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Pastor James May
EMPTY VESSELS
2 Kings 4:1-6, "Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed."
I don’t know of anyone who has not suffered a lack of necessary things in their lives. All of us have faced some hard times financially and spiritually.
There are times when the cupboard is bare and the bank accounts are empty and the creditors are screaming for payment and there seems to be nowhere to turn but to God for help. We are like the woman in this story. We are destitute of the things we need and we have no visible means to get what we need from anywhere but God.
… Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha…
According to Jewish history this widow was the wife of Obadiah, who had hid the prophets by fifty in a cave in the times of Ahab. Ahab and Jezebel had persecuted and attempted to kill every true prophet or teacher of the Law of Moses.
…saying, thy servant my husband is dead…
…and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord…
Her husband was well known to the prophet, and known to be a good man, one of the 7000 who bowed not the knee to Baal. Because of the faithfulness of her husband she went to Elisha for help.
This wasn’t a man who had squandered his income. He had done his best to supply the needs of his family and support the work of the ministry. In fact, it was his commitment to the work of the Lord that played a large part in the debt that he owed after his death.
…and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen…
This widow’s husband, Obadiah, had taken his own money and spent it in the support of the prophets of God that had gone into hiding in a cave to escape the sword of King Ahab.
His commitment reminds us of the stories of those who hid and fed the Jews during Hitler’s occupation of Europe and the operation of the death camps. Those who did so had to do it at their own peril and at their own expense.
Obadiah had supported 50 prophets for a long time, buying food and drink for them all. It is no surprise then that he had accumulated such a large debt.
To most of us this scenario seems somewhat unfair. God’s man, doing God’s work, taking care of God’s people, doesn’t get any help from God and then it’s his own family that suffers in the end. What injustice is that in the eyes of man?
Some of us have been involved in ministry for many years and we have allowed our personal goals and desires to be set aside. I’m sure that some of you, just like me, have often thought about what the future will hold for you financially. Will I be able to retire and have my needs met? Will my family be taken care of after I am gone. We want to buy a lot of insurance against such disasters but the cost is prohibitive. If I could afford the insurance, I wouldn’t need it in the first place.
This story of the widow and her two sons should give you the hope you need. If God can provide for the debt and need of this poor widow who is about to lose everything in her life, can’t he do the same for each of us?
David said in Psalms that “he had never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging for bread.” God will take care of his own.
She had to worry some for she had tried to take care of business on her own but the debt was too great. She had come to the end of her rope and needed help now so she finally came to Elisha to seek God’s help.
… And Elisha said unto her, what shall I do for thee?…
Or what can I do, being poor himself, and unable to relieve her out of his substance, and not knowing where to get anything for her; and so what could she expect from him. He pitied her case, but all that he could do was to give her his best advice, and pray for her:
Quite often that’s the answer we get from man. Man has no power to supply our needs. He is too busy taking care of himself to care and to poor to do anything about it if he could.
…tell me what thou hast in thy house?…
What is worth anything in your house that you can liquidate and pay your debt?
God expects us to do our part before he will step in to fulfill his obligation and promise to us. We must be good stewards of what God has given to us before we can expect God to perform miracles on our behalf.
…and she said, thine handmaid hath not anything in the house, save a pot of oil…
Her house contained nothing of any value. She might have some things, some sort of household goods, though perhaps she had parted with most of them in her poverty; this was the most valuable thing she had.
… Then he said, go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors.... For he perceived that she had none: (She wasn’t like Ananias and Sapphira of the New Testament. She didn’t lie and hide her wealth. She was truly broke.)
…even empty vessels…
He didn’t say go borrow money, rice, beans, cornmeal, flower and all the necessities of life from those who had these things. Just go get the empty bottles, jars and pots. What good would empty pots do? What are we going to make, an “air gumbo”? People would easily lend her an empty vessel but it would have been much harder to get vessels that contained food and drink for all of them were poor too.
(If you go to receive what you need from other people you will always find that they are little more than empty vessels too. God only gives to each person what they personally need for that one day. It’s up to each of us to put out our own empty pots to receive the blessings of God.)
…borrow not a few… Go get as many as she could get. The prophet, under a divine impulse, was directed to say this to her, foreseeing through the Spirit that a large quantity of oil would be given to her.
… And when thou art come in… After you have done all that God commands you to do, then it’s time to go to God. God won’t do for us what we can and should do for ourselves.
If there are things in your life that need to be changed, don’t ask God to change them before you are willing to do everything in your ability to change them first. God won’t change your bad habits until you do your part. We make the habits then expect God to change them but God is waiting on you.
…thou shall shut the door upon thee, and upon thy sons…
If you really want God’s miracles then you must get alone with God. The problem that many of us have is that we ask God for our prayers to be answered but then we don’t stay around long enough to hear what he has to say.
God wanted this widow and her sons to be alone in the house while the miracle was working. They didn’t need the interruption of their creditors coming in on them to destroy the moment of victory. They didn’t need their neighbors coming by to get a share of the blessings or claim their vessels while they were yet full of oil.
…and shalt pour out into all these vessels…
The source of our blessings is from one place, one person only, the Lord Jesus Christ. It may come to us from a multitude of directions but it only comes from one source. The widow’s oil was to be poured out of one single pot of oil into all they borrowed.
James 1:17, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
…and thou shalt set aside that which is full…
Each time a vessel was filled it was to be set aside by itself, and the rest of the empty ones were to be filled one by one.
God wants us to remember his provision and his blessing. We are to keep it near and ever upon our heart so that when the next time comes when we have need we will remember what God had done in the past and have faith for the future.
… So she went from him.... And did as he advised her, borrowed many empty vessels of her neighbors, having faith in what the prophet had said to her:
…and shut the door upon her, and upon her sons… and then went to work as she was directed, with her sons who brought the vessels to her.
… And it came to pass when the vessels were full…
One by one she filled the empty pots. One by one they filled up and were set aside. Can you imagine what she felt like when she took a large pot and filled it from a smaller one and the small one was still full? Can you imagine her frantic efforts at getting the pots filled as quickly as possible?
…that she said to her son, bring me yet a vessel…
The vessels were running out. The empty pots were all full and the oil was still full in the source. You can’t empty God’s pot of blessings for your life. His source is never ending. As long as you have room to receive it, he will keep pouring it in. Your ability to handle it and to hold it is the only limiting factor.
Can you just imagine as she looked around to find every vessel she could find. Throw out those flowers and dump the dirt, we can sell the oil but not the dirt! Empty out the trash can and lets fill that too! Empty the bathtub and fill it up! Empty the swimming pool and let’s fill that…and the oil kept coming and kept coming.
That’s what I’m talking about! She had never dreamed that she would be striking it rich with an oil well in a clay pot, but there is was and she had no place left to pour it out for storage.
…and he said unto her, there is not a vessel more… they were all filled:
…and the oil stayed…
The flow of oil stopped. It stopped multiplying. Oh Man, if she had only known how much more oil could she have had? How many more empty vessels could she have found? Would she have traveled far and wide to more neighbors before she came home again? But it was too late now. The oil ran no longer. God had supplied her need abundantly and would have continued giving but she could receive no more so he stopped giving.
That’s the way that God wants to pour out his blessings upon his children. His mercy, his love, his grace, his provision for our every need is there if we have a vessel that is empty of sin to receive it. God won’t pour his blessings into a vessel that is filled with the cares of life and the love of this world and it’s sin. God is looking for EMPTY VESSELS to fill!
God not only wants to fill your empty vessel but he wants you to go to everyone of your neighbors and search out their empty vessels also. Bring them into the house with you. Shut the door against sin and the world and allow God to continue pouring out his oil of gladness and his grace and mercy upon them.
Every time God fills another “empty vessel” that belongs to your neighbor it’s like money in the bank of Heaven. Some day we will see Jesus and I wonder how much will be deposited in our account. How much oil will be there in the form of people that we have brought empty unto the Lord and watched him fill with his miracle working power.
God is just looking for more Empty Vessels. Let’s go out and find them and let God fill them! We will truly be the richest people on earth and in Heaven because not only will they be filled but our cup will run over with joy because we have led another empty vessel to Christ.
