TWO WOMEN; TWO MIRACLES
Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, your Word is a gift that I cannot live without. As I read it, thank you that I learn more and more of your love and care as I journey in faith with you.
Read 2 KINGS 4:1–17
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The Widow’s Olive Oil
4 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”
3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
5 She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”
The Shunammite’s Son Restored to Life
8 One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. 9 She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. 10 Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”
11 One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. 12 He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him. 13 Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’”
She replied, “I have a home among my own people.”
14 “What can be done for her?” Elisha asked.
Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”
15 Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. 16 “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.”
“No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”
17 But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.
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Reflect
For whatever reason, might there be a request or petition you are reluctant to bring to God (Philippians 4:6)?One thing that ties these two tales together is that God loves family! These are two different stories of miracles with the same aim: a mother being able to hold her children. For the first woman, the family was broken by the tragedy of her husband’s death and te fear of losing her children (v. 1). The second woman had lived many years with the sadness and disappointment of not having children (v. 16b). Both found themselves in a place of emotional pain: one from a sudden blow and the other with a constant ache.
Each of us has a different story. Perhaps you had a happy childhood and then enjoyed parenting. For many of us, though, ‘family’ is a word filled with pain. Our response to the pain can be different too: the first woman approached Elisha with her need, while the second tried to hide hers. God, however, saw and cared about both. Elisha asked the first, ‘How can I help you?’ or, in another translation, ‘What shall I do for you?’ (v. 2, NASB). He asked the second woman, ‘What can be done for you?’ (v. 13). In the same way, Jesus asked a blind man, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ (Mark 10:51). The Lord is always ready and willing to hear our requests.
Apply
In what ways do you want to see God at work in/for your family?
Closing prayer
Thank you, Father, that you know and care about the needs in my family, or my need of family. I look to you for healing, restoration, and provision. Help me to rest in you.
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