The Jar Of Oil

by TOMS, A.F. | Category: In The Time Of Elisha The Prophet | Jan 2002

The story of the widow with her jar of oil is one that holds a very pertinent lesson for us. When her husband died she was left in deep poverty, so deep that the creditor threatened to take her two sons as slaves in lieu of her debt. In her dilemma she came to Elisha and he asked her, '"What do you have in the house?" "Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil," she replied' (2 Kin.4:2). It was all she had, but as we shall see, it was all she needed.

Elisha told her to borrow from her neighbours as many empty jars as possible, and then, behind closed doors, to pour her oil into the jars and to set them aside as they were filled. She and her boys got busy filling jar after jar and still the oil flowed. As long as they had empty vessels, there was no limit to the supply. "Bring me another vessel," she called, but there wasn't one. She had filled the last. And then the oil stopped flowing. The lesson to our hearts is clear when we remember what God said about the two sons of oil in Zechariah 4, ''Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts' (v.6). And with that word we link the Master's parting words to His apostles, '"You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me"' (Acts 1:8).

In all our witness and service for the Lord we are completely dependent upon the enabling of the Holy Spirit of God. There is a sense in which, like the widow's jar of oil, He is all we have, but it is also true that He is all we need. The gracious Holy Spirit, sharing with the Father and the Son the almighty power of Deity, has come to indwell each of our hearts when we believe on the Lord Jesus. 'Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?' (1 Cor.6:19). Maybe we are sometimes apt to forget the implication of this tremendous truth and, like the Corinthians, we need to be reminded. The Holy Spirit, one of the Persons of the eternal Godhead, is living in each of our hearts and one of the reasons is to enable us to witness to our Lord Jesus and His power to save.

'This will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,' wrote the apostle Paul to the Philippians (1:19). Notice the two things linked together: your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The one depends on the other. Behind closed doors the widow worked away with her sons, where no eyes of friends or neighbours could see. '"When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly"' (Mat.6:6).

In the secret place, alone with God, we shall be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. It is through faith, as we claim the rich promises of His Word. Such a promise as John 7:38,39, '"He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive.'

Let us learn well the lesson of the widow's jar of oil. There was an unlimited supply as long as there were pots to receive it. God is 'able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us' (Eph.3:20). Who is able to do? God is able to do. And how? According to the power that works in us, and that is the power of the Holy Spirit. Oh, let us learn the lesson of God's unlimited supply and remember His word, '"According to your faith let it be to you"' (Mat.9:29).

TOMS, A.F. | Jan 2002
In The Time Of Elisha The Prophet