2 Kings 4:7 - Summer of Scripture

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Welcome to Summer of Scripture on the Naked marriage podcast. For 66 days in a row, we're releasing a short daily devotional for your marriage. Over these 66 days, we'll be sharing one scripture from each of the 66 books of the Bible and talking about how it applies to your life and marriage. Listen to all 66 episodes of these and you'll have a better understanding of God's word and his perfect plan for your marriage. Let's dive in to today's scripture. Hey there and welcome back to the Summer of Scripture on the Naked Marriage Podcast. We've so enjoyed this. I hope you have, too. We're on day 12, you guys. 12 days of this. That's amazing.

Amazing.

I commend you guys hanging in there with us. We are in two Kings today. Chapter four, verse seven. It says this. 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.

Yeah. So the background on this story, it's really. It's a beautiful, miraculous story. Elisha the prophet finds his way to the home of this woman, this single mom, who is about to starve to death. Like, debtors are coming after her. In those days, you know, you had to sometimes pay your debts by being sold off into slavery yourself along with your family. And so she and her sons were going to be sold off as slaves to. She just thought, there's no hope for us. You know, we're getting ready to be at the end of our rope here. And Elisha said, well, what do you have? And could you make me a meal? And she's like, all I have is enough for, like one meal. And I was going to just eat that with my kids. And then we were just going to wait around to starve to death, basically. And he says, well, here's. I want you to have the faith to do this. I want you to. As a first step of faith, I want you to make me a meal with that and trust that God's going to provide. And so she chose to do that. It's kind of like, well, all right, what do I have to lose? And so he said, now, I want you to do this. I want you to go gather, like, all of the empty containers. You can find all of them from your own house. Anybody that will loan you some. She got all these empty containers, tons of them. And he said, now to this tiny little bit of oil that she had left, he goes, I want you to pour it into the containers. And just kind of like Jesus later would feed thousands of people with five loaves and two fishes, that oil kept pouring and pouring out of this one little flask and filled container after container after container. And she was just completely blown away. And he said, now, that oil, which was very valuable in the day, he said, now go and sell this. Pay off your debts, and what's left over will be enough for you and your kids to live on. And it's this story that shows the supernatural provision of God. It shows that God has the concern for us when we're at our lowest moment and we feel like we have nothing and no way to repay him or anyone else. And it shows that when we choose to live with faith and generosity, even in those moments where it seems like we have nothing to give, how God can supernaturally break through and provide. And it's just a reminder that whatever is missing in your life, whatever lack that you have, that God cares about that not in, like, this health and wealth way that, you know, it's like he wants you to have that new Ferrari. He probably doesn't care about you having a Ferrari, even though, Lord, if you do, I'll take one. You know, it sounds all right. But what he does care about is making sure that your needs are met. Because you're his child and he loves you and cares for you even more than you care about yourself, even more than you love and care for your own children, he loves you with the perfect, everlasting love. And this story is just one of the beautiful reminders of the tenderness of God, his mercy and his provision.

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Wow.

I love this story. And I just think that we need to hold on to stories like this to know that God sees us. Like, I think sometimes we feel like we're insignificant, that our needs are insignificant. Like, what does he care about me over here? And, you know, wherever we live with my kids? Like, we think we're forgotten. Like, I think sometimes in our lowest moments, I'm sure that poor mom, that hardworking mom who's doing everything she can to provide for her kids and doesn't, especially in that day and age, I mean, to not have a husband. And I mean, it's just. It was a really hard life for women especially, and even single moms. I mean, it was just so hard. I'm sure she thought that God had forgotten her. And I'm sure she thought, you know, how could he even know my situation? But just knowing that God went out of his way, you know, and God does that for all of us. He goes out of his way. I think we have to look for him, though. We have to. Even just calling out in our weariness, in our tears, knowing that God sees us and that he wants to provide for us. And oftentimes, though, it's in ways that we can't even see at the moment. Like, she's not thinking, I can make this oil spread this far and then ultimately sell it, but that God would send a prophet, you know, to have this moment with her to show her that God sees her. And not only that, but he will provide for her probably even more than she was expecting. Because he provided in the sense of covering those debts. But then there's extra. Right. It's beyond what she thought she needed. Cause she's just wanting to cover the baseline, like the debts. But he's giving her more to even live on. And I think in many ways we have those stories. I mean, we definitely have those stories in our life. And I think that just when you think God's forgotten about you, something happens that restores your hope in humanity. I remember and in God. I remember years ago, we were really young and in ministry and really just having a hard financial time. And this is early in our marriage. I don't even know if we had children yet. And it was. We were paycheck to paycheck, but honestly, not even able to really cover. I mean, we were in debt. I mean, we're trying to desperately to get out of debt. And I remember one day we went out to the mailbox and we really. I'm telling you, I don't remember Telling, like, just probably being a little prideful, didn't really tell anybody about how, how bad it was at the time financially. And we go to our mailbox that one day and we're. I'm looking through the mail and there's an envelope with I think $200 in it, if I remember correctly. It had two $100 bills. And I started crying and I brought it into you. Do you remember this?

Yeah.

And I. It had no name on it, no return address, nothing, you know, and at that time, it was a million dollars.

Yeah, it might as well have been. It was a life changing amount of money for us in that moment. $200 back then, honestly, like 20 years ago, you know, I mean, it is like, I think, you know, gas costs like 2 cents a gallon. You could buy a loaf of bread for a penny. Like horse and buggy was 50 cents. Like, no. $200 went a long way.

Well, it did for us. You know, for us. It just. I took it as a God wink. I call it a godwink, like God winking at you like, I gotcha. I see you. I haven't forgotten about you. And I'm not saying it's just financial. I feel like blessings come in all different shapes and forms. And for us, though, it was one of the. I still don't know who gave that to us. I have no idea. We tried to figure it out, but we couldn't. But I think that that was even better because we're like, we don't even know who did this, you know? And I will tell you, in that moment, I remember us talking about this. We said, one day we're going to be that we want to do that for someone else. And there's been times we've done that and we sat back and they don't know it's us. And it's been so cool. It's just so cool to be part of that story.

And there's blessing in it. It's more blessed to give than to receive.

Way more.

God wants to give you to a place where you can be generous to others, not for recognition. Because the Bible says when you give, don't even let your left hand know what your right hand's doing. Don't do it to, you know, to have people cheer for you, but be an undercover, generous person. And there's such blessing in that. Make that your goal. Like, start dreaming with your spouse, not only about how can we get out of debt, but dream about how generous you can be someday to others. And also let this story and this day's lesson be a reminder to you to look back on your life and to think of at least one story where God came through and provided in a time that you really need it in a way that. Yeah, that just he answered a prayer for you in a tangible way. And look back on that. Celebrate that. Thank God for that again. And just be comforted in knowing that you have a God who still wants to meet your needs. And I'm so thankful that we do.

Absolutely.

Guys, thanks so much for tuning in with us. Join us today. Tomorrow rather for day 13 will be in the book of first chronicles as we start to wrap up this second week of summer of Scripture. See you soon.