Character Needed - Bible Sketches 25

CHARACTER NEEDED – BIBLE SKETCHES

Character Needed, by Robert Allen, published by Regular Baptist Press, includes 33 skits illustrating the truths of each of the verses in Proverbs 15.  These Character Needed – Bible Sketches are designed to accompany those contemporary plays, illustrating the same character traits by use of a Bible story.  

CHARACTER NEEDED

GOD CARES FOR THE WIDOW

Proverbs 15:25

II Kings 4:1-7

Character Trait:  Trust

Cast of Characters

                        Son 1

                        Widow

                        Son 2

                        Narrator

                        Elisha

SON 1:                        What’s the matter, Mother?  Why are you crying?

WIDOW:                     We had a visitor today, boys.  You know that your father owed money to Balthazar before he died.  Now that your father is dead, we have not been able to repay the money he owed.

SON 1:                        So Balthazar came to see you today?

WIDOW:                     That’s right.  He came to get his money, and I didn’t have it.

SON 2:                        So what are we going to do?

WIDOW:                     I don’t know.  Balthazar said if we couldn’t get the money by tomorrow he was going to put our house up for sale and get his money back that way.

SON 1:                        Can he do that?

WIDOW:                     I’m afraid so.

SON 2:                        But where will we live?

WIDOW:                     I don’t know.  Maybe we can go back to Shechem and live with my parents or something.

SON 1:                        Mom?  How about Elisha the prophet?  Father was a prophet, too.  Maybe Elisha knows some way to help us so we won’t have to lose our house.

WIDOW:                     That’s a good idea, son.  I think I’ll go talk to Elisha.

NARRATOR:              So the widow went over to the home where Elisha was staying and told him about her problem.

WIDOW:                     Elisha, do you remember my husband?

ELISHA:                      Certainly.  He was one of the sons of the prophets, a wonderful man of God.

WIDOW:                     Well, since he died we have not been able to pay our debts.  Now the creditor is coming.  I wasn’t able to tell my boys this, but he doesn’t want the house.  He wants to take my two boys and sell them as slaves, and keep the money.  Please.  Don’t let him take my two boys away from me.

ELISHA:                      What do you have in the house?

WIDOW:                     Almost nothing.  I have one pot of oil left.  When that is gone, I won’t even have anything left to feed my family.

ELISHA:                      Here’s what I want you to do.  Send the boys out to borrow every container you can find from your neighbors.  Big ones and little ones.  Get every vessel that anyone will loan to you.  Then when you have them collected, start pouring oil from your container into the other containers.

NARRATOR:              That seemed like a strange instruction, but the widow obeyed.  She and the boys went to all the neighbors and collected vessels.

WIDOW:                     May I borrow your empty jars?

SON 1:                        Do you have any empty bowls we can borrow?

SON 2:                        May we borrow your empty cans?

NARRATOR:              Then they brought them all back to the house.  The widow shut the door and locked it, then brought out her one jar of oil.  Slowly she poured it into one of the empty jars.

SON 1:                        Look, mother.  Our jar filled up the empty jar, but it still has oil in it.

WIDOW:                     Quick.  Let’s try another one.

NARRATOR:              Soon they had filled all the jars, and all the jugs, and all the cans.  Their entire room was full of jars all filled with oil.

WIDOW:                     Bring me another jar.

SON 2:                        But Mother, they’re all gone.

WIDOW:                     All of them?

SON 1:                        Yes, they are all full.

WIDOW:                     And there is still oil in our jar.  God has done a great miracle.  I need to go and tell Elisha.

NARRATOR:              So she did.  She went to tell the prophet what had happened, and he didn’t seem surprised at all.

ELISHA:                      Good!  Now, take the oil and sell it.  Pay your debt and you and your children can use the rest of the money for food.  God has honored you for your faith and the faithfulness of your husband.

NARRATOR:              Elisha might not have been surprised, but Balthazar sure was when he came back the next day.  He was surprised because he had forgotten that God cares for the widows.