A widow of one of God's faithful servants, reduced to the greatest straits through poverty, cried to the prophet Elisha. She discloses the exigency of her position. Her husband was dead, her creditor was pressing his claim, and her two sons in consequence were about to be sent into slavery. What should she do? H e r husband's faithfulness when living she recalls to the man of God, but that will not appease the creditor nor mitigate the righteous demands of the law. The claim she admits, its validity was incontestable, the proceedings too of the creditor were unimpeachable. (Exod. 21:22If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. (Exodus 21:2); Lev. 25:3939And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: (Leviticus 25:39).) He might have been merciful—that rested with him—but none could challenge his right to exact what was his due, and the law which he put into action knew no pity. Her position was a sad one; she felt it; and turning to the prophet in her distress she confessed by her very action the hopelessness of her meeting the difficulty.
This is an apt illustration of the position in which the remnant of the Jews will find themselves in a future day, with the claims of the law pressing on them, the consciousness that the claims are just adding to their misery, without the power to discharge them and free themselves from the penalty they have incurred. This is a position they will be in, but one in which we have never been placed by God. See Gal. 3:13, 2413Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: (Galatians 3:13)
24Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:24), Eph. 2:1515Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; (Ephesians 2:15), and Col. 2:1414Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; (Colossians 2:14), where the condition of the Jew as distinct from the Gentile is clearly marked. But though we have never been so placed by God, if we would value aright His grace, we must apprehend the helpless, wretched condition of what it must be to be under law. Hence, while the position of the widow does not correspond to the one we were in as children of Adam, we can get instruction from it as we see how grace worked on her behalf.
The prophet attends to her cry; but before he tells her what to do, he draws out from her the poverty of her condition. To his question as to what she has in the house, she mentions but one article, a pot of oil. Short was the catalog of her possessions-one pot of oil. Well might she cry for help, whose earthly goods could be so easily summed up. Had this pot of oil been of value, would she not have sold it? but it appears to have been an object worthless in the estimation of her creditor, and of no account in her own. He had not seized it; she had not disposed of it. The value both of them set on it is thus clearly manifested. She was to learn what others have learned since her day, that an object of little account in the eyes of the world is just that by which full deliverance may be effected. What use could this pot of oil be to her now? might have been her thought, as both Jews and Gentiles have underrated the value of the Lord's death on the cross. The Jews require a sign, the Greeks sought after wisdom, but the Apostle preached Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Greeks foolishness, but to those saved, whether Jews or Greeks, Christ, God's power and God's wisdom (1 Cor. 1). The judgment of both her creditor and herself as to the value of the article having been elicited, the ground is cleared for God to work.
The prophet bids her to borrow abroad vessels of all her neighbors-empty vessels, and not a few—and then with closed doors on herself and her sons she was to pour out into all of them, and set aside that which was full. To these directions she faithfully adhered. Had she reasoned about them she would probably have not done what he bade her. Who ever heard of vessels filled without the needful liquid to pour into them? But faith does not reason; it counts on God, and is obedient to His Word. With closed doors they went to work. God's dealings with souls are often in secret, for there must be personal and heart work-the effects appear openly afterward. With closed doors then they worked, and found that the word came true. All the vessels were filled with oil. Elisha had not told her how much would flow but she found, as souls do, that the reality surpassed the anticipation. That little pot, previously of small account in her eyes, supplied oil for all the vessels-none remained empty, nor even half filled. She poured into the vessels as her sons brought them to her; she stopped only when they were filled with oil. She could count how many vessels she had borrowed; she learned afterward the value of what she had got. But there was one thing she never knew, and that was how much oil could have flowed out of the pot. She never fathomed the depth of God's resources. She never drained the fountain of her blessings.
The vessels filled with oil- she acted aright and told the prophet to whom she had opened out her grief of the abundant supply she had obtained. Should not all recipients of grace acknowledge to Him, to whom they are indebted for it, what it is He has given them? Elisha, hearing of what she had received, told her what use she was to make of it. "Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest." The legal claim must be met. That Israel too will find in a future day. The widow could never have met it. She had felt all the pressure of it, and the anticipation of the consequence which must flow from it. She now was to have her deliverance from the burden, not by repudiating it, but by having the debt paid in full. "Pay thy debt," said Elisha. He acknowledged the legal claim. To have acted otherwise would have been to condemn God's Word which sanctioned the creditor's rights. God's Word was upheld, and the widow relieved. The claim was met, the creditor was satisfied, and the sons were free.
But was this all? It was all she had wanted, but would it have sufficed? We can answer, No, it would not. The claim simply met could not insure her against a similar trouble hereafter; nor could it have provided for her everyday wants. Her incapability to keep out of debt remained, as far as she was concerned, unaltered. She had not been able to keep out of trouble. She had no more power to preserve herself from it, if only the debt was discharged. How little souls understand so living a fact! But God knew what she wanted. He gauged the measure of her need; but He estimated too her incapability for the future, so the prophet tells her, "Live thou and thy children of the rest." That by which the debt had been canceled afforded future sustainment for her and her children as well. Here this history closes. It began with the widow in poverty; it ends with the widow in plenty. All was from God, for grace is from Him. She had learned what her condition was, and that she had nothing to give; she finds what it is to receive. The claim was met and she lived on the provision of God's grace. Surely the application is plain. He by whom the debt alone can be canceled, is the One on whom the soul should ever after feed.