Article May 5, 2014 Issue

Bible stories: nourishment for today

Marjorie Kehe

This article originally appeared on JSH-Online as a “News of Healing” audio podcast.

Several years ago, I was teaching a Sunday School class of 12-year-olds. It was a wonderful group of kids, and I so enjoyed being with them every week. On that particular Sunday, we were discussing the story of Elisha, the widow, and her oil (see II Kings, chap. 4), which was included in that week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson.

In this story a widow, the wife of one of the sons of the prophets, came to the prophet Elisha, saying that her husband had died. She was in debt, and now her sons were going to be taken by her creditors. Of course, she was feeling great fear. Elisha asked her, “What do you have in the house?” and she responded, “Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil” (New Living Translation). Elisha then told her something that probably sounded very odd: He told her to go and collect as many pots as she could find. She did this, and when she came back home, he told her to pour the oil into these pots. When she did, she was able to fill all the pots and still have a little oil remaining. Elisha then told her, “Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts.” The widow and her household were saved.

The kids found this story very interesting, and toward the end of our discussion, I asked them what they thought about it. I said, “Do you think this is something that only happened during Bible times, or could it happen today?”