The Lodging of the Prophet’s Widow
And there dwelt a certain widow in the land of Israel, in the days when the sons of the prophets walked humbly before the Lord. Her husband, a servant of Elisha the prophet, had died, and left behind neither gold nor silver, but a heritage of faith and debt. And the creditor came nigh, to take her two sons to be bondmen, that her house might be emptied and her name brought low.
Then the woman arose and came unto Elisha, and cried, saying, “Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord. And now the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen” (2 Kings 4:1).
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 said the man of God, “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” (2 Kings 4:3–4).
So she departed from him, and did as the prophet spake. Her sons brought the vessels, and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that the oil stayed.
Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest” (2 Kings 4:7).
Thus was the lodging of the prophet’s widow preserved—a house that seemed empty, yet was filled with the mercy of God. The walls did not crumble, nor were her sons taken away, for the Lord provided out of the little that she had. Her faith, kindled in sorrow, became a lamp to her household.
In this account is shown the heart of divine provision. The widow had no husband, no silver, and no storehouse—but she had a pot of oil, and the word of the Lord. Where men saw lack, God made increase. Where debt threatened ruin, grace poured forth like oil from a vessel.
Let the readers of old and young understand: the houses of the righteous may be small, and their roofs made of humble clay, yet the Spirit of the Lord is not far from them. Even the dwelling of a prophet’s widow may become a holy chamber, where heaven touches earth and provision flows at the voice of faith.
So it was, and so it shall be: for the Lord remembereth the widows and the fatherless, and He dwelleth in the homes of the lowly, where hope endures and oil is not spent.