Topic: Consequences of Famine
Greetings Sons of God:
Let me give the Scripture passage and we will go back
dissect and build for an understanding.
2 Kings 2:38-41: And
Elisha came again to Gilgal: And there was a dearth 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 seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather
herbs, 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. 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, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in
the pot. And they could not eat
thereof. But he said, Then bring meal,
and he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they
may eat. And there was no harm in the
pot.
Seem to be a small story but there is much bread for the
children to eat from these story.
Understand Hebrew is a language of pictures and know that before the
reality, Christ, came God spoke in type and shadow. Now that we are in Christ we have the honor
to know the reality of what God was saying then, today. The story sets with Elisha coming to Gilgal
again.
This is not some arbitrary travel or place. The place Gilgal is the place where Joshua
circumcised the nation of Israel again.
So the word Gilgal means circumcision or to remove. We know the circumcision is the removal of
the outer flesh. Understand we all must
go through Gilgal but there are many times we need to visit it again and
again. We need to constantly self
inspect ourselves and make sure that we are not walking according to the flesh.
We need to make sure that we are participating in works that lead to
death. This is place where we need to
“check ourselves” and make sure that we are in the right position with God and
we are walking according to the voice of the Lord and not our soul and flesh.
There was currently in the land a famine and Elisha had come
into the midst of some prophets that sat before him. He asks them to set a great pot and seethe
pottage for the sons of the prophets. The scripture says one went out into the
field to gather herbs and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full and came,
shredded them into the pot of pottage.
First thing we see is one person goes out to fetch some
herbs from the field. Now at first I
said what’s the big deal but in this case and for many in the Body of Christ,
this is a huge issue. First, notice that
Elisha does not instruct someone to go out but simply tells them to seethe or
boil some pottage to eat. Remember this
fact because in the end this will be crucial.
Someone goes out into the field and picks some gourds. Gourds are part of the cucumber family. The person picks the gourds and brings them
back and puts it in the pottage. Here is
where I want to warn you about this action:
In a famine people will eat anything and I mean anything. If
it looks like food they will eat it, even if it is poisonous and could possibly
kill you. Why? Because the urge of hunger can drive people
to eat anything to satisfy that urge and in desperate times such as a famine
this urgency is heightened. Remember,
what is the picture the Lord is showing us for today with this story?
First the one that went out to gather herbs. The word herbs in Hebrew means light. Every man on this earth is searching for
light. We know the Light is Christ. He is the Knowledge that man needs.
Second the field is representative of the world. The one who went out in this story represents
a man or woman that goes into the world to look for light or knowledge.
Now notice the food that the one person brings back and adds
to the stew makes the stew poisonous.
How do we know? It says after they tasted they cried there is death in
the pot!
Here and understand: we must be careful of the food that we
eat and I am not talking about the physical but the spiritual. The food of the world is poisonous to the spirit
man and will cause death. What is
death? Death is separation from
God. We know God is life. Hence you have
people on the earth that are the “walking dead”. Unfortunately there are some within the Body
of Christ that though they have the spirit of life within them, the spiritual
food they are intaking is producing death within them. So there is a food or knowledge within the
earth that separates you from God. We as
the sons of God cannot eat the stew of this world because it is poisonous to
the spirit man and will produce death.
In the next message we will look at ways it produces death.
Peace, Love and Grace,
Calvin Calhoun, Jr.
