2 Kings 4: The Oil Keeps Flowing as Long as You Pour

Introduction

Siegfried Tomazsewski is an evangelist. Since 2015 he has been a missionary supported by the Evangelische Gemeinde ELIM Leipzig, and he travels mostly through Africa with his wife and his team: large evangelistic campaigns, townships in South Africa, refugee camps. Before opening the Bible, he explains why he shows pictures of this work: "What God can do with one person, he can do with each one of you." The only difference, he says, is how we let ourselves be used.

He had spent several weeks preparing a different message. One Wednesday at 4 a.m. he woke up and sensed God telling him to open 2 Kings 4:1-7 and preach on that text. On the very morning of the service, he discovered on Facebook that the same passage had been studied at the church's women's meeting the Saturday before. His wife told him: "Sometimes people need to hear the Word twice." So he stayed faithful to what God had told him.

The story of the widow and her jar of oil becomes a personal call: you have received something from God, he has even more for you, and what he has entrusted to you multiplies when you pour it out into the lives of others.

Outline of the message

1. A widow who has "nothing at all"

The text opens with a tragedy. A woman from the company of the prophets cries out to Elisha that her husband, his servant, is dead. She is left alone with her children and a heavy responsibility.
In the East of that era, the husband provided for the family. Without him, everything was lost. And the creditor comes to take her two sons, the ones who could have earned a little bread, to make them his slaves.
Elisha asks her what he can do for her. For the preacher, this is the question Jesus asks each of us this morning: "What do you want me to do for you?" (Mark 10:51). He knows what you have not shared with anyone: money worries, children, parents, your calling.
Elisha then asks her what she has in the house. The widow's answer, that she has nothing at all, describes many people today. They have a bank account, an apartment, a little house with a garden, a car. But inside, there is nothing.
There is an emptiness and a longing that people try to fill with everything out there, drugs, sex, without ever being satisfied. "I know what I'm talking about. I lived in that. I looked for more and I didn't find it."

2. There is more for you

Suddenly the widow corrects herself: "That's not true, I do have something. I only have a jar of oil." The preacher addresses everyone: "You have something, because Jesus gives something to every person." The question is whether you recognize it.
Elisha sends her to borrow empty jars from all her neighbors, "and don't ask for just a few," then to shut the door behind her and her sons and pour out the oil.
His title for this passage: "There is more." More than a single jar, more than what you have believed or expected until now. What you imagine is limited by your own thinking and your own abilities. God always has more than that.
We calculate with what is in our pockets and in our heads: a degree, high school, 5,000 euros in the bank. "I believe God has more for you." And it is not first of all about material things, but about something far more beautiful.

3. The secret is in the pouring

She kept pouring. She had only one jar. "The secret is in the pouring, in passing it on." When we agree to give, we see that it never stops flowing.
The preacher speaks of spiritual miserliness: I'm converted, I go to church, I have a community, and I keep everything for myself. "Sometimes the fact that we are Christians is the best-kept secret in the world." Don't let anyone tell you that what you have is barely enough for yourself.
He recalls the feeding of the crowd: five loaves and two small fish before a crowd of 5,000 men, not counting women and children (John 6:9-11). The disciples are overwhelmed. The miracle happens at the moment they start to distribute.
The evening before, at the train station, he was looking for a grilled sausage: at every stand, the grills were empty, there was nothing left to give. "But I tell you today: you have something to give." God has prepared a well-filled plate for you.
In the widow's place, he pictures himself looking into each jar to check whether a drop is left. He knows that worry: in his ministry, when plane tickets have to be booked, he sometimes doesn't know which card to pay with and asks for two days to find the funds. It is not only about money: will my strength be enough, will my love be enough?
"It is important to start pouring in order to be filled." She emptied her jar, but she filled other jars. To the extent that we give ourselves to others, our jar does not run dry.

4. Paying your debt by giving

When there are no more jars, the oil stops. Elisha then tells her to go and sell the oil, pay her debt, and live with her sons on what is left. Don't be afraid, there will be enough. "You will be freed from your debts by giving."
The danger is keeping for yourself what you have accumulated: thirty or forty years of church, services, great biblical knowledge. If you keep it, nothing happens.
He imagines the widow counting her jars and calculating how long they will last. "The text doesn't say there were seven, that's my theology," he smiles. But it is how we think: how far can I go with my knowledge, with my love?
Everything we have on our own is limited: our strength, our joy, our love, our ability to forgive. We forgive two or three times, and then we don't know what we will do if it happens again.
The word "debt" gave rise to an expression in his heart: "We are debtors to the gospel. We owe people the good news."

5. Everyone has a calling and a gift, don't let anyone take it from you

The pastor, the apostle, the teacher and the evangelist have a calling. But we must not confuse ministry, the function, with the calling. "I believe we all have a calling." The question is whether we recognize it.
Many people think so little of themselves that a spiritual inferiority complex sets in: "I only have a small jar, what good can it do?" He believes that everyone in the church could and should take part.
The church works like a body. You have eyes and ears, but if they saw and heard nothing, you would walk like a blind person. There is no body without members, and no member without a function. A function is a task, and a task brings responsibility, as in a family where responsibilities are shared.
"As each has received a gift, employ it in serving one another" (1 Peter 4:10). It is not first of all about spiritual gifts. He cites Romans 12: prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation or encouragement, giving, leading, mercy. Each person has a particular trait received from God.
The problem is that once we have recognized our gift, we let it be taken from us. The preacher names three ways.
Negative thoughts. We often think too little of our own gifts. He takes the opportunity to encourage the worship team: "Never let anyone tell you that it isn't good. Keep going." Close your ears to the lies of the devil who says "I can't, I'm too small." If God gives you a gift, he gives you the ability that goes with it.
Negative words. Our words have great influence, on ourselves and on others. He thinks of someone who heard again and again as a child: "Nothing will ever come of you."
He tells his own story. After commercial training in Canada, he began technical training in Germany. In the first year, alongside the toolmakers, locksmiths and electricians, he had to file a piece of steel so that it fit into another. For the other apprentices, the fit was perfect. For him, it held, but it wobbled. His master kept telling him: "Siegfried, nothing will ever come of you." In the end he believed it: two left hands.
Yet he passed his training, to everyone's astonishment and above all his own. "I told myself one thing: I don't want to listen to people's negative words, I want to listen to what God says." Whom, or what, are you listening to in your life?
Negative actions. Faced with a decision, we often act from what we feel: what am I able to do, how far does my money go? Acting this way robs us of our calling.

6. A power that never stops

"seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us" (2 Peter 1:3). He has the congregation repeat the word: not "something," but "all things." All of it, 100%: what you need for your calling, your daily life, your studies, your family.
You did not give yourself your calling, and you did not receive it from the pastor or his wife: you received it from God. And the letter is not addressed to one person, but to the whole church, including the one in Leipzig this morning. "Apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). If your jar is empty, God wants to fill it so that you can pour it into other lives.
This strength is not first of all physical. "I'm old, but not cold," he says with a smile. It is the strength to be a witness. He connects it to the old German word Mut, courage, boldness. He needs it to speak to one person at the train station, at the gas station, at the supermarket, or before thousands of people. "It's not a matter of theology, psychology or physiology, but of kneeology": on your knees, in prayer, you receive God's strength.
A strength to persevere when difficulties come, instead of throwing in the towel. A strength to forgive: "Unforgiveness is one of the worst things there is." He prays that no one will leave the room without having forgiven, whether a relative who inherited in their place or someone who spoke badly of them.
A strength to overcome. As a boy, he was the smallest at school but cleared bars in the high jump that others could not. There is always the moment, as you run toward the bar, when you think: "I won't make it." Do you stop, or do you ask Jesus for the strength to clear the obstacle? With my God I can scale a wall (Psalm 18:30).
A strength to love, by going to people you have no natural connection with and giving them a word of encouragement. "Do not neglect the gift that is in you" (1 Timothy 4:14). Using it means pouring it out, without fear of running short. As with the widow, there will be enough for you and your sons: the generations to come, your children, physical or spiritual, your neighbors, Leipzig, Germany, the country where God will send you.

7. Offer yourself, and come back to be filled

He tells a story he read some time ago. A little boy, moved by a sermon about giving yourself and about mission, watches the large offering baskets pass by, placed at the front as is the custom in Africa. He has nothing to give and begins to cry. Then he stands up, walks forward and sits down in the basket himself.
"Lord, I have nothing. All I have is an empty jar. Fill it with your power." And do not calculate that it will last until next Sunday: he is glad to see his jar empty the following Sunday, because he needs a "refill."
In American restaurants, he explains, the server fills your large glass before you have even finished it. That is what Jesus wants to do: "from within him will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). The oil will never stop.
He concludes with an image he received beside a closed former diamond mine in South Africa: in a dark building, someone picks up what looks like a shard of glass thrown into a corner, carries it outside, and in the light it is a diamond. God told him these are the people who feel discarded, worthless. When Jesus takes you in his hand and puts you in his light, the value you have in Christ becomes visible. "You are valuable."

Key takeaways

Jesus asks each of us Elisha's question: what can I do for you? He knows the emptiness we hide behind a life that seems full.
You have received something from God, even if you think you only have a small jar. And he has more for you than anything you imagine.
The oil flows as long as you pour it. What you keep for yourself stops; what you give multiplies. We are debtors to the gospel.
Everyone has a calling and a gift. Negative thoughts, words and actions rob us of it: listen to what God says about you.
God's power has given us everything we need: strength to witness, persevere, forgive, overcome and love.

Personal reflection

If Jesus asked you today, "What do you want me to do for you?", what would you honestly answer him?
What is your "jar of oil": the gift, the experience or the knowledge of God that you have received and are keeping to yourself?
What negative word from your past still keeps you from using your gift? What does God say instead?
Is there someone you need to forgive, and for whom you need God's strength?
Which "empty jar" around you can you pour into this week: a neighbor, a coworker, a child, someone new at church?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What does 2 Kings 4:1-7 tell us?

A widow from the company of the prophets cries out to Elisha: her husband is dead and the creditor wants to take her two sons as slaves. She has nothing in the house but a jar of oil. Elisha has her borrow empty jars from her neighbors and pour the oil into them. The oil flows until the last jar is full, then she sells the oil, pays her debt and lives on the rest with her sons.

Why does the oil stop flowing?

The oil stops when there are no more jars to fill. For Siegfried Tomazsewski, the secret is in the pouring: as long as we agree to give what God has entrusted to us, what is in us never stops flowing.

What robs us of our gift, according to Siegfried Tomazsewski?

He names three things: negative thoughts about our own abilities, negative words we speak over ourselves or have heard, and decisions made only from what we feel. He calls us to listen to what God says rather than to what people say.