Summer of stories. We continue our warm weather journey through stories with children as central characters. We have walked with Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Moses and Miriam, and even the first prophet of Israel, Samuel, in their childhood experiences. We have tried to hear these familiar stories anew from the children’s perspectives, and we have wrestled with some of life’s toughest questions. We wonder with Cain about trusting God’s protection and mercy even when we do not deserve it or have blatantly hurt God or someone else. We wonder with Abel when justice will be served to those who have hurt us, sometimes severely and intentionally. We wonder with Ishmael about how God might provide for our situation when God was the one who called us to this place and seems to have forgotten us. We wonder with Isaac about the religious fervor of those who have gone before us, of those who have been so zealous in their commitments to God that they have hurt or traumatized others on God’s behalf. We wonder with Moses if there is a place for those who have been thrown away, deemed unimportant or worthless by our society or culture. We wonder with Miriam what our place will be in God’s unfolding story as we watch and wait to see if God will intervene when those in power are cruel and hardened. We listen with Samuel as we attempt to discern the word of our God and the example of our mentors and teachers, which may or may not align.
This morning’s story of an obedient, nameless son comes later in ancient Israel’s experience than last week’s story about Samuel. In the tradition of his predecessor, Elijah and even further back, of Samuel, Elisha is the main prophet in Israel, but in this part of the nation’s history, Israel is the name given to the northern kingdom or northern collection of familial tribes that came to settle in the promised land. Starting from last week’s message, Samuel grows up to become the first great prophet of ancient Israel and ushers in the age of the kings. The Israelite people are longing for central authority, and God allows it. God warns the people through Samuel though about the risks of investing so much power in a single person, a king, and what could happen. It only takes the first three kings – Saul, David, and Solomon – before everything falls apart. The kingdom splits between the northern tribes in Samaria and the southern tribe of Judah, centered in Jerusalem.
Elijah and Elisha are both prophets in the northern kingdom, called by God to hold the kings of Samaria to account. Because Solomon had finished the temple before the kingdom divided, the assumption was that proper worship only took place in Jerusalem, but when the northern kingdom separated, they set up their own altars and idols in Samaria for the people to come and worship, which was only the beginning of how ancient Israel’s relationship with God would be disregarded. Central authority and longing for absolute power lead both the kings in the north and south away from what God’s original intentions were for Israel. Famine and suffering, war and cruelty, poverty and injustice, greed and entitlement become the norms of both kingdoms as the years go by. Our story in 2 Kings 4 inhabits this kind of space.
A prophetic community has formed around Elisha as he continues to minister in the northern kingdom. The people who have joined Elisha are probably the poor and outcasts that cannot find a way to provide for themselves in the northern kingdom’s economy, so they have joined Elisha who is dependent on God’s provision and leading to support himself and those who have joined him. In this instance, one of the followers of Elisha has passed away, leaving his widow and two sons. This man had accrued some debt, most likely because of the famine and the need to provide food for his family, but it really could have been for any number of reasons. Still, unable to repay it, he may have left where he lived with his family to join Elisha, having heard that at least they could have their daily needs for food and water met in this great prophet’s community. We do not know how he passes away. Maybe the man who was owed the debt had been searching for him or had sent people after him to get what was owed him. Or maybe he had gotten sick and could not recover with what little the community could care for him and how poor they all were. In these ancient cultures, life was precarious, always at risk of any number of threats that could not be overcome: violence, starvation, sickness, thirst, attack. Without her husband though, this widow has few options for protecting her family or for providing for them, so she comes to Elisha, the great prophet, of whom she has heard stories already. In the biblical narrative, this moment becomes the second of 7 miracles that Elisha is a part of.
I can only imagine what this situation was like for either of the two sons of this widow. They had probably seen and heard people come by their home to talk with their mother about how she was going to pay back what her husband owed. Maybe they had heard threats of what might happen if the debt could not be repaid ever since their father had passed. But it wasn’t until this last person had stopped by the house that the look in their mother’s eyes had become frantic and desperate. The next morning, she took off to find Elisha with them tagging along behind her. When she found him, she burst into tears and knelt before him begging for a solution to her predicament. The man wanted his money or he was going to take her sons away to work for him as slaves to repay the debt. The two sons looked at each other as they heard this, and they began to realize why their mother had come to the prophet, but how was he going to bring them anything to help? No one in the community had any money. Most could hardly scrounge up enough food or resources to feed everyone. They couldn’t remember the last time that they had seen anyone carrying any coins around to purchase anything, even Elisha. When their mother quit speaking and quietly wept, they waited for Elisha.
The boys had never seen their mother this way since their father had passed, and they were not sure how Elisha was going to respond. When they saw his face, though, they were warmed by his compassion. They heard him ask their mother, “What would you have me do?” Surprised by his question rather than his dismissal, their mother took a moment to collect herself as she thought of a response. Then Elisha spoke again, “What do you have in your house?” Their mother responded right away, “Nothing…” and she looked down at the ground. After a brief few moments though, she looked up again and spoke. She told the prophet that they had just a bit of oil left in a small jar, but the way she spoke betrayed her pessimism, as if the oil would offer them any hope. Then she tried to explain to the prophet all that had happened while her husband was still alive, how he had borrowed what he needed so that they had something to eat, but with the way that things had gone in the northern kingdom’s last few years, they could never raise enough crop or make enough to repay it. Finally, Elisha held up his hand, asking her to pause for a moment. Then he gave her some strange instructions, at least what seemed strange to her two sons as they listened.
He told her to collect as many other empty jars as she could find in the community and bring them to her house. Then he said that she should start filling them with the oil that she has until she runs out. The sons both looked at each other in disbelief. This was the plan? The oil would run out before the first jar was filled. How could he suggest this? Did he think that they were foolish enough to think this would make any difference? But their mother took his word and hurried back to the house with her sons on her heels. When they got back to the house, she told them to go start collecting jars, and she would get everything ready here at home. The boys looked at her for a moment, mouths agape, wondering if she had lost her mind. When she noticed that they were not moving, she looked at them pleadingly, telling them again to go ask their neighbors for any empty jars that they might have. The boys finally walked out of the house and began asking their neighbors. When one took the first jar back and left it for his mother, he hung around for a minute waiting to see what would happen, that is, until she told him to go get another one. When he returned with his second jar, he couldn’t believe what he saw. Both his and his brother’s first jar were full of oil, but how?
His mother looked up at him from what she was doing and smiled, taking the jar from him and starting to pour as she told him to go get another jar. The adrenaline started to build as he ran out of the house, nearly running his brother over as he brought his second empty jar back to the house. They continued gathering jars for the rest of the day until he and his brother could not find any more. When they returned to the house, they found their mother still pouring oil into the final jar. When she finished, she turned to them and asked them for another jar, but they both shook their heads as they stood there. Finally, one spoke up and said, “There are no more.”
Their mother tried to top off one of the other jars from earlier in the day when she had thought that the jar might run out, but when she tried, there was no more oil left in the jar. She slowly walked over, set the jar down, and then turned and embraced her two sons with tears in her eyes. She thanked them for listening even when it seemed crazy and for trying their best to collect all the jars that they could. She said that she would go and talk to the prophet in the morning about the oil, but it was getting dark, so they would rest for the night and see what Elisha would say in the morning.
The next day, the boys stayed at home when their mother went out to talk to Elisha, so they never heard what he told her. When she got back to the house, she told them that they were going to load all of the jars in their neighbors’ wagon and deliver them. The boys never heard anything more about their father’s debts, nor did they have any more threatening visitors come by their house. Their mother’s eyes grew softer over time as she became used to not having to fear that her boys would be taken away. But each night after that, her hugs were always a little longer and tighter than they had ever been before, and the boys grew up to care for her and for the prophets’ community.
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