2 Kings 4:38-44--Elisha Purifies the Deadly Stew

2 Kings 4:38-44
English Standard Version

Elisha Purifies the Deadly Stew
38 And Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land. And as the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Set on the 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 lap full 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 threw it into the pot and said, “Pour some out for the men, that they may eat.” And there was no harm in the pot.

42 A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” 43 But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” 44 So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the LORD.

---

Elisha now traveled to Gilgal (the place where Israel encamped during the time of Joshua's conquest of Canaan, and now the home of the "sons of the prophets"), and when he came upon the city, there was a famine in the land.  He had an audience of the sons of the prophets who were sitting before him, and he told his servant, that would be Gehazi that we read about already in this chapter, to make a pot of stew for all of them.

One of the sons of the prophets went out to gather herbs for the stew, but had no business doing so, because he did not know what was safe to eat from what was unsafe to eat, and he ended up gathering up wild gourds and cut them up and put them in the stew.  You may not know this, but gourds contain a toxin in them that can lead to stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, (sometimes bloody) diarrhea, and possibly dehydration severe enough to cause hospitalization.  I'm sure the person that did this was well meaning in trying to use the gourds as "filler" to make the stew last longer, but they ended up poisoning everyone there who was eating it.

Those who ate first quickly felt the effects and cried out, "O, man of God, there is death in the pot!"  Elisha then commands them to bring flour, and they threw it in the pot (the story does not say how much flour they put in the pot.  Miraculously, by the work of the LORD and not through some chemistry, biology or other natural science that we can explain today, the stew became safe for everyone to eat.  Elisha then offered them some of the "purified" food and they all ate of it and there was no "death in the pot" any longer (no one got sick or poisoned).

​A man then came from Baal-shalishah, bringing an offering of bread and firstfruits to Elisha who was acting as a priest during that time for those who were truly worshiped the LORD (though they still should have been going to the Temple to take their tithes and offerings there).  Elisha commanded that the offering be divided among all the prophets that were before him so that they could all eat, even though there were only 20 loaves of bread (don't think in today's measurements--these are probably small barley loaves like those with the boy's lunch at the feeding of the 5,000 where five loaves and two fish were considered a boy's lunch).  These 20 loaves then might have been enough to feed 4 people, but there were over 100 people to feed, yet the command was steadfast, even though the odds were impossible.  We don't get as much detail as we do with the feeding of the 4,000 or the feeding of the 5,000, but just like them, the bread did not run out and there was some leftover when they had all eaten their fill.  This was truly miraculous during the time of famine that the LORD provided enough for all of His prophets to eat and be content.

Proverbs 10:3
English Standard Version

3 The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry,
    but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.

Promises like that put the LORD to the test.  He could not let these "men of God" go hungry when they were his "righteous" ones.