Elisha: Hope for Your Desperate MomentsНамуна

Oil and Godly People

He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. —Psalm 126:6

The widow turned to Elisha because she hoped somehow that a man of God would know the next step forward for her. She knew Elisha was in touch with God. He was the only hope she had. Elisha’s first response was a question to her, “How can I help?” and then he answered his own question as he thought about it with a question to her: “What do you have in your house?”

How many people would have thought to ask a question like that? Chances are Elisha did not know what his own question would lead to; he was going one step at a time.

Who would have thought “a little oil” would be the solution?

Sometimes what is right under our nose is the next step forward to solving our problem.

This account of Elisha shows that people turn to the godly for answers. We must expect the world to turn to us—and we should have answers!

Yes, people will turn to us, however unfairly it may seem, to explain what is going on in the world. We have this promise that when we are called to do so—to heads of state, for example—we take no thought of what to say but trust that God will give us words, as in Matthew 10:20. Although that verse refers to persecuted people having to defend their faith, it shows God’s readiness to help us have answers when put on the spot.

Elisha, I think, was fishing for an answer what to do next by asking the brokenhearted widow, “What do you have?”

“A little oil.”

God led Elisha one step at a time. Our Lord knows the way through the wilderness; all we have to do is follow.