2 Kings 4: The Widow, Her Sons and Their Neighbors, a United Church

Introduction

Giovanni Petruccelli, a council member of the evangelical Assemblies of God (ADI) church in Turin, via Spalato, takes up a theme the Holy Spirit keeps bringing back to his Church: unity. "If Christ is speaking to us, it means something is missing in us."

To talk about it, he chooses a text that is usually used for something else entirely: the miracle of the widow's oil in 2 Kings 4:1-7. He wants to look there for what we must concretely do to be a united Church, because "if we kept our reasoning shut up in this place, among ourselves, without doing anything, everything would be lost."

His title features three figures: the widow, her sons and their neighbors. At least once in your life, you have been one of them: the one in need, the one who lends a hand in your family or in the Church, or the neighbor who is asked for help in a time of need.

Outline of the Message

1. Three Figures in Whom You Recognize Yourself

The text also speaks of the sons, and the preacher addresses the young people of the congregation. But "we are all sons," some younger and some older, and at every age we have a responsibility toward our family.
The neighbors first bring to mind the people next door, who do not always make us smile. The preacher goes further: "the neighbors God's Word speaks of here are us, every one of us."
We often stress the widow, but she had sons. Psalm 68 speaks of both: God is "a father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows," and "God sets the lonely in families."
This is what people who visit a church often testify: "I found a family in Christ." This is what we should make them feel.

2. A Man Who Feared God, and Who Died

The woman says to Elisha: "You know that your servant feared Yahweh." It is his wife who says it, the most intimate person. "It is in our homes that we know who we truly have beside us, not here."
The preacher points out a contrast: how could a man who feared God leave his family exposed to creditors?
According to some commentators, he may have been Obadiah, Ahab's steward (and not the minor prophet), who hid a hundred prophets when Jezebel wanted to kill them. The preacher likes to think that he went into debt to save them. This is a guess: the account in 1 Kings 18 mentions no debt.
This man did good, and yet he died. Those who fear God are not immune to illness, to difficulties or to death.
The stereotype that everything must go "smoothly" for a child of God, with nothing lacking in the family, "is false, because it is not the Word of God."

3. Opening the Door and Going to God First

The widow had a concrete problem: someone was coming to take her sons as slaves. She could have borrowed elsewhere, hidden her children or asked her relatives for help. The first thing she does is go to the prophet.
"The first thing to do, dear brothers, sisters and young people, is to go to Jesus Christ." It is practical, wise teaching, and teaching about submitting to God's will.
The text speaks constantly of doors: entering, leaving, going, coming. Often, the suffering is inside the house. When we do not ask for help, it stays shut in and touches everyone who lives in that house, beginning with the children.
"This door must be opened." And behind the closed door of a home, there are sometimes closed hearts: the door of the heart must be opened too.
Elisha asks her: "What shall I do for you?" This is what the Lord says to us when we come to him in despair. He does not say: "What have you done? I told you so." The preacher then begins by asking forgiveness: "Lord, maybe I should have come to you sooner. Now I need you." For him, asking forgiveness is the most beautiful of prayers.
There are also those prayers that only the Spirit understands, which do not even leave the mouth but come from the depths of the spirit. God knows them and gathers them up.

4. "What Do You Have in the House?" God's Protocol

We think we have a lot: well-being, health, our dignity. But we have nothing to present before God. The widow knows it: "Your servant has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil."
This small jar reminds the preacher of the little faith we must nourish through the Word, study, fellowship and prayer. That little, that small flame, restores the soul.
She says "I have a small jar" and the prophet answers: "Go, borrow containers." This is "God's protocol": he often thinks the opposite of what we think. Naaman expected someone to lay hands on him, and God sends him to the Jordan.
Facing this protocol, the only thing not to do is rebel: "Lord, I told you I had a small jar." And yet that is often what we do. Elisha even specifies: "Don't borrow just a few."
Elisha knew the God of the impossible. He had asked for a double portion of Elijah's spirit. "We are the ones who limit our God."
When God gives an order, he prepares everything else. "We are the instrument; he is the one who acts." Our part: to obey, to submit, to have faith, to be practical.

5. The Neighbors and the Sons: Being Available

The door opens again and the widow goes to her neighbors. They knew her, they knew about her debts. The preacher admits: "I do not know whether I would have given jars to this widow."
Lending a jar was no small thing back then: it was used for water, oil, food and transport, and these families had none to spare. These neighbors were generous. "I want to be a neighbor like that, a church member like that, a brother in Christ like that."
Today, faced with need, many step aside and look away: that is indifference. These neighbors understood the urgency. "God also prepares those who are to give you jars."
The jars we give must be clean, worthy and consecrated. Let us never serve the Church while demanding to take back what we have given: God gave Jesus Christ, a perfect sacrifice, and he did not take him back. Clean jars, "not whitened tombs."
The sons could have run away, faster than their mother and the creditor. They stayed. Why? Because they had received practical teaching from their father and mother.
We often repeat the same words to our children; they have already heard them. "Example is worth more than words." To parents who pray for unsaved children: God wants to save your whole household, but show in your home that you fear God.

6. "There Is Not One More Vessel": Do Not Limit God's Work

The door opens to expose the need, then closes so the oil can be poured out with the sons. It is in the home that we must cultivate God's presence as much as possible.
The sentence "There is not one more vessel" never pleased the preacher. It leaves him "a bitter taste": not because the widow or her sons lacked speed, but because "we stop the work of God."
The Lord had nevertheless acted. "Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt." God is practical; he gets our hands moving: go, take, pour, sell, pay. "We are not visionaries"; we see God provide in our homes.
Elisha, who had asked for the double, could not imagine the oil running out. The preacher points to 2 Kings 13:14-19: the king strikes only three times, and Elisha is angry, because he should have struck five or six times to defeat the enemy until it was destroyed.
Elisha knew that one could ask for more jars. Let us raise our thinking to God's thinking, a God without obstacles.

7. Vessels All Different, One Oil

In that room, the vessels were all different: some had given two jars, others one, big ones, small ones. Nothing like stacked chairs, all identical.
The preacher sees in this the diversity of the Church. "It is also beautiful to be different." God does not look at the differences that only we look at: he looks to see that all the vessels contain the oil he has prepared.
Vessels that sometimes seem useless can, in his hands, be filled with the oil that serves to build up the Church.
Christ is coming back, and he is jealous for his Church, for you and for your household. He wants a united Church, one that feels like a single body, "fitted together," as the apostle Paul writes.

Key Takeaways

Fearing God does not shield you from trials: the man in this account did good, and he died.
In difficulty, open the door of your home and of your heart, and go first to Jesus Christ.
God's protocol often runs opposite to our reasoning. Our part is to obey, not to limit God.
Be an available neighbor: give clean, consecrated jars, without demanding them back.
God does not look at our differences; he looks at the oil he has put in each one to build up a united Church.

Personal Application

Is there a difficulty in your home that you are keeping behind a closed door, without asking for help?
When you go through a trial, who do you turn to first: your own solutions or Jesus Christ?
In what area are you rebelling against "God's protocol" because it does not fit your logic?
Who around you in the Church needs a "jar" that you could lend without expecting anything in return?
What example are you setting for your children or those close to you in your own home?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the widow in 2 Kings 4 teach us about facing debt?

She had a concrete problem: the creditor was coming to take her two children as slaves. Before looking for a solution on her own, she goes first to the prophet. For Giovanni Petruccelli, this is what we must do in difficulty: open the door of our home and go first to Jesus Christ.

Who are the neighbors in the story of the widow and the jars of oil?

They are the ones who lent empty jars even though the widow was known for her debts. Lending a jar was no small matter back then. For the preacher, these neighbors are us: available church members who do not look away when a brother or sister is in need.

Why does the oil stop when there is no more vessel?

Elisha had said: "Don't borrow just a few." Giovanni Petruccelli confesses that the sentence "there is not one more vessel" leaves him with a bitter taste, because more could have been done. He connects it to 2 Kings 13, where the king strikes only three times: we are the ones who limit God's work.