A Potluck Gone Wrong, 2 Kings 4:38-44

A Potluck Gone Wrong

INTRODUCTION

If you grew up in an evangelical Church, especially if you grew up in a Baptist Church - you very likely grew up with church potluck dinners, as one of the shaping influences on your life. In case you are new around here - a Potluck is where the church gathers together for a meal - but there’s no catering. Every family brings a pot or a dish of food - and you hope that, with any ‘luck’, you’ll find something you can enjoy.

I always had a love-hate relationship with Potlucks. I absolutely loved the church family getting together - tables all set up in the auditorium, sitting with your friends - and everyone’s parents close by. It was like a big, extended family, eating together, enjoying each other’s company … and I have SO many fond memories of those potlucks.

… But on the other hand - I also get shivers when I think about some of the dishes that used to make the rounds. When I grew up in the 70s and 80s, Tuna Casseroles were a big thing - and I don’t like cooked tuna (I’ll take a slice of tuna sashimi - or rolled up in sushi - love it that way), and I’m not a fan of creamy soups. And it seemed as though the recipe for tuna casserole involved cooking up some perfectly good pasta … and then drenching it with cream of mushroom soup and then coating it with cooked tuna. Obviously some people loved it then - but I still carry around scars today from tuna casserole.

I am so thankful that our dinners don’t strike fear into me like those ones sometimes did. I eagerly look forward to our dinners together as a church family. I don’t know if it’s just that we have amazing cooks here at Maranatha, or whether potlucks in general have come a long way. Maybe it’s a little of both.

Well this morning we read about the first church potluck ever recorded in Biblical history. So you can see that there’s a Biblical basis for our current practice. But we also see that it has always been the case that potlucks can go wrong.

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1 A POISONED POT HEALED, vv. 38-41

Our passage this morning walks us through 2 separate miracles God performs for His people. These 2 miracles wrap up a chapter that has been filled with miracle after miracle - and I think it’s important to spend just a couple of minutes, right now - before we get into the text - just to bring a little clarity to the purpose of miracles in the Bible.

When you read in the Bible of God doing a miracle - whether it’s in 2 Kings 4 or in Jesus’ day or in the Book of Acts - please know that they aren’t just ‘magic tricks’ done to wow the crowd or get people’s attention.

When Jesus was doing miracles in his ministry - he was constantly being critiqued and questioned. In Luke 11:20 he explained - “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

And that’s the key - miracles are God’s Kingdom breaking visibly into this world of suffering and death.

There are all kinds of miracles - but what they have in common is that they are glimpses into the future, when creation is set free from its bondage to corruption and we obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God, as Paul puts it in Romans 8:21.

If you ask people to define what, exactly a miracle is? Some will say, “Well, a miracle is when God does something that is contrary to nature: seas parted, the earth’s 24 hour rotation around the sun paused, the dead becoming un-dead ...

… something that goes against the normal course of nature. But that’s not quite true. God’s miracles aren’t CONTRARY to NATURE .... they are contrary to the FALL and what the Fall has done to nature. They are pointers to the way things OUGHT to be .... pointing forward to the day when Jesus Chrsit returns and all will be made right.

We’ve seen it already in this chapter: debts paid, barrenness gone, the dead raised .... there is a GREAT REVERSAL coming, Christian - so see these miracles and recognize your future.

The first verse of our text gives us the context - where these events take place. Gilgal is the place. But more important than the place is the situation in Israel at the time of these events. Look at v. 38 again, “Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land.”

Here at Gilgal - God steps up and says, “I’m about to show to the world again that ‘I, your God - am different than Baal and every other imposter deity … I can and will supply all of your needs’”. “Right in the midst of the famine … I will reverse the effects of the Fall and release into your life such Kingdom powers that will make you as a little community of faith stand out like a blazingly bright Lighthouse in the midst of a dark world.”

This isn’t the first time in the books of Kings where Israel has found itself in a time where food was scarce. That may not mean much to us ...

Ray Dillard helps us here:

“It is striking how many of the stories about Elijah and Elsha have to do with food. It is difficult for modern Western readers to understand what life in an agrarian society of basically subsistence levels meant for the average individual in ancient Israel. Starvation and hard times were never far away … In modern Western countries, food is a far smaller part of a household budget than it has ever been; the time invested in gathering it is ordinarily limited to how long one spends in a supermarket or convenience store and perhaps a small family garden. Life was very different in ancient Israel. In subsistence or marginal economies, providing daily bread may represent the largest expenditure one makes and may also consume almost every waking moment.”

So with food scarce - no promise that there’s going to be dinner to put on the table tomorrow - what are God’s people doing?

Elisha is in the midst of a teaching session with the ‘sons of the prophets’. Verse 38, “The sons of the prophets were sitting before him’. What’s going on here? It’s a Bible Conference - a church service. See the prophets sitting at the feet of this man of God - he’s teaching them. He has his Bible open (the first 5 books of the Bible would be what’s written) and Elisha is teaching God’s Word to these spiritually hungry students. That’s a big deal. Remember the context here - we’ve just read that there’s a famine in the land. Food is scarce .... people are living on the brink of starvation. When you are in the midst of that kind of a crisis - the crisis tends to dominate your attention, doesn’t it?

Your thoughts consumed with - questions, panic: “Where’s tomorrow’s food going to come from?!”

But what is this faithful group of God’s people doing? They recognize that there’s a greater famine in their day than one revolving around physical bread. They’re gathered together to feast on the Word of God. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

The people of God don’t KNOW the word of God. 7000 knees that haven’t bowed the knee to Baal - an encouragement to Elijah … but still, in an entire country - the fact that there are only 7000 who have remained faithful … hardly an massive movement.

Here at Gilgal - God steps up and says, “I’m about to show to the world again that ‘I, your God - am different than Baal and every other imposter deity … I can and will supply all of your needs’”. “Right in the midst of the famine … I will reverse the effects of the Fall and release into your life such Kingdom powers that will make you as a little community of faith stand out like a blazingly bright Lighthouse in the midst of a dark world.”

True priority - the Word of God - living according to the Word of God.

Even when we don’t seem to be changing the society around us … hear this: there are voices within the Christian Church who are continually berating the Church for not changing society - for not stopping the descent into God-LESSness in our world. “If only the Church of Jesus Christ would get its act together. If only we tried this new program or that new method ...” - we wouldn’t be losing society ...”. Well, there may be some truth in that - there will ALWAYS be areas where Christians could be growing

.... but for most of history - Christians have not been in the driver’s seat of the world. And yet, what the Bible shows us so clearly, over and over again - is that even when you can’t change the tide of public opinion - even when godliness doesn’t win the day in government decisions

… we can be about the business of letting the Word of God transform our lives - “The word of God transforming our lives is able to inject into the world we live in something that goverment and social agencies are utterly incapable of producing.” Our nation is dying for famine of hearing the Word of God.

It is in this circumstance - Elisha tells his servant (Gehazi): Verse 38, “Set on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”

The plan is made to have a luncheon after the church service is over. The great pot stands on long lets over the fire pit. The fire is lit. The broth inside begins to warm.

One of the prophets wants to help make the meal just that much better, so he goes out to find something that he can add, to throw into the pot, to kick it up a notch. This is the first recorded church pot-luck in the Bible.

And there’s always one of this type of people at a potluck - they won’t follow a recipe - There’s the recipe in the book - it’s been handed down from generation to generation. It’s been tried thousands of times, it’s been tested over and over again and proven itself to be delicious … that’s why it’s in the cookbook. BUT I KNOW BETTER. I’ll just add a little of this and subtract a little of that … I can make it better. My mom used to do that when I was growing up. Mom would be the first to tell you that cooking wasn’t her forte - but she could do the basics well and that’s all I ever wanted. But she could bake pies. I LOVED mom’s pies. They were guaranteed success. Except … every once in awhile, mom would get bitten by the creativity bug and as she served up dinner, she would say: “I tried something a little different with the dessert tonight. Let me know what you think.” And as soon as she said that, we would all take a deep breath, because you just knew that you were in for an adventure.”

The son of the prophet wants to be creative. He doesn’t even know what he’s hunting for - “I’ll know it when I see it.” Verse 39, “One of them 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 cut them up into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were.”

So, he’s gathering herbs, and a plant catches his eye - not sure exactly what it is - ‘Citrullus colocynthis’ - about the size of an apple, looks like a watermelon on the outside - - we don’t know for sure - this fellow doesn’t know what it is himself - but it looks like it will add some flavor and body to the stew, so he bends over and starts to pick. This is one crop that seems to be growing - there’s plenty here, so the unnamed student folds up the hem of his coat into a pouch and fills it full of gourds - the missing ingredient for the stew.

He manages to get back to the church without losing the load, heads straight for the kitchen, slices it up the harvest, drops the pieces into the pot … looks good, smells good.

When the church service is over - everyone’s starving. You know how long those preachers can go .. on and on and on. After the 3rd time Elisha says, ‘In conclusion’ .. finally he’s done.

It’s time for the potluck lunch

Soup is served - the ladle scoops from the pot and pours into the bowl of each man. They take their bowls, sit around the room and start to eat.

v. 40, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!”

“Death in the pot!”. Last week, I debated whether or not to include this section with the portion we looked at last week. Then I realized it was Thanksgiving - and it probably wasn’t a great idea to end the message by looking at ‘death in the pot’ - just before sending everyone home to their Thanksgiving //feast.

Death in the pot. What exaclty do the men mean by this? Do they mean it tastes bad? Living in the dorms at Bible college, the food was usually pretty good - but there were sometimes the food was so bad that as you were holding your tray, walking along the cafeteria line - waiting to be served - potatoes, and vegetable and meat … felt like you were walking along death row.

Does it just taste really bad? Is that what the prophets are saying? No - they realize the stew has been poisoned. This stuff will kill them!

Why not just throw it out? You can’t do that - this is a famine - you don’t dare waste food. This is more than just a spoiled dish - this is a tragedy.

Well Elisha’s a preacher and teacher, not a chef. What is he supposed to do? Well - v. 41 - he gives cooking instructions: “He said, ‘Then bring flour.’ And he threw it into the pot and sad, ‘Pour some out for the men, that they may eat.’”

Here’s a sign of how much these fellows trusted the man of God. If you’re eating beef stew and you bite into a piece of meat that is clearly rancid ....

And I, the preacher say - “Don’t worry about it - just throw some flour on it - it’ll be fine.”

Are you going to eat it? “Umm … I just realized, I’m actually a vegetarian.” That’s what you’re going to say, isn’t it?

The men trust the prophet’s cooking instructions ... if God’s faithful messenger - speaks truth when he speaks … well then if he says, “Go ahead and eat” … it must be okay to dip the spoon into the bowl and eat.

they pour in the flour, scoop the revised recipe stew into their bowls, lift the concoction to their mouths, take a sip and ...

Sure enough - “Pour some out for the men, that they may eat.” And there was no harm in the pot.”

The miracle is not superfluous or ridiculous. It is a work of necessity as well as of mercy.

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2 A FEAST FROM THE LORD, vv. 42-44

The second act in our two-part drama, begins with a visitor. Verse 42 tells us, “A man came from Baal-shalishah ...”. Now, in the Bible, whenever the narrator gives you a detail that doesn’t seem to be essential to the story - you can be sure that it’s there for a reason. The name of this man’s hometown is no exception.

This is Israel - the land that God had promised and given to His dearly loved, covenant people. And so far have the people wandered and rebelled against God - that there is a town INSIDE Israel named, ‘Baal’ - Shailshah. That there is a town named after the fake god of the Canaanites is one more harsh reminder that the days really are spiritually dark in Israel.

But there is hope. Here’s a man from that very town - and he’s bringing an offering to God. Do you see, in v.. 42, where the text tells us he was ‘bringing the man of God ‘bread of the firstfruits’ ...”? That’s religious language. The OT law told the people that the FIRST part of their harvest is reserved for God. IT’s a recognition that EVERYTHING we have comes from God and He is trustworthy.

Giving him the first of the harvest - was just like tithes and offerings are today: an expression of worship and trust - a concrete way to say, ‘Thank you Lord, for what I have. I trust you to keep on providing.”

Now, normally these offerings are supposed to be brought to the priest - for God’s professional servants to be fed. But things are so spiritually black in official religious circles, that this man of faith brings his offering to the one place he knows true, godly worship is still faithfully happening: He brings it to Elisha ‘church’.

And a great act of faith this is. Remember, there’s a famine going on right now - there’s not enough food for everyone … and this fellow is bringing the FIRST of his meagre harvest to the LORD.

See him, sack slung over his shoulder, walking up to the school of the prophets, walking past the men who all have their eyes fixed on this stranger strutting through their midst, up to Elisha.

The man lays down the sack, filled with its precious cargo - opens it up and carefully, oh so carefully, takes from what’s inside and hands over to the prophet - the bread that may as well be bars of silver.

Verse 42 specifies - this is 20 LOAVES of barley and fresh ears of grain. Elisha won’t be selfish with this gift - he wants to share.

End of v. 42, “Give to the men that they may eat.”

That sounds good - but there’s a problem: There are 100 men to feed. When we hear ‘LOAVES’ of bread - we tend to picture the bread you buy at Superstore - a pound of bread. 20 loaves for 100 guys - well, it may not be a feast, but at least every stomach will get a mouthful. But these are NOT that kind of loaf. These are little, flat, pancake-like loaves. Humanly speaking, there is NO way this is enough food to feed this group.

If nobody else is going to acknowledge the cold, hard truth - Elisha’s servant will. Verse 43, “How can I set THIS before a HUNDRED men?”

Elisha doesn’t ‘come to his senses’ and accept the need to be reasonable. The prophet doesn’t even pause - He simply repeats the instructions and adds his reason for confidence. Look back at v. 43, “So (Elisha) repeated, ‘Give them to the men, that they may eat .... FOR THUS SAYS THE LORD, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’”

There’s no throwing flour into a pot here … no climbing on top of the bread as a visible sign - all there is here is faith in the living God who has revealed Himself at Yahweh Yireh - ‘Jehovah Jireh’ - the great Provider.

Sure enough - God is enough. The bread is passed from hand to hand to hand to hand … and every single one of the 100 men gets his dinner.

It’s a story that reminds us of the times in the Gospels when Jesus took a single, solitary, kid’s lunch and multiplies it so that it’s enough to feed a multitude of thousands.

Paul: “Those who gave out of their poverty”. That’s the time to give - that’s the time that demonstrates true faith and a heart filled with worship.

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Close - want you to see that God always has MORE THAN enough for His trusting people in their wobbly faith. It is not an accident that 2 Kings chapter 4 ends with this conclusion: that God’s people “… ate and had some left, according to the word of the LORD.” This chapter has 4 miracles in 4 different situations of need. It starts with a penniless widow on the day she is going to have to hand both of her children over to her creditor to pay her debts as slaves - she has nothing. What does God do? He makes sure He provides her oil that she can sell .... not just enough to pay her debt, so she can keep her kids. God gives her more - enough for them to live on. He gives her leftovers.

In the second miracle - we meet a woman of faith who has found contentment in God’s plan for her life - even though that means giving up her dream of ever having a child. Along comes Elisha and promises her that she can dream - that God plans for her the miracle of having a child. She has the child. The child dies .... dream over. Oh but not so fast - God has ‘leftover’ power, as it were - so that the child of a miracle, who dies and is miraculously raised back to life again.

With the pot of stew - God’s power is enough - not only to provide what is impossible to give - He’s powerful enough to undo a poison that is about to kill.

And here - in the last miracle of chapter 4, there’s another feeding miracle - a little bit of food. God multiplies it and makes it enough not only to feed 100 hungry men … but to leave them with leftovers on top of it all. Don’t miss that, in v. 44, “… And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the LORD.” God’s power to provide for His people is always MORE than enough.

Doesn’t this last story remind you what we read in Jesus’ day - the times he feeds a crowd ...

God’s power to provide for His people is always MORE THAN ENOUGH.

And we need to hear that. Here is how I want to apply it to us today. How many of us here today can identify with the servant in vv. 38-41 - the servant who went and collected the gourds for the stew.

Think about the poor guy. He just wanted to help out his brothers - he was looking for ways to make the meal more special … he saw the gourds and thought they would be that missing ingredient to bring

Verse 39 says he took them, ‘not knowing what they were’. He wasn’t trying to poison anyone! His error was a matter of ignorance - not evil.

CLUTZY disciple - CLUMSY in his ministry.

We need stories like this - “We need the assurance which such stories can bring us when we think over the follies we have committed sometimes through our attempts to serve Jesus Christ.”

We see it over and over in the Gospels - disciples sending children away .... wanting to call down fire from heaven to destroy a Samaritan village … hacking off the ear of the high priest’s ear, promising to NEVER abandon Jesus in his time of need - only to turn tail and run, as soon as the temperature gets too hot - in one case … running with such gusto that the disciple left his clothes behind, in the hand of the person who tried to grab him.

Oh such CLUMSY, CLUTZY followers Jesus had then. Just like Eisha’s CLUTZY COOK. And Jesus has the same today … I AM that follower.

Oh how many times have spoken first and thought later … how many times have I wanted to be a witness and example of the Good News of the transforming power of Jesus Christ’s finished work in the life of an individual … only to find myself having to apologize to the very people I wanted to witness to - for my failures.

And as a parent … OH, how many times have I done things or said things to my kids that I look back on, now - and say, “I royally blew it! I was too harsh .... I wasn’t firm enough … I was such a clumsy, clutzy parent.” I only wanted to do the best

I tell you one thing for sure - If not for the story of this gourd gatherer or the multiple examples of Jesus’ own foolish disciples … If not for the assurance that God makes a habit of using clutzes like me for His glory … I would feel so useless as to never be able to stand up here and expound God’s Word.

Jesus can handle it. He doesn’t allow your bungling to destroy His work. God, praise His name - is stronger than your stupidity.