Olive Oil and the Holy Spirit. Sermon by Arlene Lanting, September 13, 2025.
There are 4 component to this sermon:
I. Olive trees and olive oil.
II. A story in 2 Kings 4
III. Relevance then and now
IV. The Holy Spirit and olive oil
I. Olive Trees and Olive Oil
Olive trees are rugged and hardy, and yet delicate at the same time.
We will look at two examples of olive oil in the Bible that lights the way literally and spiritually.
Example 1:
“You shall charge the sons of Israel,
that they bring you clear oil of beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually.”
Exodus 27:20
This light fueled by oil was in the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law.
Example 2: One of the most known stories of oil lamps is the story of the 5 wise and 5 foolish maidens in Matthew 25. The wise maidens had planned for delays. The foolish maidens did not plan and ran out of oil, and while sleeping the foolish maidens missed the bridegroom. These maidens did not take seriously their role in the wedding and treated it like a minor thing. In actuality, it was a major thing. The oil here represents faith. The five virgins who had olive oil to light their lamps compare to people who have faith and are ready for the second coming of Christ. The five virgins, who were complacent felt they had lots of time to get ready, ran out of oil. They at the last minute tried to get oil but it was too late. Their faith was in their ability to get oil if they ran out, instead of exercising faith to prepare themselves, understanding that their readiness is not all of their own doing. The faith of the wise maidens was in something greater than themselves, something so special they spent the time and energy ahead of time to be prepared.
This is just a small example of oil and light in the Bible. There are many more.
Now we will look at olive oil in Old Testament worship that represents provisions provided by God.
We see oil used in worship.
Then one of them shall lift up from it a handful of the fine flour of the grain offering,
with its oil and all the incense that is on the grain offering,
and he shall offer it up in smoke on the altar, a soothing aroma, as its memorial offering to the Lord.
Leviticus 6:15
The remaining grain mixture was given to the priests for their use.
Leviticus 24:2
Here we see the left over grain and oil was not wasted. It was to be given to the priests for their personal use.
We also find olive oil used in the Bible to anoint. We see in 1 Samuel 10, the anointing of Saul as king. Then later 1 Samuel 16 Samuel anoints David. We see another reference to anointing in Psalm 23.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.
Psalm 23:5
We see the idea of anointing oil connected to joy in Isaiah 61.
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord for for the display of his splendor.
Psalm 61:1-3
This is beautiful imagery of how those who suffer are anointed with the oil of joy and become oaks of righteousness.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard:
that went down to the skirts of his garments;
As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion:
for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.
Psalm 133
Now we will look at olive oil that provides physical sustenance
1 Kings 17. Remember the widow of Zarephath who made Elijah bread from her last flour and oil, that was followed by flour and oil as long as the drought at the time lasted. This was all she had for food, and a miracle occurred, continually providing just enough.
But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar;
and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.”
1 Kings 17:12
What about olive oil that provides for health and beauty?
Luke 10 is the story of the good Samaritan who used oil and wine to clean the wound.
Oil and Healing
| Type of Healing | In Bible | Used Currently | Detail |
| Wounds | Yes | Yes | Prevents drying, chapping of skin / Luke 10 |
| Anoint the sick | Yes | Yes | Mark 6:13 The disciples anointed sick people |
| Overall health | Yes | Variable | Overall health |
Olive Oil Used for Skin Care.
| Skin Care | Bible | Used Currently | Detail |
| Skin oils | Yes | Yes | Prevents drying and chapping |
| David uses oils after he mourns his son |
Yes | Lotions | Feeling of well being |
| Bathing emollient to clean the skin | Yes | Yes | Use in soap making |
Olive oil provides economic sustenance.
A man who had a lot of olives or olive oil was considered wealthy. Trade in olive oil was lucrative, especially so in the Roman empire. Table olives were eaten salted, but it was not common. There is some evidence of pickled olives found by archeologists. Most olives were used to make oil. When the green olive becomes black, more oil can be pressed from them. They would have been pressed as black or green. Olives were pressed either underfoot wearing wooden sandals, with pestle and mortar, using a stone roller, or in presses. Olive oil would have been used in a variety of cooking and became more industrial with the Roman Empire.
II. A Story in 2 Kings 4
The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha,
“Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD.
But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
2 Kings 4:1
This was a man from a company of prophets. It does not tell us what the man’s role was but it does tell us that he revered the Lord, and whatever his circumstances were at his death, he had unpaid debt. After he has died his creditors have come to collect. This seems strange to us, but it was the law at this time. Mosaic Law allowed a creditor to enslave the debtor and his children as far as the Year of Jubilee in order to work off a debt. No doubt this husband and father had a plan to manage his debt, but his plan did not account for his death.
The woman calls out to Elisha for help.
Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.
2 Kings 4:2
This implies she had already sold off much of what she had.
Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few.
Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons.
Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons.
They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring.
When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied, “There is not a jar left.”
Then the oil stopped flowing.
She went and told the man of God, and he said,
“Go, sell the oil and pay your debts.
You and your sons can live on what is left.”
2 Kings 4:3-7
This is an incredible story of faith. Even when the jars were full the woman did not completely understand the plan. Only when Elisha told her to sell them to pay her debt and the rest she and her boys could live off. Only then did she realize the gravity of what happened. She was secure and her sons could stay with her.
III. Relevance Then and Now
“She did what she was commanded to do: he did it in faith; and the result answered the end.
God takes care to deliver his servants in ways that exercise their faith.
He would not have them be little in faith, for faith is the wealth of the heavenly life.”
Charles Spurgeon
Even today, according to Unicef, hardship exacts a toll on millions of families worldwide – and in some places in the world, the children end up paying the price as slaves, taken from a home and stripping them of the protection that often came from family, similar to the beginning of this story in 2 Kings. This sort of slavery still happens!!
Did you know that roughly 160 million children were subjected to child labour at the beginning of 2020. This accounts for nearly 1 in 10 children worldwide. Almost half of them are in hazardous work that directly endangers their health and development.
Children may be driven into work for various reasons. Most often, child labour occurs when families face financial challenges or uncertainty – whether due to poverty, sudden illness of a caregiver, or job loss of a primary wage earner.
The consequences are staggering. Child labour can result in extreme bodily and mental harm, and even death. It can lead to slavery and sexual or economic exploitation. And in nearly every case, it cuts children off from schooling and health care, restricting their fundamental rights.
Migrant and refugee children – many of whom have been uprooted by conflict, disaster or poverty – also risk being forced into work and even trafficked, especially if they are migrating alone or taking irregular routes with their families. Today, 160 million children are still engaged in child labour. In early 2000s things were improving, but now that is reversing.
The story in 2 Kings 4 is more relevant today then we may think.
Let’s take a deeper look at our relevance today. First let us look at the difference between wishing and being willing. A desire must be more than a feeble, fleeting wish. Wishing is one thing; willing is quite another. A wisher expects without effort. Willingness expects to put faith in action. Willing implies intent to take action. One must follow the other as in the case of this widow. A wish followed by willingness.
Elisha told the woman to take what she had – one jar of oil – and pour that out into the borrowed vessels. As she did this, the oil miraculously kept pouring from the original vessel until all the borrowed vessels were filled. At the end of it, she experienced that the miracle was from God for her and her sons, not from Elisha. Elisha seemed to understand that she needed to experience God’s love, not just see it. She put her faith into action. She did not take the time to find logical faults in the task. But then why would she? She had hit rock bottom. There did not seem to be another alternative except lose her sons to slavery. This story should give new meaning to the words: Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!
The jar she was pouring from became empty.
Her son said to her, "There is not a jar left."
She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts.
You and your sons can live on what is left.”
2 Kings 4:6-8
Charles Spurgeon compared the empty jars to an empty soul. The oil flowed as long as the jars were empty and stopped when they were full He wrote that sometimes
“It is not our emptiness, but our fullness which can hinder the outgoings of free grace.”
Charles Spurgeon
Do we perceive our jars to be full, when they are not? Beware of a full jar. Only a jar that is not filled to the top can receive more. Reflect on the hymn’s words “Fill My Cup Lord, I lift it up Lord. Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;”
Charles Spurgeon is warning us to beware of a heart full of faith. If we have no need, we tend not to take an active role on our faith. He is not saying we should not yearn to have our hearts filled. Of course we should ask for this. He is saying not to assume your heart is full and has reached its maximum capacity. If we have maximim capacity then we have no further need.
In this story the woman’s husband had accumulated debts that the widow could not repay after his death. The creditor showed the widow no mercy and threatened to turn her sons into slaves. In the face of evil, the widow showed faith in what she did not fully understand.
God’s law allowed for debtors to serve in indentured servitude. Yet, these people had to be released after six years of service (Ex. 21:2-4; Lev. 25:39-40; Dt. 12:12). Debts also had to be forgiven at the Jubilee year (Lev. 25:39-40). More importantly, God prohibited believers from enslaving God’s people under any circumstance:
“If a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you,
you shall not subject him to a slave’s service.”
Leviticus 25:39
Compassion was forgotten here that put this woman and her sons at such risk and desperate situation.
God’s law required compassion and protection for widows. The creditor tried to avoid God’s law against abusing a widow by enslaving her sons. This would have rendered the window destitute by taking away the people who could in time support her. “You shall not afflict any widow or orphan.
If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry;”
Exodus 22:22-23
“Cursed is he who distorts the justice due an alien, orphan, and widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”
Deuteronomy 27:19
‘“Then I will draw near to you for judgment;
and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely,
and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan,
and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me,’ says the LORD of hosts.”
Malachi 3:5
Malachi was written after this story, however it is based no doubt based in previous law.
Lets look again at olive oil. We have seen a number of purposes of olive oil: food, beauty, trade, lubrication, worship, fuel for heat and light, and in the case of the widow, faith.
IV. The Holy Spirit and Olive Oil
- Oil lubricates – problems are overcome with less friction when we are lubricated by the Spirit of God.
- Oil is used as is or with other medicinal treatments.
- The Spirit of God brings spiritual healing and restoration.
- Oil lights when it is burned in a lamp – where the Spirit of God is, there is light.
- Oil warms when it is used as fuel for a flame – the Spirit of God brings comfort.
- Oil is used for beauty of the skin or included in perfumes - the Holy Spirit smooths out our rough edges and makes us more pleasant to be around.
So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers,
and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David.
1 Samuel 13:16
In the Old Testament, anointing oil represented God with you.
In Nazereth when speaking in the synagogue Jesus said
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed.
Luke 4:18
Recognize the words from Isaiah? Jesus is speaking about spiritual matters grounded in relationships, in service. He is inviting people to look at God differently than they were taught. They were taught from a basis of law without a lens of compassion.
In the widow’s experience, in 2 Kings, when the jars were full, the oil stopped flowing from the small jar. Like this, the Holy Spirit will only fill a container that is not full, that has room for it. The amount of vessels that God filled with olive oil in 2 Kings was limited only by the number of vessels that the woman retrieved. If she had collected more vessels, she would have received more oil. If she had collected fewer vessels, she would have received less oil. If the woman’s faith was not backed up by action or works and they did not collect any jars her faith would have been dead, and her sons would have become indentured servants. If you do not act in faith to receive the gifts of the Spirit, your faith is dead:
“Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”
James 2:17
Let those whom God has blessed with plenty use it for the glory of God and under the direction of his word:
let them do justly with it, as this widow did, and serve God cheerfully in the use of it,
and as Elisha, be ready to do good to those that need them, be eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.
William Henry Commentary
Let’s look at one last connection with the Holy Spirit. Zechariah, a Hebrew prophet during the reign of Darius the Great was a prophet during time of the building the temple in Judah. God gave Zechariah a vision of the golden lampstand that stood in the temple. It had some incredible features that were symbolic, to guide this group of builders, rebuilding a temple after being in exile in Babylon for many years.
Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep.
And he said to me, “What do you see?”
So I said, “I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it,
and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps.
Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left.”
So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, “What are these, my lord?”
Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?”
And I said, “No, my lord.”
So he answered and said to me:
“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:
‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’
Says the Lord of hosts.
‘Who are you, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!
And he shall bring forth the capstone With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” ’ ”
Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
“The hands of Zerubbabel Have laid the foundation of this temple; His hands shall also finish it.
Then you will know That the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you.
For who has despised the day of small things?
For these seven rejoice to see The plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.
They are the eyes of the Lord, Which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.”
Then I answered and said to him, “What are these two olive trees—at the right of the lampstand and at its left?”
And I further answered and said to him,
“What are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the two gold pipes from which the golden oil drains?”
Then he answered me and said, “Do you not know what these are?”
And I said, “No, my lord.”
So he said, “These are the two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth.”
Zechariah 4
When we trust in our own resources there are times we get discouraged. God wanted Zerubbabel to know that God would continually supply his need, just as the oil trees in the vision continually supplied oil to the lamps on the lampstand. God wants His supply and our reliance on the Spirit of God to be continual. This is where Zerubabbel would get his strength to continue the work of the building of the temple.
The olive trees attached to the lamp continually providing oil for the lamp represents how the Spirit of God works in our lives. We have access to a continual flow of the Spirit of God as long as we stay connected. How amazing. Think about what this means during life’s challenges.
How wonderful it is to find such hope within the Bible. How we so often lose sight of what we have access to if just accept it. This hope strengthened Zerubabel just as the overflowing oil taught the widow of 2 Kings of the power of God even when it seemed impossible.
Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.
Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars.
Don’t ask for just a few.
Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons.
Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons.
They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring.
When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied,
“There is not a jar left.”
Then the oil stopped flowing.
She went and told the man of God, and he said,
“Go, sell the oil and pay your debts.
You and your sons can live on what is left.”
2 Kings 4:2-7
I answered, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven channels to the lamp.
Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.”
I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”
He answered, “Do you not know what these are?”
“No, my lord,” I replied. So he said to me,
“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:
‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.
Zechariah 4:2-6
We have access to the same Spirit of God when we go through trials in life. We need to trust that God will provide strength, even when we question it or feel desperate. We may find strength in the most unexpected ways.
For the widow it was in her last attempts for help and a suggestion to gather olive oil.
For Zerubabel it was in someone else’s dream of olive oil being fed from trees that kept the glory of life alight at all times. This light was a reminder for Zerubabel that like that tree, the flowing of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, is continually flowing. Even when we lose sight of it, it is available, if we just make room for it.
We, like Zerubabel focus on the distractions that discourage us and cause us to lose sight that the Spirit of God is still there. Let us not be discouraged. Let us remember the hope that comes from these stories that inspires us to stay connected to God, and trust in Him in difficult times. `