What do you have in the house?

In 2.Kings 4:1-7 we read the story of a widow who had been married to one of prophet Elisha’s disciples. When this disciple died, he left a debt that his wife had to pay. As she was unable to pay, she was risking that her two sons would be taken as slaves to redeem her debt. She cried out to Elisha, and he gave her a word that would resolve her situation. This story is known as the “miracle of the empty wessels”.

We shall not look at every detail of this story, but focus on the question Elisha asked the widow: “...Tell me, what do you have in the house?...” (2.King 4:2 NKJV). This question was not just relevant for the situation the widow was in, but is also relevant for us today. Romans 15:4 teaches us that “for whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” This verse shows us that what read in the Old Testament is relevant for our spiritual walk today.

To understand Elisha’s question we need to understand what “the house” means. Let us look to this verse in Hebrews: “But Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end” (Hebrews 3:6). We who belong to Christ are the house! Now the question is, what is in our house? We can fill a physical house with a variety of inventory, and our spiritual house can contain inventory it should not have. We who belong to Christ, cannot fill his house with what Jesus does not want in his house!

Let us therefore look at the inventory a house that belongs to Jesus should have. As we continue to read the story in 2.Kings 4, we find the answer to what a Godly man should have. “Now it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat some food. And she said to her husband, “Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us regularly. Please, let me make a small upper room on the wall; and let us put a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; so it will be, whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there” (2.Kings 4:8-10). These verses show us what a holy man of God, or woman, needs.

The first thing needed is an upper room. The upper room symbolizes prayer and community with God. In Matthew 6, Jesus says: “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:6). As believers, our first priority is prayer and community with God, our Father. When we call upon the name of Jesus and get saved, we receive him as our Lord and Saviour. When we pray, it is for his will to be done in our lives and on the earth. Prayer also provides us with wisdom and help to face the challenges and difficulties we meet in life. It will be visible who is praying and having community with God, since he rewards us openly. The upper room was the first thing the woman in Shunem understood that Elisha needed, and just as he needed his upper room then, the believer needs it today.

The second thing Elisha needed was a bed. The bed symbolizes rest. In the bed we get new strength. It is written of the patriarch Jacob: “And Jacob was told, “Look, your son Joseph is coming to you”; and Israel strengthened himself and sat up on the bed.” (Genesis 48:2). Jacob was ill and needed rest. The bed provided him with strength to get up and receive his son Joseph. As we continue reading in Genesis, we see that Jacob prophesied and blessed Jacobs two sons, and the others of his own sons. The prophetic word he gave is timeless, it is effective to this day.

So the bed is a resting place where we can receive new strength. If the bed is too short, however, it will not give us strength, but rather have negative consequences for us. In Isaiah we read that: “For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap himself in it.” (Isaiah 28:20). During some of my many trips to Asia and Africa I have been given a bed that is too short, and a blanket that is both too narrow and too short. This makes it difficult to rest, and leaves us lacking the strength needed to face the tasks of tomorrow. In a spiritual sense, a bed that is too short indicates a false doctrine. Romans 10:17 says: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The word of faith vi receive gives us two things; rest and assurance. “For we who have believed do enter that rest” (Hebrews 4:3a). “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1 ASV). When the bed is too short in our spiritual house, and we don't get rest, this is a result of us receiving wrong doctrine, since a believers house has rest and assurance. What do you have in the house?

The third thing needed is a table. The table is where the food is. In Exodus we read about the table in the Tabernacle, it was placed in a room called the holy place, outside the veil to the Most Holy (Exodus 26:33-35). “And you shall set the showbread on the table before Me always.” (Exodus 25:30). No matter what resistance the believer faces, God has a table with food for his people, that makes us defeat the enemy. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies…” (Psalms 23:5a). At this table we have fellowship with other victorious believers: “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 8:11 ESV). A man of God has community with Jesus: “When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve.” (Matthew 26:20 ESV).

The fourth thing Elisha needed was a chair. The chair symbolizes authority and position, both in the visible world, and in the spiritual. Eglon, king of Moab, sat on a chair when Ehud the israelite came and executed him, because of his wickedness towards Israel (Judges 3:12, 20-21). Eli, the high priest, fell off a chair and broke his neck because of his iniquity (1.Samuel 3:13, 4:18). When Christ had completed his mission, sacrificed Himself, and become an atonement for the sins of the world, He was taken up to heaven. God “...raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:20). God has seated his Son on the throne in heaven. We who belong to Him, being his house, also belong in that place. The word of God confirms this: “and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). The chair represents authority and position. In order for us to understand the authority and position God has given us, we need both an upper room where we have community with God, and a table to receive spiritual food.

The fifth thing Elisha needed, and that we need, is a lampstand. The lampstand gives revelation that God after His “...His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2.Peter 1:3-4). The word of God and the revelation gives us guidance, to make us do the will of God while we are on earth. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalms 119:105).

Based on what we have read in 2.Kings 4:8-10, we are given a description of the inventory a holy man of God needed. The question is now; what do you have in the house? The house belongs to the Lord, and we can not have anything in it that displeases the Lord. The apostle Pauls writes this concerning pleasing the Lord: “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (2.Corinthians 5:9-10).