Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.”
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?
What she already had
She had told the prophet that her house held nothing but one small pot of oil. One writer measures just how little that was.
H. L. RossierThe 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.
W. W. FeredayBut 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.
Empty vessels set the size of the blessing
The pouring stopped, and the reason it stopped is the lesson of the verse.
Hamilton SmithHere 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.
H. L. RossierEmpty vessels are needed; to be filled with anointing oil you have to be emptied of self.
The shut door
The closed door is not a small detail. One writer follows it through the chapter.
H. L. RossierShe 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.
Hamilton SmithHe 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.
What the room contained
Behind that door the situation still looked hopeless to the eye. One writer points out what the scene was missing from the visible inventory.
W. W. FeredayPicture 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.
The debt paid
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:
Edward DennettShe 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.
The Christian's FriendWe 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.
Summary
- 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.