Lukewarm People Make God Nauseous

We are talking about the encounter between Elisha and this widow who comes to the prophet and tells him about her husband, a servant of God, who has died. Creditors are coming to take her sons to pay the debt this man left behind, and the prophet Elisha tells her to look for jars in the neighborhood.

She has only a little oil and one jar. When this woman brings back the jars, having sent her sons to look for them in different parts of the neighborhood, he tells her to begin pouring oil into them. And the wonderful miracle takes place: the oil multiplies miraculously and fills every jar she has available. Then the prophet tells her, “Now take these jars, sell the oil, pay the creditors, and you and your sons can live on what remains.”

God has a purpose in recording this account in His Scripture: to give us certain lessons about life and faith, to teach us how to wage war, how to counter the tragedies, trials, and difficulties of life, and how to use the principles of faith this woman uses in this passage. And when we study these passages, we are supposed to draw out their lessons and apply them to our own lives. I pointed out one of those lessons in the last message, where we saw that this woman cried out, and that is such an important principle that it is worth dwelling on a little longer.

I mentioned the case of King Hezekiah, who, when God tells him, “Prepare yourself, because you are going to die,” weeps bitterly, pours out his complaint before God, and asks Him to extend his life. God is moved by the cry of this righteous king and sends His prophet back, adding 15 years to his life and giving him a sure sign, as He did with Gideon, that He fully intended to help him in his need.

And after the first text, the first message, another case came to mind: someone who also cried out bitterly and persistently, whose cry God honored. That person was Hannah. In the Old Testament, we know that Hannah was barren; she could not have children and had a desperate desire to be a mother. Hannah went to the temple, and the Bible says that she wept bitterly, pouring out her soul before God and asking the Lord for a child. Hannah wanted children so badly that she felt she would die if she could not have a child, even though she had a husband who loved her and everything else. She wanted to be a mother.

How many of us often want to do something great for God, want to make a difference in the world? We feel that God has blessed us with a message, a calling, a desire to serve Him, to be spiritual mothers or fathers, and we find ourselves without the tools or resources to make it happen. The Bible says very clearly that we must come before the Throne of Grace, that we must cry out to the Lord, fast and pray, weep, respectfully plead our case before the Lord, and ask Him to make us fruitful and allow us to give life.

That desire to serve the Lord must be more than just a vague, lukewarm wish. It must be something that consumes our lives, something that makes it impossible for us to be at peace. When we cry out to God in that way and present our cause before the Lord, especially when it is a matter of giving life for Him, serving Him, and doing good things for the Lord’s Kingdom, God will answer one way or another.

We know the story: Hannah came to the temple so eager to have children and so distressed by her infertility that the high priest Eli, a man who had lost his spiritual vision and was now simply a religious functionary, lacking spiritual discernment, saw her there in the shadows of the sanctuary and thought she was drunk. Her anguish and weeping were so intense that he approached her and said, “Woman, sober up. Do not come into the temple drunk.” And she answered him very humbly, “Sir, it is not that I am drunk. I feel devastated because I cannot have children, and I have asked the Lord to make me fruitful.”

Eli at least still had a little discernment and spiritual passion, and he understood this woman’s spiritual passion. He told her, “Well, may it be done according to your faith,” and let her go. At that moment, Hannah received from God the ability to conceive and bear children. And she did not merely have a son: he was no ordinary son, but the great prophet Samuel, a man of God.

And she did not only have Samuel; afterward, she had other children too, because God opened her womb. When God answers, He answers on a grand scale and blesses extraordinarily. The multiplication yields bread and fish for multitudes, with plenty left over to give to others as well, because that is how God works. This woman was made fruitful far beyond what she expected.

And how interesting it is that Hannah, incidentally, gave her son to the Lord’s cause and consecrated him to the service of Jehovah. Samuel was taken in as an apprentice prophet and priest, and God chose him and spoke to him. From that came one of the most powerful ministries human history has known: the great prophet Samuel. That is what God is like. With generous and passionate souls, God can do anything. We must cry out to the Lord.

The world is full of lukewarm people; lukewarm people make God nauseous. We have the story of Laodicea, one of the churches in Revelation, to which God says, “Because you are neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. I wish you were either cold or hot.” God loves determined people. God loves people who say, as Esther did, “If I perish, I perish,” take their cue from that, and throw themselves into wresting their petition from the Kingdom.

That is why the Bible also says that the Kingdom advances with force, with violence, and the forceful, the courageous, seize it. God loves determined people; God loves people who know what they want and cry out to Him, as this widow cried out to Elisha because she had a great need. I pause here because it is important for us to remember this: God is moved by determined people, and the Bible is full of determined people who cry out to God or make their way through the crowd and wrest a blessing from the Lord, as the woman with the flow of blood also did.

I want to be one of those determined people who will not take no for an answer, but will cling to the hem of God’s garment and say, as Jacob said to the angel, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” I hope that will be your attitude today. Ask the Lord to make you a strong and courageous warrior, and God will honor your petitions. We will continue our study in our next meditation.