What We Have

“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.’"—2 Kings 4:2

God doesn’t judge us by what we don’t have, but by how we use what we do have. He expects us to use the resources that He has already provided, knowing that when we honor Him with the little we have, He will make it much.

Our passage for today involves the Old Testament prophet Elisha and the widow of one of Elisha’s associates. She comes to Elisha in a moment of great desperation, explaining that she is widowed with two sons, in debt with no means to pay her creditors. If she couldn’t pay, then her children would have to be sold in order to pay the debt. Elisha asks her what he can do to help her, and then asks her what she has in the house (v. 2). She responds that she has nothing left except a jar of oil (v. 2). He tells her to go to her neighbors, borrow some jars, and then pour the oil into the other jars until they’re full. She goes to her neighbors, collects as many jars as she can, and then heads home with her two children to do what Elisha had told her. Miraculously, the experiment worked, and every jar she received was filled, not one was left empty. Not until she used the last jar did the original jar stop flowing. She went back to Elisha and told him the results, to which he responded, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest”—v. 7.

Elisha’s miracle of the widow’s oil foreshadows Christ’s feeding of the five thousand in John 6:1-14. Faced with a hungry crowd of five thousand men is daunting enough, but if we were to count the women and children as well (cf. Matthew 14:21), the total number of people could have reached 20,000! Before Jesus fed the crowds, however, He asked a question to Philip, one of His disciples: “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”—John 6:5. Jesus wanted to test Philip because He already knew what He was going to do. Philip was overwhelmed at such a task, remarking that they didn’t have the money to do it. But another of Jesus’ disciples, Andrew, said to Jesus, “There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”—v. 9. Normally, such a statement might evoke, “Are you kidding? How is that supposed to feed so many people, Andrew? Be serious.” One cannot tell whether Andrew is terribly misguided or talks with a glimmer of faith at what Jesus might do. Whatever the case may be, Jesus has the crowd sit down, takes the loaves, blesses them and then passes them out to all who were seated. Amazingly, everyone was fed and there were leftovers for later.

God is not concerned about what we don’t have, but what we do have. He wants us to look at what we have through the eyes of faith. We give the little we have to the Lord, each step and act of faith, entrusting Him to take the little we have and make it much. The widow took what she had—the only thing she had—and God used it to feed her family and pay off her debts. The young boy gave what he had and after Jesus took it, He was able to feed thousands.

I pray that we may not be paralyzed by what we don’t have, but be emboldened to give what we do, looking at what we give through the eyes of faith, knowing that in and through the hands of Christ, it will be made much. Amen.