What God can do with an empty barrel!
1 Kings 17:12-13 As surely as the LORD your God lives, she replied, "I don't have any bread--only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it--and die." (13) Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.
Upon thinking further about this, I saw how much God loved this widow with an empty barrel. For it says in verse 12 that the widow replied 'As the Lord your God lives'. This shows that she recognised something about Elijah - she saw that he was a man of God. She had some faith, she saw that he was a prophet, but she said 'I don't have bread, I only have a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar and so I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for my son and myself, that we may eat it and die'. Then Elijah said to her 'do not fear, go and do as you have said but make me a small bread cake from it first, and bring it out to me and afterwards make some for yourself and your son'. So Elijah is asking her to give. God loves to use those that are poor and those who have an empty barrel. All the way through scripture you see this; its so that God can show Himself for who He is. He didn't send Elijah to the one who had everything, he sent Elijah to someone who had nothing. When you look through scripture you see people who don't have the means to provide what God is asking. Gideon is a classic example. When the angel speaks to Gideon he says 'O mighty man of valour' but Gideon is hiding away in a wine press, trying to hide things from the enemy. He calls him and says 'go in your strength' and Gideon says 'Who am I? I am the least in my tribe and the least in my father's house, why are you calling me?' Gideon is saying 'Look I am an empty barrel, I don't have the ability'.
Moses was the same, forty years schooled up in the wisdom of the Egyptians. He had it all. Then God took forty years in the desert stripping it all away until He spoke to him in the burning bush and called him saying 'I want you to go down to Egypt'. Moses says 'you have the wrong man, I can't speak, I am just an absolute failure'. At that point in Moses' life he was, in his opinion, an empty barrel, with nothing to actually give. Peter was the same, he had these big proud boasts 'Lord I will follow you to death' but after he failed the Lord comes to him very gently and says 'Do you love Me? Do you love Me?.. I want you to go and look after my sheep'. He once considered himself a full barrel, but after the Lord had worked with him he was broken, he was empty, and then God called him to be a blessing and called him to feed His sheep. So I was interested in the fact that God's method of provision here was that he sent Elijah to a poor widow, somebody that didn't have the ability to make provision.