God is none other than the Savior of our wretchedness. So we can only know God well by knowing our iniquities... Those who have known God without knowing their wretchedness have not glorified Him, but have glorified themselves.
Blaise Pascal

The Miracle Of Salvation

The Miracle Of Salvation

the Miracle of Salvation

by Rev. Kurt H. Asplundh

“Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from your neighbors–empty vessels; do not gather just a few.” (II Ki. 4:3)

There was a widow in Israel. She had two sons and no means of support. To stay alive she had borrowed heavily, but the day of reckoning had come. The debt must be paid.

She cried out to Elisha, the Lord’s prophet: “The creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.”

The prophet asked, “What do you have in the house?”

All she had was a small jar of olive oil. The prophet sent her out to borrow vessels from her neighbors; as many empty containers as she and her sons could find. Then she was to close her door and pour oil from the small jar into the pitchers, the pots, and the jars she and her sons had collected.

She did this and, marvelous to say, the oil flowed from her one small jar until every container had been filled to the brim. When she reported this to the prophet he told her to sell the oil. It would bring enough money to pay off her debt and support her for a long time to come.

It was a miracle; a miracle of deliverance. Can you imagine how this woman felt in the desperation of her poverty? She had lost her husband already and now she thought she would lose her sons. Nothing short of a miracle could have changed her situation. Now she was saved. She must have felt a deep sense of gratitude to the Lord. Could she ever from this time forward doubt the Lord’s ability to provide for her needs?

This miraculous increase of the oil as the widow poured it into the borrowed containers was accomplished by Divine power. It happened as described. Could not He who made the olive tree create its oil as well? And so God saved the widow woman.

But there is another reason for this miracle: to demonstrate the Divine power that is working for us today.

Who was this widow? A woman in Israel in the days of Elisha the prophet, but it is also you and me. Yes, we are widows like this impoverished woman and the miracle that saved her can save us.

Let me explain. Every miracle of scripture is a parable of the Lord’s intervention in our life. The Lord fed the hungry multitudes. He feeds our spiritual hunger. The Lord healed the sick. He heals our spiritual sickness. Have you been blind? Blind to your own shortcomings? Blind to your duty and responsibility in life? Blind to the beauty of God’s order? Have you been lame? Lame in your efforts to serve the neighbor? Lame in living up to your commitments? Paralyzed in your efforts to stand up for what is right?

What is the meaning of the miracle of the widow’s oil? How are we like this widow?

There is something about us, particularly about our religious life, that parallels the life of a widow. A widow’s life is incomplete. Something is missing. The widow has no husband. She has lost the benefit of his love and companionship; his wisdom and judgment; perhaps his income and thus the wherewithal to live a full life.

How is our life incomplete? Remember the teaching of the Lord’s great commandments? Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…. You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22: 37, 39). We must learn to love the Lord heart, soul, and mind. Suppose the love is in our heart, but the ideas of our mind are confused? And how often is our love of the neighbor “mindless, ” misguided, perhaps. Ineffectual.

Our life is incomplete–widow-like–when heart and mind fail to operate together. There are two things to consider: the love and the expression of the love. A full or complete religious life exists when we have the love of God in our hearts and are able to put it into practical expression. What if we desire to serve and lack the ability? Think of a well-meaning child who wants to cook a meal but hasn’t the slightest idea how to go about it. Think how you feel when you want to comfort a distraught friend but are just as confused as the friend. We want to serve but we don’t know how. We want to serve but we don’t have the ability. That’s widowhood.

Jesus said, “I am the Way…” “Follow Me.” Here is a clue to the meaning of this miracle as it applies to our own life. Who shows us the way to put spiritual love into practice? The Lord shows us. He saves us from the sorrow and bankruptcy of an unfulfilled life. He demonstrates Divine love in act. He gives us the truth we need to live a good life. He has told us to love the neighbor and He has taught us how. “Cease to do evil, learn to do well,” said Isaiah the prophet. Yet how can we learn to do well unless someone teaches us?

We are widows when we lack the truths of religion. These truths are not instinctive. They must be learned. In this we differ from the animal. Animals quickly learn to live the life for which they were created. Instinctively, they know their food, their enemies, how to care for their offspring. We have to learn all of these things. We have to learn each step in life in order to become mature and successful. The world abounds with “How To” books, a testimony to our need to find a way to live.

Religious life is exactly the same. Love of the neighbor is not instinctive. Living a good life does not come naturally. We have to learn it. Just as there are successful principles of business, of child care, of marriage, there are true principles of religious life. Without them, something is missing from our life. We lack guidance in our efforts to attain spirituality. We are like a widow woman who has depended upon her husband for guidance and support in conducting her family affairs who now must go it alone. We need help.

Such was the case of the widow woman who cried out to the prophet of Israel. She needed help.

And how was she helped? The prophet gave her a responsibility. Not the money she needed to pay her debt, but a way to take what she did have and to build on it. What did she have?

The widow had a little olive oil. Let us think about the olive oil for a moment, for it is key to understanding this miracle as it applies to our own life.

Olive oil was a precious commodity in Israel. It had a value because of its many uses. The oil, with its smooth golden richness and its many uses, is symbolic of a valuable human commodity–symbolic of the love that is a pure gift from God, hidden in our hearts. But it was bottled up in a little jar.

Therefore, the prophet told the woman to go out and borrow a lot of empty containers from her neighbors. Then she poured out from her little jar as her sons kept bringing each empty vessel to be filled. Here was the essence of the miracle. The flow did not stop until the last container was filled.

And here is the miracle for each one of us. We can be enriched by the very process that enriched the widow. The love in our hearts from God is inexhaustible when we put it to wise use. There is no end of love when applied to uses of life. The widow’s oil symbolizes a love that can be multiplied and increased without limit. Such is the nature of spiritual love or good will toward others. It fills every deed of service and every activity with its inexhaustible spirit. Take an example: A woman bears a child and pours her love into its care. Is that all the love she has to give? She bears a second child and loves it as well as the first. Her love is not divided and diminished, but multiplied. Take another example: A teacher loves to present his subject to a class. The following year he meets another class and his love finds new expression. He has not given it all away to the first class. In fact, his ability to teach increases from year to year as he becomes more skilled and gains experience in meeting the needs of the students.

Love is inexhaustible but it must have a means of expression or else it will remain bottled up. The Lord offers love in unending supply, but we must come up with the ways to use it. This is the responsibility the Lord has given us as Christians. We must find the vessels, the containers, that need to be filled.

The containers we need to find are the opportunities to serve or to be of some help to others. It is into such opportunities that we can pour the Lord’s love.

Remember, too, that the vessels were supposed to be empty. That is, there should be nothing in it for us. So often we do good deeds as much for ourselves as for anyone else. We see our own advantage in it. Such deeds are not empty, like the vessels the widow was to borrow. Instead they are filled with thoughts of ourselves and of what we can get out of it. What are the empty vessels? They are the good services and responsibilities we fill for their own sake and for the sake of others and not for the sake of our own reputation or advantage.

How important it is to notice this little detail of the scriptural account. The miracle would have been spoiled if the woman had used anything but empty containers and the Lord’s miraculous increase of our love will be spoiled as soon as we seek credit for ourselves in whatever we do. We ought not to boast of what we have done, as the Pharisees often did, or expect rewards for our deeds, either in this world or the next. The Lord taught us: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5: 16). We should do good works that men may see the glory of God in them, not that they glorify us.

Take another detail of this account: the vessels. We have said that these are like opportunities to put love into act. They are forms of charity, forms of service; the kindly word, the helpful hand, the wise admonition, the patience to allow freedom for another even to make a mistake. Opportunities for exercising deeds of spiritual benefit are endless, but we must learn to recognize and gather them for use. Just as the business man must learn to recognize opportunities to expand his business and do his work profitably, so every one of us must learn to recognize how to expand our spiritual capacity and do the right things in life.

Remember, we have said before that such wisdom is not instinctive to us. Like the containers the woman gathered, our wisdom also must be borrowed. And where do we learn wisdom? From the Word of God. And following His teachings in the Word leads us into all spiritual wisdom. “He will guide you into all truth, ” (Jn. 16: 13). The source of wisdom is God’s Word. The more truths we acquire from it the more is our capacity increased to be of genuine service to the neighbor.

The lesson is clear. The love we can receive from the Lord is limited only by our ability to find ways of putting it to use. The more wisdom we acquire from Divine revelation, the more love can find place in our life.

Salvation is of the Lord but we are responsible for acquiring the means by which salvation can be wrought. Love must find a way to be carried from our heart to the hearts of others. If it is simply poured out without wise direction, it will be wasted and lost. Therefore, we must seek principles of life and follow ways of life which the Lord has revealed as fitting expression of His love. This is our part in making miracles happen in our life. We should study scripture and doctrine to find the wisdom to use rightly the gifts that the Lord continually wants to give.

When we have done our part, the Lord will not fail to do the miracle for us. For the Lord’s love can be multiplied miraculously to fill every useful and orderly form of life. This is the Lord’s doing. It is marvelous in our eyes.

When the love is thus received it becomes joined to the wisdom of life we have obtained. It is a kind of marriage. How remarkable that where before we had been like a “widow” we are no longer bereaved! We are widows no longer but are as the bride of the Lamb spoken of in the Apocalypse.

There, the joyful words are spoken: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready” (Rev. 19: 7). Again, we read of a promised blessing hidden in Isaiah’s prophecy: “You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate…. For the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married…. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (Isa. 62: 4, 5).

Such a marriage, a joining together in our hearts of God’s gifts of love and wisdom, is the goal of human life. Let us take the command of Elisha to the widow woman of Israel as a personal challenge: “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors….” Let us look for ways to put our religion into life and the truths that will show us how. Then the Lord can work His miracle in our heart. Truly, we will say “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!” (Rev. 15: 3). Amen.

Lessons: II Ki. 4: 1-7; Matt. 25: 1-13 Heaven and Hell 522, 524

First it will be told what the Divine mercy is. The Divine mercy is pure mercy towards the whole human race, to save it; and it is also unceasingly towards every man, and is never withdrawn from anyone; so that everyone is saved who can be saved. And yet no one can be saved except by Divine means, which means have been revealed by the Lord, in the Word. The divine means are what are called divine truths, which teach how man must live in order to be saved. By these truths the Lord leads man to heaven, and by them He implants in man the life of heaven. This the Lord does with all. But the life of heaven can be implanted in no one unless he abstains from evil, for evil obstructs. So far, therefore, as man abstains from evil, the Lord leads him out of pure mercy by His Divine means, and this from infancy to the end of his life in the world and afterwards to eternity. This is what is meant by the Divine mercy. Hence it is clear that the mercy of the Lord is pure mercy, but not immediate, that is, it does not look to saving all out of mere good pleasure, however they may have lived.

If men could be saved as a result of immediate mercy all would be saved, even those in hell; in fact, there would be no hell, because the Lord is Mercy itself, Love itself, and Good itself. Therefore it is inconsistent with His Divine to say that He is able to save all immediately and does not save them. It is known from the Word that the Lord wills the salvation of all, and the damnation of no one.