Elisha and the Decontamination Miracle

Amen. If you've got your Bible, turn with me to 2 Kings chapter 4. 2 Kings chapter 4, we're going to look at the 8th miracle in the life of Elisha, this man of miracles.

There are many more we're going to look at, but this is number 8. Happens during a famine. There are 13 famines recorded in the scripture. Elisha deals with one, and Elisha deals with one. And so let me read to you the 4 verses we're going to cover this evening.

2 Kings 4 verse number 38. When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land, and 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. Then one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds. And came and sliced them into the pot of stew, for they did not know what they were. So they poured it out for the men to eat. And as they were eating of the stew, they cried out and said, O man of God, there is death in the pot.

And they were unable to eat. But he said, Now bring meal. He threw it into the pot and said, Pour it out for the people that they may eat. Then there was no harm in the pot. Now you read that and you think, Okay, so how does that deal with me in the 21st century? What does that got to do with anything? In fact, some might read that and say, Okay, you know, I've had my mom's stew, and I thought there was death in the pot when she made stew for me. And so I cried out, O mom, there's death in the pot.

So what does this actually mean? What does the Lord have for us? Well, I know that this isn't like the miracle of the resurrection of the Shunammite woman's son, as the previous story talks about. Or the fact that she was barren and Elijah gave her a son. I mean, those were supreme, incredible miracles. But nonetheless, while this might not be, as we would term it, an incredible miracle, it is a very insightful miracle. And so we need to begin to understand a little bit of the background of what's happening here.

To see what Elisha is doing, what happens in this narrative, to help us come to grips with what the Lord wants to teach us. Elisha was teaching the sons of the prophets. Evidently, Elijah and Elisha had developed a school of prophets. And they periodically would go, and they would sit down with them and teach them. And they were sitting before him, and he was teaching them. That's what the text tells us. It says, they were sitting before him. That's a technical term for listening and learning from the prophet.

Okay? Now, what he was teaching them, we have no idea. We have no idea. We know there's a famine in the land because the text tells us there's a famine in the land. And so maybe he's instructing them from the Psalms and helping them to understand the words of David in Psalm 46, verse number 1. When it says, the Lord is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. Helping the men to understand how God is their help in times of trouble. I don't know. Could he be telling them about the miracle of the Shunammite woman's son and his resurrection?

Maybe. Was he instructing them in the law that they might understand the words of God? We know that Baalism had swept the nation. And because it had swept the nation, even under Elijah's ministry, when he had done that miraculous episode on Mount Carmel, when fire came down and consumed his altar, and he was able to slay 450 prophets of Baal, and everybody had cried at that time that the God of Israel was the true God and Baal was not. There was that highlight in their lives. But soon after that, Elijah would flee and there was really no follow-up to that.

And so there wasn't really a revival that swept the land of Israel. They were still involved in immorality. They were still involved in idolatry and Baal worship. And it had just encompassed the nation. So even under Elijah's ministry, all this was still happening in the land of Israel. And so he would be instructing these sons of the prophets in the things of God. Even the Mount Carmel episode, as great as it was, did not turn the nation back to the Lord again. And it just goes to show you that, you know, even those high times in our lives, for example, the couples retreat we're going to have.

It's a highlight for some people's lives. And they go and they're excited about what they learn and they're on this mountaintop experience. But the Christian life is lived in the daily grind of every single day. And the follow-up to retreats are important. And the continual study of what you've learned during that time is important to keep you in the Word and keep you following through. These people in Israel did not have that. Elijah was the prophet. Elijah now was gone. Elisha is now the new prophet.

He inherits a nation filled with Baal worship. And so what he's instructing his men, the text does not tell us. But he was teaching them the truth of God's holy word. And they were in Gilgal. And that tells us that Elisha would have performed a miracle in every place that he and Elijah journeyed on the last day of Elijah's life before he's translated into glory. They would start at Gilgal. They would go to Bethel, Jericho, and Jordan. And then Elijah would be translated into glory. Well, we know that Elisha went back that way and he would divide the waters of the Jordan.

That's his first miracle. He would then move to Jericho and heal the contaminated waters in Jericho. In Bethel, he would call the bears out of the woods and eat up those lads who had mocked him. And that's my favorite miracle of Elisha's. And then now he's at Gilgal. And so he's going to perform a miracle here. And so he has performed a miracle in every place that he and Elijah had been on the last day of Elijah's life. You say, well, what difference does that make? Well, it makes a difference because Elisha was continually being seen as the man of God.

He's referred to as the man of God in this text. Again, he'll be referred in the next paragraph as the man of God because that's exactly what he is, a man of God. And the man of God always delivers the message of God. That's what makes him a man of God. He delivers the message of God. And every man of God is a manly man. And we know what a man means because the name Andrew means manly in the Bible. And the man Andrew, every time he's mentioned in the Bible, is always bringing people to Jesus. And so the definition of manhood is that you are always bringing people into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

Men of God do that. Men of God bring people under them, with them, and around them into a deeper understanding of the Christ. And that's what Elisha was doing. He's a man of God. He delivers the message of God so that these sons of the prophets would begin to understand the truth of God's word. It goes to show you that that phrase used three times in the Bible, once in the Old Testament, twice in the New Testament, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

In spite of the fact that they were in midst of famine, the important thing for them to remember is that everything that comes from the mouth of God is that which sustains the soul of a man. I'm afraid that many people don't understand that. If we really truly understood that, we would be feeding on the word of God a lot more than we do. But the word of God is crucial. Elisha understood that. So he was teaching the sons of the prophets. And three things I just want to draw to your attention. Number one is the condition of the land.

Number two is the contamination of the food. And number three are the characteristics of the miracle.

Okay? First of all, the condition of the land. The Bible tells us in verse 38 that when Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. Now, how severe is this famine? Well, we know from 2 Kings chapter 8, verse number 1, Elisha says to the Shunammite woman, Arise and go with your household and sojourn wherever you can sojourn. For the Lord has called for a famine and it will even come on the land for seven years. Seven years. Now, we know that the miracles of Elisha were not done necessarily in chronological order.

We know that this miracle was done during the famine. We know that the next miracle that we'll talk about next time where he multiplies the loaves was done during the famine. And we know that in 2 Kings 8, they're still in the famine. And that the Shunammite woman's land was restored amidst the famine. What we know for sure is that this famine lasted seven years. Now, when Elisha was on the earth and he called for no rain for three and a half years, there was a famine in the land that was severe, super severe.

Now, this is twice as long. This is a seven-year famine. So, you can imagine how intense it must be for the people of Israel. So, knowing that, we must ask ourselves a couple of questions. What is the reason for the famine? What are the repercussions of the famine? And what is the reminder that the famine gives us? So, first of all, the reason for the famine.

Why is there a famine in the land of Israel? And why does it last for seven years? This truly is a judgment of God upon Israel. God had already told Israel. And maybe Elisha was helping these sons of the prophets understand, for instance, the book of Deuteronomy, the 28th chapter. Where our Lord said in verse number 1, If you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments, which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

And then he begins to list the blessings he's going to give them. One of them, verse 12, The Lord will open for you his good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. In other words, part of the blessing is the rain from heaven. But then he says in verse number 15, But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes, with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.

One of the curses, verse 23, The heaven, which is over your head, shall be bronze, and the earth, which is under you, iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust. From heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed. One of the consequences of disobedience was no rain. A dry earth, powder, dust, everywhere. God made this promise. Now remember, when Israel went into the land of promise, it was a land flowing with milk and honey. It was a lush land. It was called the promised land.

It was a beautiful land. And yet God told them, this will continue if you obey me. But if you disobey me, this is the curse. Well, they were in the midst of a curse. Even King Solomon said, in 1 Kings chapter 8, verse number 35, when his great prayer of the temple dedication, he said, Heaven is shut up and there is no rain because the Israelites have sinned against thee. Jeremiah said, thou hast polluted the land with thy harlotry and with thy wickedness. Therefore, the showers have been withheld, and there hath been no latter rain.

Jeremiah 3, 2 and 3. So one of the curses that God would bring upon his people was the fact that there would be no rain, and the earth would be scorched, and there would be a famine. Well, under Elijah, you would think that they would get the message because Baal was the God of rain, but he could not bring rain. Only the true God of Israel could bring rain, see? And so, therefore, there was no rain. But that was for three and a half years. This was for seven years simply because Israel didn't learn their lesson.

God sent the famine that they might learn the lesson that they were disobeying to God. They didn't learn the lesson, so now the famine is twice as long as it was before because Israel's not getting the message, see? Very important to understand that when you begin to look at the miracles of Elisha and the miracles of Elijah.

Adverse weather conditions are always controlled by God. Global warming is a fictitious statement given to us by our government. The Lord God of Israel controls the winds, the waves, the rain, the snow. In fact, in the book of Amos, Amos chapter 3, verse number 6, the Lord says, if there was a calamity in a city, it is I who did it. You see, we forget that. We forget that there is a God who controls everything, even the weather. If you read through the Psalms, you read where God controls the rising of the sea.

He controls the waves of the sea. He controls the winds that move the waves of the sea. He's in control of everything. So tsunamis don't happen by accident. Hurricanes and tornadoes don't happen by accident. There is a God behind all of that. You say, wait a minute, that doesn't sound very loving. But remember, God is getting people to understand his existence. And he wants them to repent and turn and follow him. Because if you look at the reasons for the famine, you must understand the repercussions of the famine.

Because the godly also faced the same famine. It wasn't like the sons of the prophets were having a feast and everything was good, and they had a great garden growing in their school area, and rain would fall right there and no place else, and they were able to experience the blessing of the Lord because they were godly people. No, they experienced the famine as well. Because God was working in their lives also. And so when the famine occurs, both the godly and the ungodly suffer. If you read through the book of Revelation, and realize that the earthquakes that happen in the tribulation are all caused by God.

They don't happen because the San Andreas Fault has not had an earthquake for so many years, and it's about to have one. It happens because God is in control of all those things. That's very important to understand. And yet the godly and the ungodly will suffer in the tribulation, because they all exist in the same place. But the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of trials and tribulations. 2 Peter chapter 2 verse number 9 tells us that. So God is in complete control. And so maybe Elisha has gathered these men around to help them understand the sovereignty of God, the whole plan and purpose of God, why they are in a famine, helping them understand what God is going to do amidst the famine.

Because remember in Luke chapter 13, when there was a tower that fell over and killed 18 different people, and the people came to Christ and said, Did you know about this? He said, Yes, I did. But you better be careful. The same thing might happen to you. And then there were some others who came to him and said that Caesar had mixed the sacrifices of Jews who had gone into the temple to worship and to honor God, but he slayed them. He cut them up with their sacrifices. And Jesus said not. I'm so sorry to hear that.

He said, You better be careful or the same thing might happen to you. You better repent. See, God allows things to happen to get our attention, that we might know that we need to repent and get right with the living God. And Elisha is explaining to his men as they sit before him the truths of God's word. And the condition of the land plays a very important part in the miracle. So after looking at the reasons for the famine, and then you look at the repercussions of the famine, because it affects the godly and the ungodly alike, you must understand the reminder that the famine gives us, for it's better to have a famine that affects your stomach instead of a famine that affects your soul.

It's very important to understand that. Turn with me to the book of Amos, the 8th chapter. Let me show you something.

Amos chapter 8. I don't know if you know much about Amos or not, but he was a shepherd. God likes to use shepherds as his spokespeople. David was a shepherd, he became a king. When Christ was born, the great birth announcement came to shepherds. And Amos was a shepherd. He's from a little village called Tekoa. And God would commission him to be his prophet of doom to the nation of Israel. And listen to what is said in Amos 8, verse number 11. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land, and not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord.

People were staggered from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east. They will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. Now Amos, speaking to the northern kingdom of Israel, the 10 northern tribes, tells them about a famine that's coming. Not one that affects your stomachs, but one that affects your soul. A famine that deals with the hearing of the word of God. In other words, Israel will seek to hear God's word, but will not hear it. Because they had the opportunity to listen, and because they didn't listen to what God said, when they want to listen, he will not speak.

That is a horrible judgment. It's called, as Romans 1 says, the judgment of abandonment. You see, the northern tribes thought that everything between them and God was good. After all, they were prosperous. In prosperous times, you think that God's blessing you and think that God is being good to you. And they were very prosperous. And things were going well. And they were almost kind of confident, overconfident, and smug because they were so incredibly blessed materially. And they thought that that was a blessing from God.

But on the contrary, God indicts them because of their hypocritical attitude. In fact, these people, they would go, and they went to worship God all the time. In fact, one of the hallmarks of their lives is that they lived a life focused on the worship of God. And so in their worship, they truly believed that everything was right between them and their God. But this is what Amos said to them about their worship. God says, I hate, I reject your festivals.

I do not delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them. And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings.

Take away from me the noise of your songs. I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. You see, they were so smug that they would go every Sabbath and engage in worship. And God says, I hate your worship.

I hate your songs. I hate the lyrics to your songs. I hate your offerings. I hate your sacrifices. I hate your festivals. Why? Because it was all superficial ritual. None of it was truly from the heart. In fact, the Lord God had said to them these words. He said, Amos 2, verse number 4, thus says the Lord for three transgressions of Judah and for four, I will not revoke its punishment because they rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his statutes. Their lies also have led them astray, those after which their fathers walked.

You have not followed my law. You have not obeyed me. Chapter 3, verse number 1, hear this word, which the Lord has spoken against you, the sons of Israel, against the entire family which you brought up from the land of Egypt. You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities. And God says, I did this to you in chapter 4, but yet in verse 6, you did not return to me, declares the Lord.

I did this, verse 8, but you did not return to me, says the Lord. I did this, but verse 9, you did not return to me, says the Lord. I did this, but you did not return to me, declares the Lord. Verse 10. Verse 11, I did this, but you did not return to me. Therefore, this I will do to you, O Israel, because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. This was an announcement. Prepare to meet your God, O Israel. You're going to meet him. He says to them, in verse 27 of chapter 5, I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

And sure enough, in 722 B.C., the Assyrians came and took those 10 northern tribes captive, and they never returned again because they did not do what God said. And the sad thing about it was that, as Amos would prophesy 800 years before the birth of Christ, and he would continue to tell them, what's going to happen, what the bad thing is, is that you're going to want to hear from the Lord, and the Lord is not going to speak to you anymore. Because when he did speak, you did not listen, and because you did not listen, when you want him to speak, he speaks to you no more.

The famine of hearing the word of God in the land. That's a horrible famine. It's a famine that happens even in our country today because what Amos says is so relevant to America. So relevant to America. There are so many people who claim to speak for God that the unbeliever, when he hears all these people speaking for God, hardly even knows anything about God because there are so many false speakers for God. And I'm afraid that even in a place like America, there's a famine in the land for hearing the word of God.

Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 7 when he said these words. Remember? You know them well. He said, enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. There's a broad road that many people are on. The broad road says heaven, and many people are on that road. The narrow road also says heaven, but few are on that road.

Few. And then later in the ministry of Christ, someone asked him, are only a few being saved? And Jesus says, strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

So of the few that somehow find the narrow door, many of that few will never enter because of the demands of the gospel of Christ. And I'm afraid that even in our own country, there's a famine for hearing the word of the Lord. People stagger from place to place wanting to hear what the Lord has to say. When the prophet Amos said they're going to stagger from sea to sea, he's talking about the Red Sea, the Dead Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Sea of Galilee, all those four seas that encompass the land of Israel, and they're going to go from place to place to place not being able to hear what the word of the Lord says because he's no longer speaking.

There are people that go from church to church to church to church looking to hear from the Lord but never hear him speak because of the false prophets that are there, and they never hear the truth of God's holy word. This whole famine in Israel during the time of Elisha is a reminder of the famine in people's lives who one day will long to hear the word of God and will not hear it because when they had the opportunity to hear it, listen, and follow, they chose not to. And God says that's it.

You're going to look for a word and you're not going to hear it because they're no longer speaking to you. That is the wrath of abandonment of Romans chapter 1, and that is the worst place a person can ever be, to be abandoned by the living God and never hear a word from him. And so the condition of the land is important because it reminds us about the ultimate famine, the famine of a soul that's worse than the famine that one might have because his stomach isn't full. But the next thing you need to see is not just the condition of the land, but you need to understand the contamination of the food, the contamination of the food.

Now, whether this was an object lesson Elisha had in mind, it doesn't tell us. Whether he was going to use the pot of stew to demonstrate something for his men, we don't know. It eventually would demonstrate something to them, but we don't know that. They are sitting before him. He is teaching them. He said to his servant, which is Gehazi, we'll talk more about him in the weeks to come, put on a large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets. That's all he said. And then it says this. Then one went out into the field to gather herbs.

This person was not commissioned to gather herbs. Elisha never said to this other person, I want you to do this, but I want you to go gather herbs. He never said that. Why? There's a famine in the land. There's nothing to gather. But there's one individual who thought, well, you know what? I'll go out to gather some herbs and it will spice up the stew just a little bit. So that one went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds and came and sliced them into the pot of stew.

For they did not know what they were. Now I can imagine that this man, whoever he was, his intentions were pure. He wanted to do the right thing. Maybe he was trying to impress Elisha. I don't know. Maybe he was trying to get on the good side. Maybe he was trying to show that he was the most diligent of all the sons of the prophets and he was going to go the extra mile to go and gather some herbs for this pot of stew. I have no idea. But I do know he wasn't commissioned to go and obtain herbs, but he did.

Okay? And as he went, he was deceived. He was deceived by the appearance of the herbs and he was deceived by the availability of the herbs. Okay? He went out and you can imagine what must have been going through his mind. We're in the midst of a famine. But he sees this wild vine and these wild gourds. Maybe they're cucumbers. Maybe they're squash. We have no idea necessarily what they were. But he sees them. He's thinking to himself, wow, this is great. These guys missed this. I can gather these up and bring them in and spice up the stew a little bit.

This is going to be amazing. So he gathers the Texas a lot full. So you can imagine how many he must have had in his arms when he came in. He was going to slice them up and put them in the stew. But they were poisonous on the inside. He did not know that. But he was deceived by its appearance. On top of that, he was deceived by its availability. They were everywhere. They were all over the place. In the midst of a famine, all of a sudden, I have all these herbs I can gather together and they're everywhere.

I can fill up my lap and take them back and it will enhance the stew and this is going to be a great day, a great meal. But he didn't stop to think that in the midst of a famine, why would all these luscious herbs be available? He didn't stop to think about that. But he brought them in, cut them up, put them in the stew. But the whole point is to show you how evil always appears good and evil is always readily available at a moment's notice.

It's there. Because they did not know how evil, how poisonous, that would put death in their stew, meaning the fact that if we eat this, we're going to die. They had no idea about that. But you know, it's a lot like people today, how easily we can be deceived by appearances. That's why Paul warned that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. You ever hear people say, yeah, I had a dream, I saw a great light. Red flags go off. Because Satan sees himself as an angel of light. Isn't it interesting that all these people who say they died and went to heaven always saw a great light.

And his emissaries camouflaged themselves as ministers, ministers of righteousness. But they're not. But they appear to be good. They appear to be great. And they're readily accessible. They're everywhere. You can find them all over the place. And by appearance sake, they look great. They might even sound great for a while. But inside, their message is poisonous. It's death-like because it has an effect on the eternal soul of an individual. Not just your physical soul, your eternal soul. And it goes to show you how easily people can be deceived by appearances and by availability.

Satan loves to do that. If you're a young woman and you're looking for a godly man, and there are very few godly men around, Satan makes sure that there's a lot of ungodly men that appear to be godly, that you might choose one of them. And go after that individual, not knowing the problems you'll face down the road. Oh, Satan is very deceptive. We need to be discerning. This one individual was not. And I don't know how the others reacted when he came in. Maybe they said, Hey, look at you, man, you are so amazing.

Where'd you find those? You are the man. Let's cut them babies up and put them in a stew. It's going to be so good. That's what they did. That's what they did. Not knowing the effect it would have on everybody there. So they added it to that which is good. And just even the little bit of the evil being added to the good made the whole thing rotten. Because that's what happens when you mix the world, when you mix evil with good. Ask Lot. Remember Lot? He was deceived by appearances. He was deceived by availability.

Lot would see the appearance of Sodom, it would look good. When he had a choice between which way he would go, he chose that which looked the best. And Abraham gave him the choice. He chose the luscious, green, fertile area. Because that's where Sodom was. And he had already been down to Egypt, and he already had a taste of evil in Egypt. He had seen the riches of Egypt. And so when he looked towards Sodom, it appeared to be everything he wanted. And it was so readily available to him, so much so that he began to lead in the city gates of Sodom.

But little did he know the effect it had upon his family. His wife would die. His sons-in-law would die. He would lose his credibility. His daughters would commit immorality with him. It was a tragic, tragic story. Simply because a father, a father, saw from appearances that which looked to be good. And the availability of opportunity was surrounding him. He took it, and yet little did he know the effect he'd have on his family. Little do most fathers know the effects their decisions have on their families.

Until it's too late. And you can't take it back. But Lot made a decision based on appearances and availability. He mixed in with the things of the world, and it cost him dearly. Samson was the same way. He just, the appearance of women was just too much for him. He had this thing for women. And I guess Samson was like a modern-day Dwayne Johnson. I mean, that's the only thing I can picture Samson being like. And he was just a massive individual. But he had this weakness that it was women, and the appearance of women, and the availability of those women cost him dearly.

It cost him his eyes. It cost him his testimony. It cost him his life. Oh, there was Demas. Demas, Paul says, he has forsaken me because he loves the world. He loves the world. So easily we get sidetracked because we are deceived by appearances. And the availability of those evil things seem to be so overwhelming that we can't help but think they're of and from the Lord. The Lord led me to the wild gourd. The Lord led me to this wild vine. And look how many, this must be from the Lord. To take it back only to know that there is death now in the pot.

So you move from the conditions of the land to the contamination of the pot or the food to the characteristics of the miracle. The Bible says in verse number 40, and they poured it out for the men to eat.

You can imagine what must have been going through their minds. They were hungry. There's a famine in the land. People aren't eating regular meals. They're eating sparse at each meal. And maybe you're thinking of Elisha, the miracle man. I mean, after all, he's raised people from the dead. He has caused a woman who was barren to have a child. He has caused contaminated water to be pure. He's called bears out of the woods to destroy people's lives. This man is a miracle worker. Maybe he's going to make the most amazing stew there ever was.

They're anticipating this meal and what it means for them. They've got to be excited. Sit down to eat. He pours it out. They sit down to eat. It says, and as they were eating the stew, they cried out. They cried out. They knew something was wrong. Oh, man of God, there is death in the pot. They weren't able to eat. It's not that it's bitter, because that's not the word to choose. It really means that there's something here that's going to cause us to die. It's so bad, we're going to die. Oh, man of God, there is death in the pot.

Somebody had discernment. Someone is able to discern that something was wrong with the food that was there. You know, discernment is such a crucial element of our daily lives. But I'm afraid that I agree with John MacArthur in this one there, that the biggest problem in the church is a lack of discernment in the pew. We just can't discern between what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, what is true and what is false. And that's why the Apostle Paul said very clearly in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse number 20, It's a call for discernment.

When you hear a prophetic utterance, when you hear someone preaching the word of God, examine it carefully. Examine everything they say. If it's good, cling to it. If it's evil, abstain from it. Move away from it. It's a cry for discernment. That's why the psalmist said in Psalm 141, verse number 4, The psalmist knew how easy it was to be deceived. And we need to be careful. Very, very careful. That's why we need to be in the word of the Lord, because as we are in the word of the Lord, our spiritual palates are sensitive to that which is evil when it comes our way.

Those whose spiritual palates are not tasting of the word of God day in and day out do not have that same sensitivity to evil when it comes their way. Why is it some will say that statement's not right, that that person is not walking with the Lord, and others will say, well, yeah, yeah, he is. How is it one can be so sure he's not walking with the Lord and the other one not so sure? Because they have their spiritual palates sensitized to the truth of God's word and can discern evil quickly. And that's the way we need to be.

And so someone was discerning enough to say, in fact, they all were to some degree, oh, man of God, there's death in the pot. Now, they could have kept silent about it and not said anything, and then they would have died. They would have died. Someone had to say something. And maybe somebody didn't say anything because they didn't want to hurt the feelings of the guy who went out and labored in the field to gather herbs and bring them in. Maybe they didn't want to hurt his feelings. Forget about his feelings.

What about his future? What about his future? So many times we don't want to say anything because we might hurt somebody's feelings. Really? Is that really how you are? And you're willing to let their future be destroyed because you don't want to hurt their feelings? Bag their feelings. Think about their future and what might happen to them down the road. And so, oh, man of God, there is death in the pot. They had to make a public declaration. They had to expose the evil that was there. Something's wrong.

Something's wrong. And they went to the right person. They went to Elisha himself. But he said, now bring meal. He threw it into the pot and said, pour it out for the people that they may eat. Then there was no harm in the pot. Almost as if the miracle is just so simply stated. Why the meal? The fine flour? Why is that important? Why would he do that? I think that there was something behind all that because in Leviticus chapter 2, the meal offering was symbolic of the Christ himself. And the meal, the flour, was used to bake the unleavened bread.

And Christ would say he is the bread of life in John chapter 6. And the very next miracle is about bread and the multiplication of the loaves of bread that would lead to the miracles of Christ when he would multiply the loaves of bread. So I think that behind Elisha, Elisha just didn't do something because, oh quick, get the meal, throw it in there, boom, okay, it's all better now.

No, Elisha's a man of God. He just doesn't do something sporadically. He does something with a purpose behind it. Because in his teaching, in his now object lesson, he's going to have to explain to them there's only one thing that can cleanse the impurity of this nation, of this land. And it's the word of Christ, it's the word of the Messiah, it's the word of God. Because my name represents the fact that God is my Savior, my Deliverer. And maybe this was the crucial time for Elisha to be able to explain to his men that there's only going to be one Deliverer of Israel from all the evil that has encompassed the nation because the nation was like a pot and the nation was going to die.

There's death in the nation because of the evil of Baalism that swept it. And there's only one antidote to that evil. It's the Lord God of Israel. So in taking the meal, that he would know from the book of Leviticus, the law of God, was symbolic of Christ himself, the coming Messiah. He would, by way of illustration, help these men understand that the only antidote to the evil of the world is Christ himself. That's it. There's nothing else. And then they ate. It's just over. It's done. But in reality, it's not over.

Because it should leave a lasting impression with people like you and me. Remember, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And this man, Elisha, was a man of God who delivered the message of God. Teaching the sons of the prophets about the God of Israel who is the Savior of a nation. And what better way to illustrate the fact that there was death in the pot that needed to be cured, that needed to be healed, that needed to be made pure again. And it only happens through the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.

It only happens because it's through Christ himself. And his word, when he said in John 15, You have been made clean through the word that I have spoken to you. The only thing that cleanses the evil that brings death to the world, or in this case, death to a nation, is the Lord God of Israel himself. And thus, although the miracle might not be an incredible miracle, he could have waited until they were all dead, then raised them all from the dead. That would have been pretty cool. But he didn't do that.

He healed the contaminated pot of stew with a very simple analogy that would help them understand that only the Christ, the Messiah, the coming Messiah is the answer to man's ultimate need, saving from sin's evil. Let me pray with you.

Father, we thank you, Lord, for the opportunity we have to be in the word of God for simple verses that deal with the sons of the prophets and the man of God, Elisha himself. And I pray, Father, that every one of us would come to grips with the reality of your word and how it applies to us so easily we can be deceived by the appearances around us, not knowing that there is evil lurking. And the availability of that evil Satan makes very obvious. We need to be discerning. We need to be in the word.

We need to be men and women of the word that we can know when there is death in the pot and know that only Christ himself can cleanse us from all sin and make us pure and holy and right before you. We pray that you go before us this night. Give us a great rest of this week. And may we live it for the glory of our King. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.