Miracle of the Pot of Pottage

Introduction to the Incident and Context

0:03 Now will you follow, please, as I read this very brief and in many ways fascinating incident in the life and ministry of the prophet Elisha from 2 Kings chapter 4 and beginning with verse 38 and reading through verse 41. For the benefit of those of you visiting with us, we are working through all of the major sections in the word of God dealing with the life and ministry of the prophet Elisha. And here in this fourth chapter, which is a collection of incidents, not necessarily

0:45 chronological in order, but thematic in order, we have studied together the miracle of God's provision for a poor widow in her family. The miracles. The miracles connected with the great woman of Shunem. And now we come to the third incident in this chapter, beginning with verse 38.

1:13 And Elisha came again to Gilgal, and there was a dearth or a famine in the land, and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him. And he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, or literally green vegetables, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not.

1:54 So they poured out for the men to eat, and it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out in saying, I am the Lord of the heavens, I am the Lord of the dead. O man of God, there is death in the pot, and they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal, or flour. And he cast it into the pot, and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat.

2:22 And there was no harm or evil thing in the pot. This miracle, and the miracle that follows, concluding this fourth chapter, are in a sense twin miracles, for they both obviously focus upon a similar theme, the very mundane theme of God's provision for the physical necessities of his children. In the incident read in your hearing just now, we have a case in which God, by miraculous power, makes unpalatable food edible.

3:07 And in the following miracle... He makes inadequate food sufficient.

3:13 And in both cases, he shows himself to be the great provider and the gracious sustainer of his people. Now, the pattern by which we will think our way through this incident is familiar to all of you. Most of you could write the outline for my sermons on Elisha by now. We first of all consider the facts of each incident, or the story, or the narrative, whichever term.

The Facts of the Incident: Setting and Circumstances

3:39 And then we seek to understand the message of that particular incident. First of all, then, as we seek to understand the facts of this particular incident, I think it will be helpful to do so by, first of all, thinking of the material in the introductory elements that come to us in verse 38, and then the second category of facts are those which relate to the circumstances leading to the miracle, and then, thirdly, the particulars of the miracle itself. Well, the whole incident is introduced to us with these words,

4:20 And Elisha came again to Gilgal. In the process of time, not necessarily related to the previous incidents concerning the woman at Shunem, the man of God comes to this place called Gilgal. Now, we have a problem in seeking to ascertain precisely what Gilgal is in mind. There were at least two Gilgals, one down close to Jericho, just a little bit north of the Dead Sea.

4:54 Those of you who sat under Pastor Fisher's course in the New Testament survey will remember that rough outline of Palestine, and the two key factors to help us to be location conscious. You have the Sea of Galilee in the north, and the Sea of Galilee in the south. The Jordan River running down into the Dead Sea, and then the border of Palestine here in the Mediterranean Sea. Well, there was a Gilgal down here just a bit north of the Dead Sea, and a few miles from Jericho.

5:24 But then there was another Gilgal just about halfway between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, and over in the western part of Samaria, the southwestern part of Samaria. And the commentators and those who are concerned with Bible geography and I spent much time tracking down what they had to say, and it's sort of a toss-up with a little bit of weight in favor of considering this Gilgal as the Gilgal that was there in Samaria, the Gilgal that was halfway between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. And the basic reason for that is this. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6:07 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6:37 where you had a band of these men called the Sons of the Prophets. And there seems to be, from a collation of the biblical materials, a clear pattern of the prophets' activity, a pattern in which he periodically visited these centers of what we would call theological training and current jargon. These places were gathered together, these men who were seeking to be prepared to function as prophets and as teachers in Israel. And so this entire incident finds us in that very intimate setting

7:21 in which the man of God who is looked upon as the leader of these Sons of the Prophets, the man you remember from chapter 2, whom they recognize, when they saw the waters of Jordan split, when he struck them with the mantle of Elisha, they recognized him as the true successor to Elijah and the representative of Jehovah in Israel. Now when he comes to Gilgal, we are told that there was a dearth or a famine in the land. This was a time when the judgment of God was manifested upon him

8:03 and his sinning people in terms of a blight in the land. For you will remember in the enunciation of God's covenantal commitments to his people, recorded in such passages as Deuteronomy 11, verses 8 and following, that God had promised that when he brought his people into the land of Palestine, that if they would obey him, he would faithfully send the early and the latter, he would keep away those instruments of devastation and destruction which could ruin their crops, and that he would faithfully order the entire ecological structure

8:47 so that year after year they would have an abundant harvest of grain, of oil, and of wine. At the same time, God warned them that if you disobey me, I will shut up the heavens. I will send you to the heavens. I will send you to the heavens.

9:02 I will send you to the heavens. I will send you to the heavens. I will send you to the heavens. blight. I will send the locust. I will send what men often call natural calamities. Well, this is

9:10 probably the very period that is spoken of in 2 Kings chapter 8 and verse 1. Now Elisha had spoken unto the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, go thou in thy household, and sojourn wheresoever thou can sojourn. For the Lord hath called for a famine, and it shall come upon the land seven years. In all likelihood, this incident falls within that period when the Lord

9:46 himself has called for a famine upon this land as an expression of his displeasure with his people who many are many of whom are still given over to the worship of Baal, many of whom are still living in blatant disobedience to the terms of the covenant. And at this time, it's interesting that in spite of this judgment of God upon the land, a dearth that reached even to Gilgal, where there was this school of the sons of the prophets, we find Elisha in no way less than a man who had been

10:28 listening his God-given task of teaching and instructing these men. For at this particular time we read, And the sons of the prophets were sitting before him. And that phrase, sitting before him, is a Hebraism to describe the pupil-teacher relationship. In Acts chapter 22 and verse 3, Paul giving his testimony says, I sat at the feet of one of the prophets, and I sat at the feet of one of the And so what the writer is telling us in a Hebrew idiom is that Elisha was engaged in the work of

11:07 instructing that particular band of the sons of the prophets who lived at Gilgal. Well, that's the introduction to this entire setting. There is all the intimacy involved in that relationship. Elisha's love and concern for these upon whom, in a sense, his manhood was not yet established. And so what the writer is

11:28 And so what the writer is telling us is that Elisha was engaged in the work of instructing that particular band of the And these young men with their great love and esteem of their spiritual father and their spiritual master, and in that situation, consider in the second place, as we look at the facts of the incident, the circumstances which now lead to this miracle. In the midst of teaching on a given day, Elisha is sensitive to the temporal needs of these men. And so he takes the initiative to provide something for them in the way of food.

The Facts of the Incident: The Poisoned Pottage

12:08 The text says, he said that is Elisha unto his servant set on the great pot. Apparently they had various size pots. And from the subsequent incident, there seemed to be at least 100 men present here. So it had to be a very large cauldron is what we would call it.

12:27 And so what the writer is telling us is that Elisha was engaged in the work of instructing that particular band of the prophets who lived at Gilgal. And so what the writer is telling us is that Elisha was engaged in the work of instructing that particular band of their spiritual father and their spiritual master, and in that situation, some of those big vats that you may have seen in an Amish home down in Lancaster County in which they make their gallons of apple butter or perhaps some other huge cauldron that would hold enough pottage or we would say stew for a hundred people. Well, Elisha gives the command to a servant and says, set on the great pot and boil pottage or stew for the sons of the prophets. And then the text says in verse 39, And one, not that particular servant, but apparently one of the sons of the prophets, took upon himself without any record of any express command from the man of God,

13:10 one went out unto the field to gather herbs. Now Edersheim, who is a converted Jew and one of the more knowledgeable men in the Hebrew language and in Hebrew customs and everything pertaining to Palestine, says that this should not be translated herbs, but rather greens. So he went out maybe to gather some collards. This was down in southern Samaria.

13:36 He went out to get some turnip greens. He went out to get something that would add to the substance of what was already in that rather thin stew or perhaps at this stage there was nothing but the water and so he went out to at least get some vegetables to throw into the pot. But behold! Be that as he may, because it was a time of dearth and because dearth had reached even unto Gilgal where the sons of the prophets were gathered, all he could find was a wild vine and he gathers thereof wild gourds his lap full.

14:17 Now again, those who study the customs and the agriculture of Palestine are divided as to the precise meaning of the term, a wild vine and wild gourds. And when you've read all their materials, you have to come up saying, well, they don't know and therefore I don't know. But one thing is clear from the passage. The blight, the famine had so reached extensively throughout the land that no cultivated crops were available.

14:49 And as so often happens, we can go through a period of drought and everything in your garden dries up, but the crazy old, the weeds flourish. It's one of the reminders that this is a cursed earth. Cursed is the ground for man's sake. And here this noxious vine with its poisonous gourds is thriving in the midst of a famine upon the land.

15:12 And so this young ministerial student, who may be quite adept in theology, but is a dunce when it comes to horticulture, he sees these things and says, why, they look like they'd liven up that, that thin soup we're going to have. And so he takes the folds of his garment and he fills his lap with them. And he comes running back to the place where the sons of the prophets are gathered. And apparently they're just as ignorant of what's a good and edible food and what is non-edible and not good that they seem to observe while he shreds these gourds into the pottage.

15:51 And the text says, for they knew them, not. And now as they're gathered around and the smell of the stew begins to reach their nostrils, apparently there was nothing in it to indicate but that this was going to be pretty good fare for a time of famine. Their hearts are glad with the presence of the man of God. Apparently these men, and they were probably younger men, were not even conscious of hunger.

16:19 It was the prophet who took the initiative and said, time to have some chow, boys. They were so taken up in the intercession, intellectual and spiritual exercise that for a while there was a suspension, even of that which is normally not long suspended in young men, the sense of hunger and the appetite for food. But now no doubt as they smell the boiling stew, their senses are awakened and they begin to salivate and they're longing to sit down and share this meal with the man of God. Now we read in verse 40, so they poured out, for the men to eat and each man has his bowl of pottage, his bowl of stew and they begin to eat and suddenly,

17:05 almost at the precise times, at least several, for we have a plural pronoun, they cried out and said, O man of God, there is death in the pot and suddenly what was a happy meal became a period of great heaviness and it's a period of great heaviness and some of those who study the agriculture of Palestine are right. If this was one of the wild cucumbers of that area, it did contain a substance which could bring on a violent colic and was known even to result in death. And so as they all perhaps in unison gave thanks to God for their food

The Facts of the Incident: The Miracle of Purification

17:50 and all dived in at once, almost all at once, simultaneously, they begin to cry out, something we've eaten has attacked our vitals and they instinctively turn to the prophet and say, O man of God, there's death in that pot and all their spoons are laid down or their bowls are taken from their lips and in that sense of panic, now we have the record of the specific details of the miracle. With a calm that almost appears stoical, the text tells us, but he said, that is Elisha, then bring flour. How strange that must have sounded.

18:35 Here are these men doubled over with the pangs of this colicky indigestion and the prophet says, bring me some flour. The flour is brought to him and very simply again, he gives an order or he performs an action and he, that is Elisha, cast it into the pot and he said, pour out for the people that they may eat. One can just imagine if he uses his imagination with the varying levels of faith and spiritual vigor amongst those men. What a scene that must have been.

19:14 As they pour out now, apparently having emptied out the previous substance from their bowls, each man receives his bowl of pottage from the same large pot in which it was poured out. The pot was boiled and all that has happened is a little bit of flour has been in the hands of the prophet and he's thrown it into that pot of boiling stew and now he says, eat.

19:43 One can imagine some of the more vigorous in faith saying, if something has come through the hand of the man of God, that's all I need and he takes his bowl and he slurps it down. But some of the misdeferings in Mr. Weak Faith, they probably filled their spoon and then dribbled down to just enough to keep it moist and barely touched it to their lips and watch what happened to the guy down the road who gulped it down.

20:11 And all the varying responses one can just imagine. Doesn't say that, but human nature being what it is and what the word of God teaches us elsewhere, I would be very surprised if all those varying reactions were not there. But the ultimate issue is this. There was no evil thing.

20:30 In the pot. And finally they all ate to the full. There were no further colicky pangs. Furthermore, what they did eat had a therapeutic effect and rid their bodies of whatever malady had been imbibed with the initial taking of that food.

20:50 Here they saw the mighty work of God through the presence and ministry of the prophet of God. Well, those are the facts of the passage as they go. They stand before us. Now then, what are the lessons of this incident?

Immediate Lessons: Display of Jehovah's Livingness and Strengthening Faith

21:06 Why has the Holy Spirit recorded this for us? Why did he cause this event to come to pass in the first place? Well, let me suggest, first of all, that there were at least two immediate and very fundamental lessons for those in that situation at that point in the history of God's people. And I hope you do not weary of my emphasizing this again and again because I trust it will become, as it were, almost second nature in your own reading of Old Testament history.

21:41 Ask yourself, when you read Old Testament history, what is the God of redemption doing at this point in the history of His great work of fulfilling that ancient promise of Genesis 3 and verse 15? Well, at this point in history, I say, it is apparent that God was doing at least two things and these two things constituted the message of God to the people of God in that immediate situation with Baal worship rife all around them, with apostasy on every hand, with the living monument of God's anger upon the land, a famine that has reached even unto Gilgal,

22:24 that has brought its pinch even upon these sons of the prophets. Well, the first lesson in the immediate situation was this. It was once more a powerful, undeniable display of the livingness, the power, and the love of Jehovah for His own people. What is there in ordinary flour that can negate poison in the pot?

22:56 What is there in ordinary flour having been worked into such poison and noxious stew that can heal someone of a deathly colic? Well, absolutely nothing. Just as there was nothing in a stick in Moses' hand that could open up a sea. Just as there was nothing in a brass serpent that could heal people of the venomous sting of snakes.

23:26 Just as there was nothing in the hairy garment of a prophet which when it strikes a river can part that river. But you see, in all of those incidents, God is manifesting His livingness, His power, and His love and concern for His people. And so in this situation, as the sons of the prophets have their minds and hearts exercised concerning the great issues of the kingdom of God in a day of declension, and no doubt were tempted again and again to wonder, does Jehovah truly live? Does Jehovah live when Baal worship gathers momentum

24:11 on every hand? When God bears His arm in judgment, does Jehovah truly live? God comes and speaks in this very mundane miracle and says, I am indeed the living God, the God of creative power, the God of redemptive love and grace, and He confirms His own people in that immediate situation, and then as the news of it would spread, and as these men spread out, as it were, on their preaching assignments and shared the testimony of what God had done, the godly remnant in Israel is once again confirmed

24:55 in its confidence of the livingness of the power and of the love of Jehovah. But then secondly, in the immediate setting, this incident, this miracle, was a means of strengthening the faith of the sons of the prophets. You see, it was one thing to sit at the feet of a man of God and learn the great principles of God's ways. It was quite another thing to have living demonstrations of His livingness, of His power and His love.

25:34 I shall never forget a statement I read. It came out of Scotland, and a given parish in Scotland was without a preacher. And when they communicated with the proper denominational representatives who were responsible in helping them to secure a preacher, they sent this message. Please send us a man who knows God other than by hearsay.

26:04 Please send us a man who knows God other than by hearsay. Please send us a man who knows God other than by hearsay. Please send us a man who knows God other than by hearsay. You see what they were saying?

26:16 We want a man who has had first-hand dealings with God, who has not only learned his lessons while sitting at the feet of his theological professors,

26:31 but who has learned those lessons in the actual experiences of life which will enable him to say that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. Or in the language of those apostles, we cannot but speak the things that we have seen and heard. And it is not without reason that the incident is recorded as occurring in the context of the school of the sons of the prophets. Though it was but a mundane issue, and though it was a miracle calculated to meet a very elementary issue, we might even say a very animal need, that of physical hunger,

27:17 it was nonetheless the occasion of tremendously strengthening the faith of these men who could forever remember being doubled over with the pangs of that colic. And then suddenly it's gone. And they are able to bear testimony to the livingness and to the power of Jehovah. But the miracle not only contains lessons in that immediate context, but it contains lessons for the people of God in subsequent ages.

Lessons for Subsequent Ages: Principles of God's Government (Part 1)

27:51 And I should like to suggest three this evening. First of all, it demonstrates some vital principles of God's government. One of the most perplexing issues of biblical revelation is that which grows out of the clear teaching of the Bible that God rules as an absolute monarch in His universe. The scriptures tell us our God is in the heavens.

28:23 He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. He works all things after the counsel of His own will. Now those statements in abstraction cause no problem. But when you begin to look at the particulars of what those statements mean as life is, actually experienced, it is filled with problems.

28:48 You mean God was in the heavens doing what He pleased when carloads of Jews were brought into concentration camps and gassed to death like animals?

29:05 Yes.

29:08 God had not vacated the heavens. But you see the problem?

29:13 Was God on His throne when some man with beastly lusts, rapes, and killings, killed a little seven or eight year old girl in the back streets of Harlem?

29:29 You see, it's relatively easy to assert our confidence in the absolute government of God over all things. But when you begin to apply it to particulars in which you have inequities and injustices and war and men acting like beasts, one of the great concerns of every child of God is to come to a world where there is a working grasp upon the biblical principles pertaining to that righteous government of God. And this passage contains some very helpful and vital principles concerning God's government. The first one is this.

30:14 When God's judgments are upon a nation for its sins, the righteous often suffer with the wicked. The text says there was a dearth in the land, and though God's judgmental nature is not good, God in previous history actually marked out geographical boundaries and exempted those boundaries from certain plagues and judgments as He did in Egypt and marked out the land of Goshen where His own people were and protected them. The general principle in Scripture is that when God's judgments are upon a nation for its sins, the righteous suffer with the wicked.

30:58 In the days of the Old Testament, Elijah, a famine was sent as a judgment of God, and Elijah has to watch his own brook dry up. He suffers with the wicked. Here the text says there was a dearth in the land that reached even to Gilgal, so that when the sons of the prophets went out to their garden, there was no produce, there was nothing but a wild vine bearing noxious, poisonous gourds. Elijah, the prophet, said, and the prophet of God was very much aware of that when he gave directions to the Shunammite woman as recorded in 2 Kings 8, 1.

31:42 He says, in essence, now look, my friend, you better go somewhere where the judgments of God are not being manifested in terms of a famine. Make out as best you can, for Jehovah has called for a famine upon the land for seven years, and that famine affected the righteous, the 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal. That is, the 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal even those who had turned their backs upon all legitimate worldly pursuits and had given themselves to prepare themselves for the prophetic office, the effects of the famine reached even unto them. They had little to eat.

32:24 They had meager fare. Now that says worlds to us, because whether we want to acknowledge it or not, and certainly our government leaders will not acknowledge it, they must continually smile and assure us all is well, and if it isn't well, it's getting better, and it's only a matter of time. No one even suggests that our energy crisis, that our economic crisis, that our spiraling inflation are the judgment of God upon a nation whose confidence is in its material wealth and in its military might and strength. No one even suggests that there's a direct, direct relationship

33:08 between the murder of innocent babies in mothers' wombs and a crippled economy. Relationship whatsoever. If we can just juggle the factors as we ought, we'll get the economy on its feet again. We're the gods and masters of the economy.

33:27 From that standpoint, I find myself almost praying, Lord, let the whole thing come to shambles, to show men that they are men, and that thou art God. There are other reasons to pray that it wouldn't, and I also pray those. I said I'm tempted to pray in the former way. But this principle, dear people, we need to understand.

33:54 God's judgments do not only come in terms of fire and brimstone falling from heaven, or a cracked and dry earth that can yield no produce. God's judgments come when he gives confusion to the leaders of a nation. God's judgments come by upsetting the economic structure of a nation, by giving to a nation a lack of moral courage and resolve in international politics and in international relationships. You and I have no promise that we will be exempted from the fruits of those judgments,

Lessons for Subsequent Ages: Principles of God's Government (Part 2)

34:37 and we better understand that concerning the government of God. But then there is a second principle of God's government, in this passage, that ought to be very encouraging to us. When God's judgments are upon a nation because of its sin, the righteous can enjoy special privileges in the midst of those judgments, which the wicked know nothing about. And what are those privileges?

35:06 Well, first of all, the privilege of regarding those judgments as a fatherly chastisement and not a judicial punishment. You see, when the sons of the prophets had to come to grips with the implications of the famine, they could do so as the sons of God and say, Oh God, our Father, we embrace this chastisement, this discipline for the strengthening of our faith, for the purifying of our motives, for the concentration of our spiritual energies. You see, the same stroke that came, as it were, from God's left hand

35:49 as a judicial stroke of anger upon a sinning people comes in God's right hand as a rod of fatherly affliction on which is written the pledge of His covenant love. And dear child of God, we need to understand that. And you see that all through the history of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. They were days when the judgments of God were stalking through the land.

36:21 And yet, in the midst of that, we see how those very judgments resulted in the disciplinary training of God with respect to His own children. We have the privilege of regarding those judgments as the people of God, as fatherly chastisements. Secondly, we have the privilege of pleading special promises that are made to His own children. Has not our Lord Himself said, and I see no qualification with regard to the economic status, no reference to peculiar external problems,

37:04 seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. And the things to which He refers are the things necessary for the sustaining of life, food, and clothing. And even though the answer may come initially in terms of that which seems to be poisonous and demanded a miracle to make it nourishing, food, God fulfilled that. Here were men who had not bowed the knee to Baal, who were seeking first the kingdom of God, and everything necessary was added unto them.

37:46 There is a wonderful statement in Krumacher's commentary, on the prophet Elisha, touching this very point, and I want to read it to you. He states it so eloquently. Where, then, is the difference between those who love God and those who are alienated from Him? Truly the difference notwithstanding is immeasurable, and one and the same calamity is quite different in the effects of its visitation upon the godly and upon the ungodly, while the latter, often become by it more hardened in their sins the ungodly,

38:29 the godlier chastened and corrected by it as by the hand of fatherly love. It obliges them to have more entire recourse to the Lord as their shepherd, to obey and to trust in Him of whom they felt not their need sufficiently in the day of their prosperity. And then, how great is the gain to have experienced the blessedness of abiding in the Lord as their shepherd. Truly the difference between those who love God and those who are alienated from Him is that the Ты will not be depraved of every refuge, but the free grace and mercy of God.

39:03 O how sweet are the fruits thus produced by sanctified affliction. Therefore, it is not because we are condemned with the world, but because we are beloved of the Father and by His qualified love for our God. The result of our life will be the result of being sanctified, not by the power of the devil, Father that we are appointed to share in the world's calamities. You see, there are wheels within wheels of the government of God. And while the outer wheels are grinding the wicked for their

39:37 sins, there are inner wheels sanctifying and purifying the saints of God with the very same affliction. Now, dear people of God, that may all sound like lovely, high-flown poetic thought to you now, but you better store it up. A time may come when you and I desperately need it. When we may languish in some prison for our confession of Christ, when we with others may see our hard-earned shekels be utterly worthless, when we will line up for hours for a loaf of bread and hear the

40:15 piercing cry of our little ones, Daddy, I'm hungry, and have nothing to set before me. If we do, we have the one and only God. wonderful privilege of being able to plead special promises that God has made to His own, promises which are never precious until we are pressed to the extremity of need, as were these servants of God. And then we have the privilege also of pleading for sufficiency of grace to bear whatever the trial may be and to bear it joyfully. I have learned, Paul

40:56 says, how to be abased and how to abound, and he's speaking of material necessities. I've learned how to be content when there was less than what I could have desired. And the reason he could learn that is because God had said, my grace is sufficient for me. So that's the second great lesson of God's government. When His judgments are upon a

41:24 nation, for the sin of that nation, the rights of that nation, the rights of that nation, the rights of that nation, the rights of that nation, the rights of that nation, the rights of that nation, the rights of that nation, the rights of that nation, the rights of that nation, the rights of that nation, the rights of that nation, the rights of that nation, have special privileges. The privilege of regarding the pinch of those circumstances as fatherly discipline, the privilege of pleading special promises made to His own, and the privileges of pleading for sufficient grace to bear them joyfully. You see, I wouldn't be a non-Christian for anything living in a world like this. Oh, unsafe friend, you ought to envy every Christian who can face the uncertainties of life. You ought to envy

Lessons for Subsequent Ages: Principles of God's Government (Part 3)

41:59 every Christian who can face the uncertainties of life with the knowledge that His covenant-keeping God will be with him in trouble. But then I must touch very quickly upon a third aspect of this whole matter of God's government that is so clearly taught in the passage, and it's this, and some of you need desperately to hear this word tonight. In God's government, God often overrules the harm of irresponsible or ignorant activities, in order to teach us helpful lessons. God often overrules the harm of irresponsible

42:39 or of ignorant, and at times even sinful, activities to teach us helpful lessons. You see, verse thirty-nine is strangely silent concerning the question, or the answer to the question, why did that young man go out and gather greens to throw into the pottage? There was no command from the prophet to do so. The command was to put on the pot, the implication being the basic staples were there. So the kindest thing we can say is that he

43:15 wanted to have a little more flavorful soup that day, and so in concern for his own palate and that of his brethren, he went out to try to help. But it was irresponsible to do that when he was not knowledgeable concerning the goings-on. Verse thirty-nine, verse thirty-nine, verse thirty-nine, verse thirty-nine, verse thirty-nine, verse thirty-nine, verse thirty-nine, verse thirty-nine, verse thirty-nine, verse thirty-nine, verse thirty-nine, and those that were edible and those that were noxious and poisonous. It was irresponsible.

43:38 It may have been downright sinful. It may have been an element of discontent when he went by and sniffed the pottage and said, oh man, that stuff again, we've got to spruce it up a little bit. It may have been sinful discontent. In which case, it was positively sinful for him to go out and to seek those greens. So whether we put it within the spectrum of the love that hopes

44:03 all things and put the best construction on it and call it irresponsible action, or more realistically, put the worst connotation on it and say it was sinful, one thing is clear. God overruled that irresponsible or sinful action to teach lessons not only to that man, but to a whole group of people that resulted in their spiritual pride. And how many times God does this? You remember the words of Joseph, ye meant it for evil, but God meant

44:41 it for good. Now what was the ye meant it for evil? Lying, deception, ill treatment of their brother, a whole mass of sin. But he said God overruled them for good. Now I

45:03 know the devil will try to add his logic to that and have someone go out and say, well, oh, isn't that great? I can be irresponsible and God will bring good out of me. No, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. I am not saying that we have a warrant to be irresponsible or sinful in our actions. What I am saying is that when we are irresponsible or when

45:28 we have acted sinfully, it is an amazing dimension of divine government that God can overrule such irresponsible and even sinful actions. Viewing of the Daniel chapter 40 verse 1. So what made you say to yourself in the reading of Daniel that the Lord God rather be atonement and bruk strawberry than sin andsalment rather than atonement? Viewing of the Revelation that thankfulness is a collective expression of gratefulness rather than gratefulness?

46:04 cigarettep google bible Word 와 do whatsoever thy hand and counsel determine before to be done. All of the sin involved in the crucifixion of our Lord did not get outside the boundaries of the control of the Almighty, and God overruled all of the wicked envy and jealousy and dishonesty and the injustices surrounding the death of Christ to bring the greatest good, even the redemption of a great multitude whom no man can number. That's the supreme expression of this dimension of the

46:49 divine government. Well, I must hurry on and quickly touch on a second category, and the third one will leave for another time. This passage in its message not only demonstrates some vital principles of God's government, but it illustrates some vital principles of God's government. It illustrates some vital elements of Elisha's true godliness. It illustrates some vital

Lessons for Subsequent Ages: Elements of Elisha's Godliness

47:13 elements of Elisha's true godliness. Look at them quickly. First of all, his faithfulness to the task in spite of the difficulties. He could have stayed with the Shunammite woman.

47:26 Humanly speaking, he could have sojourned with her in a land that would have been far more suitable to carnal delights and carnal necessities, but in the midst of a family famine, he sticks to his job. That job, among others, as God's representative in Israel, was to give leadership to these sons of the prophets. So in the appointed time, he goes to Gilgal, seeing on every step on the way of his journey across the countryside the constant monuments of divine judgments, feeling no doubt many times in his own mortal frame some of the gnawing,

48:09 anger, because he could not pause along the way to take gleanings from the fields that were to be left according to the law of the Lord, for there were no gleanings to be left. And in the midst of it, the man of God stays by his post. Moreover, Paul says it is required of stewards that a man be found faithful. I always shudder when I hear Christians, and particularly preachers, saying, well, you know, if things really get hot, I think I can...

48:40 go to my little place here, or I'd better have a plot of land here, or... My friends, where do you find that in the scriptures?

48:49 You have an incident in which Jesus, predicting the destruction of Jerusalem, said, when certain things come to pass, flee to the mountains. And you have an incident where there would be an unjust attempt upon the life of the man of God that he's let down over the wall in a basket. Yes, there is a biblical doctrine of self-preservation, but not of carnality. There is a biblical indulgence that leads us from the post of duty.

49:18 Some of us have soberly weighed, I trust, what it will mean to be faithful to our God-appointed task if the Lord should allow the favorable support of the government to be removed from the Christian religion. If there should no longer be the protection of the government for the cause of Christ being freely propagated, we see true godliness in the man of God in difficult days. A day when there was birth in the land, he sticks by his task. Secondly, we see his godliness expressed in his sensitivity to the totality of the needs of those whom he taught. They did not say, hey, Lycia, you're getting

50:01 long-winded like some preachers. We're hungry! No, it was the man of God who said, fellas, I appreciate the fact that you're still sitting at my feet, but really, you've got to feed not only your souls, but your bodies. You see, true godliness is always a practical thing. It was our Lord who said, we cannot send the multitudes

50:22 away. I have compassion upon them, for they will faint in the way. They've been with us now three days and have not eaten. He wasn't speaking of their souls. Whatever the miracle may illustrate

50:33 of his desire and ability to be the bread of life to the souls of men at the most fundamental level, our Lord had compassion for the whole man. simply reflects likeness to His own Savior. And then thirdly, we see this vital element of practical godliness, His unswerving faith in the face of these panic-stricken men. There's death in the pot! We've had it! And He calmly says, bring me some flour. Does

51:07 that remind you of some incidents in the Gospel? Lord! They shake Him. He's sound asleep in the stern of the ship. Awake, Lord! We perish! And the Lord calmly stands and rebukes the

51:23 waves and the winds and says, O ye of little faith, it's a wonderful thing to see the graces of our Lord worked out in fallen humanity. And when we see it, we are to emulate it and cry to God that the same Spirit who worked these graces in a man of like passions will work them in us. For these characteristics of godliness, in Elisha, that faithfulness to His God-appointed task in spite of the difficulties, that evidence of concern for the whole man, and that unswerving faith in the power of Jehovah in the face

52:04 of panic, I say all of those graces are beautifully seen in our Lord Jesus. And without them, humanly speaking, He never would have become our Redeemer. For it was His commitment to His duty that led us to this day. I say to Belshazzar, the man of who was chosen, doth not oyster wake but live by his own wisdom, no other man make as awesome as unto Jephthah. For neither he nor whoever has run into Gethsemane sent

52:21 Samson with this prophecy, nor one person,анный, since his time of death. We see the red-hooved man pressural and engage with Yuri of His Fairy Grail as we might in to Gethsemane, that in the agonies of those mysterious moments or hours in Gethsemane, run from his heart the cry, Nevertheless, not my will, but thy be done." And so may we look beyond Elisha, who faintly and imperfectly reflected the grace of unswerving faithfulness, of compassion, of faith. So is the King, the God-and- smile-bearer, theadd� sadness e我不 measured.

Conclusion and Prayer

52:48 of faith to him who for the joy that was set before him the supreme act of faith was when laden down with the wrath of God he dared to say into thy hands I commend my spirit having told that man today thou shalt be with me in paradise though the pangs and flames of hell lick at my feet and though the torrents of divine wrath pour down upon my head my destiny is paradise that's faith with nothing but the felt consciousness of divine wrath our Lord declares

53:33 paradise is his destiny father into thy hands I commend my spirit may God grant it looking upon our savior in the language of Paul with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord we may be transformed into the same image from one stage of glory unto another the third area of lessons has to do with men preparing for the ministry but I'll have lots of opportunities to speak on those issues to the men in the academy directly so maybe we'll hold that off for a chapel sermon next year may the Lord be pleased to take the message of this portion of his word and apply it with power to all of our hearts

54:17 let us pray our father we thank you for your presence with us this morning this day for the privilege of looking into your word and being taught out of that word and we confess to you that our thinking by nature is so contrary to the teaching of your word we pray that you would enable us to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against your knowledge and have every thought brought captive

55:01 to the obedience of Christ we pray that your blessing will rest upon your people we pray that you would help us as we seek to live in the midst of a land that we believe even now is reeling beneath your judgment God have mercy upon our leaders who crassly and blatantly declare that all is well and getting better oh God humble them humble them we pray humble us may we not imbibe the spirit of pride and carnal confidence that we can handle it given a little time oh father

55:45 humble this nation bring it to its knees and whatever pain that may bring upon us as your people give us grace to bear it as a fatherly discipline as a fatherly chastisement strengthen our faith purify our faith deepen our faith strengthen our confidence may we learn what it is to prove you hear our cry seal your word to our hearts and may your blessing rest upon us we plead in Jesus name Amen