Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;
II Kings 4:2: “And Elisha said unto her: ‘What shall I do for you? Tell me. What has thou in the house?’ And she said: ‘You handmaid has nothing in the house, save a pot of oil.’
Prophets in the Old Testament did not just suddenly become prophets. It was not like they were walking down the street one day and “Bong” they suddenly became a prophet. At an early age a child would begin his training in Torah. By Elisha’s time, if a teacher discerned that a child had prophetic gifts, he would bring him to a prophet for mentoring. The Talmud teaches that a prophet does not begin prophesying right away but must go through many years of mentoring under another prophet. He must learn about dreams and dream interpretation. He must understand visions and what they were for as this was the way God spoke to a prophet. These “apprentice” prophets did not attend classes and receive instruction. Instead they learned through hands on, almost like a craftsman learns his trade, by doing.
Thus when this widow came to Elisha with here plea, having been married to an “apprentice” prophet, she fully understood the miraculous and the supernatural. A creditor was going to take her two children away and put them into slavery. She turned to Elisha to do a miracle. She could have turned to a Levi at the local levitical city where there was a special tithe each year that provided for women in her situation. However, she turned to the prophet.
Now we get to II Kings 4:2 which has a rather awkward translation. Elisha ask her what he would do for her? Come now, isn’t it obvious? This woman is in need of a miracle, big time and the prophet says: “Well, what do you want me to do about it?” At least that is the way most translations render this. I am not going to argue the traditional understanding which is that Elisha was asking: “Why come to me, the community has provided a special fund just for women in your situation.”
However there are other ways to look at this. The word “what” is “mah.” This is an all purpose interrogative. It could be rendered many ways so long as it comes out as an interrogative. You could say: “ How? How much? In what manner? Whatever? Etc.” Take your pick. I choose the word “in what manner?” The reason for this is the next word which is translated as “do.” It is “ashah,” which means to fabricate, make, create, form. In it’s prime material form it tells you that this “making” is done through the ayin – spiritual discernment, the shin – power of God and the “he” the presence of God. It seems a little strange that Elisha asked “What will I do for you.” Should it not be “What will you have God do for you?” However, embedded in that word
”to do” is the power and presence of God. Elisha only said he would bring the power and presence of God through spiritual discernment
Thus, Elisha’s response was not one of bewilderment or condemnation, but one of asking this woman what manner would she like God to reveal Himself to her. Sort of a choice, the practical way through the poor box, or through a miracle. She choose the miracle, not for the miracle sake, but for the opportunity for God to reveal Himself to not only her but her two children.
Note the next words “tell me.” The word is “neged” which has the idea of being clear, straightforward. Elisha is saying, ok, you want a miracle, now you must be very specific, be very clear. This is in a Hiphal imperative form so Elisha is saying: “cause this to be very clear to me. Now what do you have in your house.” The expression is odd in the Hebrew. It is “Mah yesh laki” Literally, “what can you get that has any spiritual and/or monetary value in the house. Her response was “Your handmaiden has nothing that is “kol” complete, finished, whole in the house, although there is a pot (flask) of oil. In the Hebrew this is “’asuk shmer.” This was oil used for anointing. This was most likely the oil that her husband used in his prophetic work. Perhaps the word “Kol” is used to say that she has the oil but without her husband’s prophetic gifts, it is really not complete or it can not be used in the miraculous. Maybe Elisha was showing this woman that you don’t have to be a prophet to appropriate the miraculous. Maybe that is why Elisha had her shut herself in the house alone with her sons so she could see that the power of God flowed without a prophet or some elite person. It would flow through anyone who would make themselves a vessel for God.
Then again maybe it doesn’t mean anything and I am just reading my own thoughts into this. This is the real danger of the Greek influence on our method of learning. If I think about it long enough, I will come up with some little bit of new revelation out of this. Our Western method of teaching is one person doing the research and coming up with a bit of revelation. Then we package it into a sermon, radio broadcast, TV broadcast, CD, book, pod cast, e-mail, internet etc. Suddenly the weird thought of this one poor slob, becomes a new revelation and everyone starts putting this into practice without any discussion or Amening. He’s the teacher, he’s the called one or the prophet so we look to him or her for our revelation.
The Hebrew method is for the teacher to give the background and let the body midrash it and come to a conclusion and then everyone Amen it if they are in agreement. That is why the Talmud teaches that where two or three are gathered together to study Torah, the Divine presence is in their midst.
So I will not give you any conclusion to this little study, I will let you decide for yourself what conclusion your are to reach or if there is any conclusion. You have just as much of the Holy Spirit as I have. No reason you can’t draw your own conclusion. If you draw some really exciting revelation from this, share it in comments section and maybe we can do a little cyber midrashing. A 21st century form of midrashing and see how many Amen’s you get.
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