Yesterday we looked at the time Jesus turned water into wine. When Mary asked Jesus to solve the problem of the wine shortage at the wedding, Jesus said to fill the jars with water then he transformed the water into wine. Meaning Jesus didn’t make wine appear from nothing, he transformed what was there.
In 2 Kings 4:1-7 there is a similar story about a widow who had a little oil in a Jar.
“The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”
Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”
This woman is in quite a pickle with this debt her husband left her with. Her two sons are about to be taken away by force. Elisha replied to her request for help and asked, “How can I help you?”
What is the problem? She owes money to a debt collector. So Elisha asks, “what do you have in your house?” The solution to the problem is in the resources she has. But the problem is the only thing she has doesn’t look like much. The woman replies, “I only have a small jar of oil.” Elisha says,”Bam, we can use that. Go get as many jars as you can and use the oil you have to fill them.”
I don’t know about you, but there have been times when I have come up with a solution to a problem but then considered the idea impossible, or thought it wouldn’t work. Instead of using the solution I came up with I overlooked it and was left with my problem. This woman believed in what Elisha told her to do and it worked.
The woman fills all the jars her sons brought and when they had no more vessels the oil stopped flowing. There was no shortage in the flow of the oil that came from the little jar the woman already had.
It’s interesting to think about the different ways they could have gone about solving this problem. Elisha could have asked how much the woman owed for the debt and came up with the money himself. They could have fundraised, or asked for help from others. They could have tried to negotiate with the lender. All of these options would only have solved the immediate need. Each one of these solutions only set out to solve the debt problem. Elisha’s solution not only solved the debt problem but gave them extra money to live on.
This is another instance when God used what already existed and transformed it into something amazing. The jars the sons brought didn’t just fill themselves, they were filled from the small jar of oil the woman already had.