2 Kings 4:38–41 // Elisha Purifies the Deadly Stew
38 And Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land. And asthe sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Set onthe large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.” 39 One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lapfull of wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were. 40 And they poured out some for the men to eat. But while they were eating of the stew, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!”And they could not eat it. 41 He said, “Then bring flour.” And he ethrew it into thepot and said, “Pour some out for the men, that they may eat.” And there was no harm in the pot.
This morning as I was reading 2 Kings, I ran across this commentary on Blue Letter Bible by David Guzik. He honestly has the commentary I reference the most during. my reading. He quoted Spurgeon twice.
ii. “You have been trying to find pleasure in the world, and you have found wild vines… you have gathered wild gourds, a lap full, almost a heart full. You have been shredding death into the pot, and now you cannot feel as you used to feel, the poison is stupefying your soul. While we were singing just now, you said, ‘I want to sing as saints do, but there is no praise in me’… If you are a worldling, and not God’s child, you can live on that which would poison a Christian, but if you are a child of God, you will cry out, ‘O thou man of God, there is death in the pot!’” (Spurgeon)
“You have been shredding death into the pot, and now you cannot feel as you used to feel” Wow! The commentary mentions that the gourds that the servant had probably found were called “colocynth” or wild cucumber. This line is so convicting. He is saying that you have found poison in the world and you unknowingly fill your pot with it, your life and slowly it is leaching the life out of you. What is your wild vine? What do you look to to find pleasure, comfort, satisfaction outside of Christ? For me, I have been wrestling with comfort and apathy. I listen to songs singing of abandon and giving everything and I recognize that my heart is no longer singing those songs like I did in my youth. I’m sure many others may relate. Even if it wasn’t your physical youth, maybe the youth of the faith. Once so passionate and driven, now we hesitate to get out of our beds to give him his due honor or praise. We want a safe and comfortable faith. We don’t want to die to ourselves or give anything that is going to require more than a few steps. We sing that we will follow him wherever he leads but only for an hour at church or during our “quiet time” in the morning. We don’t even notice the numbness we begin to feel until we come face to face with his holiness or presence in worship. Still, whatever your wild vine is, you struggle to concede everything.
Thankfully, we serve a gracious and merciful King. The word, Romans 3:21-23, says that,
“21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
This means that our righteousness (rightness with God) isn’t attached to works, rule following, or doing the right thing perfectly. It is now wholly in CHRIST JESUS. Verse 24 says we are justified by his grace. Justification is where God, as the righteous judge, declares a sinful person to be not guilty and righteous in His sight. That is given and done by his grace, his underserved and unmerited favor and kindness. We are a product of this grace, that extravagant love and mercy. See our works were never enough, we are imperfect creatures bent towards going our own way and sin. Verse 23 says it, we ALL fall short of the glory of God, his perfection, pure love and kindness, and standard. None of us can be like him on our own. Verse 25 says that this gift is to be received by faith, a display of his kindness and mercy in not holding us to a standard we cannot live up to. Jesus stands in the gap for us. God takes our punishment on to himsekf so we could be united with him.
So the comfort is that even though we fall short, we struggle to resist the wild vines, whatever they may be, God is gracious to help us. Will we always get it right or choose correctly? No, but God wants us to look to him, rely on him not ourselves and our strength.
2 Corinthians 12:10 says, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul is content with his weakness, because he knows that in his weakness god shows up so he has infinite strength through him. So when you recognize that you have been shredding death into your soup, just call on Jesus and he will clear the poison.
