Elisha - Pt 7

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 ESV). Yesterday we learned about the emptying power of death that wreaked havoc on this nameless widow’s life. Her cupboards, her heart, her bed, and her future are all empty. But she doesn’t sit down and give up, or wait for death to come and take her life as well. Instead, she cries out to Elisha, the man of God. Elisha represented the presence of God on earth and stood as the one in whom heaven and earth overlapped. In calling to him this woman cried out to God. The Hebrew word translated “cried out” is tsa’aqah (tsa-ah-QAH). It suggests the kind of visceral, desperate cry you would expect from someone in great pain or difficulty. A text in Exodus resonates deeply with today’s passage: “You shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan. If you do mistreat them, I will heed their outcry as soon as they cry out to Me” (cf. Exodus 22:21-22. Both “outcry” and “cry out” are this very word: tsa’aqah. The story of the widow’s oil is evidence that God is true to his word: he hears the cries of the vulnerable and weak, the oppressed and the downtrodden, and he will rise in love to lift them up so that they can testify with the psalmist: The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. (Psalm 146:7-9 ESV). Today, if you happen to be in a situation that could be described as tsa’aqah, rest assured that Jesus has been there as well. He understands and in his empathetic response of grace, will indeed love you and walk with you to the end. His comfort is eternal and complete in every way. There will never be a time that you will be abandoned in your trial. That’s really good news!