ROOTED - Tuesday, March 17, 2026

2 Kings 4:2-6

2 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.” 3 Then he said, “Go
outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too
few. 4 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.” 5 So she went from him and shut the door
behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. 6 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.

Reflection: Elisha and the Jars of Oil (Obedience and Faith)

Written By: Pastor Jesse Caro

Elijah
has gone to heaven in a chariot of fire, leaving Elisha with a double portion
of Elijah’s spirit. At this point in the narrative, the reader can tell that
the kings of Israel, in both kingdoms, are wicked. The people need a prophet of
God now more than ever. Elijah is gone and the question now remains: “is Elisha
up for the task?” The answer…… “absolutely, yes.” The narrative detailing
Elisha’s ministry begins with a bang… one miracle after another.  

The
miracle that strikes me is the “widow’s oil.” One of the “sons of the prophets”
has died and his wife is left without an income, in danger of losing her two
children as slaves to a creditor to pay off debt. Elisha asks her, “what do you
have in the house?” “A jar of oil,” she replies. He then instructs her to
borrow as many vessels and jars as she can, from all her neighbors and pour oil
into them from the original jar. She does so to find that all the vessels
become full, and she can find no more vessels anywhere. This miracle will allow
her to sell the oil and keep her kids.

This
miracle, of course, is a foreshadowing of the future ministries of Jesus,
multiplying food and wine when needed. And, like the boy with the fishes and
loaves, a fair amount of faith is needed to entrust one’s time and energy into
obeying the voice of God (or his prophet). She may well have thought, “this is
a waste of time.” But she did not. She did something so mundane and “everyday”
in obedience… and a miracle resulted. Obedience and faith are the makings of
all miracles, both in the Old Testament and New… and in 2026!

Prayer

Heavenly
Father, may we learn to trust and obey, even with the mundane and normal parts
of our lives… especially when it is hard to see the point.