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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Friday, 3 October 2025:
2 Kings 4:1-7 — Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”
God miraculously provided for a desperate widow who had no hope but Him. The small jar of oil in her house became the means of an abundant supply when placed under God’s hand. The lesson is profound: God often begins with what little we have when we surrender it to Him, multiplying it beyond measure. This parallels the feeding of the five thousand in John 6, when a boy’s meager lunch fed a multitude, and the widow’s flour and oil in 1 Kings 17 that never ran out during the famine. God delights to use what seems insignificant to display His power, so that our faith will rest not in what we can see but in His unseen might. The oil flowed until there were no more vessels, an image of God’s grace, which continues to pour out until the capacity of our faith to receive it runs out. Her debt was paid in full and her family spared, foreshadowing the greater redemption Christ brings when He pays our spiritual debt with His blood.
“Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors….” “She did what she was commanded to do: she did it in faith; and the result answered the end. God takes care to deliver his servants in ways that exercise their faith. He would not have them be little in faith, for faith is the wealth of the heavenly life…. If she borrowed few vessels, she would have but little oil; if she borrowed many vessels they should all be filled, and she should have much oil. She was herself to measure out what she should have; and I believe that you and I, in the matter of spiritual blessings from God, have more to do with the measurement of our mercies than we think. We make our blessings little, because our prayers are little.” (Spurgeon)
2 Kings 4:8-17 — One day Elisha went on to Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to eat some food. So whenever he passed that way, he would turn in there to eat food. And she said to her husband, “Behold now, I know that this is a holy man of God who is continually passing our way. Let us make a small room on the roof with walls and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there.” … And he said, “At this season, about this time next year, you shall embrace a son.”
The Shunammite woman showed remarkable hospitality, not only offering meals but building a room so the prophet might rest. This was consistent, costly, and sacrificial giving. God honored her generosity with a gift beyond her imagination — a son in her barrenness. This reveals God’s heart to reward those who seek Him not for gain but out of love and reverence. Hebrews 13:2 tells us, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” The Shunammite’s hospitality became the channel of God’s miraculous blessing. What she gave in love, God returned in abundance, though not in money or possessions but in a child, the very thing her heart most longed for.
2 Kings 4:18-28 — When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. And he said to his father, “Oh, my head, my head!” The father said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” … And the child died. … Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me?’”
Her son’s sudden death shattered her joy and rekindled her old doubts. She felt deceived by God, as though the very blessing He had given was now a cruel joke. Here is the raw reality of faith: when tragedy strikes, we are tempted to interpret God’s love through the lens of circumstances rather than interpreting circumstances through the unchanging love of God. She became bitter while Elisha turned to prayer. Elisha shut the door and sought God’s presence, refusing to accept death as the final word. His faith mirrored Abraham’s when he trusted God to raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews 11:19). God restored the boy’s life, not because the Shunammite woman’s faith was perfect but because God’s mercy is perfect. This passage presses us to anchor our hope in God’s character, not in the fluctuations of life. Job declared, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him” (Job 13:15). Paul wrote, “For I am sure that neither death nor life… nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:38-39). Our security is not that life will always be easy, but that God’s love will never fail.
2 Kings 4:29-37 — Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tie up your garment and take my staff in your hand…. If you meet anyone, do not greet him.” … Then he went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Then he went up and lay on the child… and the flesh of the child became warm. Then he got up again and walked once back and forth in the house, and went up and stretched himself upon him. The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
Gehazi’s attempt with Elisha’s staff failed, but when Elisha himself prayed and pressed himself upon the boy, God restored life. The lesson is that God’s power is not in objects or formulas but in His Spirit, and He works through men and women wholly surrendered to Him. The sneezing seven times emphasizes God’s perfect restoration, complete and whole. Jesus Himself later performed similar resurrections, including Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5), foreshadowing His own resurrection and the ultimate resurrection of all who believe in Him (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Despite the fact the boy was revived, we know that, like the son of the widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings 17, Jairus’s daughter, and Lazarus, the boy eventually died anyway. However Christ has risen! In Him we have eternal life! We will have trials in this world, and we will die, but we will live eternally with Christ, fully restored, fully one with Him, fulfilled and complete. Rejoice through your sufferings knowing God is at hand working out His redemptive plan.
“There is a significant contrast between the stretched-out supplication of Elijah and Elisha and the authoritative command of Jesus in raising the dead (as in John 11:43). Elijah and Elisha rightly begged God to raise the dead. Jesus commanded the dead to be raised.” (David Guzik)
2 Kings 4:38-41 — And Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land. … One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds…. And as they were eating the stew, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” … He said, “Then bring flour.” And he threw it into the pot and said, “Pour some out for the men, that they may eat.” And there was no harm in the pot.
Here again, God provides in a miraculous way, turning death into life, scarcity into abundance. The stew that would have poisoned the men became nourishing by God’s intervention. This echoes Exodus 15 when Moses threw wood into bitter water and it became sweet, and John 2 when Jesus turned water into wine. Each miracle shows God’s power to transform what is corrupted into something good, just as He transforms our sinful hearts into new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
“You have been trying to find pleasure in the world, and you have found wild vines… you have gathered wild gourds, a lap full, almost a heart full. You have been shredding death into the pot, and now you cannot feel as you used to feel, the poison is stupefying your soul. While we were singing just now, you said, ‘I want to sing as saints do, but there is no praise in me’…. If you are a worldling, and not God’s child, you can live on that which would poison a Christian, but if you are a child of God, you will cry out, ‘O thou man of God, there is death in the pot!’ … There is death in the pot; how is the Church to meet it? I believe it is to imitate Elisha. We need not attempt to get the wild gourds out of the pot; they are cut too small, and are too cunningly mixed up; they have entered too closely into the whole mass of teaching to be removed. Who shall extract the leaven from the leavened loaf? What then? We must look to God for help, and use the means indicated here. ‘Bring meal.’ Good wholesome food was cast into the poisonous stuff, and by God’s gracious working it killed the poison; and the Church must cast the blessed gospel of the grace of God into the poisoned pottage, and false doctrine will not be able to destroy men’s souls as it now does.” (Spurgeon)
2 Kings 4:42-44 — A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.
Here God multiplied food for one hundred men from twenty loaves, leaving leftovers. This miracle is a clear foreshadowing of Christ feeding the multitudes in Matthew 14 and John 6. The principle is that God provides more than enough for His people, often beginning with what seems insufficient. His word guarantees the outcome, not the size of the supply. He is Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, whose resources never run dry.
“What can these few cakes do towards feeding a hundred men? They forget that God can multiply them. Ye limit the Holy One of Israel. Do you think he needs our numbers? Do you think he is dependent upon human strength? I tell you, our weakness is a better weapon for God than our strength.” (Spurgeon)
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 3 October 2025: 2 Kings 4 shows God’s faithful provision, His power over life and death, and His ability to take what seems small, insufficient, or hopeless and transform it into abundance, restoration, and victory. Like the widow, surrender your “little jar of oil” to Him and trust Him to multiply it. Like the Shunammite woman, anchor your faith not in circumstances but in God’s unchanging love. Like Elisha, shut the door to distractions and pray with perseverance, trusting God to bring life where death seems to reign. Today, practice this by taking one area of your life where you feel inadequate, hopeless, or overwhelmed, and deliberately place it before the Lord in prayer, asking Him to transform it. Choose to walk in trust that His grace is not only sufficient but overflowing.
Pray: “Father, You are my provider, my sustainer, and my life-giver. Forgive me for the times I have measured Your love by my circumstances rather than by the cross. Help me to surrender what little I have into Your hands and to trust You for the outcome. Teach me to cling to You in both joy and sorrow, believing that nothing is too hard for You. Strengthen me to walk in faith today, with peace and confidence in Your unchanging love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 