Today, we cover a true account of a desperate woman who needed a big financial breakthrough. She was in serious debt. How does God handle debt? Sermon by Pastor Pamela Haneveld on Sunday 23rd October 2022.
Are you in Debt?
There’s been a lot of talk about a world recession of late so, just out of personal interest, I decided to see which countries currently have the greatest debt, and I was rather surprised at the answer. Apparently, the USA has the greatest external debt in the world of 31.2 trillion dollars, China comes second at 13 trillion (US) dollars, and the UK third at 9.02 trillion (US) dollars. Australia is ranked tenth, yes tenth, as small as we are, we owe externally at least 1.83 trillion US dollars. Now, debt is ok if you can pay it back, but when you can’t, things start to get a little tricky. Especially when there are huge interest payments attached to the debt.
This is why people, who purchased their $500,000 home a couple of years ago at the interest rate of 3.35% are becoming a little concerned now the interest rate has grown to 6.96% That just so happens to be roughly $18,000.00/year more in interest they will have to pay. Ouch that hurts the budget! Debt has been around for a long, long time. So long, in fact, that even Moses covers the topic of loans in the Bible close to 3400 years ago. For when Moses spoke to the Israelites concerning money lending, this was to be the protocol.
“You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.” In Exodus 22:25, it talks about not charging interest to the poor.
Deuteronomy 23:19-20
“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.”
Exodus 22:25
Today, I am going to cover an account of a desperate woman, in ancient Israel, who needed a big financial breakthrough – she was in debt. Maybe you have debt. Maybe you need a financial breakthrough. Or maybe you need a different kind of break through (there’s more than one way to be in debt). You may need a breakthrough concerning your health or employment or your family. Well, today’s sermon is just for you because God is the same today as He was in the Bible times. So, listen up. This living word, I’m about to deliver, could be the beginning of the removal of your financial, physical, emotional, social debt…
Let us pray
Lord, You paid a debt I could not pay. For this, I thank You Jesus. But the amazing thing is that the blessing doesn’t stop there. You continue to pour Your blessing on us throughout our whole life on earth and beyond. Let everyone have a revelation of this fact today. Amen
We’re reading from 2 Kings 4:4-7 New Living Translation
4 One day the widow of a member of a 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 neighbours. 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.”
2 Kings 4:4-7
It’s interesting to note, concerning this amazing account, that Elisha’s name means God is salvation. God is salvation – what a cool name. Every time someone calls Elisha by name, they are actually admitting that God is salvation. A desperate woman comes to Elisha for help. She was in a dire strait.
For whatever reason, her husband who was a God-fearing man was dead! It could have been an accident, it could have been sickness, it could have been murder… we don’t know! The Bible doesn’t say! But he was dead, and she certainly wasn’t expecting her husband to be dead, and neither was he by the sound of it!
If it wasn’t bad enough losing the partner of her life with all the grief, pain and sorrow that comes with missing someone she loves, but NOW her FUTURE was looking extremely bleak! Not just for her but for her sons as well. You see her husband had died in debt. He was a prophet in training, who lived in a small community with other ‘trainee’ prophets who Elisha would visit from time to time. Like everybody else in his community he had economic obligations but, being a ‘trainee’ prophet means that he had limited financial resources.
So, this young prophet, with a small family, had to borrow money and died before he could pay back the debt. There certainly was no life insurance in Israel at this time. And there wasn’t an option to file for bankruptcy. The debt of the dead husband now belonged to his grieving wife AND children. The creditor had a lawful right to make a claim against the family. And as such, the law allowed the creditor to take the debtor’s children as slaves in payment for the debt. They would have to work for the creditor until the year of Jubilee when the law required the creditor to free them (Lev25:39-40; Exo 21:7; cf. Neh 5:4-5). So, even though his actions sound harsh to our ears, this creditor was acting according to the law at that time.
This poor widowed woman didn’t have ‘a leg to stand on,’ her children would be taken from her. And God only knows how they will be treated. Furthermore, the woman relied upon her children for her own survival. With her children gone, not being able to help her, she could well end up dying of starvation. This woman, and her sons, needed saving.
She needed God’s supernatural salvation in her situation. Thus, she approaches the well-recognized prophet, Elisha, and cries out to him “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.”
I like the way this desperate woman points out to Elisha who her husband was. He was a servant of God who feared the LORD!!! God must surely honour that!? She’s right, the Bible makes it clear that God does indeed honour those who serve and fear Him. It’s okay when you bring your requests before the LORD to remind Him that you are His child. You see, you don’t really need to remind God, He knows exactly who you are, but you do need to remind yourself and others who pray for you. Therefore, speak it out because it lifts our faith when we remind ourselves that we are His children, and He cares for us.
This woman right from the onset reminds Elisha that her husband feared the LORD and Elisha – NEEDS TO REMEMBER THIS! Elisha, from this point on, simply becomes the voice of God to this woman. He does no more than speak to her… He doesn’t set about raising funds for her family, or checking out what he has in his house so he can help her with a food parcel. Or writing a pleading letter to her lender. He simply speaks to her.
You see, if God’s words can create the universe surely, they can solve any earthly problem. He says to the desperate widow, “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” “What do you have?” Let me just say that this is so typical of God’s response to HIS people when they cry out to Him.
For example, many years before this, we know that Moses had a panic attack when God told him to approach pharaoh. Moses cried out to God and said, ‘what do I do if they don’t believe me’, God answered him with the question “What is in your hand?” “What is in your hand?” His trusty staff which he had been using for years rounding up the sheep in the wilderness was in his hand, and it became the means for many mighty miracles.
When the disciples came to Jesus concerned about the 5000 hungry people who had been listening to Jesus all day, Jesus answered them by saying ‘You feed them, what do you have?’ ‘What do you have?’ They had five loaves and two fishes – as far as God was concerned that was enough because He ended up feeding them all from the five loaves and two fish.
Elisha – God is salvation said to the woman, ‘What do you have?’ She could have answered… ‘What do you mean by asking me what I have? I’m desperate here! My husband is dead, you got that he’s dead. He’s the one who brought the money in but he’s not here anymore and he was a good man. He didn’t deserve this and neither do I. My sons are going to be taken from me if I don’t pay this massive debt. I have nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing! Do you hear me!? That’s why I’m here!
She could have easily spat the dummy, we do. Often over far less stressful situations. But right at this widow’s most desperate moment, where things couldn’t possibly get any worse, she was able to focus on what she had. God wanted her to take account of what she had. And anyone who belongs to Him has something even at the darkest moment. She said, “Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” I have some oil. I have oil. Olive oil was a valuable commodity in ancient Israel. It had many practical uses, from the holy to the mundane. It was used for anointing, it was used for offerings, for medicative purposes, for cooking and of course to fuel lamps for light.
Everyone needed olive oil! And she had some, not a lot but she had some. So,
Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbours. 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.”
2 Kings 4:3-4
The woman in obedience did exactly what Elisha told her to do. She and her sons went about following his command. As ridiculous as the whole thing sounded, she obeyed the saviour. Her sons brought her as many pots as possible and she began to fill them with the oil she had, privately – behind closed doors. I have a little theory about this ‘privately behind closed doors thing’ (bear with me a minute)
I think she was asked to do it privately away from the public eye so that people’s opinions and subsequent comments would not interfere with her own faith. In fact, when she first started to pour, I reckon even her sons weren’t in the room, they were too busy fetching more jars. It was her business; it was between her and God. She had the oil, she had the faith, and God kept the oil flowing.
Can you imagine what it was like when she first started to pour? It would have been amazing! The oil kept on flowing. For as long as it had a vessel to fill, it kept pouring. I wonder if she sang “I’m in the money, I’m in the money!!!” It didn’t even hurt or exhaust her arm to pour out so much oil, because the little jar would have been as light as a feather to hold!
When the boys caught onto what was happening, I’m sure they wanted to have a go at pouring too. Mum, could I have a turn? Give me a go? Let me be second! Please!? The Scripture tells us that, when all the pots were full, she said to her son, who was laughing his head off at the amazing spectacle, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said, “There is not one pot left mum – we couldn’t possibly fit another pot in the house.” And the oil stopped.
As soon as this happened, she went back to Elisha who told her to, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest.” Hallelujah what a Saviour! She was out of debt, and she had money to spare. God more than supplied her needs according to His riches in glory. This story is a true account that I believe we can safely spiritually apply to us as Christians.
There were many ways in which God could’ve helped this widow, but oil was very likely a deliberate choice not only because it was a readily marketable commodity, but also because it is symbolic of the power of the Holy Spirit. When you come to the end of your tether, when you need to experience the saving grace of God in anything you might face here on earth.
When you come to Him and ask Him to ‘Save you’ God asks you in return, ‘what do you have?’ ‘What do you have?!’ I will tell you what we as born-again Christians ALL have, We have the “OIL” which is the power of the Holy Spirit working within US. That’s a fact Jack!
The devil would say, “You have nothing. You’re going down the spout. You’re bankrupt. You and your family are my slaves, at my mercy. And you’re headed for destruction.” But God says, “It’s not by might, nor by power but by My Spirit.” Which He gave you the day you received Him as Lord and Saviour.
It might only seem like it’s a small amount of Holy Spirit right now – just a tiny weeny little drop of oil in your soul, but you’ve got it. And as you move in His will, as you do exactly what He tells you to do in His word, He will keep the Spirit pouring and pouring and pouring for as long as you need it. Hallelujah, what an awesome Saviour. God cares about you and all the issues that affect you, as a Christian, but you have the Holy Spirit in you to face whatever comes your way. What do you have? You have the answer in your hand. You have the answer in your heart. God is telling you the solutions to your issues, but you must listen and obey Him.
Amen