Elisha and the Widow

Carnal man must consistently reject the absolute of God’s truth if he is going to live his life free from the fear of standing before an angry God.  He will embrace a bizarre array of falsities in order to cover his responsibility for his personal life’s actions.  Jesus defines the problem in John 3:19-20:

19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

But those who embrace Jesus Christ, in faith believing, enter into a new life where all their past sins and shame are expunged from the record.  They become born-again.  They become sons and daughters of God.  Their lives become filled with hope and purpose and have God’s direct intervention.  Are you ready for this glorious experience?  Today is your day of salvation.  Click onto “Further With Jesus” to find immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, I Kings 18:3-4:

3  And Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly:

4  For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.)

GOD SAID, II Kings 4:1-7:

1  Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.

2  And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.

3  Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.

4  And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.

5  So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out.

6  And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.

7  Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.

MAN SAID: These Biblical moralists are uneducated, easily-led drones, worshipping a God and a Bible void of credentials.

Now THE RECORD.  This is GodSaidManSaid feature #412 that proves the inerrant reliability of the majority-text Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible, and every Thursday eve, God-willing, this website grows by one.  Thank you for coming.

Is the Bible the literal, inerrant Word of the living God?  Are its histories and miraculous accounts credible?  The gainsayers shout, “No!”  But the record tells another story.

The scriptures speak of numerous miraculous events where God works directly in the affairs of men and nations.  His prophets foretold future events that came—and are yet coming—to pass in finite detail.  One such prophet was Elisha, who performed notable miracles recorded in the scriptures.  One such miracle concerned a widow whose two sons were being sold into slavery to satisfy a debt.  II Kings 4:1-7:

1  Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.

2  And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.

3  Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.

4  And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.

5  So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out.

6  And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.

7  Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.

Skeptics point to accounts such as this as proof that the Word of God is not to be taken seriously.  But, unfortunately for them, history points another way, and even Bible believers will be shocked when they discover who history says this widow woman was.  The following excerpts are from the Complete Works of Flavius Josephus. 

Josephus is arguably the most famous, and certainly the most read, of the historians of antiquity.  He lived and wrote shortly after the times of Jesus Christ.  Concerning this widow woman, he writes:

Now when the king of Israel was come out of the land of Moab to Samaria, he had with him Elisha the prophet, whose acts I have a mind to go over particularly, for they were illustrious, and worthy to be related, as we have them set down in the sacred books.

For they say that the widow of Obadiah, Ahab’s steward, came to him, and said, that he was not ignorant how her husband had preserved the prophets that were to be slain by Jezebel, the wife of Ahab; for she said that he hid a hundred of them, and had borrowed money for their maintenance, and that, after her husband’s death, she and her children were carried away to be made slaves by the creditors; and she desired of him to have mercy upon her on account of what her husband did, and afford her some assistance.  And when he asked her what she had in the house, she said, “Nothing but a very small quantity of oil in a cruse.”  So the prophet bid her go away, and borrow a great many empty vessels of her neighbours, and when she had shut her chamber-door, to pour the oil into them all; for that God would fill them full.  And when the woman had done what she was commanded to do, and bade her children bring every one of the vessels, and all were filled, and not one left empty, she came to the prophet, and told him that they were all full; upon which he advised her to go away, and sell the oil, and pay the creditors what was owing to them, for that there would be some surplus of the price of the oil, which she might make use of for the maintenance of her children:—and thus did Elisha discharge the woman’s debts, and free her from the vexation of her creditors.  [End of quote]

In the footnotes to the above account, two words require clarification: (1.) Paraphrast, meaning “one that paraphrases; one that explains or translates in words more ample and clear than the words of the author.”  (2.) Rabbins, meaning “a title assumed by the Jewish doctors, signifying master or lord.”  The footnote reads:

That this woman was no other than the widow of Obadiah, is confirmed by the Chaldee paraphrast, and by the Rabbins and others.  Nor is it unlikely that these debts were contracted by her husband for the support of those “hundred of the Lord’s prophets, whom he maintained by fifty in a cave,” in the days of Ahab and Jezebel, (1 Kings xviii. 4;) which circumstance rendered it highly fit that the prophet Elisha should provide her a remedy, and enable her to redeem herself and her sons from the fear of that slavery which insolvent debtors were liable to by the law of Moses.  [End of quote]

The Word of God is true and righteous altogether, and it supplies all the answers to all of life’s questions.  Build your life upon the Rock.

GOD SAID, I Kings 18:3-4:

3  And Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly:

4  For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.)

GOD SAID, II Kings 4:1-7:

1  Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.

2  And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.

3  Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.

4  And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.

5  So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out.

6  And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.

7  Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.

MAN SAID: These Biblical moralists are uneducated, easily-led drones, worshipping a God and a Bible void of credentials.

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

Complete Works of Flavius Josephus, Kregel Publications

Webster, N., American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828

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