Listen with me in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 4. 2 Kings chapter 4. This morning I mentioned that the hope of the Christian is the resurrection of the body. And I mentioned that God is an earthy God. In other words, God is not at war with flesh.
He's not at war with nature. He doesn't have a problem with the created order. It's sin that God opposes. And so, as Christians, our hope is not just in the intermediate state.
When we die, our souls go to be present with the Lord, but our hope is in that final day, the resurrection, where God brings bodies back to life, reunites them with souls, and ushers them in to the presence of God Almighty. Well, as an illustration of the earthiness of God, 2 Kings chapter 4 highlights four miracles done by the prophet Elisha, four miracles that apply to persons that are not of note. They don't even have their names given to us. They are essentially nobodies and nameless, and yet the Lord God, in His mercy, through the prophet Elisha, ministers to their needs.
He ministers to their real-life earthy needs. So it's a long chapter, but I do think it's important to read it in its entirety. Then we'll look at the mercy of God in the ministry of Elisha. Beginning in chapter 4 at verse 1, a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord.
And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves. So Elisha said to her, what shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house? And she said, your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.
Then he said, go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors, empty vessels. Do not gather just a few. And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons. Then pour it into all those vessels and set aside the full ones.
So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons who brought the vessels to her, and she poured it out. Now it came to pass when the vessels were full that she said to her son, bring me another vessel. And he said to her, there is not another vessel, so the oil ceased. And she came and told the man of God, and he said, go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons live on the rest.
Now, it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunam, where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat some food. She said to her husband, look, now, I know that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us regularly. Please, let us make a small upper room on the wall, and let us put a bed for him there, and a table, and a chair, and a lampstand, so it will be, whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there.
And it happened one day that he came there, and he turned in to the upper room and lay down there. Then he said to Gehazi, his servant, call this Shunammite woman. When he had called her, she stood before him. And he said to him, say now to her, look, you have been concerned for us with all this care.
What can I do for you? You want me to speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army? She answered, I dwell among my own people. So he said, What then is to be done for her?
And Gehazi answered, Actually, she has no son, and her husband is old. So he said, Call her. When he had called her, she stood in the doorway. Then he said, About this time next year you shall embrace a son.
And she said, No, my lord, man of God, do not lie to your maidservant. But the woman conceived and bore a son when the appointed time had come, of which Elisha had told her. And the child grew. Now it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the reapers, and he said to his father, my head, my head.
So he said to his servant, carry him to his mother. When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon and then died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him and went out. And she called to her husband and said, please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys that I may run to the man of God and come back.
So he said, why are you going to him today? It is neither the new moon nor the Sabbath. And she said, it is well. And she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, drive and go forward.
Do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you. And so she departed and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. So it was when the man of God saw her afar off that he said to his servant Gehazi, look, the Shunammite woman, please run now to meet her and say to her, is it well with you? Is it well with your husband?
Is it well with the child? And she answered, it is well. Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, let her alone, for her soul is in deep distress.
And the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me. So she said, "'Did I ask a son of my Lord? Did I not say, "'Do not deceive me?' Then he said to Gehazi, "'Get yourself ready, and take my staff in your hand, "'and be on your way. "'If you meet anyone, do not greet him, "'and if anyone greets you, do not answer him, "'but lay my staff on the face of the child.'" And the mother of the child said, As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.
So he arose and followed her. Negehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the face of the child. There was neither voice nor hearing. Therefore he went back to meet him and told him, saying, The child is not awakened.
When Elisha came into the house, there was the child lying dead on his bed. He went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. And he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm.
He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi and said, call this Shunammite woman. So he called her.
And when she came in to him, he said, pick up your son.
Gratitude as the Response of Faith
So she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground. And she picked up her son and went out. Now Elisha returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. Now the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, and he said to his servant, put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.
So one went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild one, a wild vine, and gathered from it a lap full of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, though they did not know what they were. Then they served it to the men to eat. Now it happened as they were eating the stew that they cried out and said, man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat it.
And so he said, then bring some flour. And he put it into the pot and said, serve it to the people that they may eat. And there was nothing harmful in the pot. Then a man came from Baal-shalisha and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, 20 loaves of barley bread, and newly ripened grain in his knapsack.
And he said, give it to the people that they may eat. But his servant said, what, shall I set this before 100 men? He said again, give it to the people that they may eat. For thus says the Lord, they shall eat and have some left over.
So He said it before them, and they ate and had some left over according to the word of the Lord. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father, we thank You for the written word.
We thank You for the typical significance here of Elisha the prophet. We see him pointing very clearly to the Lord Jesus Christ. Both men went about doing good. How we thank You for the fact that You care for us spiritually, You care for us.
Physically, that you are a God who is sovereign over all things. And may we be encouraged tonight as we see that the Lord does provide, the Lord does take care of his people. And certainly, as a people here, we can testify that this is surely the case. You have blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
You give us each day our daily bread. You load us daily with benefits, as the psalmist said. And we confess that truth, and we thank you for it. Do forgive us again for our sins, fill us with the Holy Spirit, and guide our thoughts now according to the Scripture.
And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Introduction: Elisha's Ministry
Well, as we look at this particular section, we'll note the ministry of the prophet Elisha. He was, in fact, a prophet of God who succeeded, who came after Elijah the prophet. Remember in chapter 2 of 2 Kings, Elijah is taken up into heaven by a whirlwind, and Elisha receives his prophetic mantle. At the end of chapter 2, we already see two particular miracles, one of healing and one of cursing, which indicates or symbolizes that Elisha stands in the tradition of Moses.
The Word of God contains both blessings for obedience and cursings for disobedience. In chapter 3, the Moabites rebel against Israel. Now that's certainly a large thing. It's a large-scale issue or problem or difficulty.
And so God utilizes the prophet Elisha once again to go and help in this sort of international affair. God's hand in the big things, the big matters that affect the world, God is certainly sovereign and present. But chapter 4 brings us down to the reality that God is a God of the details, or God is a God of the small matters also. It's not just Moabite rebellion, but it's destitute women.
It's not just Moabite rebellion, but it's hungry prophets. It's not just Moabite rebellion, but it's people who stand in need of their daily bread. The Lord God ministers to people in the major matters, and He ministers to His people in the minor matters. And in this entire section, not only in chapter 4, but all the way into chapter 6, Davis makes this observation.
Now we enter a segment of Elisha's ministry in which he shows that Yahweh's power is triumphant over debt, verses 1 to 7, death, verses 8 to 37, drought, verses 38 to 44, disease, chapter 5, verses 1 to 27, and difficulty in chapter 6, verses 1 to 7. Essentially, what we find is the mercy of God Most High to his people in need. So we'll survey, not every jot and tittle, but just to get the sense of these four miracles, and then we'll close with some concluding observations.
The Widow's Oil
In the first place, note this widow's oil in verses one to seven. She has a two-fold problem. Notice in verse one, a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. and the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves." So she has a dead husband and debt to a particular creditor. Now note where she goes in her need.
She goes to the prophet Elisha. She goes to the Word of God. This is a great pattern, a great paradigm, a great example for the people of God when we are facing debt, death, calamity, difficulty, hardship, whatever it may be. Our first recourse isn't to run to the bank, but it's to run to the throne of grace It is to seek help from God Almighty, and that is precisely what she does with reference to this present crisis.
Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. That means he was a faithful prophet. He was a faithful minister of the word of truth. And as a result, he was no rich man.
You're not going to get rich in the prophetic ministry if you tell the truth. You're not going to get rich in Old Covenant Israel if you are a faithful prophet. Elijah wasn't rich. Elisha wasn't rich.
The school of the prophets that Elijah founded, those men were not rich because they were truth tellers. The men that were rich in the prophetic ministry were the court prophets. They were the ones that were yes men. They were the ones that would tell the king whatever the king wanted to hear.
But if you were a faithful prophet, you were not a rich man. And so now this man is dead, and now this woman owes a great deal of money, and the creditor is coming to take her two sons as slaves. Notice Verse 2 says, So Elisha said to her, What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?
Now go back for just a moment in chapter 3. I've already mentioned this Moabite rebellion in chapter 3. Well, the king of Israel wants an audience with the prophet Elisha. And notice in chapter 3, beginning in verse 11, Jehoshaphat, he's the king of the south, the southern kingdom of Judah, is there no prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of the Lord by him?
So one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, Elisha, the son of Shaphat, is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah. Love that. He poured water on the hands of Elijah. A genuine John the Baptist.
Didn't John the Baptist say that Jesus must increase, but I must decrease? John the Baptist was not craving power. He was not craving position. He was not craving prestige.
He was not craving a position of high level within the kingdom of God. No, he was a servant to the Lord Christ. Elisha, before he becomes the successor of Elijah, was more than happy pouring water on the hands of Elijah. Now notice, verse 12, Now this is the man, Jehoram.
You see what Elisha does? Jehoram has a need. Jehoram has a matter of international significance. And Jehoram wants to fetch prophetic word with reference to the Moabite situation.
Elisha doesn't even want to hear him. Elisha is more than content just to send him away. He tells him very specifically, fetch the gods of your father Ahab and your wicked mother Jezebel. But here in chapter 4, this nameless widow gets an audience with the living God.
This nameless widow gets the ear of God Most High. When she is facing death and debt, and she calls upon the prophet, the prophet in verse 2 says, what shall I do for you? It's not just the big things that God is concerned about, but He's concerned with the little things as well. Notice her inadequacy.
She only has one jar of oil. The prophet then says, I want you to go get all the empty vessels that you can get from your neighbors. I want you to go into your house and start pouring the oil. She does that.
And what does God do? He multiplies the oil. God is caring for this particular woman. God is concerned for her in her need.
And notice the principle at the end there in verse 7. At the end of verse 7, it says, she came and told the man of God, and he said, go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons live on the rest. This is an evident manifestation of that New Testament principle of Ephesians 3.20, that God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think. She has a present need, but God supplies such that she has present provision and enough for the future.
Again, an insignificant, nameless woman, a nobody as far as Israel is concerned, and yet God the Lord, through the prophet Elisha, comes and ministers to her need. No, I'm not suggesting that when you're facing debt, you're always going to have a prophet show up at your door and say, go to your neighbors, get their vessels, and watch the oil flow. I'm not suggesting that. That's bad exegesis, to rip things out of context and say, Well, here it is, health, wealth, and prosperity.
Whenever you get vessels, the Lord's going to cause the oil to flow. I'm not going to make that application, but I am going to encourage you with this reality, that God is concerned even for the mundane things that affect kingdom citizens in this world. And I think there's a world of encouragement in that particular principle, that God is concerned about our daily bread, that God is concerned about our daily needs, that God is concerned when His people are destitute, that God is concerned for the widow, that God is concerned for those in debt. that the Lord Most High can be entreated, and the Lord Most High oftentimes brings great relief, not only the relief for the immediate situation, but relief for the future situation as well.
The Shunammite's Son
Now note, secondly, the Shunammite's son. It's a large block of narrative. We'll just break down the main points.
The Woman's Kindness to Elisha
First, the kindness of this woman. She ministers to the prophet Elisha. He is a man of God. He is a faithful preacher of the Word.
She sees this. She recognizes this. So she says to her husband, let's build him an office. Let's put up bookshelves.
Let's... No, I'm just kidding. This is the first instance of a pastor's study. It's a place for him to labor in the Word and doctrine.
It's a place for him to rightly divide the Word of truth. It's a place for him to find relief and comfort and some degree of peace and blessing in an otherwise hostile world. Sure that things were not good for Elisha on the international level. I mean, he tells kings, I don't want to talk to you.
He tells kings to go and ask the false gods of Ahab and Jezebel. I'm absolutely convinced that the powers that be were always looking upon Elisha favorably. So this Shunammite woman extends kindness and goodness and mercy to him. And then Elisha wants to pay it back, not quid pro quo, not in some sort of a divine transaction, but he wants to do her a solid.
He wants to do something kind for her. And she says, no, I'm good. I'm fine. Everything's all right.
I'm going to remain here with my people. Now note, Gehazi makes the observation that she is childless. She does not have a child.
The Promise of a Son
Notice in verse 14, what then is to be done for her? This is Elijah to Gehazi. Gehazi answered, actually, she has no son and her husband is old. So he said, call her.
When he had called her, she stood in the doorway. Then he said, about this time next year, you shall embrace a son. Now, this is intriguing because it's not an isolated situation in the Bible. There is a sort of conspicuous motif of the barren woman who is given a child by God.
There are a series of barren women in the Bible who are given a child by God. and just a few to remind you in Scripture. You have the case of Sarah. The language that is used here is the same sort of language used in Genesis 18. You have the situation concerning Rebecca.
She was 20 years barren until pregnant. You have the situation facing Rachel. You have the situation facing Mrs. Manoah.
We don't know her first name, so we'll call her Mrs. Manoah, the mother of Samson. You have the situation facing Hannah. You see this biblical motif.
The previously barren woman is visited by God and given children. And then, of course, you have Elizabeth in Luke chapter 1. Now, there is a notable difference between those barren women that were given children and this barren woman that was given a child. Those other barren women who gave birth to children gave birth to significant children.
In other words, they were men that would rise up and do significant things in the kingdom of God. Basically, you have Isaac and Jacob. They are necessary for the preservation of the covenant people. Joseph preserves Israel in Egypt.
These are all the children that came as a result of this barren woman that got pregnant motif. Then you have Samson, who effectively judged Israel. Samuel, who Hannah gave birth to, was a prophet and a king maker. And then John the Baptist announced the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
But what of this Shunammite woman? Her son doesn't do anything significant for the kingdom, at least it's recorded. We could have done some great things, but it's just not recorded here. What's the point?
What do we learn from God here? Sometimes he just does nice things for people. There's no endgame, there's no deliverance for Israel as a result, there's no Samson slaying Philistines on the field of battle. God returns the favor of this Shunammite woman by giving her a child.
Robert Alter says, this is also the only annunciation that does not lead to the birth of someone destined to play a significant role in the national story. The boy is never named and he remained no more than the son of a prosperous farmer. Davis says, what's the point? In other words, why this large block of narrative?
Now, certainly there's theological lessons to be gleaned and certainly there is the demonstration of Elisha's faithfulness and things that we learn therein. But when Davis says, what's the point? He says that sometimes Yahweh gives such a gift, not because he will fulfill some great redemptive historical function, but simply because he wants to make a woman happy with a child. Sometimes it's far simpler than we imagine.
Why would God do this? I could see us, you know, in the drawing board, scratching our heads. What was he going to go? Maybe it's just because God's nice.
When I say nice, I don't mean nice the way men are nice. You know, that's kind of an anemic word. I'm nice. It sounds kind of weird when we say it like that.
God's kind. He's good. This son of the Shunammite underscores that reality very, very beautifully. But notice,
The Son's Death and Resurrection
the story takes a turn. The son dies. It's intriguing, isn't it? God gives a gift and that gift dies.
See, the health, wealth, prosperity gospel really is wrong. I mean, if ever there was a boy destined to not get sick, if ever there was a boy destined to be healthy, wealthy, and wise, if ever there was a boy destined to always have the smile and favor of God, it would be this boy. But it's not the case, brethren. The boy dies.
He says, verse 19, my head, my head. So the father tells the servant, carry him to his mother. Verse 20, when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon and then died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him and went out.
And she called to her husband and said, please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys that I may run to the man of God and come back. Again, I think we see in all of this her faith in the living God, her faith in Yahweh of Israel, her recourse, not to the mortuary, not to make the particular arrangements, but she puts the child back up in his room and then she fetches the man of God. Perhaps she had heard of the widow at Zarephath. Perhaps she had heard of the ministry of Elijah the prophet.
Perhaps she had known that. She's going to step out in faith, hoping that Yahweh would indeed resurrect her son and restore him to life and bring him back to her. So she goes. She meets with Gehazi.
Elisha says to Gehazi, I want you to talk to her. When she says, it is well, I don't think she's lying to Gehazi. I think the point is she doesn't want to talk to Gehazi. She doesn't want to deal with Gehazi.
She wants the man of God. She wants Elisha the prophet. And intriguing as well is verse 27. Notice, verse 27.
Now, when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, let her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me. It's an intriguing statement. The prophet of God is not omniscient.
The prophet of God only knows what God gives him to know. The prophet of God doesn't know A to Z with reference to the life of Israel's problems and the problems of Israel's life. He doesn't know these things and instead of acting in a In an inconspicuous way, or rather in an uninformed way, he says, let her alone. God hasn't revealed this to me.
I need to determine what the situation is before I can act. And there is a great principle. Yeah, and the whole story isn't about this principle, but it's certainly a principle the church needs to listen to. We need to get the facts before we make application.
We need to understand a situation before we can speak to it. Proverbs are clear. The first to plead his cause seems right till his neighbor comes and examines him. Proverbs are clear that for a man to answer a matter before he hears it, it's foolishness to him, it's rashness.
Elisha needs the facts, he needs the data, he needs the information before he can prescribe a course of action. And that is precisely what is in view. Verse 28, I think we get something of her distress and of her grief. Did I ask a son of my Lord?
Did I not say, do not deceive me? You see, the people of God cry out with agony, and the prophets of God don't rebuke them. You see that in Elijah, when he raises the son of the woman at Zarephath. You see this sort of a thing.
When the people of God express their sorrows, and they express their grief, the prophets don't upbraid them. The prophets join them in expressing that grief back to God. It's a beautiful and a wonderful thing. They don't just tell them, buck up.
They don't just tell them, you need to get better. They don't just tell them everything's going to be all right. They enter into the trenches and they agonize with those who agonize. So then he tells Gehazi to go to take the staff.
This isn't magic. It's not hocus pocus. It's prophetic act. It's prophetic parable.
It's symbolism. But anyways, he tells Gehazi to take the staff and to go and to lay it on the dead boy. Now notice, specifically, we see Elisha's inadequacy. I only point that out because that's the foil for Yahweh's adequacy.
Note his inadequacy. He sends Gehazi with a staff. As well, he doesn't have all the knowledge, according to verse 27. Now, he remedies that in verses 33 to 35.
Look at what happens. Look at what goes on. Verse 32, when Elisha came into the house, there was the child lying dead on his bed. He went in therefore, shut the door behind the two men, and prayed to the Lord.
So the staff was ill-informed. He didn't have all of the knowledge. He sent Gehazi on this particular mission and it didn't work. So what's a prophet to do?
He's to call upon Yahweh. He is to go to the source of power and healing. He is to go to Almighty God. I'm not suggesting that he didn't before.
I'm simply suggesting that this is underscored in the text. The staff did not work. What works is prayer. What works is calling upon God.
I don't mean works in a pragmatic sense, put in your, you know, your profit pennies and out comes your blessing. That whole motif or that whole idea is absolutely destroyed in this particular passage. We see he doesn't heal the boy on the first go-round. It's not the case that a woman has a need, she puts in her prophetic penny, and out comes her prophetic blessing.
That's not the way it works. But Elisha turns unto the Lord and he engages in importunate prayer. And then, verses 34 and 35, he goes, he lays upon the boy. Again, this is acted parable, it's prophetic symbolism.
There's no power, no magic. He doesn't have sort of electricity flowing in his body in some, you know, super stellar way and he lays upon the boy and there's some transfer. No, it's simply a prophetic image. It is symbolism.
He lays upon the boy, he's prayerful to the Lord, and the Lord restores the life of the son. And before we leave this particular miracle, let us all learn something of this Shunammite woman in verse 37. So she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.
Now, I think the picking up of her son and going out is pretty simple to understand. Her son who was dead is now alive. Her son who was dead is now breathing. Her son who is dead has sneezed seven times after having been dead.
But it's what she does before this that I think as the people of God, we need to be mindful of. So she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground. What does that suggest to us? I would submit that it suggests thankfulness, gratitude, Thank you, Elisha, for intervening in my particular situation.
Thank you ultimately to God for raising my dead son. Gratitude is something pressed upon the New Covenant believer in a whole host of places. We are to be a thankful people. Remember that incident in Luke's gospel where Jesus heals the lepers, and only one comes back to say thank you.
Jesus notices that. I'm not saying Jesus is up there watching you, and if you don't say thank you for that M&M, you're gonna get it. I'm not suggesting that necessarily, but Jesus says, didn't I heal more? And yet, there's only one who comes back to bring glory to God?
Brethren, with the abundance of blessings that you and I have received, it can sort of become routine. It can sort of become old hat. We have never lived in a situation where we can't walk upstairs and put a glass under the tap and fill it with water. We have never lived in a situation where we have been without food.
We have never lived in a situation where there's not Pricemark or Superstore or Walmart. I mean, our biggest complaint is that their Walmart in the next town over is bigger than ours. How much bigger Walmarts can we possibly have? We don't want to drive all the way to Abbotsford to Costco.
They need to put a Costco in Chilliwack. I mean, there's property, there's land. I don't know what they're dragging their feet from. I don't like those crowds at Costco on a Monday morning.
It's just terrible. It really is. I'm just illustrating the point here. We've never been without.
So when we have been inundated and blessed upon blessed upon blessed, we forget to be thankful. We've just lived with our hand out, and God has continued to fill it, and we don't say thank you anymore. We don't express gratitude. You see this in our prayer closets, you see it in the public prayer meeting.
I'm not suggesting, I'm listening for this all the time, but when we run right to God and ask for things, And we don't spend a bit of time with adoration first. You know, that acronym ACTS really is effective, and adoration heads up the list. Contrition, thankfulness, all those things that ought to be typical in the lives of God's people when they come to the throne of grace. So just examine yourselves on my normal basis.
Now, you know, I've said before, if you fall down a well and your foot is wrapped up in the rope bucket and you're hanging there, it's okay to just say, God, deliver me from this well. That's acceptable. But in your normal, ordinary prayer lives, what is the first matter of business? God, give me, or God, thank you for having given me?
Adoration, brethren, thankfulness and gratitude. This woman displays it.
Purification of the Stew
Now, note thirdly this purification of Stu. The situation presents itself. He returns to Gilgal and there was a famine in the land. Now, that's never good news in the biblical narrative.
Famine in the land probably doesn't mean just in Gilgal. Famine in the land probably means Israel wide. Famine in the land is indicative of God's judgment. Famine in the land was promised by the Lord in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 For when Israel went a-whoring from God, when they rejected Him, when they rebelled against Him, when they did what Hosea describes, they had forgotten Him.
So God would impose famine conditions. There would be drought. There would be no food. There would not be that sort of daily provision.
And so we're met with that particular situation. Notice, Elisha returns to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land. Now the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, and he said to his servant, put on the large pot, boil stew for the sons of the prophets.
These schools of the prophets were founded by Elijah. And this gathering together was probably for mutual edification, for exhortation, for encouragement, and of course, for a nice big pot of stew. And so Elisha tells the man to put on the stew pot. Verse 39, so one went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine, and gathered from it a lap full of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, though they did not know what they were.
Now, most likely this was a particular plant, a particular type of gourd, which produced a small yellow melon that acted as a very strong laxative, and a large quantity could be fatal. Matthew Henry makes this observation on verse 39. I think it's perceptive. The sons of the prophets, it seems, were better skilled in divinity than in natural philosophy, and read their Bibles more than their herbals.
This fellow didn't know what he had fetched and he didn't know what he was throwing in the stew pot. He didn't know that it would provide death. Now, the lesson here isn't make sure you have a guide when you go out to pick gourds so you know what manner of food you can put into your pot. The underlying lesson is that God oftentimes overrules even foolishness on the part of his people. that God provides a way that this stew doesn't kill them, shows us that even in the midst of a prophet who goes out and finds some, you know, renegade gourd and chucks it into the stew pot that should realistically kill everybody who ingests it, God nevertheless overrules that and God nevertheless provides for them a delicious bowl of stew that would not end in their death.
Now, with reference to the flower that's not magic flower, something you got to learn about the prophets in the Old Testament. They were not magicians, they were not, you know, full of sort of implements that helped them advance Yahweh's cause. A lot of the things that they did were simply symbol. They were earthy representations, very similar to baptism and the supper.
You see, God is not agnostic. God is concerned for his people. And he knows that more often than not, physical things help us to learn spiritual lessons. So there was no magic within the flower.
It was simply symbolic of the fact that God is taking care of the stew for these people. And then notice the last statement of verse 41, and there was nothing harmful in the pot. Praise God for His goodness to His soup-eating prophets.
Provision for One Hundred Men
Finally, note the provision for 100 men, verses 42 to 44. This first statement in verse 42 is actually an encouraging word. If the famine of verse 38 alerts us to bad things in Israel, the fact that there was a man who came from Baal, Shelisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, that's encouraging. It tells us that not every Israelite had gone the way of Ahab, Jezebel, Baal, and the calves.
It tells us that there were faithful ones still in Israel, because this man from Baal-Shelisha takes his firstfruits and he brings them to the man of God. He had to bypass probably a lot of idolatrous locations for idolatrous worship. He had to travel and traverse renegade territory with reference to this particular mission. So he comes, he brings this food to Elisha, and then Elisha says at the end of verse 42, give it to the people that they may eat.
Now, it's simple mathematics according to this man in verse 43. But his servant said, what shall I set this before 100 men? How in the world are we all going to eat? And like the disciples, when the Lord Jesus says, what do we have in terms of idols?
What do we have in terms of food? What do we have in terms of the ability to feed these people? Well, Lord, we only have a few loaves and a few fish. And Jesus says, I want you to distribute it.
I want you to pass it out. I want you to make sure that everybody eats and everybody is satisfied. We certainly see Jesus and Elisha here, don't we? I think we see Jesus and Elisha all throughout this particular section, but conspicuously, because Jesus on two occasions fed a great number of people with a very little bit of food.
He did it to 5,000 people. He did it to 4,000 people. And Elisha the prophet is going to do it with a hundred people. And so he tells the man, verse 43, give it to the people, that they may eat for thus says the Lord.
See, this is the power. This is the emphasis. This is the means by which miracles are accomplished because Yahweh has said, they shall eat and have some left over. So he said it before them and they ate and had some left over.
Again, punctuated by that statement, the end of verse 44, according to the word of the Lord. So those are four somewhat simple miracles, simple in terms of the ability to understand them. difficult if man was called upon to multiply oil and raise a dead son and you know get the stew pot clean or get the stew itself clean so that there's not death in the pot and provide for all these people. But for God it's a simple act and for God it is a demonstration of His mercy in the ministry of Elisha.
Concluding Observations
Just a couple of observations with reference to these miracles.
God Cares for Small Things
In the first place, the Lord is not only concerned with the big stuff affecting nations, but also with the small stuff of everyday life. Death, debt, drought, disease, difficulty. God is concerned for those particular things. Again, He's not always going to meet your needs in the same way that He met these needs.
He's not a formulaic God. He's not Baal. He's not entreated the way Baal was. If you did enough on the ground, then Baal would reign upon the earth.
And the way that Baal was entreated was through fornication. It was through copulation. The worshippers would engage in fornication and with that hopefully prime the pump so that Baal would engage in likewise conduct with one of his consorts and as a result he would then bring rain upon the earth. It was a formulaic God.
You put in the particular coin, you pull the handle, and out pops your blessings. God is not that way. We cannot manipulate Him. We cannot make Him perform.
We cannot make Him do anything. He is free. He is sovereign. He is omnipotent.
But we can certainly see in 2 Kings chapter 4 sort of His tendencies. Can't we? We can sort of see his character. We can sort of see that he is for not only putting down a Moabite rebellion in 2 Kings 3, but he's also for feeding a destitute woman and keeping her sons out of slavery.
He's also for raising a dead son so that a Shunammite woman can be happy. He's also for making sure his prophets don't ingest poison rather than a good bowl of soup. And he's also for providing for many with a few provisions. I submit that this appreciation that God is not only concerned with the big but also with the small goes a long way for the people of God as an antidote against worry.
An antidote against worry. I think we're given to carnal anxiety or worry. Matthew chapter 6. Doesn't Jesus use little things to comfort his people?
Doesn't Jesus use the insignificant to call his people to not engage in worry? Doesn't he say, look at the birds? Look at the lilies, look at the things around you. If God feeds the one and He clothes the other, is He going to let you, kingdom citizen, die?
This is an antidote to worry. It's also an antidote to fear. We are not to fear the creditors. We're supposed to be responsible and pay our debts, brethren, but we're not supposed to fear creditors.
We're not supposed to fear the various things that plague us on this earth. We are to fear God. We are to fear the Lord.
God Cares for Nobodies
Secondly, the Lord is not only concerned with kings, and sometimes He's not, in the case of Elisha in chapter 3, but He's also concerned with no bodies, a nameless widow, a nameless Shunammite, nameless prophets, and a nameless 100 men. I think that's good news as well, isn't it? Think it's typical or symptomatic of the Christian believer to say, well, I'm not Paul, so God's not gonna hear my requests. I'm not Spurgeon, so God's not gonna bless this sermon.
I'm not Amy Carmichael, so I'm just some regular woman, just some housewife. No, God is for the nobodies, apparently, in this passage. God is pro-nameless people, and God gives us this evidence by giving them what they needed.
God Delights in Showing Kindness
Thirdly, the Lord is not only concerned with the direct advancement of His kingdom, but He delights in showing kindness in the midst of the kingdom. You could see how even the stew pot advances the kingdom. The prophets all die. The kingdom doesn't have the Word of God.
So even in that sort of insignificant thing, we see kingdom advancement. We don't really see kingdom advancement with the widow and her royal and her two sons, and we really don't see kingdom advancement with reference to the Shunammite. Sometimes God just does good things for people. Isn't that something where, you know, I think that's, at least for me, if things are going well, I'm, maybe it was my Roman Catholic upbringing, I'm always waiting for the whammy to come.
You know, I'm always waiting to, well, why are good things happening? I'm going to fall, I'm going to fail, I'm going to, you know, get hammered. No, just enjoy the good. Remember, many years ago, when the boys were little, we were standing outside Six Flags Magic Mountain, and we're about to ride this roller coaster called Goliath.
And as the name would suggest, it's a monster, it's a beast. That first hill is even more than vertical. And I think it was Mike, I said, do you ever think God puts us up in positions like this because he's going to smoke us? And he meant by that we're going to crash and, you know, fall off and die on Goliath.
Not a great thing to muse on right before you're going to step onto this thing. But I think that certain people are like that. I blame Roman Catholicism in my upbringing. It's just this constant fear that God is only doing good things so that he can get me.
I'm hopefully graduating from that thought process as I live and move and have my being, but we ought to just thank God that he does good things, that he's just kind. Why is it that he gave you this, you know, promotion and this responsibility? Maybe because he likes me. Is that okay?
He's just good. Yahweh is good. Scriptures underscore that over and over again. Yahweh is good.
That's what she says about Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He's not tame, but he's good. That's our God. God is good.
Sometimes He just gives widows oil and He gives women children. We see as well. The Lord not only grants grace in the provision of food, but he does so in an exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think manner. In both instances where things are multiplied, it's not only for the present situation, but it's for the future provision.
When the woman fills up her containers, it meets her immediate need, and she has enough for the future. When these prophets eat, or when these hundred men eat this bread from the man, from Baal-Shelisha, they not only fill their belly for the present, but they have leftovers stored up for the future. That is God's tendency. And then as well, we ought to learn and appreciate with reference to the ministry of Elisha, the Lord not only rules his people from on high, but he sends his prophets to mingle, to mix, to run amongst them and to be a source or a conduit of God's blessing for the people in God's kingdom.
So those are some lessons concerning the miracles.
Elisha as Type of Christ
I just want to end on the typical significance of the prophet Elisha. I mean, when we compare, say, 2 Kings 4 and 5 to the ministry of Jesus, say, Matthew chapters 8 and 9, after His instruction and His teaching and His declaration on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus then shows forth His power, His majesty, and His excellence by going about doing good. by being a miracle worker among the people. Again, to advance the kingdom, to confirm who he is, to demonstrate what he's about. So you look at Elisha, you ought to think Jesus.
When you look at Elisha in 2 Kings, you ought to consider the Lord Christ. Even the resurrecting power that our Lord Jesus possesses. Remember we saw that this morning. At the death of Christ, the graves were opened.
Three days later, the bodies or many bodies of the saints were raised up and then they went into the holy city and appeared to many. Jesus is powerful. Jesus has victory over the grave and over death. Will Elisha even manifest that?
When Elisha is dead, he is buried in a particular tomb. And there's an instance in 2 Kings chapter 13 where a man is lowered into that tomb, a dead body, and that dead body coming into contact with Elisha lives. It's really amazing. Again, Elisha is typical of our Lord Jesus.
But there's one thing Elisha doesn't do that Jesus does do. Elisha can point sinners to Israel's God. He does that in 2 Kings 5. He not only heals the man Naaman from his leprosy, but Naaman is healed by the grace of God and becomes a confessor of Yahweh.
So, Elisha's typical significance is consistent across the board, except in the one peculiar trait that is only our Savior's. It is He who will save His people from their sins. So let Elisha point you to Christ. Let these types and shadows show forth Jesus as a miracle worker and one who does good.
But realize it's Christ alone who saves. It's Christ alone who forgives. It's Christ alone who heals the soul. It's Christ alone, through His life, His death, His resurrection, that brings the forgiveness of sins.
It's Christ alone in which, or through whom which, we have forgiveness, even redemption through His blood. So if you are not a believer tonight, it's Christ to whom you must look. Elisha is a dazzling prophet. Elisha is a wonderful human being.
But Elisha cannot save you from your sins. Only Elisha's Savior, even the Lord Jesus, can do that. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for Your Word, and we thank You for Jesus in the Old Testament, and we thank You for Jesus in the New Testament, and Jesus now enthroned at the right hand of the majesty of God on high. And we thank You that He ever lives to make intercession for us, and we thank You that He saves sinners even now as they come to Him in faith. We thank You for His current session, and we look forward to His return again in glory to judge the living and the dead. May it be the case that all of us tonight would be clothed in His righteousness, that all of us tonight would be looking to Him in faith, that all of us would know the forgiveness of sins and that righteousness that does avail with you.
Go with us, watch over us, help us to have a good week, to glorify, to honor you, and help us to be a thankful people that express adoration and gratitude to the living and the true God. We ask these things through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. We'll close with a brief time of meditation and then be dismissed.