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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. 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. 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. 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. Now note, secondly, 
the Shunammite's son. It's a large block of narrative. We'll just break down the main 
points. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. Just a couple of observations 
with reference to these miracles. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.