“Elisha said to her, ‘What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have [of value] in the house?’ She said, ‘Your maidservant has nothing in the house except a [small] jar of [olive] oil.’ Then he said, ‘Go, borrow containers from all your neighbors, empty containers—and not just a few.’”
—2 Kings 4:2–3 (AMP)
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There are verses we’ve read a hundred times. And then there are verses we finally see.
This is one of those verses.
Because suddenly, the words are alive. The prophet’s response isn’t casual or formulaic—it is layered, deliberate, and prophetically encoded.
A widow comes in distress, burdened by debt that was not her doing. Her husband was a prophet, a man who feared the Lord. And yet, his passing left her vulnerable. The creditors are coming—not for furniture or land—but for her sons. Her future. Her legacy. Her name.
And Elisha—the prophet of God—responds not with immediate action, but with two questions.
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The Two Questions: Divine Interrogation
“What shall I do for you?”
“Tell me, what do you have in the house?”
At first glance, they seem like simple inquiries.
But the pattern echoes someone else.
Yeshua, centuries later, would do the same. Asked a question, He would answer with a question. The Gospels record over 300 questions asked by Jesus, yet He answers directly only a handful of times. Why?
Because a question awakens introspection.
A question unearths hidden faith.
A question is an invitation to revelation.
And Elisha’s two-fold question mirrors that divine pattern:
“What shall I do for you?”
—Hebrew: מָה אֶֽעֱשֶׂה־לָּךְ (mah e’eseh-lach)
Meaning: What is it you’re asking Me to release?
“Tell me, what do you have in the house?”
—Hebrew: הַגִּידִי לִי מַה־יֵּשׁ לָךְ בַּבָּיִת (hagidi li mah-yesh lach babayit)
Meaning: Declare to me what still remains in your possession.
It is a holy interrogation. Not because God doesn’t know—but because the widow doesn’t.
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Hidden in Plain Sight: The Oil She Overlooked
Her first response is telling:
“Your maidservant has nothing…”
How often we begin there.
We assess our situation through the lens of lack. We do not see what we have. We only feel what we’ve lost.
But then comes the turning point:
“…except a small jar of oil.”
The Hebrew phrase for jar of oil is אָסוּךְ שֶׁמֶן (asuk shemen)—not a large storage vessel, but a small anointing flask. The kind used for consecration. The kind used to anoint kings.
Not much oil. But holy oil.
Not much quantity. But divine quality.
She thinks it’s too small to matter. But heaven is not limited by size—it is activated by surrender.
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Borrowing After Debt? A Divine Reversal
Here is the part that catches your breath.
She is already in debt because of someone else’s borrowing.
And Elisha says:
“Go… borrow.”
How can the solution to debt… be more borrowing?
The Hebrew word for borrow is שָׁאֵל (sha’el), which also means to ask, inquire, or request.
The same word used in Exodus when the Israelites asked the Egyptians for gold before the Exodus.
This is not borrowing in the transactional sense.
This is prophetic alignment.
God is redeeming the very mechanism that led to her despair. He is turning the curse into a conduit for blessing. The thing that once enslaved her is now the path to her multiplication.
This is how God works.
He uses the thing that once hurt you to heal you.
He redeems the very soil that buried your hope—and causes it to produce oil.
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Empty Vessels: Room for Overflow
“Go… borrow empty containers—and not just a few.”
Why empty?
Because only the empty can be filled.
Only the surrendered can overflow.
Only those who acknowledge they have nothing left can receive more than enough.
This is not just about oil.
This is about capacity.
The instruction is simple: Make room.
Make room for what God is about to do.
Make room for more than you asked for.
Make room—not just for enough to survive—but enough to silence the voice of debt forever.
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I Hear the Spirit Say…
“Ask again. Even if the last asking cost you everything.”
Ask for vessels.
Ask for room.
Ask for neighbors to lend you what you never thought to need.
Because the last time debt came for you, it came to steal your children.
But this time—borrowing will unlock your inheritance.
Borrowing will become birthing.
Asking will become anointing.
And lack will become overflow.
What was once a source of shame will become your story of oil.
“What do you have in your house?”
You may think it’s small.
You may think it’s not enough.
You may think it’s the remnant of what you lost.
But I see the oil.
I see the anointing.
I see what heaven can multiply.
Go. Ask. Borrow.
Make room for the miracle.”
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Final Thought
You are not in trouble because you have nothing.
You are on the edge of breakthrough because you still have something.
And the God who multiplied jars in the home of a grieving widow is the same God who multiplies today.
Not in palaces. But in hidden places.
Not in wealth. But in obedience.
Not in the known. But in the ask.
Your oil has not run out.
It’s just waiting for you to believe again… even if you have to borrow.
