#299: When the Meager is Multiplied

<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">“What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">- 2 Kings 4:2a (NLT)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Have you ever been in a situation where it was difficult to make ends meet? When there was more month than money? Where the butter was spread way too thin on that slice of bread? Running on fumes and coasting into the gas station is a regular occurrence. And the bills continue coming in like one crashing wave after another against the shores of your life.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s the scene playing out in the lives of a widow and her two sons (2 Kings 4:1-7). The family breadwinner has died and now a creditor has come knocking on their door to collect. Unable to pay, the only other option is for her boys to work off the debt as slaves. But she knows a man of God in the area. In fact, her husband used to serve alongside this man known as Elisha.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Down to her last thread of hope, the widow shares her predicament with this man who served under and succeeded the great prophet, Elijah.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This simple, open-ended question is one that all of us can ask when we encounter those in need. It’s also a question that would have been fresh on Elisha’s mind. Just two chapters earlier, his mentor Elijah asked him, “Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away.”</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">(2 Kings 2:9)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Not waiting for the widow’s response to this question, Elisha drills down with a more practical question, “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Taking a quick inventory, she responds, “Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil.”</span></p> <p><s