“And Elisha came again to Gilgal; and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. And there came a man from Baal-shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people that they may eat. And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord.”―2 Kings 4:38-4438And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. 39And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. 40So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. 41But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. 42And there came a man from Baal-shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat. 43And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. 44So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord. (2 Kings 4:38‑44).
THERE are two very striking expressions in this passage which I want to draw your attention to, and to show you that Christ is superior to both the conditions which are expressed in the words in verse 38, “a dearth in the land,” and in verse 40, “death in the pot.” No two sentences could express more aptly what is before the eye of God today than “dearth in the land,” i.e., famine; and “death in the pot,” i.e., what people are feeding on is fatal in result.
Why has God recorded this very striking incident in the life of Elisha? Because, no doubt, Elisha is a beautiful type of the Lord Jesus Christ all through his history. He was the man of grace, the one who here represented God. Through him and his ministry Israel were to know the thoughts and mind of God in spite of all their sin. The famine was the result of their sin; if they had not been sinful there would not have been a famine; and if there were not sin there would not be famine and death today. Elisha shows God’s thoughts and character, and how He can meet the misery of man’s condition, and how He not only delights in meeting the need, but that there is always excess of grace.
The first part of the story shows how God meets need. The prophet meets the dearth and death, and further, brings in something that will satisfy. It is but a figure, but it illustrates the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you have never really known what God’s salvation is, what it is to have your need met, look for a few moments at this picture.
First of all, Elisha comes to Gilgal. Why did he come there? Because he knew very well that “there was dearth in the land,” and that things were in a very serious state there. A large company of depressed, tried, hungry souls were at Gilgal. I wish I could get you to sit down, as these people did, and look at Elisha, and listen to him. Elisha is, typically, Christ. God draws neat to man in Christ. His attitude is not that of a judge―that will come by-and-by. He is not a law-giver―that is past. God is not now asking anything from man. He steps in where there is the direst need and the deepest danger, and He meets the whole case from His own side, and leaves that company abundantly satisfied and with plenty over, which they can carry off to other people.
If you were to get God’s blessing in your soul, by getting into touch with the true Elisha, you would be enriched so as to carry away something to someone else. First of all see the person of the blesser; then the place of blessing; and then the manner in which they were blessed. It is all connected with the person of Elisha.
God has come out to us in the person of Jesus, that blessed lowly man, who came from the heights of heaven’s glory, and has been down here, a real man. He is the man of God, the man that can represent God, that can stand for God; he is God’s man in every possible difficulty and circumstance. And was not the Lord Jesus Christ that? He was more―He was God Himself. But I am speaking of Him as the One who has come freighted with the thoughts and feelings of God, to a world of dearth and death.
You may say, I do not know about dearth, but I do know about death. Perhaps it has taken the one you loved best from your side; and there is the unsatisfied look of deep unrest on your face. Why? Because of dearth and death. Christ meets both.
Elisha comes to Gilgal. That is a very significant place in Israel’s history—it was where the circumcision took place, where the flesh was judged, the reproach of Egypt rolled away. Gilgal is the place where men sit down and face their real state, where they acknowledge their utter good-for- nothingness, the hopeless badness of the flesh, and own that if there is to be any blessing it must come from God. Have you ever done what these men did? The prodigal son had reached what Gilgal means when, friendless and famine-stricken, he came to himself and said, “I will arise and go to my father.”
“And one went out into the field to gather herbs” (vs. 39). What you have to do, if you want to taste God’s grace, and know what is in His heart, and what will meet your need as a sinner, is to sit down. We live in a day of tremendous activity, and men are trying every way of making themselves happy. You know you have tried all sorts of founts of refreshment and joy, and you have never been satisfied yet. God tells you of the fullness that is in Christ, and the goodness in Christ, and the worth of Christ, because the gospel is the unfolding of what God is, in all the blessed goodness of His heart.
“The gospel of God” is “concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1:1, 31Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Romans 1:1)
3Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; (Romans 1:3)). It is of God, that is the native source of it, and it is concerning His Son. It is what Christ is, in the glory of His person, the goodness of His heart, the efficacy of His blood, and the power of His resurrection; and thank God, it is all for you. If you have never tasted it yet, sit down, give up your struggles, your running to and fro. Paul thus describes you, “They being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:33For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. (Romans 10:3)). I want you to sit down in the presence of Jesus and look at Him, and listen to Him.
Mark this, the voice of the people is not heard in this scene save once, to own their discovery, “O thou man of God, there is death in the pot” (vs. 40). They break out in honest confession of what the result has been of what they were feeding on. The sons of the prophets were sitting before Elisha, and he speaks. He breaks the silence. Did not God know their need? Does He not know yours? He knows all your history, He knows every in and out of your heart, and all your life and ways, and your disappointment, and how you sojourn in the spot where dearth is. That means little food, and what have you been feeding on up till now? You have gone to the world, but it has not satisfied you. Proper food satisfies hunger, but I know very well, till God’s grace met me, I tried every earthly fount of joy and pleasure and refreshment, but I was not satisfied. Your heart is too big for anything but God to fill it. Nothing beneath the sun can satisfy it.
“There was a dearth in the land.” Have you found it out? Have you proved it? Sin has brought in distance from God, and there is dearth, want, need, misery in men’s souls. I do not deny that there are such things as “the pleasures of sin.” Moses “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season” (Heb. 11:24, 2524By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; 25Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; (Hebrews 11:24‑25)). Have you got among the people of God yet? You will never be right till you are one of them. There is pleasure in sin, but there is no satisfaction. It is gone with the sin, and what is left? The sting, the reproach, and stamped upon the conscience the sense of sin’s due, fear of the consequences of sin, hence uneasiness and unrest in the soul. There is dearth, barrenness, emptiness, vacuity. Are you still in that state? Listen, God knows exactly what your state is. Do not be afraid to tell Him, because He is love, and although you and I are guilty sinners, He has come to us in the Person of His Son in a way that wins our hearts, because He comes out, not to tell us plainly what our condition is, but also to meet it.
I look at that group of hungry men, wan, gaunt, and with distress in their eye. Hunger is an awful thing, but, fancy! being hungry forever and thirsty forever. They sit before Elisha, God’s man, and they do not say a single word. “And he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets” (vs. 38). He says, I have come in to meet this case, this state of misery. “Set on the great pot.” Why the “great pot”? Whenever God steps in, what is seen is always great. You cannot find anything that God does that is not great. When I come to the New Testament, the moment His blessed Son comes into the world there is “great joy.” In Luke 14 it was a “great supper.” Whatever God does is great. There is nothing little about Him; there is no barrenness with God. In Heb. 2 The apostle speaks about the “great salvation,” and in Ephesians 2 we read of His “great love.” Elisha comes in here to meet the need of these people, and that is what God is doing today. Oh that men knew what was in God’s thoughts for them!
“And one went into the field to gather herbs” (vs. 39). Who bade him do it? No one. God supplies that which will divinely meet the need of man, and away goes this foolish man and spoils everything. Man spoils everything he puts his hand to. He goes out in the activity of nature. The prophet did not bid him go. God was supplying need. Does He want anything on your side? No! See what happens; one goes out and gathers herbs. Elisha had said to seethe pottage without saying more. This man said, “I must contribute.” That is what people think today. Let me assure you of this, you cannot contribute anything but sin.
The contributor here found a “wild vine” which exactly expresses what man is. This man “gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not” (vs. 39). This man actually brings in death. Many a man thinks he has got to do something for his salvation. No, you will only be like this man. He exercises his own will, and thinks he is going to contribute, and he brings in poison―death. Nothing will do but that which God brings in. How blessed is the grace of God. He has come into this scene in—the Person of His Son, and now see how the figure opens up. “And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot” (vs. 40). They begin to eat, and it is pressed home to them that what they are eating is bringing death to them. What are men really feeding upon today? A solemn mixture of what is poisonous with that which of itself is good enough. Today men are feeding upon that which brings in blight and death and disappointment upon them. Man has brought in dearth through his sin and death as a consequence. God brings in life. He brings in Christ in all the fullness of His Person and the blessedness of His work.
“They could not eat.” They were obliged to stop. And I say to you, Stop. See what God is bringing to you in the Person of His Son. You have had dearth all through your life, and the next thing is that death will put its hand upon you. And do not forget this―after death there is judgment.
“But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot” (vs. 41). The meal is the figure of Christ. He Himself could go into death and annul it. Putting meal into the pot had the effect of nullifying the poison. Meal is a striking figure of the Person and humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. How has God met man’s wretched condition as a sinner? It is not simply by Christ becoming a man.
The incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ is not that which meets man’s state. Christ in incarnation brings out the blessedness of what He was as a man, “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Heb. 7:2626For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; (Hebrews 7:26)). That is what He was―absolutely fit for God, perfect in all His ways. There was nothing in Him that was unsuited to God. He was the pure meal; but that does not connect man with God, that does not bring man into contact with God, in fact, the very reverse. Like the veil in the Temple, it keeps man from God, because He was holy and we are not. He was spotless, and we are not. He was fit for God, and might have passed into God’s presence without death from the Mount of Transfiguration, where the Father says, “This is my beloved Son.” He might have passed up as a holy, sinless, perfect man into the glory, and heaven would have welcomed Him with acclamation; but He could have taken no one with Him, because there is no vital link with Him through His incarnation, for that He must die.
Jesus said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone” (John 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24)). The meal must go into the pot. Christ must go into death. If you and I are to be brought to God, it is only by the One who was exempt from death going into it. And He has done it. He died “that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14, 1514Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:14‑15)). On the cross He took up the whole question of man’s sin and guilt, died for man, and bore the judgment due to him. I can see in His death that my sins are blotted out, and I too have died before God.
But death is not all. For peace and joy you must get resurrection, and we have it in this very chapter. What God has before Him today is a risen Saviour. It is a wonderful thing that there is a Man in glory, who was once in death for God’s glory and to deliver those who were under sentence of death. God has exalted Him, and set Him at His own right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour. There is now not a dying or dead Christ, but a risen Christ, and the gospel comes down from a risen Saviour in glory. The meal met the whole difficulty, and His death has met the whole question of sin before God; but there is more than that in the gospel, because if I only knew that Jesus died I should not have peace. If I merely had the truth of the cross of Christ―if I did not get beyond that—I should not have liberty and joy. Now the mass of Christendom today have a Christ on a crucifix, and what is that? A dead Christ. You will never get peace from the truth of Christ having died. You must get to the other side. God took Him out of the grave, and put Him at His own right hand; and if you sat down now in the presence of the true Elisha you would have a feast for your heart, peace in your conscience, and you would carry away a good deal for others.
That is what follows here. “And there came a man from Baal-shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat” (vs. 42). What is the first fruits? “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept” (1 Cor. 15:2020But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. (1 Corinthians 15:20)). Get hold of this, that Christ died for our sins―there is the basis of the gospel. The spring of it is the heart of God, the foundation of it the glorious truth that Christ died for our sins, and was buried, and that man’s history as a responsible sinner is closed. But He is risen from the dead, having gained the victory, met all God’s claims, and broken Satan’s power.
Do not let the devil rob you of the grand and glorious truth of resurrection. Get out of your sins now by getting hold of a risen Christ. He has been brought out from among the dead, and by-and-by all that are His are coming out. There will be a wonderful awakening one of these days; they that are Christ’s will be taken up, and they that are not will be left undisturbed. Are you one of those who are Christ’s, that He will raise to be with Himself? Or are you one of those that will be left to the second resurrection?
“And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof” (vs. 43). Do not be among those that limit the grace of God. This is the Old Testament picture of the Lord and the loaves and fishes. It is very simple; bring in Christ and there is no end to the blessing. Jesus said, “He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” The want in the soul is met. “So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord” (vs. 44). Now look at their faces―they are shining with divine contentment. They have been fed by God’s own hand. The dearth has been met, and the death arrested. They have found in God’s man the one who has met all their need.
Who is God’s man? The blessed One who now sits at His right hand. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” Will you not eat and live? Unless you touch Christ, believe in Him, appropriate Him who died and rose again, you have no life in you. Everything is made good in resurrection. The dearth is all met, and you have divine satisfaction in the knowledge of the love of God.
W. T. P. W.