THIS picture reminds me of the story of two young boys who came home loaded with all the empty pots and vessels they could find. Shall I tell you about them?
They lived in the land of Israel many years ago. Their godly old father was dead, and their mother was very poor. In fact, they were so much in debt, that the creditor was coming to take the two boys away as slaves to pay the debt.
The poor mother was in distress. She cried to the prophet Elisha and told him all her trouble.
"What hast thou in the house?" asked the prophet,
"Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house, save a pot of oil."
Now this widow was poor indeed. She was as poor as you are, dear unsaved reader, and just as much in debt.
"What!" you say. "I am not as poor as that! I am not in debt, not any more than I can pay!" Perhaps you can pay the grocer, but what can you pay to God for the debt of your sins? Are you not hopelessly in debt to the God against whom you have sinned? Tell God your trouble, tell Him you have nothing to pay, and learn what He will do for you.
Well, Elisha told her to borrow empty vessels from her neighbors, and pour the oil into them. Her two boys set out to gather them, big and little vessels, all shapes and sizes no doubt, but all empty ones. They borrowed not a few.
All alone in the house, the two boys watched their mother pouring oil from the pot, and filling many, many more. How could it be? They brought her the vessels eagerly, one by one, until one boy said, "There is not a vessel more." There was oil, enough to fill all the empty vessels they had, but no more.
She told the man of God what had happened, and he said, "Go, sell the oil, and pay the dcht, and live thou and thy children of the rest"
Can you think how glad those boys were when the debt was paid? Perhaps you can, if you have known the joy of realizing that the Lord Jesus had paid your awful debt of sin. There is power enough, in the precious blood of the Lamb who died on Calvary, to pay the debt of "whosoever will."
Did you notice too, that after the debt was paid, that little family still had enough to live on? That is just what Jesus is willing to do for you,
He has paid the debt of sin at Calvary, for all who cone, in Him, and after that to give them power to live to please Him in joy and obedience all the way home to glory.
Messages of the Love of God 6/1/1952