These verses provide us instruction in the need to share what God has blessed us with, as well as our need, in times of need, to trust God to take care of us.

1. He came from a place called Baal-shalisha, a town in Ephraim. By the name attached to the name of the place, it would appear it was a town that had given itself over to the worship of Baal. It is also important that he came to the man of God, Elisha, who stood against the worship of Baal.

2. His name is not revealed, and as far as we know, is never mentioned again in the scriptures. Yet the faith of this unnamed man was of great help to Elisha and his pupils. God often has laid on the heart of one of His children to go and met the need of another brother or sister in Christ whom they have never met. What an encouragement that is! God’s timing is always perfect in the meeting of our needs.

3. This man wished to obey God even in a time when many had forsaken God and His Word. God had demanded that Israel bring the firstfruits of their harvest to Him and to provide for the priesthood. It is very likely that many if not most were not doing this at the time of our story in the 10 Northern tribes of Israel.

4. This man did not consider that the dearth of the land freed him from his obligation to give what was God’s to God’s people. So often when things get tough for a Christian the first thing that is crossed off the list of where the money will go is the church. I believe God wants us to give from off the top no matter what our economic place may be.

1. As in the last story we examined last Wednesday PM, the food brought was bread and grain. He didn’t bring a huge amount of barley loaves, twenty. The text doesn’t say how many ears of corn he brought. It was most likely shucked and made into bread or just eaten as it was.

2. Bread has always been the staff of life. It is the basic food substance of every culture. But since this story and the resulting miracle are so similar to the miracles of Christ, I believe God meant to leave an OT record of the Bread of Life

1. Elisha didn’t confiscate the loaves and corn and keep it for himself as so often happens when food is taken to those who need it during a famine. He commanded it that it be given immediately to the people so that they could eat it now. Their need for food was great and could not wait. Again, this shows how God met their need at their greatest hour of need.

2. Elisha’s command also has faith written all over it. He could see that there was not very much to eat for the 100 men there but he told them to eat. This could be a lesson to these future leaders in the things of God that God can do great things with just a little. They would also have to break the bread and share it with one another.

3. That is a lesson for all of us to learn - taking what God has given to us and in faith sharing it with others. Often our vision is so small that we just do not do what God wants us to do for Him. We are going to see that in the next point, but here we see that Elisha’s vision was truly great. Hadn’t God brought them the food at the right time? Surely God can make this food be all that we need.

1. Now we see just the opposite of what we just examined at the end of the last verse - unbelief. The servant was confused and confined, limited by his unbelief, but his unbelief was caused by measuring his own ability to feed so many rather than by who and what God was and always is.

2. Measuring our ability or capability or success in any aspect of the ministry (or whatever God may call us to do) by the puniness of ourselves must automatically confine us, resulting in confusion and defeat. We must learn to take whatever God has given us and then, trusting in the will and power of God, use it knowing that God is able to multiply it super abundantly above all that we can ask or think if He desires to do so.

3. So the issue here was not the small number of loaves, but the ability to see beyond the loaves to the Almighty. It was an issue of having the wrong perspective, a perspective which measures our ability by who and what we are and have rather than by who and what God is to us.

4. The key lesson of the passage is that God’s wants us to learn to measure life by God’s infiniteness which is without measure.

1. The confidence of Elisha is backed up by what he knew the Lord had told him - “They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.” It was a promise from the Lord to Elisha, but only, it appears after Elisha exercised faith in the Lord, trusting Him to perform this miracle.

2. Elisha teaches us that it is important to trust the promises of God found in the Word of God. Those are God’s direct commands and promises to us, when they apply to us, and we need to believe them and then act upon them.

3. This means that we need to know what God has told us in the written Word of God so we can trust, believe, and then act upon what He has promised.

1. “So he set it before them.” Note that the attendant was obedient to God and the command and believed in the promise of God. This is foundational. Until God’s people learn the moral necessity to both believe and obey the Scriptures, there is going to be a spiritual famine, confusion, and confinement in our lives and our ministries.

2. “They did eat and left thereof.” God’s provision is always more than enough for our real needs, not our greed, but for the real needs of our lives. As we remember, this is the same result that took place at the feeding of the 5,000 in Jesus’ day. I wonder if that leftover food was given to others in need just as these 100 men were?

3. Finally note the words “according to the word of the Lord.” The point is, it happened just as God promised. God’s Word is tried and true. God is faithful to His Word. We can count on the Lord.

4. The problems we so often face or fail to adequately solve are often caused by the confinement of our perspectives, and our unbelief in the Word. Oh, that we might learn to measure life and deal with its needs not by who we are, but by who and what the Lord is and has promised.

5. Illustration: George Müller’s life so beautifully illustrates one who truly believed God’s Word and His promise to provide our needs. Mr. Müller established several orphanages solely by faith that God was leading him to do so and he believed God’s promise that He would provide their needs. Needs were never made known, no indirect hints were made that funds were needed, and even when in dire straits, those who inquired as to the needs were never informed so that the ministry would be a testimony to God’s faithfulness. Mr. Müller said he was kept in peace by “not looking at the little in hand, but at the fulness of God.” His desire was to prove to all men that it is safe to trust only in the living God.