Two Women and Two Food Miracles…

👩🏽👩🏻‍🦱 🍉🥖

The next few chapters cover a series of miracles performed by Elisha. Three of the four in this chapter involve that group we’ve encountered a few times, “The Sons of the Prophets.” And they will figure into a few more in coming chapters.

So the first pair of miracles involve two very different women.

The first woman is a poor widow with two sons. 👩🏽

The second is wealthy married woman – with no children at first but then is given a son. 👩🏻‍🦱

They both are facing the potential loss of their sons and seek Elisha for help.

In both cases, Elisha asks what he can do to help them.

The poor widow has only a jar of olive oil which is miraculously multiplied and sold to pay the debt which saves her sons.

God doesn’t need much. Whatever you have will do. It’s not what you have that matters. It’s God’s blessing on it that makes a difference.

Probably the best life application of this story is best summed up by the hymn Bring Your Vessels Not A Few. Here is an incredible recording of an honest-to-goodness congregational version of this song. It’s what congregational hymn singing used to sound like – back when the average person could read sheet music and sing in 4-part harmony. And here’s another recording in bluegrass style by The Isaac’s. It’s like musical comfort food.

The Shunammite, unlike the widow, is married and has everything she could need- except for a child.

…Which makes me think of this scene from Persuasion by Jane Austen. Mr. Shepherd the solicitor is trying to convince Sir Walter that Admiral and Mrs. Croft would be the perfect tenants for his home- which he is going to rent out because of Sir Walter’s debts…

“He was a married man, and without children; the very state to be wished for. A house was never taken good care of, Mr. Shepherd observed, without a lady: he did not know whether furniture might not be in danger of suffering as much where there was no lady, as where there were many children. A lady, without a family, was the very best preserver of furniture in the world.”

The Shunammite had even fitted up a room for Elisha with her well-preserved furniture.

Note that she never asks for a child. It was Gehazi’s suggestion. But Elisha somehow works it out with God to bless them with a son. And when that son dies, she doesn’t tell her husband. She goes to Elisha herself. Just like the poor widow did.

We should observe that Elisha kinda “swung and missed” twice in this situation; three times if his prayer was for the boy to be restored to life. Because he prayed and nothing happened immediately.

1. He had no idea why she was in distress. “Her soul is bitter and Yahweh has hidden it from me and has not told me.” 2 Kings 4:27
   • And sometimes there are seasons when the Lord just doesn’t say much. As one of my friends says, “That’s because there is no talking during a test.”
2. His plan to send Gehazi ahead to lay his staff on the boy does not work.

Maybe his prayer was just for direction. We don’t know. What we do know is that even a prophet as powerful as Elisha could have a time when he just wasn’t hearing from the LORD like he was used to.

But he didn’t give up or assume that Yahweh was finished with him. He kept going by faith.

In Bible translations based on the Masoretic Text, Elisha stretches himself over the boy’s body- face to face, eye to eye, mouth to mouth. This is not CPR. The boy has been dead for hours. Then Elisha paces the floor for a bit then stretches himself over the boy’s body again and then it says the boy sneezes seven times and opens his eyes.

The Septuagint translation also has Elisha stretching himself over the child. And nothing happens. So he paces the floor and does it again. Still nothing. He paces again and stretches again. And he does this seven times. Then the boy opens his eyes. No sneezing at all. And I’m inclined to believe that the Septuagint translation is preserving the original Hebrew.

If the Septuagint is accurate, then think of the persistence of Elisha. Probably praying as he is pacing the floor with the boy’s mother downstairs. After the 4th time… nothing. And the 5th. And the 6th…

It makes me think of Naaman dipping in the Jordan River seven times. We’ll read that tomorrow. It wasn’t until after the 7th dip that the leprosy was gone.

You may not have the answer to your prayer. Yet. But keep praying. The thing you are praying for may appear to be dead. Lifeless. Unresponsive. You may need to pace the floor and pray. You may have to keep speaking life over your situation- stretching out your faith over it – even if there is no sign of life yet. You may have to do it over and over. If you don’t get an answer the first or second or sixth time… keep praying and believing and doing what the Lord is directing you to do.

By the way – I love the faith of this Shunammite woman. When she was asked by both her husband and Gehazi if everything was ok, she says, “All is well.” With her son lying dead in Elisha’s guest room, she says, “All is well.” What she actually said in Hebrew was “Shalom.” Peace. Safe. Well.

And we can choose to trust God and hold on to His peace even at the very worst of times.

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The last 2 miracles in this chapter are food miracles.

Now, I don’t recommend putting mystery-gourds into your stewpot but that’s what happened. And when you see the plant that is the most likely culprit for the “wild gourds” you’ll understand…

Take a good look.

Now – I ask you… If you were a hungry prophet-college student out on a walk. Would you not take a look at this and say, “Wow! The Lord has provided free watermelons for us! Praise the Lord!” 🍉

Meet Citrullus Colocynthis. Among other names it’s also dubiously called “The Vine of Sodom.” So someone at some point realized it’s not a watermelon.

While the bitter seeds can be eaten if roasted, the rest of the plant is problematic as it contains some very powerful compounds.

This plant carries death. Particularly for unborn babies. It is still used secretly by women in the Middle East and North Africa as a kind of DIY abortion drug. (the link here will take you to a short recent case report on that) If consumed by a healthy young man (like the young prophets) it would likely cause “acute gastrointestinal disturbances.” (💩+💥)

Someone figures out that there are death-melons in the stew and it shuts the dinner down. Elisha calmly asks for flour, throws it in the pot and declares it fit to eat. And it is.

Besides being a cool story, why is this in the Bible?

For one, it shows us the authority that God conferred upon Elisha.

It shows God caring enough to fix an ignorant mistake.

But it’s also a story that shows how easily the LORD can take a desperate and deadly situation and snuff out death. He can take what should bring about our destruction and make it not only harmless, but actually nourishing.

I think it also shows that looks can be very deceiving. Just because something looks familiar and good on the outside is no guarantee that it is good on the inside.

So don’t go eating suspicious miracle-melons; especially ones that are wild and growing unaccountably in the wilderness.

(If you go back and reread that really slowly, there’s a serious caution in it. And it’s not about melons.)

The second food miracle is a multiplication of loaves.🥖 (no fishes) But there IS a “fishy” detail here. A man is bringing his Firstfruits offering – not to the temple or to a Levitical city, but to the Prophet.

Elisha’s base of ministry (like Elijah) was in the northern kingdom of Israel. Israel has gone full-on apostate. They have golden calves in Bethel and Dan. Ahab’s son Joram is on the throne and followers of Yahweh are in the minority. The faithful Levites mostly packed up and moved to Judah a couple generations before. Going to Judah to the temple was definitely frowned upon. So what is a faithful Israelite to do if he wants to give the Firstfruits of his land to Yahweh? I guess you could take them to Yahweh’s prophet. And so he shows up with a modest offering of 20 barley pancakes and a little sack of the first harvested heads of barley.

Elisha has 100 hungry prophet-college boys to feed. With 20 pancakes. Do the math.

And just like when Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes, somehow, there were enough to go around and even leftovers. And I bet the people that Jesus fed thought about this instance with Elisha feeding the 100 sons of the prophets.

Food miracles are a thing.

I worked in the kitchen when I was in Bible college. We had one guy that I counted as 3 people when estimating how many portions to prepare for dinner. I counted most of them as 2 people. College guys eat a lot.

Our food service director would tell me about food miracles that happened every once in a while for lunch. Like the time she KNEW she had 75 chicken breasts (because she counted them out and cooked them herself) and yet we had 90ish people go through the serving line and no one was denied chicken. 🍗 And we didn’t have 15-20 vegetarians. All we know is that somehow everyone got chicken that wanted it.

And the time when someone forgot to turn on the oven and no one noticed til 30 minutes before serving time and somehow the food that needed an hour was completely cooked in half the time.

And God did other miracles in that kitchen.

Like the time I dunked my right hand into a pot of boiling water trying to catch a pair of tongs I dropped while taking corn 🌽 on the cob out of the pot. Mom’s homemade burn cream and intense prayer and an hour later I’m playing the keyboard with no sign of redness, no pain, no blistering.

Oh- and the time the whole school DIDN’T burn down on my birthday because the cook was making sweet & sour chicken for ME and the oil boiled over and caught on fire.

🔥🔥🍗🍛🔥🧯🚒👨🏼‍🚒🎉🎂🥳

I recall spending most of my birthday helping clean up. Good times. Good times.