Supply and Demand in God's Economy - 2 Kings 4:42-44

"And when they gave it to the people, there was plenty for all and some left over, just as the Lord had promised" (vs. 44). In 2 Kings 4 the prophet Elisha performs two miracles that demonstrate the principle of supply and demand according to the economy of God's Kingdom. In vs. 1-7 Elisha had taken over leadership of the prophetic ministry in Israel when the widow of a man who was a member of the group of prophets appealed to Elisha for financial help so her two sons would not be taken as slaves. Elisha told her to gather as many empty jars as she could and pour the small amount of oil she possessed into the jars. As she began to pour, she did not run out of oil in the original jar until all the other jars were filled. Elisha then commanded the widow to sell the oil and pay her debts and to live on what was left from the proceeds of the oil sale. Elisha repeats a similar miracle of provision at the end of the chapter (vs. 42-44) when he receives an offering of twenty loaves of bread and feeds a hundred men of the group of prophets (and possibly their wives and children). Elisha's miracle of feeding the hundred anticipated the miracles of Jesus feeding the four thousand and five thousand with only a small amount of food to start with (see Matthew 14:15-21,15:32-38). These accounts (including the miracles of Jesus) establish a biblical pattern for the supply of God’s care and provision to His people. The biblical principle is this: When you offer any and all the resources you possess totally and willingly to God, His care is provided by extending or expanding those resources even to an abundance. The moral ground on which we form a relationship with God is to give up, surrender, relinquish, or abandon our own self-interests and self-will in favor of God’s will. Thus, when you surrender your own will and even your material resources to Jesus, then He will care and provide for you by extending your limited human resources with His limitless supply of divine resources to meet all your needs.