Lesson 17 – She Did what Elisha Said
Read 2 Kings 4:1-7 https://www.bible.com/bible/59/2KI.4.ESV
2 Kings 4:5 – So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her.

A widow whose husband had been part of the group of prophets called out to Elisha, “My husband was a good man, devoted to God, but he is dead. He was in debt, and the man to whom he owed money is on his way to take my two children as slaves to pay the debt.”

Elisha answered, “I wonder how I can help? What do you have in your house?”

“Nothing,” she replied. “Well, I do have a little oil.”

Elisha said, “Go up and down the street and borrow jars and bowls from your neighbors. Not just a few, but all you can get. Come home, lock the door (with you and your sons inside the house), then pour the oil into each container until it is full.”

She did what Elisha said. When all the jars and bowls she borrowed were full, the oil stopped flowing.

The widow told Elisha what happened, and he told her to sell the oil to pay the debt; then she and her sons could live on the rest of the money.


There are debts we owe which we must pay, and debts we owe we can never pay. Any kind of financial debt is one we must pay. In our lesson today, the debt was earned by the husband of this family. The fact that he died before he could repay what he had borrowed might have seemed a valid reason for the widow to not have to pay it back, especially since women did not work and earn money in this culture. However, God did not see it this way; He did not force the lender to forgive the debt. But He also did not simply give this family the money to pay it. Instead He gave them a way to earn the money through some hard work for all involved, the mother and the sons. In our world today, debt is so easily gained through borrowing in many ways. God wants us to use our money with great accountability to Him first. Our borrowing should never be based on what we want but on what we have the ability to repay.

Romans 8:12-17 and Colossians 2:13-15 tell us about being debtors to God, a debt we can never repay. But our debt to God is such that we owe Him everything we have and are and will ever be or have. While we cannot repay, we can give Him ourselves as a willing servant to be used by Him.

*What has Jesus taught you about responsibility in your own finances?