Haste makes! You have all heard it said that Haste makes waste but I am here to tell you and so does the word of God that haste can bring death. Let s read together from 2 Kings 4:38-41 I think what I can do is promise you a shorter sermon this morning given that we are going to be picnicking a little later today and I have been very curious about the passage of scripture that I have already read to you so I thought I would share a few thoughts from it. And here is our big question for today, What do you do when there is death in the pot? If you have been watching the news this past few weeks you would have heard the story of the Kronut food poisoning case. This half croissant/donut/hamburger was the source of poisoning some 79 people at the CNE and this kind of news can be good for the Kronut brand. If you eat the wrong thing, it can make you really sick! I don t know about you but a bout of food poisoning can be no fun at all. And I want to make the point, right up front that haste can be the problem. In every family there are favorites and favorites for different reasons. My youngest brother is the general favorite because he is just a really nice guy and I can complain or argue about that, he would be my favorite too. But there is one thing my mother absolutely loves about me and was that I was the Clean up everything in the fridge left over guy. Growing up, I ate everything that wasn t nailed down. One day I went to the fridge and saw some left over cottage cheese in a bowl and I just scarfed it down. I cried out, Mom, I just ate the cottage cheese and there is something wrong with it, I think it has gone bad. She replied, You just ate your sister home made paste! We are going to look firstly this morning at: I. The Land of not enough And Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the Land We read of Elisha s life and story in 2 Kings. He was the chosen successor of the prophet Elijah and the recipient of a double blessing of God s Spirit and anointing that rested upon Elijah. And he was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. This Gilgal is the very place that Elisha had started out with his master on their final
journey together before Elijah was raptured to heaven (2 Kings 2:1), where his sincerity had been put to the test. From Gilgal they had passed to Bethel (2 Kings 2:2), and from there to Jericho, and finally to the Jordan. Elisha performed a miracle at each of these places in inverse order of the original journey. At the Jordan he had divided its waters so that he passed over dry land in the presence of these same prophets (2 Kings 2:14-15). At Jericho he had healed the evil waters (2 Kings 2:19-22). At Bethel he had cursed the profane children in the name of the Lord and brought about their destruction (2 Kings 2:23-25). And now here at Gilgal Elisha again exercises the extraordinary powers with which God had endowed him. Gilgal was to the east of Jericho, close to the Jordan, where there would be more moisture and vegetation than further inland. It was a place made memorable from the early history of Israel. It was there that the nation had set up twelve stones as a monument to God s gracious intervention, when He had caused them to pass through the river dry-shod (Josh. 4:18-24). It was there too that they had circumcised those who had been born in the wilderness wanderings, thereby rolling away the reproach of Egypt from off them. This evidenced their separation from the heathen, as being God s peculiar people, who made the circumcision of the heart (Jer. 4:4; Romans 2:29), which is the distinguishing mark of God s spiritual children. It was there also that they had first partaken of "the old corn of the land" (Josh. 5:11) so that miraculous supplies of manna ceased. Yet even such a favored spot as this was affected by the dearth, for great wickedness had also been perpetrated there (1 Sam. 15:21-23 and cf. Hosea 9:15). (Pink) There are a couple of things that you may wish to know about famines or dearths. 1. They can be a sign of God s judgment Famine is one of the "four sore judgments" which the Lord sends when He expresses His displeasure against a people: "the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence" (Ezek. 14:21) 2. They have the characteristic of very long dry spells and dried up food supplies 3. They can leave everyone involved feeling a lack, a sense of gloom and a loss of hope 4. They can and lastly leave people more willing to accept less and be less discerning about what they accept. In this land of not enough, the sons of the prophets had gathered with Elisha. It seems a prophetic school, similar to our bible colleges had been established and the
young or perhaps not so your prophets were gathered to hear the word of God from their master. I think it is a good application right now to say that whenever you are feeling the effects of famine and not enough, the word of God and at the feet of a good teacher is a great place to find refuge! Here is some great news for the people of God. In the Land of not enough, you can always find a great big pot with something in it because we serve Jehovah Jireh. He provides for our every material need and He provides for our every spiritual need too, He has been leading us into green pastures for a long, long time and will continue to do so. I want you to picture the scene. Elisha commands, Set on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets. Now I know as a veteran preacher you should never talk about food during a sermon because it is just to close to lunch but we can avoid it. Picture a great big cauldron; sitting on three legs with a big fire underneath, it is kind of like hunt camp. Let s face it, everyone loves a good stew! Now, in the land of not enough was a man of no discernment! II. The man of no discernment His name is One of them. One of them went out to the field to gather herbs During famine times, I have already stated that people can become desperate and vulnerable to all kinds of emotions, not to mention some real concerns about eating. But we have another picture here of one of the prophets, not being satisfied with what is in the pot. Now this is a red necked church and you will probably spend all week talking about what kind of game is in the pot. Let me settle it, it was venison. You will just have to trust me. 1. The man of no discernment is clamorous We live in an undiscerning age and I have I the past talked about clamorous and perpetually unsatisfied church people. Their pot never has the right stuff, never has enough stuff, there is always better stuff somewhere else to get. The clamoring of the people of no discernment actually grieves the heart of God, humiliates Him. So, off goes our man of no discernment into the wilderness to gather wild herbs. Now, there is nothing wrong with this all by itself, it is not so common in Canada as
we have supermarkets but when I was overseas, the poor Ukrainians would make a whole day of this sort of thing. 2. The man of no discernment was without knowledge The man of no discernment understood little about wild herbs. It is believed that he encountered something called a colocynth. The colocynth was a vine with gourds about the size of an orange and they were attractive to look at. But the reality was this, anyone eating from this vine would discover the taste was bitter, they would become colicky, experience digestive trouble, then bowel trouble and then they would die! I wonder what else might have been in the mind of the man of not enough. Was he dissatisfied, showing off, did he have an attention deficit problem, just wanted to help maybe? Perhaps he just wanted to be known for bringing something special, something extra, something cutting edge? In every church, we have to guard the pot from undiscerning types, the clamorous types; you have to guard your own heart. In the first year I was here I spent enormous amounts of effort warning you against false prophets, false teachings and to some extent I think you became less willing to trust strangers or at least go out with heightened discernment and ready to discern with your own anointing. For the next year, I spent a lot of time and effort warning against allowing needless complaining and murmuring into the church pot. Those of us who are older know that eventually, when something poisonous hits the pot, people and churches get ill. And although our man with no discernment has introduced a problem into the pot, the rest of the company was a little bit more discerning. We are not sure if they saw something off, tasted something off or started to feel the effects of the poisonous herb, but something caused them to cry out, Oh man of God, there is death in the pot. 3. The people of healthy discernment need to speak up There was death in the pot but in God s kitchen when there is death in the pot, there is still room for a miracle! III. A miracle in the pot What this miracle all comes down to is this, God is able! And, we also learn that, What the enemy meant for evil, God meant for good. Elisha cried out, Then bring flour or meal.
I love this leadership example. Elisha knows, When it ain t broke don t fix it but he also knows, When something is wrong, understand it and do something about it. Don t leave messes for someone else to clean up. Now, everyone knows that there is no healing property in flour. In the natural if you throw some flour into a pot of poisoned stew, you have a thicker poisoned stew. But for some reason God asks us to take natural things from time to time that will be symbolic of his miraculous power. Think of the staff of Moses, the salt that healed the water and with respect to Jesus own ministry, the woman with the issue of blood touched His cloak. (Mt. 14:36). Paul worked Extraordinary miracles through Paul and clothes or aprons played a part (Acts 19:11-18) and then James instructed us about the usage of anointing oil, James 5:14-15. All of these material things were to be for us symbols of the power of God and we were never to become religiously enamored with ritual. Once again, try and imagine the scene. The prophet pours the flour into the pot and gives the instructions that it be poured out to eat. I laughed to myself as I thought about it, it was kind of like the Mikey commercial, I am not going to eat it, you try it. No, I am not going to eat it, you try it. Let s get Mikey, he will eat it, he ll eat anything. And yet there was a confidence. This company of prophets had witnessed many miracles.this is what faith does. As we live through storms, as we endure trials, we learn, we become stronger and we can meet the challenges we face with greater faith and confidence because we have been there with God before. Conclusion: You might be wondering about the flour as the point of focus. Was flour important or symbolic of anything in the bible? The best we can do is look to the Grain Offering, which is again a symbol of Christ. Others have suggested that the flour speaks of the best and we can add to that Christ s best! The very bottom line for us today is that whenever we face death in the pot, we throw everything that is Christ s best at it. When the enemy sows sickness at us, we meet it with our mandate to heal in Jesus name. When in this natural world we face famines, we are confident that Jehovah Jireh will protect His faithful. When we face a supernatural dearth, God s word will satisfy that we need not accept anything less than His best with all discernment.
When false teaching makes its way into the pot, we have discernment and the best thing to do is simply recognize it in gourd form. We must be a very discerning people in the days to come. Our declared purpose is mission, this house shall be a house of prayer and we will not tolerate One of them to introduce poison of any kind into this pot. Be very, very discerning in the days ahead!