After looking at a miracle in 2 Kings 4:1-7 (which God performed when a widow and her family obeyed the prophet Elisha), let’s look at another miracle later in that chapter. Verse 48 doesn’t immediately explain why a miracle is needed, but it provides a starting point.
Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these prophets.”
2 Kings 4:38 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/2ki.4.38.NIV
I don’t know about you, but this sounds like a little like the fable of “stone soup” (e.g., Stone Soup – Wikipedia). It might have been a situation where everyone was bringing together what little they had to try and feed the larger group. After all, with a famine going on, it makes sense that this group would try to stretch what food they did have as far as possible, and stew is a good option for that.
One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine and picked as many of its gourds as his garment could hold. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were. The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.
2 Kings 4:39-40 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/2ki.4.39-40.NIV
Oops! Looks like they shouldn’t have sent out the guy who didn’t know his plants to find some herbs, because he picked some poisonous (or, per a commentator, foul-tasting) gourds, and put them directly in the pot. Let this be a reminder to all of us not to eat wild plants if we don’t know what they are!
I’m not sure if the soup was just gross, or if everyone started to feel sick, or if someone spotted what they knew to be bad vegetables in their bowl, but they realized that there was a serious problem. (In my house, we hope that someone will spot a bit of mold on some cheese from the back of the fridge before we eat any, or that leftovers won’t pass the “sniff test”. However, there have been a few times when we were a bite or two into a dish when we found out that something had gone bad.)
Now, in our house, if an old jar of pasta sauce is turning different colors, we can just throw it out. And, depending on what the problem was, that might have theoretically been an option here. However, verse 38 told us that there was a famine. If this stew couldn’t be salvaged, the people might not eat that day!
Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
2 Kings 4:41 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/2ki.4.41.NIV
As he did in other cases, Elisha gave instructions to do something that might have seemed unusual. I’ve never met a bad dish that could be fixed with just flour, but I’m pretty sure that this was a mechanism that God provided for, rather than an actual food-based remedy.
And, as expected, the resulting stew was now good, and people got to eat that day. (By the way, that itself would require a bit of faith, especially if you knew that the food in the pot was nasty or could have killed you moments earlier!)
So, how about you? Are there parts of your life (food, money, work, friends, purpose, etc.) where it seems like there just isn’t enough, and what you do have is bad? I certainly hope that God works in your life to not only bless you, but also to do something that will bring glory to Him. However, if nothing else, perhaps this account from 2 Kings 4 reminds us that God doesn’t always need to give us a replacement for the bad things in our life. He can also make bad things good again!
From Sunday School lesson prepared for June 15, 2025
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – 1 & 2 Kings, by Jesse C. Long, Jr. © 2002 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 