The stories in this portion of God's Word, when read in the light of the New Testament, teach us of forgiveness and life for the sinner and of Christ's sufficiency for the believer.
The widow's oil is a proverb of exhaustless supply, and is a fit emblem of divine grace. The empty vessels in her house illustrate needy hearts, for the oil lasted as long as there was one vessel to be filled, whether large or small. Well may we say of our need, whatever it be, that God's grace can meet it. The greater our need, the more is God's grace magnified by meeting it. The larger the vessel, the more wonderful seemed the little jar of oil as the widow poured out from it. How her poor heart would rise up blessing Jehovah as she saw vessel after vessel filled as full as each could hold with the ceaseless oil!
FORGIVENESS OF SINS
But how did the widow come to know the richness of the pot of oil? Her sons were about to be sold for debt; she had no possible way of delivering herself or them; her creditor was at the door, and, having "nothing to pay," the foreclosure was before her eyes. In her depths of distress the poor, bankrupt woman went to Elisha, the man of God, from whom she learned that (as Elisha's name signifies) God is salvation.
Of all lessons, the sweetest to learn in the heart is that God is salvation! Do we need forgiveness of the debt of our sins? Do we owe the five hundred pence, or the fifty? God is salvation! When the debtors had "nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both." Look well over your religious stores; what have you left? If your answer is: "I am destitute; I have not one good work, not one worthy desire, not one holy prayer, in fact, should justice put in its claim, I am hopelessly lost, and must be sold into endless captivity," then you are in the same circumstances as the widow. There is still the pot of oil, still His boundless grace to meet all your need. Your need calls forth His grace.
God forgives us our sins upon the principle of grace, through Jesus, whose blood was shed.
God's salvation is not mere kindness. It is indeed kindness to love us as He does, but righteousness as well as kindness is to be found in God's forgiveness, since it is only in Jesus that we obtain forgiveness, only in Him who died for our sins, only by His precious blood that "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." Eph. 1:77In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7).
God can now forgive, and yet uphold His own righteousness. The cross and the blood of His dear Son testify to God's holiness as nothing else can, for, were He to punish every sinner forever, even that would not show His hatred of sin as does the blood of His Son. Since Jesus has satisfied the claims of His holiness, God's righteousness is shown out by His forgiving guilty sinners who trust in Jesus and in His blood.
The widow found something beyond having her debts paid in God's grace toward her. She had more than enough. After her debts were paid, there was still a fund of riches in her hand. What was she to do with it? Live upon it, was the divine word. Live in the famine-stricken land upon the unmerited bounty of God! Very precious to the saved sinner's heart is the knowledge that he is not only saved by grace, but that so long as he tarries in this sin-stricken world (a world where there is a mighty famine of all that sustains the soul), he has God's grace to live upon.
Do not let us limit God's grace to the forgiveness of sins. Just suppose the poor widow and her sons had been freed from the creditor's hand, and saved from bondage, and yet had not a penny to carry them through the years of famine. What a mercy to be saved, we might say; yes, but would such a salvation answer to the character of God? Far from it. And while we are certainly saved from all our sins, each one being forever forgiven when we believe in Him who died for us, there is also a boundless supply for each hour of our lives; there is a fullness which our wants can never exhaust, and the Lord delights in our making Him our resource at all times, drawing from His treasury, so that we may say, "Of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace [grace heaped upon grace]." John 1:1616And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. (John 1:16).
LIFE IN CHRIST
Shall we stop at forgiveness? Shall we stop at that grace which follows us to the end of our earthly journey? Is the Christian only like a ransomed prisoner with a fund of riches to meet all his wants to the day of his death? Far be the thought. We are much more than forgiven; we are the possessors of everlasting life. "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23). Jesus not only died for our sins, He rose again for our justification (Rom. 4:2525Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25)). His blood blotted out our countless crimes; He is our life. Bad as it is to be in debt, it is worse to be dead. And we are by nature "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:11And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; (Ephesians 2:1)). If we are saved by God's salvation, it is both forgiveness and life for us.
The mother of Shunem had death in her house; the child of her desires lay lifeless upon his bed. Who could meet this extremity? Who but the living God could give life? Life is God's gift. When Adam was formed out of the dust, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:77And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)). The hardest strivings and bitterest tears could not bring back her son's life; this she knew, but she knew more. She knew that Elisha, Jehovah's servant, if it were Jehovah's will, could bring her child back to life. She had "faith in God." She could say, "It is well," knowing that God can raise the dead.
The Shunammite went straight to Jehovah's prophet. "Drive, and go forward," she said; "slack not thy riding for me." This was the energy of faith. And when Elisha inquired how it was with her, she said, in the calmness of faith, "It is well."
The prophet came down to her child (as God's salvation comes to us), down to the very place where he was. Elisha lay upon the dead child; his mouth, his hands, touched the lifeless body. But Jesus has taken our place actually, our very place; He died on the cross; He went down into the grave for us. Have you considered His stoop, from the glory to the grave? Have you pondered His work, the maker of all worlds as a man lying dead in the tomb? Only by Him do we obtain life: "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23). His blood cleanses all our sins away.
We see the little chamber where the dead child lies, but our God can raise him up. Should it be difficult to believe that God gives dead sinners new and everlasting life? Yet due to the hardness of our hearts we find it difficult to believe that we are "dead in trespasses and sins."
The joy of the mother when she clasped her living child to her bosom was deeper than the rich joy of the widow who had the money in her hand to pay her debt and deliver her sons from bondage. Surely there is a fuller joy when we know the gift of God which is eternal life than even when we know that we are forgiven all our sins through the precious blood of Christ.
THE SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST
However blessed it is to be assured of the forgiveness of our sins, and to know that we have everlasting life in Christ, yet there is something beyond this that belongs to God's people.
Man's view of the world and of heaven changes as soon as he knows Jesus. The world in his eyes is desolation and heaven is his home. But whether the believer regards himself as a pilgrim traveling homeward through a scene of desolation, or whether he realizes his position in heaven in Christ, he equally needs the sufficiency, the sustaining grace, of Jesus Himself.
There is a famine on earth, and let the believer turn whatever way he will, there is not a particle of nourishment for his soul to be gathered from the earth; the whole of his spiritual food is heavenly, the bread of God, which is Christ Himself. At the present time man gathers for his need (as did the sons of the prophets in the dearth—vv. 38,39) whatever his hands may find; each goes to search for some good and pleasant thing. But sooner or later comes the woeful discovery that death has spoiled the sweetest things. When a man makes this discovery, he is apt to cry out with the sons of the prophets: "0 thou man of God, there is death in the pot." Death in the pleasantest, in the loveliest, in the dearest things of earth, death within the family, behind the rosy cheek of childhood, within the frame of strong manhood, upon the gray hairs of age; death in business, in the household; death everywhere, in everything on earth. Heartbreaking discovery! Oh, who can eat of the things of life and earth! Who can endure its sorrows! "0 thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof."
And how did death come into the world? Sin entered, and death by sin; this knowledge, when the heart that hates sin discovers it as applied to himself, is bitter indeed.
What is the remedy? How shall we go through life's sorrows and tears? The man of God gives the sons of the prophets the remedy. Is there death? "Then bring meal." Now, meal is a figure of Christ as a man on earth, and when we know Him in His tenderness and sympathy, when we consider Him who has gone through every bitter sorrow that the human heart ever felt, then as the sons of the prophets could eat of the food which had death in it (for when the meal was put into the poisoned food, there was "no harm" in it), so can we pass through all the bitter things of our earthly way and find them sweet; all will be sweet which once was bitter, when Jesus is known—pain, sorrow, death, will all lose their bitterness.
Beloved fellow-Christian, there is more in Christ than a sweetening of your bitter circumstances, more than friendship and sympathy for you as a tired soul on earth, for Christ is not here any longer. His feet have left this weary scene. You may trace the imprint of His steps as the Holy Ghost has recorded them in God's Word, but Jesus Himself is risen. He has passed through death and has reached the land of glory; He has left the sorrowful land and has sat down in the home of unmingled joy, and His fullness in that rich place is yours.
The sons of the prophets ate of the loaves of the firstfruits, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord God. There was an abundance in the supply which went beyond their need, for the supply was after Jehovah's measure.
The loaves of the firstfruits, the earnest of the harvest, the promise of coming abundance, tell us of our risen Lord. Christ the firstfruits (1 Cor. 15:2323But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. (1 Corinthians 15:23)) is evidence of the end of the famine. Now let our souls feed upon Him and feeding spiritually upon our risen Lord Jesus, let us know by the power of His Spirit of that fullness which far exceeds our earthly wants. Let us be satisfied with that fullness which is exhaustless, which is heavenly, after the measure of the love, grace and power of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.