2 kings 4:1-7
1 One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.”
2 “What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”
“Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied.
3 And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. 4 Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.”
5 So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. 6 Soon every container was full to the brim!
“Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons.
“There aren’t any more!” he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.
7 When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, “Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.”
the symbolism:
The lady-> us
elisha-> God
olive oil -> spirit
jars -> other people
so it starts off saying that she has a debt (sin) that needed to be paid for. she recognizes her need that she will loose everything if she doesn’t find a way to get out of it, so she goes to Elisha (God) and asks him for help. He says, what do you have, and she replies, i have a little bit of olive oil (holy spirit). In a way i think it is kind of like if we go to God in our need, he is like, relax, every little thing is gunna be ok, you’ve got my spirit, now take it and do my will and you will not only get out of trouble, but you will be able to live freely again by pursuing me and my will. This is the part when Elisha tells her to take that oil and gather every jar she can. He specifically tells her not to be bashful and only ask for a few. He didn’t want her to set a limit on what the spirit is capable of. so she gets every jar and she pours and pours and pours until every jar is full. This is how we are supposed to be. we are supposed to get as many people as we can, and pour out our lives into to them and let the holy spirit over flow from us into them until everyone of them is filled with it.
June 10, 2008 at 4:20 am
WOW! yea the symbolism is very powerfull true and specific. I believe God has hidden these types of symbolism in the scriptures for wiser men than me to understand to teach us these things, aka Dave and Josh.lol. But this is some very good stuff, and very powerful.