Life or Death? The Doctrine of Eating
and Fellowship. 2 Kings 4:38-44
Deuteronomy 30:15 NASB
“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity [good], and death and
adversity…” We have a choice every day. We can choose life, on the one hand, or
we can choose death which is really self-destructive behavior, self-induced
misery, human good or sin. [16] “in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to
walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His
judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God
may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.” What Moses is
saying here is that the path to the choice of life and good is the path of
loving God. How do we love God? Love of God is demonstrated by obedience. It is
not legalism; it is the result of spiritual growth and loving God. What Moses
is emphasizing here is that loving the Lord your God is directly related to and
proportionate to keeping His commandments, His statutes and His judgments.
Jesus said the same thing in John 14: “If you love me, keep my commandments.”
That means that before you can obey God’s commandments you have to know God’s commandments.
We are not talking about the Ten Commandments or the Mosaic Law here, we are
talking about all of the different imperative constructions that are given
throughout the New Testament related to the Christian life: the prohibitions
and the mandates that we find there. That means we have to make Bible study a
priority. Then we have to learn how to think because it is not just something
superficial, the change needs to come on the inside because it is a change that
is generated by God the Holy Spirit as he takes the Word of God that we learn
and uses that in order to produce spiritual growth in our lives and spiritual
change. What Moses is saying here is that the key to option A, which is life,
or B, which is death, is learning the Bible so that we can love God. Love of
God is evidenced by thinking like God, living like God would have us to live.
That only comes by keeping His Word.
Deuteronomy 30:17 NASB
“But if your heart turns away [option B, death] and you will not obey, but are drawn
away and worship other gods and serve them, [18] I declare to you today that
you shall surely perish. You will not prolong {your} days in the land where you
are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.” That first phrase, “if your heart turns away,”
focuses on volition. It is your decision, which we are you going to choose to
go? If your heart turns away from life, i.e. you don’t take time to study the
Word. We have abstract idols of the mind in our day. Paul says in Colossians
chapter three that greed is idolatry. We need to know that anything we worship,
anything we put our attention and focus on that has a higher priority than the
study of God’s Word is idolatry. The results he announces in verse 18: “I
declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong {your}
days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.” In other words, even if you
are a believer you are not going to lose salvation but you are going to lose
the quality of life, there will not be real happiness and joy and stability in
your soul. The psalms tell us that God answered the prayers of the Israelites
in the wilderness, He sent them bread but He sent leanness to their souls. That
is a key lesson that we can have all of the wonderful material things, the
details of life, but if our relationship with the Lord is not at the center
then what that brings is not anything that has a lasting value; it brings
leanness to the soul. We could paraphrase these two verses: “If you do not
decide to make your relationship with God, your knowledge of His Word,
obedience to His Word, the highest priority, and you get distracted by career,
pleasure, money, drugs, lust and other details of life so that they are more
important to you than God, then you will certainly be miserable. You will never
find what you are looking for and
whatever you have will never satisfy you.” That is the paraphrase in terms of
application.
Deuteronomy 30:19 NASB
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before
you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that
you may live, you and your descendants, [20] by loving the LORD your God,
by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the
length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to
your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” The two witnesses
that are called upon to witness this restatement of the Mosaic covenant are the
angels and mankind, so that everything that Israel was to do was done before the angels and other human
beings. Our lives will demonstrate over the course of those threescore and ten
years of our life (maybe more) whether God has blessed us or judged us; whether
our life reflects the glory of God and His grace or not. That sum total will be
clear by the time we reach our end game and God takes us to be in heaven with
Him. It will be evident: did we choose life or did we choose death? At this
time in her history Israel had chosen death. They had chosen the path of
paganism, the path of human viewpoint, and had sown the seeds of death in their
negative volition. As a result they had reaped a culture of corruption. There
was no turning back to God, they had not responded to all the challenges that were
brought to them by Elijah. Elisha had come along and had demonstrated the same
truths but from a different perspective. He is focusing more on the positive,
less on the challenge, the judgment, and so God is showing through him that he
could and still would give them life, just as He had promised under Moses.
2 Kings 4:38 NASB
“When Elisha returned to Gilgal, {there was} a famine in the land. As the sons
of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, ‘Put on the
large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.’” The famine
was once again a reminder of death, of judgment from God. Elisha is in charge,
he knows what is going on, he understands what is about to happen. [39] “Then
one 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 sliced them into the pot of
stew, for they did not know {what they were.} [40] So they poured
{it} out for the men to eat. And as they were eating of the stew, they cried
out and said, ‘O man of God, there is death in the pot.’ And they were unable
to eat.” We have an environment of death that comes in the
environment of divine discipline. This is also a picture for us of what happens
in someone’s life when they are divorced from God in terms of being out of
fellowship. There is a result of our disobedience, there is not fellowship with
God, and so there is death in the pot and they could not eat it.
2 Kings 4:41 NASB
“But he said, ‘Now bring meal [flour].’ He threw it into the pot and said,
“Pour {it} out for the people that they may eat.” Then there was no harm in the
pot.” What is the flour? It is what was used to make bread, and in
the next episode there is going to be an emphasis on the bread. Bread in
Scripture is often used as a picture of God’s provision of His Word. Matthew
4:4 NASB “…It is written, ‘MAN
SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH
OF GOD.’” So the use of flour here is a
depiction of the fact that that which restores life, that which changes the
circumstances of a culture of death, is only the Word of God. They are then
able to eat.
There is an emphasis in
Scripture on eating in relationship to God. In Exodus 24 which is after the
exodus scenario, after the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. Moses is commanded to come back up on the mountain and bring his
leadership team with him. Exodus 24:1 NASB “Then He said to Moses,
‘Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the
elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance.’ [2] Moses alone,
however, shall come near to the LORD, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people
come up with him. [3] Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words
of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and
said, ‘All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!’ [4] Moses wrote down all the
words of the LORD. Then he arose early in the morning, and built an
altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. [5]
He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed
young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD.” This is comparable for us to confession of sin. It
is a picture of the need for the people to be sanctified or cleansed from sin
before the leaders go to the mountain to worship God. [6] “Moses took half of
the blood and put {it} in basins, and the {other} half of the blood he
sprinkled on the altar. [7] Then he took the book of the covenant and read {it}
in the hearing of the people; and they said, ‘All that the LORD has spoken
we will do, and we will be obedient!’” This is a remarkable and a critical
moment in Israel’s history because it is the first real confirmation
ceremony.
Exodus 24:11 NASB
“Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank.” So they
come into the presence of God and they ate and drank, they had a party, a
banquet. It is a celebration, a picture of their communion, their fellowship
with God. That is the same thing we see in the New Testament with the Lord’s
table. We call it communion because it is a picture of our fellowship with God,
our positional fellowship based on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ at the
cross. As they are coming in this confirmation ceremony, and it is like signing
a peace treaty or a contract, they would celebrate by having a feast or
banquet.
Psalm 22:16, 17 NASB “For dogs have surrounded me; A
band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.
I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me.” They didn’t even have
crucifixion at the time of David so he is speaking of this in a prophetic way.
[18] “They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.
[19] But You, O LORD, be not far off; O You my help, hasten to my
assistance. [20] Deliver my soul from the sword, My only {life} from the power
of the dog. [21] Save me from the lion’s mouth; From the horns of the wild oxen
You answer me.” There are many who understand more about Hebrew culture who
think that when it says in the Gospels that when Jesus said, “My God, My God,
why have you forsaken me” that He is not just quoting that verse but is quoting
the psalm, and it is this psalm that is giving Him courage in the midst of His
adversity as He is bearing the sins of the world.
Psalm 22:26 NASB “The afflicted will eat and be
satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the LORD. Let your heart live
forever!” This is in the section of the psalm that is a declarative phrase of
how the Lord has delivered the one who was pierced and was rejected earlier in
the psalm. So in sign of praise, in sign of thanksgiving those who are
afflicted will come together and eat and be satisfied and will praise the Lord.
A vital element of praising God is coming together to celebrate; that is a key
element in worship.
Another passage which has
millennial implications related to the kingdom is in Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55:1 NASB
“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come,
buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.” It is
free! The kingdom is presented here as a place where mankind will freely
fellowship with God in eating and drinking and celebration. In extra-biblical
Jewish writings it was emphasized that when the Messiah came it would be
characterized by an enormous feast initiated by the Messiah and the Messiah
would then bring food to His people and would supply all of their physical
needs. [2] “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for
what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And
delight yourself in abundance. [3] Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen,
that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, {According
to} the faithful mercies shown to David.” So the Messiah is going to bring in
the kingdom and there is going to be a celebration that is related to sitting
down and eating at a banquet.
1 Corinthians 10:1-4
reflects back on the exodus generation, and again we see the emphasis on food
and drink. “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers
were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all
were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate
the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink,
for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock
was Christ.” The spiritual food was the manna, the food from God. So we see
that all through the Scriptures there is this emphasis on God providing food
and nourishment for us in a physical way that is used then as a picture of the
fact that He is the only pone who can sustain us and nourish us spiritually and
to provide that for us.
This is the picture that we
have as we come to this episode in 2 Kings 4, the food that is made whole so
that it can provide life. But one of the other passages that is so important
here is a recognition of what Jesus said. They had chosen death in Israel and now Elisha is showing them that God can provide
life. This foreshadows the message of Jesus in John 4:14 NASB “but
whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the
water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to
eternal life.” God is the one who can bring life out of death. John 5:24 NASB
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent
Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of
death into life.” John 6:47
NASB “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
[48] I am the bread of life.”
2 Kings
4:42-44 NASB “Now a man came from Baal-shalishah, and
brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley and
fresh ears of grain in his sack. And he said, ‘Give {them} to the people that
they may eat.’ His attendant said, ‘What,
will I set this before a hundred men?’ But he said, ‘Give {them} to the people
that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, ‘They shall eat and have {some} left over.’ So he
set {it} before them, and they ate and had {some} left over, according to the
word of the LORD.”
Illustrations