More on the Widow and Her Oil

We're nearing the end of a full week, but a rich one.  Perhaps not in money, as we waited all week for a cheque that didn't come, but in friendship, mutual blessing and seeing God's hand every day.

As families, we tried to have some sort of family worship together, either in the morning or at night. We purchased a set of videos years ago put out by Crown Financial called God Provides.  What an amazing study series if you're ever looking for encouragement and wondering if God will provide. Whenever we find ourselves in a situation like we have this week where the funds just aren't coming in as we hoped, we pull out one of those videos just to remind us, God does provide.  It is always such a faith-building time of worship.

On Wednesday, when we were on day 3 of waiting by the mailbox, RM said, "I know what we're doing tonight for family worship.....get the widow and the oil video...."  I immediately jumped up as I knew what he was thinking.  It was perfect!  It was the actual depiction of the story I wrote about a few weeks ago that described my friend as a widow selling her oil.  I had told her about the story in the Bible and how I thought it related to her, but she hadn't seen the video....I couldn't wait for her to see it.

The videos are all about 15 minutes long and they are amazingly produced.  They retell Bible stories in their historical settings and they are all very moving.  The scene opens up with the widow's young boys sleeping on the floor with their mother praying and pleading on the floor beside them on her knees.  Right from the beginning all of us adults were a mess.  I had never watched it with an actual "widow" in the room with me before.  She couldn't get through it.  RM couldn't get through it.  It was awful as we all blubbered away.  As the scene continues, the men whom her husband owed money to break into her house to threaten her.  They'll take her children, they say, unless she comes up with the money in three days (artistic license, I guess, as that isn't in the Bible).  She sits there crying against the door.  How my friend has done that these last few months.  She then runs through the streets of Jerusalem looking for Elisha crying, crying, his name.  Finally she finds him and begs him to tell her what to do.  The famous line, "What do you have?" is asked.  "I have nothing, except a jar of oil in the house."  This is my friend's story.  She has nothing, no education, hasn't worked a day in her life, no house, no resources....nothing.  Perfect.  Just what God needs.  Nothing.

Elisha tells her what to do.  She is to gather vessels, to borrow from her neighbours.  I had never noticed that part of the story before.  The role of the neighbours!  Borrowing is never portrayed as good in the Bible, but in this case she is told to.  My friend has been given many, many gifts, too many to count, in these last few months.  She knows she could never repay all that people have done for her, but this is the neat part of the story.  Her friends give her the vessels.  God either prompts them or they are just naturally giving, but however it happens, they are a part of how God works!  It is really a critcial part of the miracle.  If the friends hadn't given her the vessels she would never have been able to fill them with oil to sell to pay her debts.  I love it! I've always thought it was the miracle of the endless oil, but no, I think it is that God used others to help the widow.  Does she have to pay them back?  At the end of the story Elisha tells her, "Go and sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest."  I suppose that implies that she should pay back those she can, but there were perhaps some who gave her vessels anonymously, who knows?  She doesn't have to pay them back, just the ones she is aware of.

This gives me a new perspective on gifts as we, too, have been given many gifts over the years.  I've always hated to receive monetary gifts as it is so humbling, but now I see God has used those gifts to help us very much and that those gifts can actually be part of the miracle.  I do hope we can somehow repay those who have given to us either monetarily or by paying it forward to others.  Maybe that is why I've enjoyed helping my friend and her family so much this week.  It is a way to pay it forward for all that I've been given.

The other thing that jumps out at me is that the widow is told to "go and sell".  She isn't supposed to just sit around waiting for oil to come to her.  She has to go and work.  That must have been frightening.  It would have terrified me, especially if I'd never had to step out in faith like that.  What if I'd never talked to a neighbour before?  My friend is not a people-person.  She would much rather be at home never talking to others.  She likes her personal space.  Now she is being called to be friendly to everyone and anyone she meets!  It's killing her!  In a good way!  But God is faithful and if he is asking her to do this, then He'll give her the ability.  She's never been so friendly in her whole life!

All this to say, by the end of that time of family worship, we tried to pray through the tears streaming down our faces.  It was perfect timing as she was just about to have her "oils" class.  Women would be showing up in just a few minutes.  The oils are all she has right now.  As the women came and purchased her oils, it allowed her to go the next level in her business which means she can make more money which means she will be less and less dependent on others.  That was a significant benchmark as it takes most people in the business six months to make that level and she made it in 1 month.  From the outside it appears like it's just a little home business, but it is so much more than that.  It is what God has given her, for this moment in her life.  At some point the oil may "stop flowing" as it did in the Bible story, but for now, it is taking off and she is thrilled.

As usual, I thank God for His Word, for including this story in Scripture, for allowing it to come to life in such a significant way, not just for her, but for me.