2 Kings 4:1-7 

Whenever a sermon has prosperity as its topic, the immediate reaction is to greet it with skepticism or excitement. The skepticism comes as a result of experiencing manipulative sermons masked as prophesy or encouragement; and, the excitement from a ‘name it and claim it’ mentality that looks with anticipation a Word that will catapult them into their promise. I want to put you at ease today. This is not one of those sermons, nor is it a sermon about tithing. It is instead a message about getting in the right position to receive from God the manifold blessings He desires to give.

Every believer should know, by now, that God wants His people to prosper. The Old Testament tells us that we have been given everything we need in order to prosper. John tells his readers that he desires that they would prosper and be in health even as their soul prospers. Jesus spoke about money as a single issue more than any other issue. The question, therefore, is not whether the people of God should prosper, but how should they prosper and in what should they prosper. Prosperity is not so much about money or material things, but rather more about prospering in the plans and purposes of God. God is so concerned for His people that he has plans for them and those plans encompass our prosperity. His plans are so certain that failure does not negate them, circumstances do not negate them, the various situations in which we find ourselves does not negate them. Only our selfish rebellion that causes us to get out of alignment with God can do that. So, how do we get properly positioned?

Our text today is the first of two back-to-back accounts involving the prophet Elisha. They are both reminiscent of a similar account in the fist book of Kings involving the prophet Elijah. In that account Elijah encounters a widow and her son preparing to fix lone cake and then die. In this account a similar situation exists except now it involves the death of one of the company of the prophets. He died leaving his wife in debt and his creditors ready to collect by selling his sons into slavery to satisfy the debt. The widow seeks our Elisha reminding him of her husband’s service and in some way forcing his hand compelling him to help her. Rather than give her the money the prophet asks her what she has in her house. Thinking it an odd question the widow tells him she has nothing but a cup of oil, just enough to bake a little cake for her and her sons. Elisha tells her to gather as many jars as she can and fill them with oil and when the jars run out the oil mysteriously stops flowing. She is then to go sell the oil, pay her debts, and use the remainder to live on, and all of this was to be done in secret.

It might appear that the oil was not a very good choice, but in fact it provided the greatest opportunity to prosper of anything she could have had. Oil was used for primarily for cooking, but also as a cosmetic for anointing the body, for medicinal purposes, as a source of light, for anointing the kings and priests, and in many religious ceremonies. Oil, therefore, had high profitability. All this widow had to do was to fill as many jars as she could gather and sell the oil. Note what she did.

1. She took her concern to the (man of God) Lord (vs. 1). Here the prophet is synonymous with the Lord for he was the mouthpiece of God.

2. She was open about her situation (vs. 2). She did not try to dress up her situation or make it appear worse than it was. The creditors were coming and she had nothing in her house with which to hold them off.

3. She was willing to following instruction, but she did not get ahead of the man of God (vss. 3-6). There is no room for creativity when following the plan and purpose of God.

4. She went back to the man of God after she had done what she was told for further instruction (vs. 7). God knows better than to show us everything He is doing at one time. If I am following the instruction f the Lord then I need to make certain that I stay in His will. Perhaps if the widow had known what was to come next she would have not filled as many jars and then not had as great an increase.

5. She prospered (vs. 7). It is interesting that we do not hear anything more about her or her sons after this account. I believe the reason is because she did enough of what she was told to prosper to the point that we do not need to hear from her any longer.

There is no question that God wants us to prosper. There is also no question that most all of us, if not all of us desire to prosper in the plans and purposes of God. The only way that we will prosper is to do as this widow did. Life is full of pitfalls. Her husband was a man of God who by her word was faithful in his service. That the prophet did not dispute her assessment and moved so quickly to assist her suggests her assessment was accurate, and still he was in debt when he died. Piety alone, loving God alone will not insure prosperity. If so, this faithful servant of the most high God would not have had any financial worries. But he did, and so will we.

The only assurance we have is in maintaining our connection to and with the Lord. It is in making certain that we are so in line with His plans and purposes for our lives that nothing will be able to deter us from hearing accurately.

© All Rights Reserved 2013 – Dr. James H. Logan, Jr.