Poverty

Good morning!

Last night my husband and I were composing an email to our Sunday School class.  One of the reminders was to bring items for the church's food pantry, one of the ongoing ministries of our church.  Being poor, having little of worldly possessions is a difficult state when one is surrounded by the luxury of others.  That condition of poverty, when also tremendous debt is present, is made exponentially worse.

In 2 Kings 4:1-7, we see just such a situation.

1Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD; and the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” 2Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” 3Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your neighbors, even empty vessels; do not get a few. 4“And you shall go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour out into all these vessels, and you shall set aside what is full.” 5So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they were bringing the vessels to her and she poured. 6When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not one vessel more.” And the oil stopped. 7Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”

Here we have a widow whose dead husband was a prophet.  What was the man's name?  We are not told.  In our modern day we tend to think that there were few prophets in Old Testament times, because only the writings of a few of them are part of our Holy Bible.  However, we are told in this passage and others that there were many more, a brotherhood of prophets, if you will.  We also see in this passage that those prophets took care of each other.

I marvel at the way Jewish society operated, overall, to take care of the poor.  This ancient people is criticized for being "too patriarchal".  But, it appears that they took care of their poor much better than we do in America in modern times.  How many single women, many with children are "cared for" by the government and are as a result unable to break free from their poverty?  Our governmental system is clearly ineffective in reducing poverty.  Let's look at what Elisha did when petitioned by this woman.

It is clear that the woman had been hounded by creditors for some time.  She had sold all she had to pay her debts.  The only remaining assets she had were her two sons, apparently minors, and a jar of oil.  There was a law in Israel in those days that, if debts could not be paid, the man of the house would work for his creditors for 7 years to repay those debts (Exodus 21:2).  In the Shemittah Year (the 7th year), all debts were forgiven; and, the servitude would be ended.  When there was no man to fulfill this obligation, male children would suffice.

In desperation, the woman had sought out Elisha for help.  Note how he helped her.  He did not just give her the money to pay her debts.   He worked within an already effective system, not by abolishing it, but by using it in the context of a miracle.
He began by asking her to take her last remaining asset and "work" to enhance it.  Now, sure, a miracle occurred.  The oil was multiplied miraculously according to her measure of faith.  She was instructed to bring as many oil vessels as she could borrow (having sold all of her own, we can assume).  We do not know how many she brought; but, we do know this: had she brought more, more would have been filled with the oil.
Then, she was told to go sell the oil...more work.  Had she not been willing to obey the prophet Elisha, or had she not been willing to do the work, she would have lost her sons to debtor's servitude and most likely died.

Most theologians see oil as a "type" or a representation of the Holy Spirit of God.  In the Old Testament, when prophets, priests and kings were ceremonially appointed to their offices of service, they were anointed with oil.  This human anointing symbolized the actual anointing of them by the Holy Spirit, which came to dwell with (upon) them and equip them for effective service.  In 1 John 2:27, the apostle associated anointing with oil with the ever-present indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the heart each believer.

As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you. But his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false; just as it taught you, remain in him.

As the physical oil given from God to the widow in 2 Kings freed her from the bondage of our debt, the Holy Spirit is God's anointing, His promise that we are freed from our sin debt.  We receive the Spirit's anointing at the moment we forever yield our hearts and lives to Jesus Christ.  A miraculous transformation occurs, one no less miraculous than the one which occurred in the lives of the widow and her two sons.

One thing I love about this story, as I get ready to close, is that this story illustrates that God will not abandon His "righteous ones".  If we belong to Him, we are called "righteous" because of what Christ did on our behalf.  His righteousness was credited to our account so that we can be viewed "righteous", restored in the eyes of Father.  Father's promise in Psalm 37:25 is this:

I have been young and now I am old.  Yet, I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.

I don't know if you have ever known financial poverty or not.  But, I do know this: all of us have known poverty of the soul.  Anyone who does not possess salvation through Jesus Christ is poor in spirit, the very worst kind of poverty.  Jesus promised in Matthew 5:3 (and also in Luke 6):

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven."

Jesus' offer of spiritual riches still stands today, and is the beginning point to escaping not only this worst form of poverty but of other types of poverty and bondage as well.  I am not saying that, with Christ in your heart, your life will be trouble-free.  That is not what Christ intended.  It is not the "way of the cross".  However, with an eternal spring of the oil of Christ's Holy Spirit flowing inside of you, you will never face any type of trouble alone.  You will never be "forsaken" or "poor" as long as the God who created all things lives within you.  As the apostle Paul exclaimed,

"Oh, the depth of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God!"

Romans 11:33

Lord Jesus, thank you for delivering me from abject poverty, from which I could have never escaped on my own.  I was a spiritual widow, having no husband of my own.  But You saved me, making me part of Your Bride!  No matter what circumstances may come, my heart is an ever-flowing fountain of oil, of the Holy Spirit, who lives in me.  May I never forget, never despair, no matter what this life brings.  You are ever with me.  I am never forsaken.  You will never abandon me.  All my spiritual hungers You will more than satisfy.  My heart bows before You in amazement and gratitude, at the magnitude of Your love for me.  In Jesus' name, amen.