Slices
Prepare
Bring your requests and petitions to God (Philippians 4:6).
Bible passage
The widow’s olive oil
4 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.’
2 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.’
3 Elisha said, ‘Go round and ask all your neighbours for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. 4 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.’
5 She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 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.
7 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.’
The Shunammite’s son restored to life
8 One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he passed by, he stopped there to eat. 9 She said to her husband, ‘I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. 10 Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.’
11 One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. 12 He said to his servant Gehazi, ‘Call the Shunammite.’ So he called her, and she stood before him. 13 Elisha said to him, ‘Tell her, “You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?”’
She replied, ‘I have a home among my own people.’
14 ‘What can be done for her?’ Elisha asked.
Gehazi said, ‘She has no son, and her husband is old.’
15 Then Elisha said, ‘Call her.’ So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. 16 ‘About this time next year,’ Elisha said, ‘you will hold a son in your arms.’
‘No, my lord!’ she objected. ‘Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!’
17 But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.
Explore
One thing that ties these two tales together is that God loves family! These are two different stories of miracles with the same aim: a mother being able to hold her children. For the first woman, the family is broken by the tragedy of her husband’s death and the fear of losing her children (v 1). The second woman has lived many years with the sadness and disappointment of not having children (v16b). Both find themselves in a place of emotional pain: one a sudden blow and the other a constant ache.
Each of us has a different story. Perhaps you had a happy childhood and then enjoy or enjoyed parenting. For many of us, though, ‘family’ is a word filled with pain. Our response to the pain can be different too: the first woman approached Elisha with her need, while the second tried to hide hers. God, however, saw and cared about both. Elisha asks the first, ‘How can I help you?’ or, in another translation, ‘What shall I do for you?’ (v 2, NASB). He asks the second woman, ‘What can be done for you?’ (v 13). In the same way, Jesus asked a blind man, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ (Mark 10:51). The Lord is always ready and willing to hear our requests.
Respond
Thank God that he knows and cares about the needs in your family or your need of family. Pray for healing, restoration and provision in your own family.
Deeper Bible study
‘Blessed are those who fear the Lord … the generation of the upright will be blessed.’1 May I truly be counted among the upright who fear the Lord.
If Psalm 112 reminded us yesterday of some of the blessings of knowing God, today’s reading brings us straight away to the realities of poverty, even to those who have ‘revered the Lord’ (v 1). According to the custom of that time, the woman had lost the breadwinner in her life and was facing the threat of losing what may have been her only other sources of protection and income. She does not even mention the fact that she has no food for today. Notice, though, that her response was to turn to the man of God. Undoubtedly, she knew that he could do something to help – her deceased husband had been a prophet himself and they would have known of Elisha’s power. There is a happy outcome in the miraculous provision of oil.
The woman in the second story is in completely different circumstances to the woman of the first. She had plenty of food and money, but no sons. We see the outworking of Psalm 112 in this Shunammite woman’s life. We learn later in the story that her husband was old, yet she was not hoarding for herself what she had in case she lost her husband and had no other means.
She had been hospitable to Elisha and he wanted to do something for her, to repay her by blessing her in some way. He did not assume that, while wealthy, she had everything. Surely there was something she needed. He knew that God would not say, ‘This person has enough and should receive no more blessings’. He knew that God is good and wants to bless. Life is unequal in who gets what and some people are in more obvious need, but even those who ‘have it all’ may be lacking in one respect or another.
Dedicate in your heart to the Lord all you have to be used for his glory. Take to the Lord, too, what you do not have, but would dearly like.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Isaiah 63,64; Hebrews 13
Pray for Scripture Union
The South West team give thanks for increasing numbers of Faith Guides in their region. Some, however, are having to step back because of financial pressure in their churches. Pray for staff who have been working with them. Pray that churches will make work with children and young people a priority.
