So she did as she was told. 2 Kings 4:5 (NLT)
The widow in our story today was in a desperate situation. Her husband died and left her with a lot of debt and no inheritance. Back in those days, if you couldn’t pay a debt your family would be taken as a servant to work off what was owed. In this case, it would be her two sons that were taken. Possibly, this was the only family she had left.
She went to Elijah and told him of her predicament. He told her to gather as many empty jars as she could. I wonder if any sarcastic thoughts were running through her head. Excuse me? What am I going to do with jars? How are jars going to help me? Empty jars are empty!
But the Bible says “She did as she was told.” Her sons gathered as many jars as they could and God worked a miracle to save her family. She sold all the olive oil, paid off the debts and had enough to live on.
What would have happened if she’d thought “This is crazy! What are jars going to do? And what will it look like if we are running around town asking everyone for spare jars? What will they say about me? It’s going to look like I don’t know what I’m doing.” Or maybe she could have gathered a couple of jars, not put a lot of effort into it. She could have rationalized that she was still doing what the prophet said.
In either case, whether she didn’t do it at all or if she did it half-way, she would have lost her sons. She would have lost the good gift God wanted to give to her.
How often do we do this? We may not be in as desperate a situation as the widow was, but God still wants to give us good gifts. When he asks us to do our part and we don’t because we don’t want to look silly or it’s just not logical or we do it half-way, we miss out on the good gifts he wants to share. What would happen in our lives if we listened to what God was telling us and followed, no matter what it looked like? I bet, just like the widow, we’d experience the good gifts of a loving Father.
I bet the widow never, for one second, regretted collecting all the jars in her village. I would also bet that if we “Did as we were told”, we wouldn’t’ regret it either.