Miracle of the Widow's Pot of Oil

In this part of the sermon: The sermon begins by introducing 2 Kings chapter 4, noting its thematic organization around Elisha's private ministry to humble individuals, contrasting it with his public role in…

Compares 2 Kings chapter 4 to a collection of incidents rather than a chronological journal, organized by a fundamental theme of God's private care.

Both from the internal and external evidence, that what we have in chapter 4 is a collection of incidents from various segments in the life of Elisha, and the organizing principle is not chronology or time, but rather a fundamental theme. You will remember that the preceding chapter found the prophet of God on a battlefield amidst four nations, the League of Israel, Judah, Egypt, and the United States. And in chapter 4, we find the prophet not on the great battlefields in the company of kings and armies, but we find him moving amongst very humble individuals or groups of individuals in a very ...

1:05 - 2:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Read the chapter with the perspective of God's tenderness towards His people.

Describes chapter 4 as an 'index' of what God was doing for His godly remnant during times of spiritual decadence, not an exhaustive account but a clue.

The same Jehovah who opens the barren womb of a destitute widow. of a great woman, and then looks with compassion upon her when she loses that son by death. The Jehovah of concern with the mighty nations is the Jehovah who beholds a group of young preacher boys who've got belly aches because they ate some bad food, and he comes to their aid. And the whole theme of this entire chapter is something of that concern of Jehovah for his people, giving us, as it were, an index of what God was doing all during these periods of tremendous spiritual decadence and declension, when it seemed that true rel...

4:05 - 5:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Read the chapter with the perspective of God's tenderness towards His people.

Quotes Edersheim to underscore the deepest lesson of Elisha's life: God's tender care and provision for His servants against the backdrop of judgment.

Edersheim, the very perceptive commentator on the Old Testament scriptures, says, the deepest lesson which... the life and ministry of Elisha were intended to teach was to set forth as against the dark background of coming judgment upon Israel's apostasy, the tender care and sufficient provision, the ever-present help which the Lord would extend to his own servants and to his own people.

5:19 - 5:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Magnify the grace of God for the grace worked in Elisha.

Uses the proverb 'one picture is worth a thousand words' to explain the value of seeing godliness fleshed out in a real person like Elisha.

What does it mean to be holy? Well, we can turn to the precepts of God for a delineation of specific duties with respect to holiness. But it's a wonderful thing to have all of that fleshed out in a real live human being made of the same stuff of which we are made. And as the word of God says concerning Elijah, he was a man of like passions.

8:24 - 8:50 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first incident of the chapter is introduced, focusing on the widow's desperate situation: the heartbreak of widowhood, the hardship of poverty, and the horror of impending…

Describes the stages of grief and loneliness a widow experiences, from immediate pain to living with emptiness, to help the congregation empathize with the woman's plight.

There are sitting here tonight some who have felt the heartbreak and who live with the heartbreak of widowhood. This woman saw her husband breathe his last breath. She felt that immediate stab of pain when the hopelessness and the helplessness swept over her, that he's dead and he's gone. She passed through that stage of numbness.

13:38 - 14:08 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first incident of the chapter is introduced, focusing on the widow's desperate situation: the heartbreak of widowhood, the hardship of poverty, and the horror of impending…

Highlights the husband's lack of retirement or social security, emphasizing the depth of the widow's poverty and the absence of modern safety nets.

She knew something of the hardship and the humiliation of poverty. For some reason the household was in debt. Since the dead husband feared God, it does not appear that this indebtedness was the result of sin and an irresponsible squandering of her possessions. As a poor preacher, apparently, he had no retirement fund, no pension, nothing to leave her.

15:40 - 16:09 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The widow's obedience is detailed as immediate and complete, following every instruction, leading to the miraculous multiplication of oil until all borrowed vessels are filled.

An imaginative retelling of the oil miracle, focusing on the widow's trembling hands, the boys' wide eyes, and the breathless anticipation as the oil continuously flows.

She went with the vessels. She went in with her sons. She shut the door and then I want you to use your imagination. Someone asked me last week, what's sanctified imagination?

28:17 - 28:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Pay legitimate debts first before regarding any cash as your own.

An imaginative scene depicting the widow's joyful return to pay her debt, contrasting her demeanor with the creditor's expectations, and the subsequent spread of the story.

And that again is a biblical concept. The same passage that teaches us that borrowing is not sin teaches us that nothing is ours to do with what we choose until we have paid our legitimate debts. And then he tells her to live on that along with her sons. And again I like to use my imagination.

32:27 - 32:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop whimpering, complaining, and being swallowed up in unbelief when God brings trials, as it is dishonoring to God.

Uses the Exodus story, with Israel trapped at the Red Sea, to illustrate God bringing His people to desperation before manifesting His power.

Do we not see this again and again in the Scriptures? It was the combined pressure of her desperate circumstances which drove her out of herself to seek help in Jehovah in the person of Jehovah's representative. This is the same God who backed his ancient people to the Red Sea, the armies of Egypt coming towards them, mountains to the left and the right, until the situation looked utterly hopeless. Amen.

39:21 - 39:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop whimpering, complaining, and being swallowed up in unbelief when God brings trials, as it is dishonoring to God.

Uses the story of Lazarus's death and Jesus' delay to show how God allows desperate situations to manifest His power.

This is the God who brought that family in Bethany to the point of desperation. Send a message to Jesus. Lazarus is sick. Oh, if only he'd been here, he could have done something. But he's dead now. So dead that he's stinking. The situation is desperate.

40:21 - 40:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Grow up in Christ and do not believe that escaping pressures will lead to spiritual soaring; God knows the circumstances for growth.

States that 'it's losing business fighting God's providence,' emphasizing the futility of resisting God's sovereign plan in difficult circumstances.

God knows better than you the circumstances in which you can grow and it's losing business fighting God's providence. Ain't nobody tried it yet and won.

44:42 - 44:53 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second lesson emphasizes that the Lord provides for His people's needs in His own way and in His own time, which may not align with human expectations, but always for His…

References God turning the heart of heathen King Cyrus to show that God could have softened the creditor's heart, but chose a different way.

So instead of saying, look, I've got a legal right to take your sons, God could have turned His heart so that He would have said, look, dear woman, I have a legal right to take your sons, but my wife may be in that position someday and as I hope someone would show compassion to her, I'll show compassion. If God can take the heart of a heathen king named Cyrus and make him faithful, favorably disposed to the people of God, couldn't God have taken the heart of this Israelite? But He didn't do it. He let him, as it were, go for every last bit of this pound of flesh.

45:27 - 46:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Be men and women of faith who trust God's timing and method now, not just men and women of sight who understand later.

Shares a personal experience of the church's building program as an 'extended trial' where the principle of God's timing and way has been a 'sheet anchor' against despair.

Didn't the Lord say in Matthew 6, 33, Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you. Yes, but did he say when and how? Now, and I tell you, dear people, this has been the sheet anchor in this extended trial in conjunction with our building program. If there is one thing, there have not, there has been more than one, but if there was one thing above all others that has kept me from despair and utter discouragement and wanting to say, Oh, forget the whole thing and just go ahead and go out in a traveling ministry and don't be bothered with all this problem.

47:43 - 48:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider what companion you will have when life's crises hit if you are not in Christ.

Uses the metaphor of 'going down the other side of the hill' to describe his age and perspective, lending weight to his counsel on the value of true religion in crises.

And I believe, talking as one who's going down the other side of the hill now, if I live out my three score and ten, plus my bonus ten, I'm still going down the other side of the hill. Five steps down.

56:06 - 56:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Be honest about the emptiness and hollowness of life without a vital knowledge of and relationship with God.

An imaginative depiction of the widow's thoughts on the night before seeking Elisha, highlighting her deep despair and the comfort of her faith.

When all your fun is over and all that you pursue to attempt somehow to find a little sweetness when it's all over. Come on now, be honest. It's pretty empty business. You see, this woman, even at the point of death, even at the point of her greatest desperation, the day before she reaches the prophet, she must pillow her head that night wondering, is this the last night that I'll go in and pull the covers up over my son and run my hand through their hair?

59:16 - 59:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Be honest about the emptiness and hollowness of life without a vital knowledge of and relationship with God.

Imagines the neighbors' potential mockery of the widow's faith due to her desperate circumstances, illustrating the pressure believers face.

Is this the last night that I'll know what it is to have this home united in spite of the loss of husband and father in the midst of all of the shame and grief of her poverty, and her plight? It must have been a wonderful thing to pillow her head and say, Jehovah is God and I will not serve Baal. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Oh, may God teach us that lesson and give us the living faith of living and vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ that in our day of abounding Baal worship, we may be like this, and when God allows us to pass through circumstances that may even make us a song ...

59:52 - 60:59 Read in full sermon