By OlaOlu Fatoye
One of the sons of the prophet died and the creditors have come to the widow to ask for her two sons because her husband did not pay up his debts before he died.
One of the sons of the prophets? Why? Not rich enough to take care of his sons? He borrowed until he could not pay back.
He was in a huge debt until he died and he passed on the debt to his sons too as the creditors were coming to take them. What a family of shame. The Bible says “a righteous man leaves an inheritance for his children”.
This is not a generational blessing at all. What are we leaving for our children? A blessing or a curse? Wealth or debt? Riches or poverty? Be careful what you leave for your child.
The wife could not support too. But when the going gets tough, the tough knows what to do. She knew what to do. She went to see the prophet. Not just any prophet, the right prophet. We need the right prophet in our lives. Those who will tell us what to do.
“What do you have in your house?” the prophet asked. God can use whatever you have. God can use anything. He can do anything. He can make a way in the wilderness and make rivers in the desert. He makes something out of nothing and can make nothing out of something too. He uses whatever we’ve got. He used the rod of Moses, the womb of Mary, the house of Zacchaeus. He also used two fish and five loaves to feed thousands and we could go on and on. What do you have in your house?
The widow answered, “nothing but a jar of oil”. They had sold all they had and the oil was of no importance to her. Maybe no one wanted the oil or that is the only thing they use in the house. Oil can be used in divers ways; to cook, to make fire, to use as a medicine and so on. She had under-estimated what she has in her house.
What are you looking down on today? Who are you under-estimating? What is that thing in your house that you feel, “this is nothing”, “what can I do with this?”
Beware! It could just be the miracle you have been waiting for. There is a miracle in your house. The prophet gave the lady an instruction: “go and borrow vessels, borrow not a few, shut the door, you and your two sons, pour the oil into all the vessels putting on one side the full ones”.
She was to go to all her neighbors to borrow vessels. How many would believe in her? What type of vessels did they give her? Maybe the ones they no longer need because they are not sure if she would bring them back. I’m sure they would have questions about what she want to use them for.
Borrowing vessels does not sound good either as the husband borrowed to get them into the mess in the first place and now they have to borrow again. This shows that there are some risk to be taken when success is about to come your way. When God is in it, then be assured that the outcome will be good even when it does not make sense.
Peter walked on water. Very risky. Jesus told the maids to draw from the pot with water and give it to the master of ceremony to taste it. It became wine. In fact, the best wine ever. Elisha told Naaman to go and wash his leprous body in the river ‘Jordan’ (the dirtiest river in town). Sometimes, what God requires from you can be very senseless but when you take the step, the outcome is always good.
Shut the door was the second instruction. There are some things God wants to do for you secretly, he wants to complete them before showing it to the world. There is time for everything under the sun. Wait for the testimony to get to full maturity before you tell everyone about it.
Whatever God is telling you to do secretly, do not bring it into the open yet. God is all knowing and can protect at all time but you should not because of that tell everyone about it. Keep it quiet if God says so. He might be protecting you from dream killers who will not believe in your dreams and discourage you from carrying it out too. If she told her friends about the instruction or they saw what she was doing, they may either laugh her to scorn or the instruction is annulled.
Shut the door
She told her sons to bring the jar one at a time. I wonder why? Why not put all the empty jars together? Maybe she does not want to see empty jars and then start to doubt the work of God. “How can this little jar of oil fill all these empty vessels?” Always look at how big your God is not the situation. Put the situation beside God and it becomes very minute.
Take it one step at a time, one instruction at a time. Line upon line, precept upon precept. She kept pouring and pouring until there were no more vessels to pour and she only used the jar of oil.
Wow!
We serve a God of abundance. He can do all things. He parted the red sea. He makes river in the desert. What is you dry places? What is that situation that looks you in the face and proves to be impossible? Remember that God filled many vessels with just a jar of oil. Your past success reminds you of the God you serve. He did it before, God will do it again. Also, when you see the full vessels, it encourages you to do more.
Keep pouring
Put the full vessels aside to encourage you, not to stop you. Don’t dwell too long on your past success and stop yourself from moving forward. The full vessels are there to motivate you, not to stop you!
When there were no more vessels, the oil stopped
This shows that phase one is over and now what next? The woman has filled the vessels, how many vessels, we do not know but one thing is sure, she did not borrow a few vessels. Thank God she obeyed!
The next phase tells why she borrowed a lot of vessels, she was to sell the oil and use the money earned to pay the creditors and live on the rest. If she had borrowed a few vessels, she may not even have enough to pay the creditors after selling talk less of living on the rest. That means she would have to do something else or go back to poverty.
Notice what the prophet said, “sell the oil”. She had work to do too. The oil did not just become money, she had to take the oil to the market place to sell. She had to do some advertising and probably take a stall to place the oil for sale. God is interested in your making profit too. He is a God of multiplication.
Therefore, investment is a very good thing
Even Jesus said a parable about the talent, “you should have given the one talent to investors and it would have yielded some interest”. God will help you but you have a part to play. If you are waiting on God for a job, don’t just sit and wait for a job to come to you! Seek guidance and then act on it.
However, you should not go up and down without God’s instruction either, because it can be a waste of time. Like the woman, let us know where to go, who to go to and what to do. With these, we can win all battles whatever they may be!
Thank you for your most precious time in reading this and get in touch with us for more insights.
