Newsletter October 2021 Part 1
Truth brings life
And Elisha returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. Now 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.” So one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered from it a lapful of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, though they did not know what they were. Then they served it to the men to eat. Now it happened, as they were eating the stew, that they cried out and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. (2 Kings 4:38-40)
In the Middle East, meals usually include bread made from wheat or barley as a staple. Therefore whenever we read in the scriptures about a meal, bread is present. No wonder that bread is also associated with the spiritual food of God’s word. Jesus. when tempted by the devil to turn stones into bread, responded by quoting from the Law (Matt. 4:4; Deut. 8:3) “... man shall not live by bread alone; but ... by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” Just as bread sustains the physical body, God’s word sustains the human spirit.
The prophet Elisha returns to his base in Gilgal to find that there is a famine. He instructs his group of disciples to take what edible things they can find in the house and make a stew. There is no mention of bread and, evidently, there is not much else in the house either. So one of the group of disciples goes into the field in search of something edible to supplement what they had gathered together. He comes across a plant with a fruit which he does not know but, as its leaves look familiar like a vine, he takes some of the wild gourds and slices them into the pot. As they eat, one of the group recognises the danger and raises the alarm. One foreign ingredient has rendered the entire stew poisonous.
In times of apparent spiritual famine, when we fail to see the desired progress in the work of God, we are easily tempted to supplement the little we have with things that look familiar and good but in actual fact are toxic. Rather than wait patiently on God to provide the true ingredients for revival, we resort to some alternatives that lead us away from God and end up exchanging what He has given us for a deadly concoction of false teaching and counterfeit spirituality.
In this biblical story, the prophet Elisha has a solution: he tells them to get some flour and to put it into the pot. We are not told where they found the flour, how much they added, and how it was able to neutralise the toxin, but we do know the outcome: the stew was no longer harmful and they were able to eat and thus survive.
Spiritually speaking, when we have moved away from God’s truth and tried to bring in something that looks good but is not from God, the remedy is always to return to the fundamentals of the Bible – God’s sovereignty and His purpose to reveal Himself to a creation that has turned away from Him. The nature of deception is that it looks much like the truth; and the remedy is a return to the basic principles of God’s word. As the stew was made good by the flour, sound teaching is able to counter the destructive force of spiritual deception. As bread sustains our physical body, it is the truth of God’s word that sustains and renews our spirit.
We may feel at times that we are experiencing spiritual famine and, as a result, get discouraged, and feel we need to tweak the gospel message to make it appealing, but God always has the solution. As we read on in the passage of scripture, we see God provide in His own way. Seemingly out of the blue, a man comes with an offering of the firstfruits for the prophet – twenty loaves of barley bread, and newly ripened grain. This may seem a generous offering for one man, particularly in a time of famine, but rather than satisfy himself alone, Elisha tells one of his disciples to share it out among the people. This man is perplexed – how can twenty small loaves feed 100 people? So the prophet repeats his instruction and adds, “for thus says the Lord: ‘They shall eat and have some left over.’ ” So he set it before them; and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord. This miracle, of course, reminds us of Jesus feeding 5000 hungry men plus an unknown number women and children who had followed Him into the wilderness to listen to His teaching.
Our God, the Creator of the universe, is able to sustain those who put their confidence in Him and prioritise the spiritual food of His word. And He is able to multiply what He gives to us as we share it with others. God’s word brings life to all who are willing to receive it. Let us therefore study it, meditate on it, and share it with others. Let us recognise deception and challenge any false teaching and counterfeit spirituality with the truth of His word.
Pastor Konrad