I was reading in 2 Kings 4 about the poor widow that Elisha helps and the story really struck me.
The other day, I was rummaging through our pantry (alongside the mice), feeling like it was rather bare. Truthfully, it didn’t look like we had enough for meals. But then, one of the girls who had done the shopping started to rattle off all these meals they had planned and I began to see those same “sparse” shelves with new value. It’s not that it wasn’t there, I just wasn’t able to perceive it.
It’s like this widow- she’s completely desperate, at the end of her wits- trying to appease her debtors so they will not take their sons from her. I imagine her frantically searching her home for something- anything – of value. But she sees nothing.
She goes to Elisha and what does the Lord instruct through him?
“Go and get a bunch of (borrowed) empty jars.”
And sending her back into her home, he tells her to take her flask of olive oil and fill each jar. This one little flask, which she overlooked as nothing, flowed out again and again until each jar was full- and it still wasn’t empty. Only once they saw they had more than enough did it stop flowing. Not because it was limited or insufficient, but because the debt was paid.
Is it not the same with the grace of God?
We overlook it, undermine its value and place limitations on it. We underestimate the oil flask of grace.
Isaiah 53 tells us there was nothing about Jesus to attract us to him- he didn’t have the outward appearance or temperment of a big, bad hero.
Because he didn’t have to.
He had nothing to prove. He knew the very nature of God and redemption for mankind were contained in him.
I even love the symbolism of the borrowed jars. It’s the very essence of the message of grace! “You can’t pay your debt, but I AM more than enough to fill it.”
2 Corinthians 9:15 “Thank God for this gift, too wonderful for words!”
