In the sixth message of Elisha: God’s Double Agent, Pastor Jeff Anders preaches Elisha’s eighth miracle: the purifying of the poison stew in 2 Kings 4. When the sons of the prophets discovered death in the pot, a little meal made it safe to eat. In the same way, God put Jesus into the pot of a sinful, dying humanity.
Recap: God’s Double Agent
At the end of 1 Kings, God told Elijah that Elisha would succeed him. Elijah threw his mantle on Elisha, a symbol of God’s power and call. Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, and he allowed no distance between himself and the man of God until a chariot of fire separated them. Elijah had eight miracles and Elisha has sixteen. He really is God’s double agent.
- Miracles so far:
- Elisha divided the Jordan (2 Kings 2:13) and healed the waters of Jericho (2 Kings 2:19–22).
- He cursed the youths who mocked him.
- Through him God defeated the rebelling Moabites (2 Kings 3).
- He multiplied the widow’s oil.
- Miracle six was the barren Shunammite woman conceiving a son. Miracle seven, preached on Wednesday night (from 2 Kings 4:8), was that son being raised from the dead.
Miracle Eight: Death in the Pot
Elisha came again to Gilgal while there was a famine in the land (2 Kings 4:38). The sons of the prophets were having an especially hard time, since many had been hiding from Ahab and Jezebel. They sat before Elisha to be taught, and he told his servant to set on the great pot and cook stew for them.
- One man went into the field for herbs, found a wild vine, gathered his lap full of wild gourds, and shredded them into the pot without knowing what they were (2 Kings 4:39).
- As the men began eating, they cried out to the man of God that there was death in the pot, and they could not eat it (2 Kings 4:40).
- Elisha called for meal and cast it into the pot. He told them to serve it, and there was no harm in the pot. It was “miracle meal”: God dealt with the death in the pot.
Other Miracles Like It
- The bitter water (Exodus 15): Israel found water that was bitter and not fit to drink, and the people murmured against Moses. When Moses prayed, God told him to throw in a tree that had been there all along, and the water became sweet. The tree didn’t heal the water. God did.
- The waters of Jericho (2 Kings 2:19–22): Elisha threw salt from a new cruse into the spring, and God healed the waters so that they no longer brought death or barrenness.
The Mess We Are In
This story reminds us of ourselves. We’re all eating from the same pot, and there’s death in the pot. We’ve stood at gravesides and grieved, and someday a crowd will gather for each of us.
- What got into the pot is sin. In the Garden, everything was perfect until the serpent showed up. The devil always comes disguised, and every lie he tells is meant to destroy.
- He told Eve she would not really die but would become wise like God. She ate the fruit and gave it to Adam, and he ate too. That’s when sin got into the pot, and death came with it (Genesis 3).
- Everyone born into the human race eats from that pot. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God; only our Lord was without sin. We are sinners by nature and by choice.
- The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
The Miracle We Have Experienced
Elisha put a little meal into the pot. God put a Person into the pot of humanity to deal with the problem of death, and His name is Jesus.
Promised, Pictured, and Prophesied
- Promised: in Genesis 3, God said the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head and destroy the destroyer.
- Pictured: in Genesis 22, Abraham offered his only son Isaac on Mount Moriah, a picture of the Father giving His Son. A ram caught in the thicket died in Isaac’s place, a picture of Christ’s substitutionary death. The morning and evening sacrifices and the Day of Atonement also pointed to Him.
- Prophesied: Isaiah 53 foretold One who would bear our iniquities, suffer, and die in our place.
Performed
- At just the right time, Jesus was born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger. God the Son took on human flesh, born of the virgin Mary. The answer to death had entered the pot.
- After surrendering to the Father’s will in Gethsemane, He was betrayed by Judas with a kiss, falsely accused before Caiaphas, beaten, and mocked. Pilate, backed into a political corner, had Him scourged and sent Him to be crucified.
- He refused the drink that would have dulled the pain and laid down His life freely. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He prayed for His executioners’ forgiveness, provided for His mother, cried out from the Psalms about being forsaken, declared it finished, and gave up His spirit.
- On the first day of the week, the women found the stone rolled away and an angel announcing that He had risen. Jesus called Mary Magdalene by name, and she clung to His feet.
Death Defeated
- Jesus shared our flesh and blood so that through death He might destroy the one who had the power of death, the devil, and free those held in bondage by the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14).
- He has abolished death by His resurrection (2 Timothy 1:10).
- Christ is risen as the firstfruits of those who sleep. As death came by Adam, in Christ all who belong to Him will be made alive at His coming. The last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Corinthians 15:20).
- Paul describes a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet the dead will be raised incorruptible and the living changed. Then death is swallowed up in victory, its sting gone, and God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:51).
- Believers still die, but death has lost its sting. We go to the cemetery with hope, because one day we’ll be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, to worship Him together forever.
Take-Homes
- We’re all eating from the same pot, and there’s death in it. Sin brought death, and no one is exempt.
- The devil always comes disguised. His lies are always meant to destroy.
- God put the answer into the pot. Jesus was promised, pictured, prophesied, and then came, died for our sins, and rose again.
- Death has lost its sting for those in Christ. We can grieve with real hope.
- If you’ve never received Christ as Lord, turn to Him. His death and resurrection are the answer to your sin and death.
- Believer, cast your cares on Him. Lay what burdens you on the altar and rejoice in what you have in Christ.