stopped believing would ever happen.
Food Miracles
God blessed Elisha to make food not poisonous and to make it stretch to feed more people (2 Kings 4:38-44). In Gilgal Elisha had pottage made for the sons of the prophets but the wild gourds made the food bad, Elisha threw in meal and they could eat the food. At a different time, Elisha had the 20 barley loaves and ears of corn set before the people, 100 men, and they were all able to eat and leave. God used prophets to feed his people during hard times.
Questions and Thoughts for Today
Imagine the Shunammite woman wanting a child for years and giving up. She needed to be okay with her life so she had no hope and accepted being childless. The man of God telling her, she will conceive and facing her disbelief. The Shunammite woman had such joy in this child she dared not even hope for to have and the child dying. She faced devastation but told no one and went directly to the man of God. God used Elisha to perform a miracle and her child to continue to live.
What have you ever longed for something and gave up asking God for it? Did God grant it later?