Elisha - From Highlight to Lowlight

Father, thank you so much for today. Thank you for a chance to be in your word in the middle of the week that we might understand the things you have for us, that surely, Lord, we would be able to apply the principles of Scripture to our lives on this day. For what happened with Elisha and the widow who lacked oil or lacked the ability to meet her needs is the opportunity for us to realize how it is you meet all of our needs when we do what you've asked us to do. We pray in your name. Amen. Second Kings chapter four is where we are.

Second Kings chapter four. And we have Elisha who moves from the high light to the low light. Matthew Henry in his commentary says this about the first seven verses of Second Kings chapter four.

He says, Great service Elisha had done in the foregoing chapter for the three kings to his prayers and prophecies. They owed their lives in triumphs. One would have expected that the next chapter should have told us what honors and what dignities were conferred on Elisha for this, that he should have been immediately preferred at court and made prime minister of state that Jehoshaphat should have taken him home with him and advanced him in the kingdom. No, the wise man delivered the army, but no man remembered the wise man.

Solomon would say these words, Ecclesiastes chapter nine, verse number 13. Also, this I came to see as wisdom under the sun, and it impressed me. There was a small city with few men in it, and a great king came to it, surrounded it and constructed large siege works against it. But there was found in it a poor wise man, and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man. It is true that Elisha did a great work. It is true that Elisha was able to help the three kings, the king of Israel, the king of Judah and the king of Edom, to understand that his God was the true God, the one God who reigns supreme by providing water in a very supernatural kind of way that would allow them to win the battle over the Moabites.

And you would think that people would confer some kind of honor upon Elisha. They would say to him, you know what, Elisha, thank you so very much. We want to give you the keys to the city. Maybe they should do that. We want to give you the opportunity to be a part of our government in our city. But they did not. They never thanked him. They never gave him any honor or praise. They won the victory, but that was it. But usually, like it goes, the ungodly are never too interested in honoring the godly.

There are a few exceptions. There's Daniel. He was honored in his city. Also, there was Joseph who was honored in Egypt because he was able to interpret the king's dreams and forfeit the famine and be able to have a solution to the upcoming famine. And so he was raised to a very high level in Egypt. All right. But outside of those guys, very few godly people ever are honored by the ungodly. And that's okay because Elisha wasn't in the prophetic business to be honored by those around him. The text before us, Elisha truly is one who goes from being the key man for three kings to being the key individual for one obscure widow.

Her name is not even given. She has a name. We just don't know what her name was. But you see, the whole key to Elisha's ministry was that he wasn't in it for the recognition of man. Elisha's whole ministry was about his service for the king, the king of kings, not the king of Israel or the king of Judah or the king of Edom. He was in it for the Lord God of Israel. That's why he said in verse 14 of second Kings chapter three, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand or before whom I serve.

Same phrase that his mentor Elijah said when he came on the scene in the first Kings chapter 17, when he went before Ahab and said, as the Lord, the God of Israel lives before whom I stand or before whom I serve, Elijah, like Elisha, had one objective, and that was to serve the Lord.

You see, when you serve the Lord, you will eventually and inevitably serve your fellow man. But in serving the Lord, you are never looking for the recognition from man. That's very important to understand that. Listen to what the Bible says in Colossians chapter three, verse number 23, whatever you do, do your work hardly as for the Lord, rather than for men, do what you do for the Lord, knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the reward of the inheritance.

It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. Paul would say in his letter to the Ephesians, Ephesians chapter six, verse five, slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters, according to the flesh with fear and trembling in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ, not by way of eye service as men pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart with goodwill, render service as to the Lord and not to men. In other words, whatever you do, you do it hardly as unto the Lord. And whenever you serve and whoever you serve, remember that the primary service is for the Lord himself, not for those around you.

That's why Paul said in Romans chapter 12, verse number nine, let love be without hypocrisy, a poor, what is evil, clean to what is good, be devoted to one another and brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord when you are involved in ministry and you are devoted to one another, don't be lagging in your diligence. But instead boil over in the spirit and you can do that if you are serving the Lord, see the problem in the church is that we serve because we have another motive.

We say we're serving the Lord, but we get upset when no one recognizes our service. So who are you really serving? Are you serving the Lord or are you serving yourself? We want to do certain things so that we're recognized by others. Elijah really didn't care whether or not the Kings of Israel and the Kings of Judah and the King of Edom really recognized him or not because he wasn't serving them. He was serving the King of Kings. He was serving the Lord. He made that statement in chapter three. Also, Elijah made that statement in first King 17 because everything about the prophetic ministry was for the Lord and that's the way it should be for us.

When we are involved in any ministry, whether it be in the church or at home, wherever we are, we serve the Lord. That's why when we submit to one another, we submit to one another as unto the Lord. You have no problem with submission in a relationship if you submit as unto the Lord. You always have a problem with submission in a relationship when you leave out the Lord. When you look at the other person and say, well, I don't want to submit to that person.

I don't like that person. God never said submit to them because you like them. Submit to them as unto the Lord. You're doing this for me. You're doing this because this is what I called you to do. This is how you are distinct and this is how you are unique because you serve me. Elisha served the Lord. That's what he wanted to do. And so he could go from a place of prominence because the three Kings came to him. They didn't call Elisha into their chambers. They went to where his tent was. They recognized their need.

They went to him. He gave them the solution because he was the man of God. The word of the Lord was with him. They knew that Jehoshaphat did. They went to him because they knew in their distress and in their time of need, somebody who was a representative of God would have to take them out of their turmoil. Elisha was that guy. Now he goes from the highlight from the spotlight to the lowest of all lights, to an obscure widow in second Kings, chapter four.

So obscure we don't even know her name. Her husband was in the prophetic ministry. One of the sons of the prophets learning in school wanted to be a man of God, wanted to preach the word of God, but we don't know who he was either. This was a woman that nobody knows, but God knows God sees and God takes care of because you see when you are in a obscurity, when you don't realize or you realize that nobody knows your name and nobody cares what your name is. God does. And so we come to a very important portion of scripture because the Lord has a unique concern for those in need.

He always has. That's why James says these words, James chapter one verse number 27, pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God and father is this to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unspotted, unstained by the world. James says this is the real stuff. This is the genuine religion. This is the real thing. This is not something that's hypocritical. This is not something that's fake. This is the real deal. Pure religion undefiled before the father is this, that you visit the widows and orphans in their affliction and widows and orphans are representative of people in need and you take care of those who are in need and at the same time you keep yourself unspotted and unstained from the world.

Before that, he talks about brattling your tongue. Those three areas are the areas that uniquely represent the believer. He has a controlled tongue. He has a concern for the needy and he is completely consecrated from the things of the world. That is the true believer. So James would pick up on this and say, look, if you have a concern for those in need, if you know someone in need and you're able to meet that need, that's pure religion. That's true religion. And so Elisha, the prophet of God who is committed to serving as God in his mind, it makes no difference if he's serving the Kings of Israel and the Kings of Judah or he's serving some obscure woman on the backside of the desert, because he's not serving them.

He is serving his King and when you serve the King, you go wherever he calls you and you do whatever he says. That's Elisha. And so we've already learned from his life that he was concerned about those who are in need. So let's go to our story and second Kings four, we'll read it to you and we'll point out three particular things to you.

Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, your servant, my husband is dead and you know that your servant feared the Lord and the creditor has come to take my two children to be a slaves. Elisha said to her, what shall I do for you? Tell me what do you have in the house? And she said, your maid servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil. They said, go borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your neighbors, even empty vessels do not get a few and you should go in and shut the door behind you and your sons and pour out into all these vessels and you shall set aside what is full.

So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They were bringing the vessels to her and she poured when the vessels were full. She said to her son, bring me another vessel and he said to her, there is not one vessel more and the oil stopped. Then she came and told the man of God and he said, go sell the oil and pay your debt and you and your sons can live on the rest. Fascinating story. The man of miracles, Elisha, another scenario, another opportunity, another miracle. The man is truly amazing.

I wish he was my friend. I wish I was able to walk with Elisha just to be in his footsteps to watch him work. This was an amazing man. The first thing I want you to notice is this widow's distress and then we're going to see Elisha's directives to this woman amidst her distress.

And then we're going to look at her deliverance from her distress because she was completely obedient to the directives given to her by Elisha.

Okay. First of all, her distress and put yourself in her shoes. You too would be distressed. She's married. Her husband dies. She has two sons. Both sons are going to be taken by the creditor to be his slaves. So not only does she lose her husband, she loses her sons. Not only that, having lost her husband, she is now unable to pay the debt their family has incurred over time. Absolutely no way to pay the debt. So the creditor will come and take her sons and make them his slave. Now, according to Levitical law and Leviticus 25 you could do that, but you could only hire them out until the debt was paid.

But this guy was going to take them as his slaves and he was going to use them for as long as he chose to use them. So she was in distress. She had great heartache. On top of that, she comes to Elisha and righty so, where else is she going to go? Now, what do you do when you're in distress? Where do you go when you are discouraged? Who do you talk to when you're despondent? How is it you deal with the tragedies that come your way? This woman paves the way for you to handle your situation. She goes to the man of whom it was said, the word of the Lord is with him.

He is the man of God. According to verse seven of second Kings four, she goes to the place where the word of God will be spoken.

This woman needs comfort. This woman needs counsel. This woman needs courage. Where else is she going to get it? What is she going to do? Evidently her husband had no life insurance policy that she could collect on. He had no IRA account or Roth account. He had no retirement fund. She was unable to go to work and get a job to take care of the debt. They had no money. In fact, she had absolutely nothing except a little vessel of oil in her house. So what does she do amidst all of her distress? What does she do amidst the fact that she has no money?

She has no husband. Now she has now no sons because the creditor is going to take them. She's left with absolutely zero. What does she do? Where does she go? Who does she talk to? Who can help her? Who can handle her situation? Answer only God. Only God. See, the problem with us is that we, we go and fix it mode, right? And so we, there is a way we're seeing with ran to a, to a man, but the ends are over the ways of death, not life. And although you might not die physically, there was a death like existence because you do your own thing.

And so what do you do? But in our situation, we, we go and fix it mode. Say, okay, I can do this. I can take a loan out here. I can go here. I can, I can sell this. I can do that. And so we go and fix it mode because we lean on our own understanding. We don't acknowledge God in all the ways, but we have a tendency to lean on our own understanding and do our own thing. This woman had nothing, nothing. And behind all this is the providence of God. Behind all this is a plan of God. She could be saying, wait, wait, my, my husband, Elisha, my husband was studying in the prophetic school.

She said, my husband is one who fears the Lord in her mind. She's thinking, my husband loves the Lord. My husband wants to represent the Lord. He wants to proclaim the Lord. And now the Lord takes my husband. Now that he's gone, I have this debt. I cannot pay. And now my sons are going to be gone. And now I'm going to be left with absolutely nothing. No companionship, no sons, no money, no husband. She has nothing to say. She's in distress is to minimize her anxiety to say that she's discouraged or respondent is to minimize her situation and condition.

She's at wit's end. She has no place to go except to the Lord, except to the man of God, except to the one for whom it is said the word of the Lord is with him. So amidst her distress she goes to Elisha. Elisha then will give her his directives. She goes to him. He says to her, what shall I do for you? I just love that. What do you want me to do for you? I'm not going to marry you and be your husband. You know, what do you want me to do? You want me to call money down from heaven? Is that going to solve your problem?

What do you want me to do for you? What do you expect me to do for you? Now this is so important because there are times when people will come see me as their pastor and I ask them this question, what would you like me to do for you? Okay. If they want me to do something for them outside the parameters of the word of God, I can't help them. But if they're looking to find answers from the word of God, I can help them. I truly can help them. I can direct them in the ways of righteousness. I can direct them in the ways of God.

So Elisha is asking the question because Elisha wants her to realize that she's coming to the man of God. She's coming to the one who the word of the Lord is with him. If she's looking for a solution to her problem outside of what God can do, he can't help her. So we asked the question, what is it you want me to do for you? And she gives no answer. Now maybe she did, but the text is a recorded answer that she gives. Maybe she's thinking, what can you do? I have, I don't know. I don't know. You tell me, you're the man of God.

You tell me. So Elisha says to her, these words, he says, tell me what do you have in the house? What do you mean what do I have in the house? What difference does that make? My husband is dead. My wife is dead. I have nothing. And now you're going to ask me what's in my house? What do you want to sell my furniture? What do you want to do? What do you have in your house? She said, your masonry has nothing. I got nothing. Except a little cruet, vessel, jar of oil. That's all I got. That's all I have.

I have nothing else. I have no money stash. I have nothing in my house that I can sell to offset the debt. All I have is a little vessel of oil. Okay. And so Elisha says to her, these words, go borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your neighbors. Now think about that. Go borrow vessels from your neighbors. Wait a minute. The reason I'm in this indebtedness is because I borrowed. Now you're asking me to go and borrow from my neighbors, empty vessels, because that's what he says. He says, even empty vessels.

You don't go and borrow full vessels. Borrow only empty ones. Ones that have nothing in them because you're going to go and she could say, well, I'm going to go to my neighbors. They're going to say, you know, sorry, husband died. But what do you want an empty vessel for? I mean, you put some money in it for you. How about if I put some cookies in there for you? How about if I fill it with some candy? How about if I fill it with some coins? I have a vessel filled with coins. Would that help you? He says, make sure you get empty ones.

Don't get full ones. Make sure they're absolutely empty. And I want you to go to all your neighbors, all my neighbors, all your neighbors. Well, how about if I just go to a few of them? Do I have to go to every house? Go to all your neighbors. Now how many neighbors does she have? I don't know. 10, 15, 20, 50? I have no idea. The Bible didn't tell us how many neighbors she had, but Elisha made it very clear. This is what you do. I want you to tell me what you have. Well, I got a vessel of oil. This is what I want you to do.

I want you to go and I want you to borrow empty vessels from every one of your neighbors. Make sure they're empty. And he says, get as many as you can. Get as many as you can. He says, do not get a few. Don't just get a few here and there. Get as many as you can take. Get as many as they'll offer you. Go and borrow them. Now you're the widow, okay? You're thinking, Elisha's a crazy man. You got to be kidding me, Elisha. What good does that do me? My husband is dead. My boys are going to be enslaved.

And you're asking me to go to my neighbors and collect empty vessels. That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. But you see, when God asks you to do something, it usually makes no sense to you. But it makes perfect sense to God. Because God has a plan. And although you don't know how that plan's going to unfold, you don't know what's going to happen. You have no idea what's going to happen. But if God is speaking to Elisha, and he is. He's a prophet of God. The word of the Lord is with him. He is the man of God.

And the Lord is using Elisha in her life. Then he is going to give the directions from the Lord. And she has a responsibility to, number one, obey, or number two, disobey.

Number two, to partially obey. Number three, to fully obey. What is she going to do? She could say, well, if I go and borrow food, they're going to laugh at me. I don't want to be laughed at. I'm already pitied because my husband's dead. Now I'm going to be laughed at because I'm borrowing empty jars. They know I'm in debt. They know I have no money. They know I have no food. They know I have nothing. They're going to want to give me jars filled with something. And now you're asking me to go get empty jars?

But she doesn't say any of that. Maybe she was thinking that. I mean, that's what I would be thinking. But I'm not her. And I'm not talking to Elisha, the man of God. She is. And so this is what Elisha tells her. This is what I need you to do. And you should go in and shut the door behind you and your sons and pour out into all these vessels and you shall set aside what is full. So when the vessels come in, I want you to go into your house and shut the door. This is for nobody else but for you and your sons.

Remember when Jairus's daughter was raised from the dead, Christ did it behind closed doors. When Dorcas was raised from the dead, she was raised from the dead behind closed doors. When Elijah raised the widow's son from the dead, he did it behind closed doors. And we'll see with Elisha, he will also raise the widow's son in our story in the coming weeks behind closed doors. This is the way God wanted to happen. This is not for the unbeliever to see. This is for you to see. Go behind the shut doors and pour your vessel of oil into all the empty vessels that you have.

And she could be thinking, you're kidding me, right Elisha? Let's say she has 50 of them. I don't know, she had to tell us. And she has a little vessel of oil. You've got to be kidding me. But she does, she obeys. She obeys fully, without complaining, without grumbling, without questioning, she obeys. Because this is the man of God who speaks the word of God and therefore this is from the word of the Lord, therefore she's going to obey. And so she goes in with her boys and they put out the vessels and she begins to pour.

And she just keeps pouring until the vessel is filled. And then she goes to the next one and she pours and she keeps pouring until the vessel is filled. And she's thinking, this is amazing. And then she goes to the next one and she keeps pouring and she's thinking, there's got to be a bottom to this someplace. But she keeps pouring and she keeps pouring and she keeps pouring and she keeps pouring until there are no more empty vessels. And you think, wow, what are you going to do? She's like, wow.

And so what does she do? Okay, what does she do? Now remember, in order for the miracle to happen, she had to give away everything that she had. In order for the miracle to take place, she could hold none of the oil back. In order for the miracle to take place, she had to be willing to sacrifice the one thing that she had. And she was willing to do that. What would have happened if she didn't do that? We don't know, because she didn't do that. But you move now from Elisha's directives to her deliverance.

Because now she's going to be delivered. She says in Ephesians verse 6, when the vessels were full, she said to her son, bring me another vessel. And he said to her, there is not one vessel more. And the oil stopped. There is an end to the oil. Then she came and told the men of God. Can you imagine the scene? How did she say that? It's just written so... What's the word I want to use? There's no show. There's no lights and whistles and horns. There's no publicity. She goes to the man of God and she tells him what happens.

It had to be more than that. Yo Elisha! I had this vessel of oil in it and it filled every one of these jars that were empty. Now I know why you wanted me to have empty jars. Now I know why you wanted me to get all of the empty jars. Now I know why you wanted me to go to all of my neighbor's houses. Because she goes to the man of God. She tells him what happens. He said, now go sell the oil. Sell all the oil that you have. Pay your debt. And you and your sons can live on the rest. It's just so simply stated.

All she has to do now is go and sell the oil. Because it's probably olive oil. Which is very, very important to Jewish people in those days. And she could sell the oil. She could pay her debt. Which would be good for the creditor because her integrity is on the line. So now she's going to go pay her debt. She can keep her sons at home. And she'll have enough money to raise her sons. And to put food on the table. To take care of them for the rest of their lives. Because in the deliverance was the sufficiency of God.

In how he supplies every one of our needs. But the key to the whole story was her complete and total obedience. To what we would normally think of something as absolutely ridiculous for her to follow. But she had to obey. And she did. Fully. And if she would not have collected as many empty jars as she did. She would be unable to pay her debt. And she would not be able to live the rest of her life with her sons. But because she obeyed what God said. She was not only able to pay the debt. But have so much money left over.

That she could live the rest of her life free from anxiety. Because she obeyed what God had said. How simple is that? How so easily that is written in scripture. A miracle that speaks to us in the 21st century. It speaks to us in a unique way. Because it speaks to every one of us. Because it does what we need to have happen to us. It addresses the unspeakable pain of man when loss is profound. Because she lost her husband. And she was about to lose her sons. And she was in debt. She had nothing. And it speaks and addresses the unspeakable pain of man.

Because it is truly that. I'm sure there were times where she would cry herself to sleep. I'm sure there were times where she would wonder. God where are you? What are you doing? And the pain would be so profound in her life. And when Christ. When he wept at the death of Lazarus at his tomb. He wept because of the effects of sin. When Abraham wept when his wife Sarah died. He wept profusely because he loved her so. And there's a pain that's there when you have a loved one who dies. And goes home to be with the Lord.

There is a pain. There's a loss that's there. And the Bible always speaks to that. No, we don't weep like those who have no hope. We have hope. Okay? But it doesn't minimize the loss and the pain that we experience when a loved one dies. So the story addresses to us the unspeakable pain of man. As well as it acknowledges the unfathomable purposes of God. The unfathomable purposes of God. She had no idea what was going to happen in her life. All she could see was loss, pain, indebtedness. Her boys being taken as slaves.

And nothing left for her. But it does acknowledge the unfathomable purposes of God. That's why the Lord says, My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts. As far as the heavens are from the earth, So are my ways from your ways and my thoughts from your thoughts. That's why Paul would say over in the book of Romans. Those beautiful verses in Romans. Romans chapter 11. When he says this, Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways.

For who has known the mind of the Lord and who became his counselor? Or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again?

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. This story addresses the unspeakable pain of man. As well as acknowledges the unfathomable purposes of God. God had a plan. God had a plan for this woman. Plan for her boys. And that plan was you trust me. And I'll take care of you. And then this story affirms the undeniable presence of God. It does affirm the undeniable presence of God. Because I'm sure there were times she thought to herself. Where is my God?

Where is the God of Israel? But the man for whom it is said. That the word of the Lord is with him. Speaking of the presence of God is upon him. Helps us understand the undeniable presence of God. That he is always there. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil. For thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. God is always with us. He is never absent from us. He is always there. She would soon realize. That not just his purposes. But his presence.

Was absolutely profound in her life. So while it acknowledges the unspeakable pain of man. Addresses the unfathomable purposes of God. And affirms the undeniable presence of God. It also accounts for us the unbelievable power of God. The oil just kept coming. And just kept coming. And coming. And coming. Why? Because he is able to do exceedingly abundantly. Of all that you could ever ask or think. That's why he says. These words in Jeremiah. 20, 32 verse number 27. I am the Lord. The God of all flesh.

Is anything. Too difficult. For me. You got to love that. Because we think there are things that are too hard for God to handle. It's too big for God to control. It's out of control. God where are you? But he's completely in control. Because all things are from him through him and to him. To him be the glory. In this story. This story accounts for us the unbelievable power of God. And lastly. Acclaims. The unmeasurable. Provision. Of God. The unmeasurable. Provision. Of God. I have not seen nor ear heard.

Nor is it entered into the heart of man. The things that God has prepared for those. Who love him. My God shall supply all your needs. According to his riches in glory. By Christ Jesus. Because our God. Supplies. Beyond. Sufficiency. It goes way beyond anything we can ever imagine. And that's what God does for this. Widow. Simply because. Simply because. She was willing to go. To the right source. To the right place. To the right person. I get dumbfounded by the way. People try to handle their anxiety.

And their problems. I'm bewildered by people. Who do things like alcohol. And drugs. And sex. To alleviate their stress. And their distress. And try to find some kind of solution. Outside of God himself. I don't understand that. But people do it all the time. Maybe you're one of them. I don't know. But she went to the right source. She went to the right person. She knew where to go. Who to talk to. Who to ask. And Elisha would give her directives. That would lead her down the right path. And she would have a choice.

Do I do what the word of the Lord says? Or do I laugh at what the word of the Lord says? Do I really believe that the word of the Lord is true? Will I actually go. And go to every one of my neighbors? Will I actually go and collect empty jars instead of full jars? Why can't I get full jars? Why can't I get jars full of beef jerky? Why can't I get jars full of coins? Or jars full of. Why can't I do that Elisha? Why do I have to get empty jars? She has no idea what God's going to do. No idea. But you see.

Every step of the way there was obedience. And that is the key. To God supplying every one of your needs. It's obedience. What does God say. To do. God says.

You honor me. With the first fruits of your increase. And your vats will be so filled. You won't believe it. And yet. The majority of people in the pew don't do that. And then they wonder why they don't have enough money at the end of the month. When God said. You honor me. With the first fruits of your increase.

Before you write your. Southern California gas bill. Before you write. Your. Water bill. Before you write. Your visa bill. You honor me. With the first fruits of your increase.

You honor me first. And I will take care of everything else. But if you don't honor me first. It's going to be difficult for you. And I don't know. I can't even begin to count. The number of people that have come to see me. Because of their financial distress. And they wonder where all the money's gone. What happened. And so the very first question.

I asked him is. Do you honor the Lord with the first fruits of your increase. Because if you're not willing to do that. We had nothing else to talk about. I can't help you. Because this is what God said you got to do. And God will supply. God will take care of you. But see our problem is. Is that we don't think he can. We don't. We think if we hold on to it. We can be a wise steward of our money. And do better than God can. And God says.

Oh you foolish person. Oh you foolish foolish person. You're not trusting me for anything. And the widow. She had to be willing to relinquish everything. Because she had. And what she did without question. Without reservation. What did God do. God supplied in such a way. It was absolutely. Incredible. And she did exactly what God said. And Elisha said. There you go. Go sell it. Pay your debt. And live happily ever after. You know what. My guess is she did. How about you. You living happily ever after.

I don't know. We'll see. Let's pray. Father thank you Lord for today. Chance to be in your word. You are a great God. This widow. Speaks to all of us. Help us to be obedient. To follow what you say. To honor you. And watch. What you do. In Jesus name. Amen.