And a woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha saying, Thy servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant feared Jehovah; and the creditor is come to take my two children to be bondmen.
Elisha has just saved three kings and their armies in the desert. Now the scene shrinks to one household, where a creditor is coming for a widow's two boys. Does the God who moves nations also stoop to one family? And why did a man who feared the Lord leave his wife with nothing but debt?
Hamilton Smith joins two lines of Psalm 147:
The God who "determines the number of the stars" and "gives to all of them their names" is the God who "heals the brokenhearted." The God who can count the countless stars of heaven can stoop to heal one broken heart on earth (Psalm 147:3-4). The grace of God that has saved kings and their armies from destruction is able to meet the need of one desolate widow. Elisha, too, the minister of this grace, is as ready to come to the help of this lowly widow as he had been the willing servant of kings.
The shock is not that a woman was poor, but which woman.
Here what is noticeable is not so much the nature of the distress, but that a widow of one of the Lord's prophets in His own land should sink to such poverty. It shows how completely the nation must have forgotten and neglected the care of God, when such a case could exist there with no one helping.
God had already written the remedy into His law, so the failure was Israel's, not His:
In this case the coming of the creditor was the trouble, and God in His word had anticipated and provided for such a difficulty (Lev. 25:39-43). Faith and obedience would have recognised in such a case the opportunity of showing grace, especially towards a poor widow. But the compassions of God are deeper and richer than even the most merciful of His people. Faith sets up its claim on the heart of Him who has said, "Leave your fatherless children; I will keep them alive; and let your widows trust in me."
She presses the point that her husband was godly. Fereday links her case to an old puzzle:
This story suggests the thoughts that drove Asaph to the very edge of unbelief (Ps. 73). That the godly should suffer while the ungodly prosper has often been a painful puzzle to tried hearts. Here the widow stressed that her husband feared the Lord. Yet death had snatched him from her, leaving nothing but debts. Slavery for her children was the only possible outcome, so far as the eye could see. Unbelief tends to cry in such circumstances, "All this has come against me." Faith quietly says, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."
Commentators differ on what the creditor pictures. Dennett reads him as the law, which never bends:
Her husband — one who feared the Lord — was dead, and he had left his widow so hopelessly in debt that the creditor claimed her two sons as bondmen. Who then was the creditor? It was, we judge, the law. The law contains no mercy, and it always demanded its penalties and claims in full. So it had brought death on the husband (compare Rom. 7) and was now seeking to reduce his two sons to bondage.
Mawson turns the picture toward every hearer and puts God in the creditor's place:
A widow in the Scriptures is a figure of complete helplessness and an object for pity, and this widow was bankrupt. Her case was doubly sad, but it pictures the case of every sinner outside of Christ… You are a bankrupt sinner. You cannot clear your own debts, and you have no strength of your own. The Lord Jesus Christ always spoke the truth. In a Pharisee's house He told a parable about a creditor who had two debtors, and neither could pay him a penny. God is that Creditor, and we are those debtors.
Rossier fills in the scene around her cry:
The sons of the prophets are without resources in Israel; their poverty is total… The widow has nothing to ransom her sons from the creditor's hand, nothing except a little oil in the house, and the oil, the symbol of spiritual power, is very nearly gone… The Lord no longer dwells among His people, but His Spirit is present in double measure with the prophet… This poor woman, whose cry has reached the right place, becomes the object of tender care.
Elisha's first move is not to give but to ask, and the question empties her hands before it fills them:
This surely matches the way of the Lord. In His day, when the disciples tell Him of the need of the crowd, before showing His grace He makes their complete inability plain by asking, "How many loaves do you have?"… So Elisha's question brings to light that the widow has nothing in her house "save a pot of oil." But how can that save her from the claims of the creditor?
- The cry. A widow with nothing cried to the prophet, and her cry reached the right place.
- The context. Her poverty exposes a nation that had forgotten God's care. His law had already provided for this very case.
- The confusion. Her husband feared the Lord and still died in debt. Unbelief says everything is against us; faith says all things work together for good.
- The creditor. Commentators read him as the law, which shows no mercy, or as God Himself facing debtors who cannot pay a penny. Either way, the debt is real and she cannot clear it.
- The compassion. God's mercy runs deeper than the kindest of His people. Faith claims His promise: He keeps the fatherless alive and lets widows trust in Him.
And Elisha said to her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thy handmaid has not anything at all in the house but a pot of oil.
Elisha stands before a widow who has lost her husband and is about to lose her two sons to a creditor. His first move is not a miracle but a question about what is left in her house.
The chapter before this one settled the fate of kings and armies. This one bends down to a single household, and one writer sets the two side by side:
The God who "tells the number of the stars," and "calls them by their names," is the God who "heals the brokenhearted." The stars are too high for us to reach, and the sorrows of a broken heart too deep. But the God who can count the countless stars of heaven can stoop to heal one broken heart on earth. The grace of God that has saved kings and their armies from destruction is able to meet the need of one desolate widow. Elisha, too, the minister of this grace, is as ready to come to the help of this lowly widow as he had earlier been the willing servant of kings.
Elisha does not answer her cry at once. He asks what she has — and the asking is part of the cure, because it brings her poverty out into the open:
This is in harmony with the way of the Lord. In His day the disciples tell Him of the need of the crowd. Before showing His grace, He makes clear their complete inability to meet the case. He asks, "How many loaves do you have?" His question brings to light that they had only five loaves and two small fish. But what are they among so many? So Elisha's question brings to light that the widow has nothing in her house "except a jar of oil." But how can that save her from the claims of the creditor?
Such a question clears the ground for what God does next:
Such questions, whether from the Master or the servant, prepare the way for the display of the grace of God. The Lord takes the five loaves and the two fish and, looking up to heaven, blesses them. Having brought the disciples' little into touch with heaven's plenty, it more than meets the needs of the crowd. So with the widow's jar of oil: when brought into touch with the power of God in grace, it will more than meet her need.
Her "except" is not modesty. The word itself measures how close to empty she was:
This poor woman whose cry has reached the right place becomes the object of tender care. But first she must confess to the prophet what she has: "Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil." The word means just the amount of oil needed to anoint oneself. Nothing to pay off her debts, nothing to clear herself, nothing but a very small measure of spiritual power.
The widow and God value the same jar very differently:
Notice the difference between man's thought and God's. The jar of oil was as nothing to the poor widow. She had nothing, "except a jar of oil." In the eyes of God this was everything. Elisha's question was meant to bring out that this jar of oil was in the house. Now oil is always in Scripture a picture of the Holy Spirit, and having the Holy Spirit is the only way of practical deliverance from the yoke of the law. Up to this point the widow did not know the value of the only thing she had in the house. And she was not yet in the right state of soul to use what she really had.
Nothing new is fetched from heaven. The supply begins with the little already in the house:
God does not allow us to be placed in circumstances that carry no evidence of His providing mercies. They may be very small and scanty. Yet faith takes hold of them. Faith encourages the soul in God and declares, "The Lord is my helper" — not outside His mercies, but through them.
One writer reads the whole scene as a picture of the sinner's case:
A widow in the Scriptures is a figure of complete helplessness and an object for pity, and this widow was bankrupt. Her case pictures the case of every sinner without Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ always spoke the truth. In the Pharisee's house He told a parable about a certain creditor who had two debtors. Neither could pay him a cent. God is that Creditor, and we are those debtors. You may not be the five-hundred-denarii debtor, but a debtor you most certainly are, and you have nothing to pay.
- Debt — the widow owes what she cannot pay. One writer says every sinner stands in the same place: God is the Creditor, and we have nothing to pay.
- Question — Elisha asks, "what have you in the house?" The question is not delay but preparation. It brings her inability into the open before grace acts.
- Jar — the word means just enough oil to anoint oneself. Oil pictures the Holy Spirit, so she held the one thing that mattered without knowing its worth.
- Scales — what was "nothing except" to her was everything to God.
- Stoop — the God who names the stars heals one broken heart. The prophet who served kings serves this widow just as readily.
And he said, Go, borrow for thyself vessels abroad from all thy neighbours, empty vessels; let it not be few;
A widow is about to lose her two sons. Elisha's answer is not money but an errand: go to the neighbours and gather empty jars — many of them. Why empty? Why borrowed? And why leave the number to her?
Her trouble is small next to kings and armies.
The God who "determines the number of the stars" and "gives to all of them their names" is the God who "heals the brokenhearted" (Ps. 147:3-4). The stars are too high for us to reach, and the sorrows of a broken heart too deep. But the God who can count the countless stars of heaven can stoop to heal one broken heart on earth. The grace of God that has saved kings and their armies from destruction is able to meet the need of one desolate widow. Elisha, too, the minister of this grace, is as ready to come to the help of this lowly widow as he had earlier been the willing servant of kings.
The one jar she owned held a tiny amount. The errand that follows sends her outside her house, then shuts her back inside it.
The word means: just the quantity of oil needed to anoint oneself. Nothing to pay off her debts, nothing to clear herself, nothing but a very little measure of spiritual power. Elisha has a fullness of spiritual resources. But there must be empty vessels, and the poor widow cannot gather too many. She is to borrow them from all her neighbours and bring them into the house. Then, with them all gathered, she is to shut the door on herself.
The jars differed in every way except the one way that mattered.
I have no doubt those vessels were all very different in size, shape and material. Some were small and some large, some beautiful in shape and others rough and plain. They no doubt looked very different. But they were all alike in this respect: they were empty vessels. What is an empty vessel? An empty vessel is a vessel out of which you can get absolutely nothing, but into which you can put exactly what you please. Are you ready to go to the Lord like that? Are you ready to tell Him you have nothing to give Him, and nothing to bring Him in payment for the blessing He is ready to give you?
The oil ran until the jars ran out. That detail decides who set the limit.
Here was one who wanted a blessing from God, and yet had nothing in her house except a pot of oil. Still, in the pot of oil lay the means God had provided to meet all her needs and keep her alive. However, in order that God may use the oil, He needs empty vessels. The woman's part was to provide the empty vessels; God will fill them. There was no lack in the supply of oil. The lack came on the woman's side. The oil stopped because there was not one vessel more.
Borrowing empty jars from neighbours who knew she was destitute was itself an act of exposed faith.
The neighbours could only give her the occasion to use the means she already had. Everyone knew her desperate circumstances. So asking to borrow an empty vessel said that she had something to put into it. People could well have mocked her, saying her poverty was well known and that it was folly to borrow empty vessels. She had only to say boldly, "The Lord is my helper."
Commentators read the oil as a picture of the Holy Spirit, and draw the same conclusion for believers now.
There were great possibilities in the pot of oil, though the widow did not know it. Whatever else we lack, every Christian has his pot of oil. In other words, every Christian has the power of the Holy Spirit within him. Let us use it in faith, and all our difficulties become as nothing.
The shut door then becomes the practical half of the lesson.
There is the exhortation, "be filled with the Spirit." However, to be filled with the Spirit, God must have empty vessels. Often we let the flesh go unjudged. The heart is full of so much that is not Christ. We allow the world in different degrees and the flesh in varied forms, and so there is little room for the oil. We need to shut the door on the world and the flesh, so that the Spirit we have may fill our hearts.
- Empty hands. The widow had nothing in the house but a little oil. That is where God began.
- Empty jars. The vessels differed in every way but one: you could get nothing out of them. Only empty vessels can be filled.
- Empty asking. "Not too few" left the number to her. She had to risk her neighbours' mockery and say, "The Lord is my helper."
- Empty room. The supply never failed. The flow stopped only when the jars ran out, so the shortage was on her side, not God's.
- Empty of the world. The oil pictures the Spirit every believer already has. Shut the door on the world and the flesh, and He has room to fill the heart.
and go in, and shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and pour out into all those vessels, and set aside what is full.
The prophet's answer to the widow is one short instruction: go in, shut the door, pour, and set each full jar aside. Why would a miracle of grace depend on a closed door and on empty jars she had to borrow herself?
She had told the prophet that her house held nothing but one small pot of oil. One writer measures just how little that was.
The word means: just the quantity of oil necessary to anoint oneself. Nothing to pay off her debts, nothing to clear herself, nothing but a very little measure of spiritual power. There is fullness of spiritual resources in Elisha; but empty vessels are needed; the poor widow cannot gather too many.
Another writer reads that small store as a picture of what every Christian already has, even without knowing it.
But there were great possibilities in the pot of oil, though the widow did not know it. Whatever else we lack, every Christian has his pot of oil. In other words, every Christian has the power of the Holy Spirit within him. Let us use it in faith, and all our difficulties become as nothing.
The pouring stopped, and the reason it stopped is the lesson of the verse.
Here was one who wanted a blessing from God, and yet had nothing in her house except a pot of oil. Yet in that pot of oil was the means God had provided to meet all her needs and sustain her life. However, for God to use the oil, He needs empty vessels. The woman's part was to provide the empty vessels; God will fill them. There was no lack in the supply of oil. The lack came on the woman's side. The oil stopped because there was not one vessel more.
The vessels had to be empty, not just available. One writer applies that emptiness to the person being filled.
Empty vessels are needed; to be filled with anointing oil you have to be emptied of self.
The closed door is not a small detail. One writer follows it through the chapter.
She is to borrow them from all her neighbours and bring them into the house from outside. Then, once she has gathered them, she is to shut the door on herself. It is a private scene, and the nation that had turned away from God is in no way called to take part. Three times in this chapter (vv. 4, 21, 33) the door is shut. This shows plainly that these scenes have nothing to do with a public testimony like that of the great prophet who came before Elisha.
Another writer applies the shut door to the heart.
He has the power for this life in the gift of the Holy Spirit, whom oil in Scripture always pictures. Scripture urges us, "Be filled with the Spirit." But if we are to be filled with the Spirit, God must have empty vessels. We often let the flesh go unjudged. The heart is filled with so much that is not Christ. We allow the world in different degrees and the flesh in varied forms, so there is little room for the oil. We need to shut the door on the world and the flesh, so that the Spirit we have may fill our hearts.
Behind that door the situation still looked hopeless to the eye. One writer points out what the scene was missing from the visible inventory.
Picture the scene in that humble house. What did the widow have to look at that day? Just a small vessel of oil, several empty containers, and two poor orphan boys marked out for slavery. This was what the eye saw; but there was something else no natural sight could see — God.
Commentators differ on how far to press the picture. One reads the creditor as the law and the oil as the Spirit, making the miracle a picture of deliverance:
She found that it was the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that could make her free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2), and also that she must go on living in the power of the same Spirit (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:25).
Another writer draws out how much we may ask of God.
We too learn that God is never tired of meeting our need, that our requests (pictured by the empty vessels) can never be too many. Come as often as we may, and with as many vessels as our faith can bring, we shall also find that His fountain of grace and blessing can fill them all.
- Have — the pot of oil held only enough to anoint herself, yet the whole supply came through what she already had.
- Borrow — the vessels had to come from outside and had to be empty; being filled means being emptied of self first.
- Shut — the closed door keeps the scene private. It also shuts out the world and the flesh, so the Spirit can fill the heart.
- Pour — the oil never failed; it stopped only when the vessels ran out, so the limit was on her side, never God's.
- Live — the Spirit who frees us from the law of sin and death is the same Spirit we go on living by, day after day.
And she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons they brought [the vessels] to her, and she poured out.
A widow has nothing left but a small pot of oil. She does what the prophet told her. She goes home, shuts the door on the world outside, and starts pouring while her two sons keep handing her vessels. The verse turns on three plain actions: going, shutting, pouring.
This is not the only shut door in this chapter. One writer counts them and reads the pattern as a mark of Elisha's ministry.
Elisha has a fullness of spiritual resources, but empty vessels are needed, and the poor widow cannot gather too many. She is to borrow them from all her neighbours and bring them into the house. Once she has them together, she shuts the door on herself. It is a private scene, and the nation that had turned away from God is not asked to take any part in it. Three times in this chapter (vv. 4, 21, 33) the door is shut. This shows that these scenes have nothing to do with a public testimony like that of Elisha's great predecessor.
Before the door shut, she had to knock on her neighbours' doors and ask for empty pots.
The testimony in asking to borrow empty vessels was that she, who was known to be so poor, had something to put into them. Neighbours could well have taunted her that her poverty was obvious, and that borrowing empty vessels was folly. She had only to say boldly, "The Lord is my helper." In using the means she must, however, shut the door upon all outside influences, and so express her dependence upon God.
She poured from what she already had in the house. God sent nothing new. One writer sees more in that small pot than the widow did.
There were great possibilities in the pot of oil, though the widow did not know it. Whatever else we lack, every Christian has his pot of oil. In other words, every Christian has the power of the Holy Spirit within him. Let us use it in faith, and all our difficulties become as nothing.
The vessels her sons carried to her had one thing in common, and it was not their size or their quality.
Those vessels were probably different in size, shape and material. Some were small and some large. Some were beautiful in shape and others rough in appearance. Some were made of expensive material and others of no value at all. But they were all alike in one way: they were all empty vessels. What is an empty vessel? An empty vessel is a vessel out of which you can get absolutely nothing, but into which you can put exactly what you please.
The flow matched what she could hold. One writer takes that as God's normal way of blessing.
It is according to what we can receive that God loves to bless us… The blessing stops only in this way, when no vessel is left. There can never be a stop to the blessing as long as there is a heart ready to receive it.
The same limit appears in other events in these books. One writer lines the cases up.
The oil flowed while a vessel remained to take it. It was only when the son said no vessel was left that the oil stopped. What a lesson is here! The blessing is limited by man only. In 2 Kings 3 the kings received water according to the depth of the ditches they had prepared. In 2 Kings 13:18 Joash, king of Israel, missed the opportunity of his life: standing before the dying prophet, he struck the ground three times only. This meant three victories over his enemies instead of total destruction.
One writer turns the picture on the believer today, who wants everything God has for him.
He has the power for this life in the gift of the Holy Spirit, whom oil pictures again and again in Scripture. We are told, "be filled with the Spirit." But to be filled with the Spirit, God must have empty vessels… We allow the world in different degrees, and the flesh in varied forms, and so there is little room for the oil. We need to shut the door on the world and the flesh, so that the Spirit we have may fill our hearts.
- Go — she gathered vessels from every neighbour before a drop of extra oil appeared. Obedience came first, evidence second.
- Shut — the closed door kept the scene private, not public. She shut out every outside influence and leaned on God.
- Pour — God used the pot of oil she already had. It pictures the Spirit every believer already has.
- Empty — the vessels qualified by holding nothing. She supplied the emptiness; God supplied the filling.
- Stop — the oil stopped only when the vessels ran out. Man limits the blessing, never God.
And it came to pass when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said to her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.
The oil kept flowing while her sons brought jars, and it stopped the moment they ran out. So the supply was never the problem — but what set the limit?
Kelly reads the moment the oil stops as a statement about God's willingness, not about His limits:
The greatness of God shows far more in His care for souls and for each person. He can think of the smallest want and the smallest need of His people... It is according to what we can receive that God loves to bless us... "There is not another." Then the oil stopped flowing. It is only in that way that the blessing stops. There can never be a stop to the blessing as long as there is a heart ready to receive it.
Nothing in the verse says the oil ran out. What ran out was room to hold it.
Here was someone who wanted a blessing from God, and yet had nothing in her house except a pot of oil. Still, in that pot of oil was the potential means God had provided to meet all her needs and sustain her life. But for God to use the oil, He needs empty vessels. The woman's part was to provide the empty vessels; God will fill them. There was no lack in the supply of oil. The lack came on the woman's side. The oil stopped because there was not a vessel more.
Fereday sets this verse beside three other scenes where someone stopped short.
The oil flowed while a vessel remained to take it. It was only when the son said, "There is not another," that the oil stopped. What a lesson is here! Man alone limits the blessing. In 2 Kings 3 the kings received water according to the depth of the ditches they dug. In 2 Kings 13:18 Joash, king of Israel, missed the opportunity of his life. He stood before the dying prophet. He knew full well that the actions of that day mattered, yet he struck the ground only three times. That meant three victories over his enemies instead of total destruction. In Genesis 18 Abraham pleaded for the guilty cities of the plain. He stopped at ten people, though God had given no sign of growing tired of listening to His servant. It is always man who limits the blessing.
Mawson names the one thing the vessels had in common, then turns it into a question:
I have no doubt those vessels were all different in size, shape and material. Some were small and some large, some beautifully shaped and others rough and plain... but they were all alike in this respect: they were empty vessels. What is an empty vessel? An empty vessel is one you can get absolutely nothing out of, but into which you can put exactly what you please. Are you ready to come to the Lord like that? Will you tell Him you have nothing to give Him, and that you cannot pay Him for the blessing He is ready to give you?
Hamilton Smith reads the oil as the Holy Spirit, and shows why so little of it fills us:
He has the power for this life in the gift of the Holy Spirit, of whom oil in Scripture is the constant type. Scripture tells us, "be filled with the Spirit." But before God can fill us with the Spirit, He must have empty vessels. Very often we allow the flesh to go unjudged. So much that is not Christ fills the heart. We allow the world in different degrees and the flesh in various forms, and so there is little room for the oil. We need to shut the door on the world and the flesh, so that the Spirit we already have may fill our hearts. Then we walk by the Spirit, set our minds on the things of the Spirit, and find life and peace: "For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace" (Romans 8:6).
Dennett turns that into an invitation:
We learn that God is never tired of meeting our need. Our requests, pictured by the empty vessels, can never be too many. Come as often as we like, and bring as many vessels as our faith can carry. We too will find that His fountain of grace and blessing can fill them all. So we may open our mouth wide, and He will fill it.
- Vessel — One thing measured the whole miracle: how many empty jars stood in the room.
- Full — The oil never failed. What failed was room to hold it; the lack was on her side, not God's.
- Limit — Blessing stops where man stops it. Joash struck three times, Abraham stopped at ten, and the sons ran out of jars.
- Empty — The only qualification is having nothing of your own in the way. Shut the door on the world and the flesh.
- More — So bring more vessels, not fewer. God is never tired of filling, and no heart ready to receive is ever turned away.
And she came and told the man of God; and he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou [and] thy sons on the rest.
A widow's husband had died, leaving a debt so large that the creditor claimed her two sons. God had just filled every jar she could borrow with oil, and now the prophet tells her what to do with it.
In the chapter before, God rescued kings and their armies. Here the need is one widow's household, and commentators say the same grace reaches both.
The God who "determines the number of the stars" and "gives to all of them their names" is the God who "heals the brokenhearted." The stars are too high for us to reach, and the sorrows of a broken heart too deep. But the God who can count the countless stars of heaven can stoop to heal one broken heart on earth. The grace of God that has saved kings and their armies from destruction is able to meet the need of one desolate widow.
The oil had stopped flowing only when the last jar was full. The supply never failed; the containers did.
Now notice a remarkable thing. The oil flowed while a vessel remained to take it. It was only when the son said "there is not a vessel more" that the oil stopped. What a lesson is here! The blessing is limited by man only. In 2 Kings 3 the kings obtained water according to the depth of the ditches that were prepared. In Genesis 18 Abraham prayed for the guilty cities of the plain. He stopped at ten people, though God had given no sign of growing tired of listening to His servant's voice. It is always man who limits the blessing.
She does not sell a single jar on her own judgment. She reports back first, and then hears what to do.
The woman then came and told Elisha what had taken place (v.7). So we too should seek the Lord's presence. There we can enjoy sharing with Him the blessing that comes from simple obedience to His Word. Elisha told her to sell the oil and pay her debt, then she and her sons were to live on what remained. So the Spirit of God gives us the resources to pay our debt to all men. It is a debt of love that seeks the eternal blessing of others (Rom. 13:8). The Spirit also provides the resources for living a life pleasing to God (Gal. 5:16-18).
Commentators differ here. One reading stays with the plain history. God's law had already spoken to a case like hers: "the coming of the creditor was the trouble, and in His word God had already foreseen such a difficulty and made provision for it (Lev. 25:39-43)" (The Bible Treasury). Others read the creditor as a picture of the law itself.
Her husband was dead, and he had left his widow so deep in debt that the creditor claimed her two sons as slaves. Who then was the creditor? It was, we judge, the law. The law held no mercy, and it always demanded its penalties and claims in full... To whom then does she turn for help and rescue? She turns to Elisha, who is a picture of the risen Christ.
The same writer explains what the oil stands for. It both frees her and keeps her.
In Scripture oil always stands for the Holy Spirit. Having the Holy Spirit is the only way to be set free in practice from the yoke of the law... She still could not use her treasure, so she went once more to the man of God. He said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest." She discovered that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus could make her free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2). She also learned that she must go on living in the power of the same Spirit (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:25).
What settles the account is not all that God gives.
But that is not all. The man of God said to the widow, "pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest." There was far more than enough — enough to keep this woman and her children until the end of the story. So you will find it with the grace of God. The grace of God is not exhausted when it pardons our sins — nor when it justifies us. There is the rest of the grace, and it is at our disposal until the end.
- Care — the same God who saves kings and armies stoops to one widow's household. Nothing is too small for Him to notice.
- Capacity — the oil never ran short; the vessels did. "It is always man who limits the blessing."
- Consult — she reports back before she sells anything. The man of God directs both the debt and the daily living.
- Clear — what God supplied pays the whole debt. Commentators see in that creditor the law, which held no mercy.
- Continue — she lives on the rest. Grace is not used up in pardon. What is left carries her and her sons to the end.