Death In The Pot

DEATH IN THE POT

2 KINGS 4:38-44

#faith #deathinthepot

INTRODUCTION… Bad Meal Last Week (p)

I do the majority of the dinner preparation in our home. I think I am a fantastic cook. My family would probably say I am an average cook because when I decide to throw together things in my own way that my cooking tends not to go well. Sometimes. Other times I am an Emeril Lagasse genius. Bam! Bam! Bam! Normally I think I do okay. Abby has been finding some recipes she wants to try recently and it has been nice when she cooks as well.

Last week I had some Amish-type noodles and I decided to throw together a little soup.

I realized that I did not have any chicken stock or any other kind of stock so I just used water and added some poultry seasoning. I sautéed up an onion finely diced. Added chicken. I then decided in my ‘thrown together soup’ that I needed something other than just chicken and noodles and flavored water.

I added a can of corn. It still needed a little something. We have canned green beans, but I decided that green beans in my soup was not going to work. I went to the freezer and found a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables. It was then that my culinary genius struck. I picked out of the mix the carrots and a few peppers. Genius. I dumped in the spices like salt and pepper and even added some more poultry seasoning for good measure. I should note that I had planned to add some chicken Ramen noodle spice packets left lying around, but decided it was not necessary.

All those ingredients went into the pot. Simmering and getting happy in the pot. I made some kind of chicken noodle soup. Dinner time came and those of us home sat down to eat. They all hated it. To be honest, I did not much care for it either. To preview our passage today, no one yelled “there is death in the pot!” but I suppose they could have. “This is bland.” “This is terrible.” “This is just chunky water” were the things that were actually said.

The end result was a barely eaten meal and Ian was tasked with going to Dairy Queen and getting food for those who were still hungry. You win some. You lose some.

TRANSITION

The passage we are going to look at today does in fact have the phrase “there is death in the pot!” shouted in it. It is an odd passage from 2 Kings 4 in the life of the prophet Elisha and I believe this odd passage has an important message for us today. This passage about Elisha naturally comes in two parts, but we are going to read the whole passage to begin.

READ 2 KINGS 4:38-44 (ESV)

38 And Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land. And as the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Set on the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.” 39 One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were. 40 And they poured out some for the men to eat. But while they were eating of the stew, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. 41 He said, “Then bring flour.” And he threw it into the pot and said, “Pour some out for the men, that they may eat.” And there was no harm in the pot.

42 A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” 43 But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’ ” 44 So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the LORD.

TRANSITION

The passage naturally is split in two… honestly… for a reason we will eventually get to… so we are going to look at verses 38-41 first.

FIRST PASSAGE: 2 KINGS 4:38-41

What is going on in this passage?

The prophet Elisha, who was the prophet right after the great prophet Elijah, is in Gilgal where there is a prophetic school. It is a time of stress and need and hardship because there is a famine in the land. Famine means a scarcity of food. Famine means harsh weather which results in a lack of crops. Famine means people are hungry with limited ability to satisfy their hunger. It is a trying time.