The Feeding of the One Hundred
2 Kings 4:42-44
When you looked at the title for this Sunday’s sermon, you may have thought to yourself: “Didn’t Jesus feed five thousand people?” Did we not learn of that from the Gospel of Mark last week? And is not this week’s Gospel text from the 6th chapter of John also on the feeding of the one thousand? Indeed, Jesus fed 5,000 men plus many women and children. So where do we get the Feeding of the 100 from? Then you might have observed that the selected text for this morning is from 2 Kings 4:42-44 in the Old Testament. And this is an account of the Prophet Elisha feeding 100 men. So let us look into this text and see what we can learn from it.
The context seems to indicate that the 100 men belonged to the School of the Prophets. This was a sort of seminary for young ministers who first followed the prophet Elijah and then Elisha after Elijah was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot. In other words, they were disciples of Elisha who came to learn about the ways of the LORD through him. The text says that a man from a small village named Baal-Shalita came to offer the firstfruits of his barley harvest in fulfillment of the LORD’s law on firstfruits. This consisted of twenty-five loaves of barley bread plus some fresh grain. Barley was the earlier of the two grain harvests, and the Feast of Firstfruits was observed to thank God for the harvest. This feast happened on the Sunday after Passover, the Christian Easter. The other harvest was of wheat of which the Feast of Pentecost originally commemorated.
When we see twenty-five loaves of bread, we must not think of the large loaves we find at the supermarket. Rather they were small loaves the size of a pancake or Pita bread. They would not provide much nourishment for a hungry company of men. Barley was a tough course bread, and the fact that these loaves would have been unleavened as the Feast of Unleavened Bread had just been observed. There would have not been enough time for the yeast to regenerate. So not only was this a small amount of bread for such a large company, it would not have been very appetizing either.
Elisha then asked that the bread be given to these hungry disciples to eat. But the servant responded negatively, indicating this was not enough bread for everyone to eat. But Elisha repeated his command. “Give them to the people to eat.” This time he adds the words from the LORD which promised that there would not just be enough to satisfy the hunger of everyone. There would be leftovers as well. This came to pass according to the Word of the LORD.
We can see that there are a lot of similarities between this text and the four Gospel accounts of the Feeding of the Five Thousand other than the scope of the miracle was smaller. Only 100 men were fed. We see a similarity between the man who had brought the loaves and grain to the little boy who brought the loaves and fishes. We see the complaint from the server and the disciples of Jesus that there was not enough to satisfy everyone. Elisha like Jesus tells the servers to serve the food anyway. There was enough for all with abundant leftovers.
By now we are wondering what these similarities mean. To see further in this matter, we must look at a verse from Luke 24:44-45: “And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.” When Jesus talks about the Scripture here, He is referring to the Old Testament as the New Testament had not yet been written. Jesus directs us to look for Him in the Scriptures. We also read in John 5: 39 “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” This gives us the necessary framework to understand the relationship. Jesus deliberately patterned His ministry to illustrate the witness to Him in the Old Testament. One of these patterns can be seen in the life of Elisha. If one looks at the 4th Chapter of 2 Kings, we see the raising of the dead son of the Shumanite woman. She had been a faithful servant of the LORD and had prepared a room for the prophet in which to lodge and eat whenever he came to town. It is interesting that Luke 8 begins with a list of the women who had supported the ministry of Jesus and His disciples. This woman had an elderly husband, and they were not able to have children. As a reward, the Prophet Elisha said that she would have a son by this time next year. In it, we see a parallel to Abraham and Sarah. The theme of the miracle child also reminds us of the virgin birth of Jesus as well. This son has a heatstroke and dies in his mother’s arms. She goes personally to the prophet and asks Elisha why her child died.
Elisha then sends one of his disciples, Gehazi, to lay his staff on the boy. He is not to greet anyone on the way. The mission was urgent. Jesus gives a similar charge to the twelve when He sends them out on a preaching mission. This shows how urgent the mission of the Gospel is. Gehazi was unable to bring the boy back to life. We think of the inadequacy of the disciples to cast the demon out of the boy when Jesus was up on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John. We also think about the fact that Jesus has recently brought Jairus’ daughter back to life. Here in just one chapter from the Old Testament, we see several hints of Jesus Christ. This is how we should read the entirety of the Old Testament. It all testifies of Him.
When we reflect upon Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 that day, we can look at this text from 2 Kings as a type of what Jesus would do in that day, only greater, as He was greater than Elisha the Prophet. But this isn’t the only Old Testament Scripture that we should search. When the men (males) were numbered, it was not merely for record-keeping purposes. It reminds us of the Old Testament Book of Numbers in which the men of fighting age were numbered. We also think of the time that David sinned by numbering the fighting men of Israel. By David doing so, he was putting his faith in the strength of his army rather than the all-sufficient LORD who can save with none, few, or many. It was not the large numbers of Israelites who brought down the walls of Jericho either but the LORD. It was not the resources of the crowd which Jesus fed that made the difference either.
We can see from John’s account that they wanted to seize Jesus and make him King (John 6:15). This and the following Bread of Life discourse showed that the crowd got the wrong understanding of the miracle. Mark records that the disciples also missed it when they said “Because we had not brought bread” in response to Jesus’ warning them to avoid the leaven of the Pharisees. We must remember that Jesus though means of the Holy Spirit must enlighten us that we might understand the Scripture. Jesus had fed them better manna than was provided to the Children of Israel in the wilderness. It was not just the basic bread which sustains life in this world. Jesus fed 5,000 people earthly bread in the springtime, sometime around Passover. One year from then, He would offer up His flesh as the true living bread which we remember at the Eucharist. He also provided the wine of His blood. This bread would sustain the believer for eternity. But we must believe, even when the world is offended. Most of the 5,000 would abandon Him. But like Peter we must reply: “To whom shall we go?”
God visited His prophets one day with bread in the days of Elisha. This same God offered Himself as the better bread in the days in which Jesus of Nazareth walked on this earth. This same LORD looks after us today. He feeds the hungry with bread of this life and calls us to serve this bread to the world. But He offers a better and eternal bread as well. We need to urgently press the saving message of the Gospel to the world which is dying of a spiritual famine. The Prophet Amos tells us that in the last time there would be a famine, not of bread, but of the word of God. It is a strange famine as there are Bibles available everywhere at little of no cost. These do not need to be miraculously multiplied. They just need to be distributed. We need to “Rescue the perishing; care for the dying.” We have been given the easy part.
We aren’t to offer this bread to 100 people or even 5,000. We are to offer this bread to the billions of people here on earth today. We remember the Great Commission begins with the words: “All authority is given to me in heaven and earth.” It ends with the promise that he will always be with us, even to the end of the age. In-between, we are told to make disciples of all men by baptizing and teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded them. This commission is not just to Israel, but to the world. Elisha was about to encounter Naaman the Syrian, a Gentile, who was told about the LORD by an Israeli slave girl. He came and found healing. After the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus began a transition toward ministry to the Gentiles. He preached to the Jew first, but now he would go the Greek also. The fierce wind which hindered the disciples that night on the lake and the ease at which Jesus rebuked the wind and stopped the opposition is also a metaphor to our ministry as well. Without Him, we row against the wind. The leadership of Jesus in our lives makes all the difference. Jesus would heal the Canaanite woman’s daughter in a Gentile country. Then He fed 4,000 in Gentile country. He would go through Gentile territory to Caesarea Philippi. The disciples would also go out following this pattern, sharing the Bread of Life to a hungry world. Now it is our turn.
We are empowered with the Holy Spirit. We are armed by the Word of God. We are numbered not to wage an earthly war with carnal weapons. Rather, we wage peace with the Gospel of Peace. We remember that on the first Christmas night, the heavenly host cried out “Peace on Earth! The Captain and head of the LORD’s army (=hosts) had come. The coming of Jesus was not a haphazard event, as though the failures of Israel were unforeseen. God had this plan from the beginning, even before time itself. So we can have confidence in the promises of God who foretold of the coming of Jesus beforehand in the Holy Scriptures. This is how we should understand passages like Elisha’s feeding of the one hundred.
