In Second Kings, chapter four, verse one, the miraculous acts of Elisha present spiritual truths in dramatic action. The narrative of the widow and her two children reveals that God cares for His faithful in need and distress. The widow and her children represent God’s forsaken and oppressed people. In the Old and New Testaments, compassion for and care for the needy are signs of genuine faith in God and true devotion, as in Exodus twenty-two, verses twenty-two through twenty-four, Deuteronomy ten, verse eighteen, chapter fourteen, verse twenty-nine, Job twenty-nine, verse twelve, and James one, verse twenty-seven, respectively.
A poor widow of the scholars of the prophets complained to Elisha of her distress, namely that a creditor was about to take her two sons as servants (slaves). The Mosaic law gave a creditor the right to claim the person and children of a debtor who could not pay, and they were obliged to serve him as slaves till the year of jubilee, when they were once more set free, as in Leviticus twenty-five, verses thirty-nine to forty. When the prophet learned, on inquiry, that she had nothing in her house but a small flask of oil, which means an anointing flask, a small vessel for the oil necessary for anointing the body, he told her to beg of all her neighbors’ empty containers, and not a few. And then to shut herself in with her sons and to pour from her flask of oil into all these vessels till they were full, and then to sell this oil and pay her debt with the money, and use the rest for the maintenance of herself and her children.
She was to close the house door so that she might not receive disturbance in her occupation by other people and avoid all needless observation while the miracle was coming to pass. Then let the ones filled be put on one side, by the sons, who handed her the vessels, according to Second Kings four, verses five and six, so that she could continue to pour without intermission.