from 2 Kings chapter four, a
few verses for the children particularly, although the adults are allowed
to listen in. And I'm not sure just how many
people here, whether they're older or they're younger, will
remember too much about this couple of verses that we're going
to read together this morning, because they, are important verses,
but they're just a little story, just a little story that's tacked
on, as it were, to the bottom of another story, and before
we get to one of the main stories about Elisha in the Bible. But here is something that's
important, and although it looks small, and it appears relatively
insignificant in comparison to some of the other things that
we have learned about Elisha, the prophet of God. Nevertheless,
I think there are some important lessons for us to learn from
it. So I'm going to read from verse
42 of 2 Kings chapter 4. And there came a man from Baal-shalisha,
and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves
of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said,
Give unto the people that they may eat. And his servitor said,
What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again,
give the people that they may eat, for thus saith the Lord,
they shall eat and shall leave thereof. And he set it before
them, and they did eat and left thereof according to the word
of God. Amen, and may God bless this
reading amongst us. I've given this little part of
the story, the narrative about Elisha, the title, A Glimpse
of Things to Come. Because I think that here we
have a story in the life of one of these prophets that shows
us something about what God planned to do. Do you remember when we
were speaking about the little child that was raised from the
dead, that we remarked that here in the Old Testament, many, many
hundreds of years before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,
God was already preparing the minds of the people to realize
and understand that he was the God of life and death. and that life and death was in
God's control. So that even although the fullness
of that revelation did not come until the time of the Lord Jesus,
nevertheless we began to see the beginnings of it. We saw
a shadow, we saw a pointer, like a finger pointing into the distance. that something glorious and something
wonderful was soon to take place because God had the power of
life and death. And I think when we come to read
this story, these verses also, we are thinking along the same
lines. God is, as it were, by this little
miracle, pointing us to see something else that's going to happen.
Now to the people that were there, they saw the miracle, they saw
what had happened and they might have to an extent understood
that this was speaking of something greater and grander. If they
did, It was only by faith that they saw these things. And that
reminds us of the importance of faith throughout the whole
of the revelation of God. But let us go to our story this
morning. Here is a man from Baal Shalisha. Does anyone know where Baal Shalisha
is? Neither do I. I don't know this
man's name and I don't know where he comes from. And yet, until the end of time,
this man will be remembered. among the peoples of this world,
to read the scriptures, and amongst the church in this world, the
Lord's people. He will be remembered, a man
with no name, a man from no place, as far as we know where it is,
and yet he will be remembered as a gracious provider to the
Lord's people. That's a lovely thing. If we
were to see that man's headstone where he was buried in the cemetery,
maybe written on it was this, that he cared for the people
of God. And if that was all that was
written there, if there was no name, if there was no dates,
if there was nothing about the individual, if all it said of
him was that he cared for the people of God, What a lovely
legacy that would be. What a fitting memorial that
would be to any man and woman in this world. And that's what
we have to remember about the man from Baal Shalisha. This man came with the first
fruits of the harvest. Now remember again last week
that we spoke about the fact that there was a famine in the
land and that famine had extended for a number of years, perhaps
as many as seven years. But it seems that there has been
a passing of time and here the famine is coming to its end.
And this man has from his fields first fruits. Now, firstfruits
are the first gleanings, the first gathering in of the crop
of the year. And that has the name firstfruits. And it was a time for celebration
because it meant that God had been faithful. He had given the
people sustenance for the year. And especially at a time of famine,
there would have been great rejoicing that the harvest had finally
come. And here were some firstfruits.
The people of Israel had an obligation with the first fruits. They had
the obligation of thanking God. You know, they just couldn't
get diving right in and fill their tummies as much as they
wanted to with the food. They had to remember where this
gift came from. And before they started eating,
they were to say thank you to God. I wonder how many of us
say grace before we begin eating. That's why we say grace at the
beginning of a meal. Nowadays, we don't have to work
so hard, some of us, to labour in the field under the hot sun
to get our bread and to get our food. We can just go to the supermarket.
But you know, we still have to be thankful to God for the food
that he has given us. And every time we say grace at
the beginning of a meal, that is us giving God the first fruits. It's saying to the Lord, I won't
eat anything until I have thanked you for providing this food for
my body. So don't just get stuck in. Remember
to say thank you. Even if it's just a little quiet,
thank you into yourself. Thank you, Lord, for giving me
this food for my body's use. He came with the first fruits
of the harvest and he came to the man of God. There's something
interesting about this too. There are so many interesting
things about these verses. He was obliged to take the first
fruits to the priest in the temple at Jerusalem. But you may remember
I've been speaking about the fact that the kingdom of Israel
was divided at this time. There was Judah in the south
and Israel in the north, and people couldn't travel because
there was a battle or there was not good relations between the
two countries. And so the people in Israel,
although they had a command from God to take the first fruits
to the priest, They weren't able to do it. They couldn't make
the journey. So what was a believer to do? What was a man to do? There would
have been good reason for him to say, well, I can't take the
first fruit, so I'll just get stuck in. I'll just eat them
myself. I can't take them to the priest.
But you see, a person who truly believes in God, a person who
believes not because he's got an obligation to, but because
he's got a desire to, And there's a big difference. He looks for
a way to get round the problems that the world imposes upon him. And so this man thought, I can't
get to Jerusalem. I can't get to the priest with
my gift. Who can I give it to? I know
I'll take it to the prophet. I'll take it to the man of God. And so he comes to the man of
God. and he gives his gift to Elisha. And Elisha, of course, he receives
the gift, but he understands that it's not just for him. It's
for all the Lord's people. And so he asks his servant, perhaps
it's Gehazi, to pass it out and to give it to the people who
are still hungry. Elisha wished to give it to all
the group that were there with him. Give to the people that
they may eat. And while we may not have much
in this world, it is always good to remember to share what we
have. And when we share a little, The
Lord is pleased to multiply it. Now Gehazi, if that was the servitor
on this case, again you remember that we've met Gehazi a couple
of times, and if this is the same man, then he found the idea
of serving this meagre offering, 20 barley loaves, so I don't
know, perhaps It's like a burger bun or something about that size.
And he had 20 of them and he had some corn that he had brought
in a pot and there was enough corn in there if you had a towel
to fill that towel. And that was all that was there
as far as the amount of food was concerned. And Elisha says
to Gehazi, his servitor, he says, give it out to everyone. And
Gehazi looks at Elisha and he says, what? This little amount? There's a hundred people here.
How are they going to eat? And he felt that it wasn't enough
for so many people. Does that remind you of anything? Remember the little boy that
brought his five loaves and two fishes to the Lord? See, this
is what we're being shown, that even at this early stage, the
Lord was in control of all of these things. And Jesus fed the
multitudes, and that was a much greater miracle, but it was the
same lesson. Now, the Lord would have us this
morning, I think, do two things. He would have us hear the Word
of God. So I'm pleased to see you all
here, particularly so many children this morning. I'm pleased to
see you all here. The Lord would have us listen
to the Word of God. So you practice listening, practice
hearing the gospel, the Word of God spoken and preached and
read. and he would have us trust the
word of God. Before we can trust it, we've
got to hear it and know it. He would have us hear it, and
he would have us trust it. He would have us trust his word. God was going to send a miracle
to feed his people. He was going to feed them with
this little offering, this little amount, and there was going to
be sufficient left over. And Gehazi couldn't believe that,
just like the Lord's disciples couldn't believe it. In John
chapter six, verse nine, we read that one of them said, there
is a lad here which had five barley loaves and two small fishes,
but what are they among so many? And that's what the world says.
The world says there's not enough here for everybody. There's not
enough here to serve our purposes. We need more, we need better.
But the Lord says, you listen to my word and you trust me because
I've got everything under control. I've got everything in hand. The Holy Spirit gave these Old
Testament saints this miracle from Elisha because he was hinting
at the greater blessings that would yet come with the Lord
Jesus Christ when the Messiah came. And the Lord Jesus Christ,
as you remember, he fed thousands with a very small quantity. And that is because in the hands
of the Savior, a little goes a long way. Our Lord delights
to be good to his people. Mitch was saying last night at
the rescue mission, he said, God delights to be merciful. And that's right, he does. He
delights to be good to his people. He delights to give them good
things. The Lord loves, like a father
loves to be good to his children, so the Lord loves to be good
to his children too. And he delights to surprise his
people with plenty and to spare. And he delights to hear his people
say, thank you. Today, the Lord still feeds his
people, not with burger buns, not with barley loaves and ears
of corn, He does in the sense of providing for us the goodness
of the soil and the goodness of the earth, which brings forth
its plenty that we're able to eat and enjoy the food. But in
a spiritual sense, the Lord still feeds his people. And when we
gather here to worship, we're gathering here to feed upon the
spiritual food that the Lord is pleased to give us. And believe
me, For all my words this morning, and I guess if we counted them
from beginning to end, there would be quite a lot. For all
my words this morning, one little morsel, one little morsel in
the hand of the Holy Spirit. is all that we will need to see
us through the whole week if the Lord is gracious to be merciful
to our souls. So you listen, you listen to
the word of the Lord. You hear what the Bible says
and the Lord will give us good gifts. He will be merciful to
his people and he will give us with some to spare. In the serving
of the food of the gospel, there will be an enlargement, there
will be an increase in the hearts and in the lives of his people.
So in verse 44, Elisha says, or Gehazi, he set the food before
them and they did eat and left thereof according to the word
of the Lord. Gehazi served, the people ate,
and there was sufficient left over. And what was most important
in that incident? This was most important, that
it was all according to the word of the Lord. The written word
of the Lord is the Bible. and we should hear it and read
it and believe it. The living word of God is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And may God, the Holy Spirit,
give us all grace to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak to us,
to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as our saviour, and to be filled
with spiritual food and spiritual truth from him. Amen.