- The first miracle in 2 Kings 4 we call The Widow’s Oil. The creditors are coming to take her children away to pay some sort of debt apparently. Her husband was one of the prophets but had died.
- Elisha tells her to gather things like jars and pots from neighbors and to pour her oil jar into them. She does and it doesn’t run out until all the jars are full. He then tells her to sell the oil to pay the debt and to have enough to live on.
- God pays off the debt. Just like that.
- It reminds me of Jesus paying his and Peter’s tax with the coin from the fish’s mouth. God meets the money demands put on us, even if from ungodly places.
- The next miracle starts as just a gift Elisha decides to give. He decides to give a woman a son. He speaks and it is so.
- The child dies. The widow repeatedly replies, “All is well.” She had faith but was still bitterly distressed.
- Elisha tries to just perform a miracle, but it doesn’t work. He has to pray to God and the child is restored to life.
- The next miracle we refer to as “death in the pot.” If my kids are asked to pick a Scripture to read, one will inevitably choose “Death in the Pot,” or “Go on Up You Baldhead.”
- I wish I knew why Elisha threw flour in the pot of poisoned stew. Did God tell him to do that? Did he ask God what to do? Did he just want to do something to show them that something happened to make them believe it was okay now? Did he need to attach his faith to some action to apply it to the situation?
- They seemingly have to throw out what was already dished up and dish up fixed stew. It wasn’t all healed, which I find interesting. We can apply our faith in a pinpoint way. It’s not like it was any harder for God to fix all of the stew, but that flour went into the pot only, not their bowls. That’s where faith seems to have been applied. It was the faith, not the flour that did anything.
- The final miracle in the chapter was a mini-feeding of the five thousand. There were just a hundred present and they had twenty loaves. Still, they couldn’t imagine them all being fed by it. Elisha could. Elisha could see the abundance.
- The eyes of faith see the abundance where there is lack. They see the clean where natural eyes see the impurity. The eyes of faith see life where there is death. The eyes of faith see the future secure instead of the fear of impending doom.
- May we all see with Elisha eyes, to see what God is doing, knowing it will be accomplished.
