Desperate Times Make Us Desperate For Him Series

As the summer heat finally relents here in North Texas, we are looking at the life of Elisha. Elisha shows us how to remain faithful during challenging times.

There is a lot to like about Elisha during the super challenging times he lived. Elisha was a godly man in a time when so many people just didn’t care about God. Watch his heart on display carefully. Watch him carefully as he protects widows and orphans and feeds the hungry.

The Lord uses this man greatly. Find 2 Kings 4 with me if you will. As we will see, Elisha is God’s man in a time when the majority of people are apathetic about God.

Today’s Scripture

“Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest” (2 Kings 4:1-7).

“And Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land. And as the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Set on the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.” 39 One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were. And they poured out some for the men to eat. But while they were eating of the stew, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. He said, “Then bring flour.” And he threw it into the pot and said, “Pour some out for the men, that they may eat.” And there was no harm in the pot.

A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord” (2 Kings 4:38-44).

We will get into this in the moments to come, but Elisha is a bright light in this really dark time. Now, we will see three storylines with Elisha this morning.

Sitcoms do this all the time. Your average 22-minute sitcom has story A and story B and they cut back and forth between the two stories to keep you interested. Take the sitcom, Young Sheldon, the first story may be where Sheldon’s father, George loses his job. While the second story features his Meemaw (it’s set in Texas) and his brother, Georgie are arrested on the border. We are going to see that the Bible shows Elisha’s life along 3 storylines that complement and contrast one another.

Let’s jump in.

1. A Desperate Time

“Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves” (2 Kings 4:1).

1.1 Story #1: The Prophet’s Widow

In our first story, we find a woman who is in double desperation. Here is a woman who is in emotional pain. And her emotional pain is only compounded by her financial pain. No sooner has her husband died than bill collectors have shown up. And they are not just calling her house nonstop. Instead, they are threatening to take her two sons.1