The Widow’s Oil

1. Ask for help, but God requires you to participate in your own recovery.

– It’s okay to ask for help when you need it. Your friends want to help, but they aren’t mind readers.

– Obviously, we should be helping the poor among us. It is our duty as brothers and sisters in Christ. 

– Why didn’t the prophet just multiply the jars as well as the oil? Or better yet, just give her some money… or pay off the creditors himself?

– One reason might be that Elisha wanted the widow to collect jars to remind the community that they had a responsibility to the widow which they were not fulfilling. Look what Proverbs says….

– Proverbs 19:17 (ESV), Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.

– Proverbs 21:13 (ESV), Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.

– Deut. 15:7-8 (ESV), “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.”

– The first question should be, “What does she really need?” Start with the right question. 

– Example: Macca, Peru after the earthquake. We thought we knew, until someone asked…

– Verse 2, Elisha asked her the question, “What shall I do for you?

– It reminds me of some things I learn from a book on poverty relief called, “When Helping Hurts.”

– It describes 3 phases of addressing poverty: 1. Relief, 2. Rehabilitation, and 3. Development. 

– “Relief” is almost never the appropriate response from us (in the western world), because people are not often in acute crisis. This situation didn’t happen in a day and will not be resolved by writing a check. (Like applying a tourniquet to a wound after the bleeding has already stopped.)

– We often see poverty as simply a lack of money or resources, but poverty is a mindset. Giving someone money does not change their situation; it usually just prolongs it. What most people need is rehabilitation and recovery. They need a different strategy in order to end their cycle of poverty. 

– Dig deeper: If poverty can be solved by supplying more resources, isn’t that the same thing being preached in the Prosperity Gospel? We all share a spiritual poverty that can only be healed through Jesus Christ. Why would we then put our faith in money to heal our physical poverty?

(Example: The govt., federal, state, and local, spends roughly $1.8T to fight poverty each year. Since the “war on poverty” was declared in 1965, spending’s totaled more than $30T. CATO.org)

– Two ideas about addressing poverty that changed the way I thought about poverty relief:

1. Is there a way a person can help themselves? If so, a pure handout will only undermine the person’s capacity and desire to be a faithful steward of the resources and abilities that the Lord has already blessed them with. 
2. “Material poverty alleviation is working to reconcile the four foundational relationships (God, self, others, creation) so that people can fulfill their callings of glorying God by working and supporting themselves and their families with the fruit of that work.”

* People need to participate in their own recovery. Otherwise, you are undermining what God doing in their lives, and ROBBING THEM of their ability to glorify God with their gifts and abilities. 

* The story of The Widow’s Oil is not about alleviating material poverty. It is about addressing her spiritual poverty, and refocusing her on the God who has sustained her up to this point, and looking to God to sustain her into the future. 

– In verse 2, Elisha asks her to participate by saying, “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”   And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”

– The NLT says, “a flask of olive oil.” That’s sounds a lot different than a big jar of cooking oil.

– I looked at some commentaries to find some clarity:

– “The Hebrew text here rendered “a pot” of oil is unique and is found only in this passage in the whole Bible. It appears likely that something similar to the precious box of nard that was used in the anointing of Christ is indicated here; and, as some have suggested, the widow had probably reserved it for her burial. Cooking oil does not appear at all in this narrative. Our modern equivalent of what is indicated is a very desirable and expensive type of perfume.”

– Another commentary: “Almost every time the bible mentions oil, it refers to olive oil. The oil pressed from the fruit of olive trees had many uses in biblical times. It was a dietary staple used in cooking, used as a religious offering, to fuel lamps, and to make a balm to heal wounds, etc… Oil was also the base for making perfumes and fragrant ointments. When perfumers boiled oil and added secret blends of root and bark powders, tree resins and spices, they could make a very expensive ointment. 

– Another commentary: “A jar of oil,” usually explained as an “oil flask,” denotes anointing oil, or “an anointing of oil.” As in, “the amount of oil as would serve for a single anointing of one person.” The word used occurs only in this passage.

– One commentary put it like this: Elisha’s question basically, “Has thou anything which thou can sell, and so pay the debt?” She replies, “Nothing but one anointing of oil which I was saving for myself.”

– What I gather from the commentaries is that the widow had something she could sell that would relive her crisis (not enough to fix her whole problem), but really wanted to keep it for herself only.

– In verse 4, the prophet told her that part of the solution to her problem is to pour it out… Essentially, use up what is valuable to you, and trust that God will take care of your situation.

(Example: guy in the church asking for rent money, the church suggested selling his big new truck, with $700 monthly payment, and get something he could afford. He refused and was offended…)

– It all started with using her own resources, not a hand-out. She became a primary agent in her own recovery. (She listened and was obedient. She gathered all the jars possible and poured the oil. Then, she has to go and sell the oil to make the money. Not quite a hand-out. More like a hand-up, and equipping her and aiding her in her own recovery journey.)

– TRUST GOD in your situation. Don’t be tempted to put your faith in monetary things, because you can’t see where the next supply will come from.