2 Kings 4:38-41
Introduction: We will be looking at the four in our miracles thru throughout the Bible series. The main character outside the Lord is the prophet Elisha. As you may recall, Elisha was the man God choose to replace Elijah. Where Elijah’s ministry was marked with great events such the praying for a drought for three and half years, the battle between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, we find entirely different type of prophet in Elisha. I believe he was a quieter man than Elijah was. What marked his ministry was his great desire to do something great for God.
Before Elijah was taken into heaven, he asked Elisha what he wanted of the Lord. Elisha told him that he wanted a double portion of his spirit. Elijah told him that this was a hard thing. What Elijah did not say was this: Jeremiah 32:17 “Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee” Thank God we serve a God who is all-powerful. There is not outside the scope of God except that which is outside His will.
When Elisha saw Elijah taken up to heaven in the whirlwind and he took the mantle of God, he did not stop and ponder whether or not God had granted his petition. He picked up the mantle and went to work for God.
Part of the lesson of this Biblical account is this. Too many people ask the Lord for good valid tools for the ministry and then sit around waiting to see God granted their petitions. God gives only the best to His children. They do not have to wait to see the flag of victory. They have victory now. They don’t have to wait unto they die to enjoy Jesus. They can enjoy Him now. They do not have to wait for boldness in their witness. We can be bold for Jesus now. The disciples prayed for boldness in their witness for Jesus Christ. They got off their knees and started speaking boldly for the Lord Jesus. They did not wait for some heavenly lighting bolt to strike to confirm they had boldness. They just walked in believing God and He blessed their faith.
Elisha accounts for fourteen miracles of the Bible. That is double what Elijah had. We could list these miracles. That would be a long process that will fill in time but really does not anything to be a blessing and help to us.
This account of the death in the pot takes place in a place called Gilgal. Gilgal is just northwest of Jericho and about ten to twelve miles east of Jerusalem.
Once again, we find our man of God with those young men called the "sons of the prophets". As I said a few weeks ago, this was the Bible College of that day. What better teacher could these young men have other than Elisha-- the great man of God. I believe Elisha was the quiet man of prayer who believed God so that God could show Himself powerful and real in the lives of His people.
When looking for illustrations to build messages, it is better to use the Bible in that it has the authority and indisputable evidence of God. Our experiences, though good, do not carry the weight of the examples of the Bible.
Let’s look at this miracle--DEATH IN THE POT
I. DEARTH IN THE LAND Vs.38
“there was a dearth in the land”
What is dearth? It is a severe famine in the land. The Lord promised this. Five hundred and fifty years before this day, Moses was standing with the children of Israel overlooking the land of milk and honey- the Promised Land. It was a place that they had walked toward, longed for and waited to enter for the past forty years.
There were several conditions. We serve a God of promises. But before you can reap the benefits of the promises, you have to meet the qualifications or precepts written down. Let me illustrate with one verse of scripture. Jeremiah 33:3 says "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." If you want God to answer and show great and mighty things, then you must call unto Him. Another verse that I believe is falls in with this verse of scripture is John 16:13 which tells us. “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”
The Holy Spirit can reveal wondrous truths if we ask him to do so. That is one of the parts of His "job description" so to speak.
In Deuteronomy 28, God spelled out the conditions and the consequences. He started out the chapter with these words: “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.”
But then He warns in verse 14-19 and 23-24 and verse 42. “And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.” “And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.” “All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.”
The children of Israel were warned but they heeded not God’s plainly spoken words. It is time to pay up. As in the words of that great Southern Baptist preacher "PAY DAY SOME DAY’.
In our country, we have a dearth going on. It is a dearth of the preaching of the Word of God. We have more preachers in this country than anywhere else in the world. You would think that we would be a real "Christian Nation" with all the Bible supposedly taught and preached. The Old Testament predicted this would occur.
Amos 8:11
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD”
What is happening is that we as a nation have forgotten God! Psalm 9:17
“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”
It would to God that we would return to God. Isaiah has this warning in Isaiah 55:6. (“Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near”) May we return unto the God of our Forefathers!
We have seen the caterpillar of religious criticism eating at our liberty, which is found in the Lord. When he finishes, there will be little left.
We have the locust of materialism. Materialism has run many people into the ground. They have to have bigger and better. We have a buy now and bankrupt later mentality. We see people working longer and longer hours just to stay afloat.
It is seen in the church today. I have seen churches building prettier buildings and leaving nothing for world evangelism. We were members of a church in Virginia. It was a beautiful church building. It was hard to heat and cool. Part of the reason was that there was not a set of double doors to keep the heat and air conditioning in the building. So the leaders of the church decided to drop its missionaries to build the second set of doors. This shows the mentality of men today for a more beautiful building.
Then the cankerworm of skepticism, which is the locust before it gets its wings, eats at the foundation of Biblical authority. Men try to explain away the miracles of the Bible or show disbelief in them by saying that they just could not happen.
These “isms” have caused the church is so weak and anemic from the lack of spiritual food. Many churches have their doors shut on Sunday evenings in the summer times. May preachers return to digging into the Book for good solid meals for their people! With the world on fire, instead of being a “Mighty Army, the professing church is largely hospitalized and dying.
II. DIRECTION FOR RELIEF
Vs. 38
“Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets.”
When people are hungry, there is only one things that needs to be done is to feed them. Elisha tells to get a pot and start a meal. The word “seethe” means to boil up. When you set a pot to boil and it starts boiling, you know that the good stuff will not be long in coming.
What is needed today is the church to boil for the Lord! When we get hot for the Lord, this world will see Jesus Christ high and lifted up as the only answer to its problems.
III. DISCERNMENT IN GATHERING
Vs. 39
Here is the account. Elisha set the young men to gather herbs for the pottage. Here is where the problem comes. One of the young men did not know the difference between the edible and poisonous herbs. So he picked up all he found and instead of asking, he just threw them in the pot.
Here is the lesson that we can learn from this account. Many believers do not know the difference between the food of the Word of God and the poison. They assume that because it calls itself Christian that it must be Christian. They are not willing to go and look for themselves whether those things are so.
Acts. 17:11
“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
We have the Holy Spirit to guide us through the Holy Scriptures so we can discern the difference between edible and poisonous teachings. As far as I can tell, every member of this church owns a Bible or two. They can learn the doctrines of the Scriptures.
John 16:13
“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”
IV. DEATH IN THE POT Vs. 40
“So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof.”
As soon as someone took up a taste, they realized that was poisonous herbs in the pot. He called out “Death is the pot.”
Several lessons can be learned from this passage.
1. He did not keep the danger to himself. He told the right person. He could have just not eaten. But he cared enough to warn others.
2. He was alert to the danger. The enemy tries to poison the minds of people about such doctrines like the doctrine of Jesus Christ. We have seen and heard of the news commentaries on His life. They try to explain His deity. Here is what one person has said about Christ and it is so true.
One Solitary Life
He was born in an obscure village. He worked in a carpenter’s shop until he was thirty. He then became an itinerant preacher. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He didn’t go to college He had no credentials other than himself. . .
Nineteen centuries have come and gone, yet today he is the central figure of the human race. All the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that have ever reigned have not affected the life of people on this earth as much as that: One Solitary Life.
They try to portray His death as a martyr’s death instead of His vicarious, substitutionary atoning death for all men’s sin. They try to explain away His glorious resurrection with theories of their own small minds.
V. DISTRESS OF HEART Vs. 40
By proclaiming the truth of the situation, it would be offensive to the one who put the wrong herbs in the pot. Many people do not want to be offended. We must proclaim the truth. People get offended many times when they are confronted with the fact that they are sinners. When you see sin as God sees it, it is not a pretty picture. Sin is the disease that affects man from head to toe. Sin separate man from the fellowship of His God.
Can you imagine John the Baptist inviting Herod to his meetings with words like this: “Come on over to the meeting, Herod. I assure you I will never say a word about your adultery.”
May you can imagine Elijah tell Ahab to bring his wife, Jezebel to come to his meeting and nothing would be said about their life style even if it flies in the face of God.
Many preachers run into problems when they preach on the following subjects. If they preach on faithfulness, fashions, family or finances, people get upset.
This Book throws its spotlight on the true intents on the heart. I remember one Sunday that I was preaching the crutch of alcohol. Many people are cripples with this dreadful sin. A young man who came with his family asked the church member if they had told me that he was coming. He was hopelessly hooked on alcohol or so he thought. It was not me but the Bible that searched his heart and exposed his sin to him.
If a man of God loves this Book, he will not overlook those tough passages and preach them with a heart that loves God and the Bible and wants to do right.
VI. DELIEVERANCE IN THE MEAL
Vs. 41
“But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people”
Elisha acted immediately. He knew several things. The men were hungry. They could not do the work of God without eating. They looked to him for direction. He acts. The meal was the antidote to the poison. Meal in the Bible is a type of the pure Word of God.
What a picture this is! This world is full of poison. It needs the pure Word of God to change it. We must pour in the Word of God into this world. You can do this by giving tracts to those you come into contact. You do this by witnessing to those you have been given the opportunity.
Conclusion: What is the last lesson of this miracle? I believe it is that the men did eat and they went out to be the preachers of the Word of God. They were eating food that was not full of poison. They were strengthened by it.
We have a dearth in this land. May we must serve the pure Word of God to those who are hungry!
