The Miracle of the Poisonous Pot Of Pottage
2 Kings 4: 38-41
Introduction:
Tonight we are going to study a story that is every cooks nightmare - preparing a meal that gets some people sick and has the potential of getting many others sick. Every once in awhile we hear reports of people who eat at a particular restaurant getting food poisoning. There are even stories of large numbers of people dying because they ate food that had no business being served in the first place. In those cases somebody was not being careful or was just being completely negligent in their food preparation.There are other times when people have made themselves sick or others by going a field and gathering wild herbs or mushrooms and have returned with something they thought was good and nutritious only to learn to late that they had poisoned themselves and others with a good imitation of what they thought they were gathering. This is why it is so important, that if one is going to do such a thing, that they know their plants very well so as to prevent such a tragedy taking place.
There is also instruction in this narrative about the sufferings of God’s people while God is judging others.
Let’s get into the text now and gather a few grains of truth that will be good for us.
I. The Prophetic College--4:38
1. We last left Elisha at the Shunnamite woman’s home where a nice place was set up for him and his servant to stay. They also had food to eat, but in this verse we find that Elisha was returned to Gilgal to the one of the school of the prophets to be with these godly men and their families.
2. We are told right off that there is a “dearth in the land.” Such times come and go, but when it had to do with God’s people, the Israelites, especially at a time of great idolatry, we must consider the warning that God gave to the people during the days of Moses.
Deut. 28:15,23,24 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.3. It is clear from this that even God’s people suffer along with the wicked in such times. God has His reasons for this taking place. It could be that the righteous were not being the light they should have been among those living in darkness. It could be that when times of suffering come they come to both the righteous and unrighteous alike. That happens many times.
4. Notice as well that though there was a dearth of rain and food in the land, there was not a dearth of spiritual food and refreshing. The sons of the prophets had God’s man of the hour to teach them and instruct them. They needed physical food to be sustained, but there was plenty of spiritual food. This has always been the case throughout time. God’s people should be conclude that refreshment from the Lord is lacking when other things are lacking. The Lord will always fill us up spiritually if we will take the time to come to the table. These sons of the prophets and their families were continuing to grow and mature even while things were getting more difficult around them to supply for their families. As we will see, God knew this and provided.
5. Even though there was a great time of hardship upon them, these men and their families have drawn together in a tighter fellowship. Times of trouble have a way of doing that to God’s people. Christians should come together when the times are tough for all or just for one. All for one or one for all.
II. The Poisoned Pottage--4:39-40
A. The Poisonous Plant--4:39
1. I did a little research about what kind of plant this poor fellow mistakenly brought back for all his brethren to eat. He made an error that others had probably made many times before. Many believe that what he picked and brought back to camp was Citrullus colocynthis Schrad. or a plant that looks like a wild cucumber, and in fact comes from the same family of plants as cucumbers and melons. I have several overheads that I put together to give you some idea of what this young prophet may have picked up.
2. If this is the plant he picked up, the seeds are edible, but the fruit will cause one to have severe cramps, and has been used as a purgative. The spongy fruit is a very strong laxative. It is bitter in taste, as often poisonous things are. If eaten in large amounts it would tear up the digestive tract and could even cause death. In small amounts you might not die, but you might think you were going to--and might even want to.
3. There are several spiritual lessons we can learn from the mistake of this man.
a. There is always the danger of being deceived by appearances.
Things are often not what they seem. The most plausible errors are those which bear a superficial resemblance to great truths of God’s Word. Many a person has been pulled in by a false teaching or a false group simply because they only heard and saw what they considered to be right and Biblical, but never looked a little closer to ID the errors mixed in with the truth. It is never the truth if any error is mixed in. A deeper knowledge of God’s Word is absolutely necessary if one wants to avoid this type of error. Satan is very subtle about mixing error with the truth.
b. The best intentions may lead to sad mistakes.
Good intentions are fine and dandy, but the end result would have still been the same - many sick men, women, and children, and maybe even some dying. Good intentions would not have protected them from the danger of eating a poisonous substance. The church at Corinth probably had many good intentions about the things they were doing, but that didn’t change the sad reality of the spiritual consequences that resulted in that church. When something is done wrong it is always wrong and will cause others to suffer. Just saying, “But I had the best of intentions in what I was doing.” will not change the consequences. More thought and consideration should have been put into the matter before doing what was done, or saying what was said.
B. The Poisonous Pot--4:40
1. We have all taken a bite of something and immediately knew something was not quite right. There may have been a bitter taste, or a rotten taste that our nose failed to pick up before we bit into the food or fruit. As soon as we realized that all was not well with what we had placed in our mouth we spit it out. Of course, if in the company of others we did so discreetly, but got it out of our mouth nonetheless.
2. As soon as these men began to hungrily eat the pottage that had been boiling before them they knew it was bad - probably the bitter taste that the poisonous plant added to the whole. If it was not that, then it was the appearance in short order of the cramping and nausea and laxative effects that accompanies this plant.
3. Again, several spiritual lessons can be gleaned from this verse.
a. One poisonous ingredient had destroyed, a least for the time being, the value of much wholesome food.
(1) It did not require that all the elements in the pottage should be unwholesome; it was enough that this one was. Just this one ingredient made the whole unfit to eat. Many believers down through the centuries until our present time have had to make a decision as to whether they should stay in their local church or denomination when it has become apparent that false teaching is being allowed on some levels. Some feel the need to defend their church or denomination by pointing to all the good things they have done and all the good that they teach. It can’t all be bad just because this one thing is wrong. They push to work from within to change the wrong, and maybe for a time that is good, but with more decisions in the wrong direction it becomes apparent that the whole thing is on the downward slope of apostasy.
(2) Such compromise in these churches or denomination eventually reaches a climax where they have departed so far away from God’s Word it is pitiable. Take for the instance the current controversy in the Episcopal Church over the ordination of gay and lesbian preachers or priests. It is dividing that denomination, but they are a denomination that many years ago slipped away from the Word of God and now are paying the consequences.
(3) Back to what I was saying, one cardinal doctrinal error ruins the whole thing unless it is purged out. No amount of talking about all the good it does will change that.
b. It is good when the evil ingredient is discovered soon enough to spare many from harm.
(1) Notice that they immediately cried out that there was “death in the pot.” They didn’t sit around until everyone had eaten to finally complain that they had been sick for awhile. They did not want others to experience the problems that they thought would come upon them for having already eaten the poisonous pottage.
(2) There would be some today, in some denominations, who would tell them to keep their mouth shut and quit stirring up trouble among the people. Be a little more broad minded and consider the feelings of those you do not agree with. You just have another way of interpreting what the Bible says than they do (though they say many parts of the Bible should not be in the Bible.) Can you imagine that taking place in our story before us tonight? “Hey, shut up over there, you’re ruining my meal.” “That’s just your interpretation of what you think the pottage tastes like and how it effects you.” “I have my experiences and you have your experiences, I don’t care what the Bible says.” Obviously there would have been many more sick people that day, and maybe even some who would have died, but because some were quick to spread the alarm about the danger in the pot, many were spared.
(3) Sadly, today, many who have been fairly warned of the danger in the pot (their denomination or church) continue eating from the polluted pot. They swallow everything their deluded and lost leaders feed to them. What was considered at one time wrong and evil is not toted as correct and acceptable. To accept it is unloving, and we should not be unloving.
III. The Preserved Pottage--4:41
1. I could not find anything that made meal or flour a curative for this poisonous substance in the pottage. This is a miracle. Elisha throws the meal into the pot and now everyone can eat it without any ill effects.
2. The scriptures often, as Jesus does as well, equate meal or the main substance of bread, to Himself. Christ is the Bread of Life. Again, there are several spiritual lessons to be gleaned.
a. The people had to eat of the now life-giving food if it was going to be of any benefit for them. It was a matter of faith on their part that the food was fit to eat. It is only through faith that a sinner can be saved.
b. If they still refused to eat the restored pottage, then they would starve and maybe die. There is only one way to have eternal life - through Christ - the Bread of Life.
3. Just as it was a miracle that day for the people to eat the restored pottage, so too it is a miracle whenever a person places their faith and trust in Christ and is transformed from one that is dead and head for eternal death, to one who is now alive and has the life-giving Savior in their life.
