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Alright, we'll go ahead and open up your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter number 4, 2 Kings chapter number 4. So, just to get you caught up to where we're at, we're studying the book of 1 and 2 Kings, and they primarily focus on the northern kingdom of Israel, and so you'll notice that that's been the focus as of late. I'm going to start off by giving you the title this evening, the title of the sermon is Purge the Pot, and I took that from the second-to-last narrative in this chapter. So kind of a longer chapter, it's 44 verses, but really it's simple when we break it down, okay? You basically have five narratives. So again, we're in the books of Kings, but yet in this chapter you find us primarily reading about the prophet, the prophet Elisha, and so you get to kind of ask yourself, well, why is that? What's going on? Don't we have other books of prophets and so on and so forth, and of course the answer is yes, we do. But the reason for that is because, if you remember, the northern kingdom of Israel, they are not following the law of God, okay? They're just kind of sort of recovering from full-on Baal worship, and they're kind of in the process of going back to the new evangelical way, which is still not the way. And so, needless to say, the land is basically void of priests, temple, things like that. If you remember, they have the golden calf in Dan, the golden calf in Bethel, and of course a lot of other interesting things going on. They have this struggle for power and to even maintain a king at this time here. And so literally that's what's going on, and as a result of that, what you're starting to see is the land is starting to decay, because remember God told them, you know, this is the land flowing with milk and honey, but he said this would be profitable to you as long as you guys follow my statutes, follow my commandments. Of course they aren't doing that, and so that has an impact on the land, okay? It's not as profitable as it once was, and we're going to get into that and see that here shortly. So a lot of stuff going on, but we're going to get this broken down. We're going to start with a first narrative, okay? And again, all these narratives focus on the miracles of Elisha, who obviously came after Elijah, and if you remember, he has a double portion of Elijah's spirit. So again, let's get this started here. Look down at verse number one. The Bible says, Okay, obviously not a very good thing. I almost titled the sermon Creditors Are Predators, but I figured I think, you know, I had enough rhymes for it today. We'll just kind of leave it at that. Now you see the situation here again. I've heard this preached before where like, well, this was Obadiah's wife, and that's speculation at best. Nobody knows who this woman really is and who her husband was, but you can see that obviously Elisha was familiar, knew the situation here, and this is tragic. So now you have this widow woman, and the creditors are literally trying to put her sons into bondage, okay? Now what would the law say about that? Before we get there, keep your place there in 2 Kings 4, but go forward in your Bible to the book of Psalms. Go to Psalm chapter number 72. Psalm chapter number 72. So again, when you take away the statutes, you take away the commandments, you take away the love for the law of God, what you're ultimately left with is darkness, just barren land, not just physically, but also spiritually, and so you can see the result right off the bat. You have this widow woman here, and the creditors are literally attacking this woman, and they want to put her children to bondage to pay off debts, okay? Now obviously the law has stipulations for things like that, and for the first one here is that they were not supposed to treat each other as the heathen nations. We've talked about that in the past. But the second one is that every seven years, even if you were to find yourself in a situation like this, every seven years, a year of Jubilee, that debt was supposed to be forgiven, but because they're not following the law at this time in the northern kingdom of Israel, there's no hope of that, there's no promise for that, and you can see that there's no help from the government. There's no promise from the government. The king's not doing anything about it, and so let's take a look at what the Psalms say should happen. What should be going on, what should be preached, what should be taught in the northern kingdom of Israel. Psalm 72, look at verse number one, the Bible says, Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. Again, in the lineage of the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel, you don't see that, you're not seeing that. It's like each king gets more and more worse, and then one kind of recovers a little bit, you know, but they're all bad, they're all wicked, they are not following the law. Verse two, He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills by righteousness. Okay, you see that over and over again, righteousness. What's missing in the land of Israel during this time? Well, righteousness, the word of God. Verse five, They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure throughout all generations. And then, of course, he goes on to talk about, you know, having dominion and things of that nature. The point being here is the king of the nation of Israel, the king of God's people, should have a heart for the people and should be concerned about the people. You can go back to 2 Kings, and you don't see that here, okay? That's why I believe the story is preserved for us, why it's in the Bible, to kind of give us some insight on what it's like during this time here. This would be an absolute nightmare, okay? Now, I mean, even not too long ago in our country, and I don't know if this is true anymore, but it seemed like creditors back in the day could call like all day and like most of the night. And then as time went on, like sometime in the 90s, you know, there was laws passed where you can't call past a certain hour, you know, fast forward to the 2000s. And now, I mean, there's states passing laws that basically say that you can't even collect your money, you know, if somebody owes you. And the whole world is just falling into madness, but literally, this is like the other end of that, you know? Whatever it is that she owes, these guys are like, hey, well, we're going to put your kids to work and take them from you, and they can work off the debt. So she's in distress. What does she do? Well, look at verse number 2. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? She said, Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil. And notice how she's speaking here, right? Obviously, she's, you know, just in a bad place. She's in distress. She's, you know, thinking like, how are we going to get out of this mess? What are you going to give me some money or something like that? You're asking me what I have? What does she say? Well, I have this vessel here. That's all that I have. Look what he says in verse 3. Then he said, Go, borrow the vessels abroad. Of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not a few. And so real quickly, something I just kind of want to highlight here is a lot of times we find ourselves in these situations where we think we have nothing, we have no options. And often if you really sit down and you kind of meditate and you kind of think about that, you have something. God has given you something to be thankful for. God has given you something that you can work with. He can take what little that you have and multiply it. The question is, do you have the faith for that? Do you have the obedience to allow that to happen in your life? Okay. I mean, do you even have the intestinal fortitude to admit, first of all, that you're in trouble, that you're in a low place? So look at verse number 4. So he says, And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons and shall pour out into all those vessels. And thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons who brought the vessels unto her, and she poured out. Verse 6. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more, and the oil stayed. Okay. So the oil stopped. Verse 7. Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. Okay. So obviously here, this is definitely a miracle and something that we want to focus on it and remember here is that those vessels had to be empty. Okay. That's the key thing there that, you know, Elisha says, Go borrow the vessels abroad. Verse 3. Of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not a few. So the point is, they're supposed to be empty. And how do they all get full? How does that stay? Well, obviously, by the power of God. And so, you know, what I see here, I see a couple of things. I see a picture of us, of humanity, basically literally being empty. Apart from God, we are nothing. We need Him to fill us up. But the problem today and the problem throughout the just the history of humanity is that a lot of people think they're already full, don't they? A lot of people are full of ideologies, false beliefs, false narratives, and things of that nature. And so they keep filling themselves up thinking they're doing a good work. And then when someone comes and presents the truth of the gospel to them, there's no room for that to go into them. And so, you know, obviously, like we talked about this morning, in order to get a response from God, we need to be humble. If you're preaching the gospel, or you're trying to share truth with somebody, and they're not receptive, they're not saying, Yeah, I don't understand this, or, you know, they're not admitting the fact that they're sinners, that they, you know, are literally empty, you're not going to see that person get saved, right? You know, and that's what I see going on here. But for the believer, what I see here is that God wants us to come to him empty so that he can fill us up, okay? He can fill us up with his truth with his wisdom. But again, it all goes back to humility, okay? Do we have the humility to go to the Lord empty, so that he can fill us up, and so that we can give to others, right, so that we can pour out to other people, and then we can survive off of the rest, okay? So that's what I see going on there. And then we're going to get into this second narrative here, which is the longest one, or the longest two, okay? So literally from verses 18, I'm sorry, verses 8 to 17, you're going to see the birth of a son for the Shunammite woman, and then we're going to take a look at the death and resurrection and come back and talk about what those mean here. So look down at verse number 8, the Bible says, And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem. There was a great woman, and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. Okay, now Shunem is on the border of Issachar, if you study the boundaries and stuff going back through the book of Joshua, you would see that there. So this is kind of reminiscent of what you saw earlier on in Elijah's life, where he helped a woman, and there was things involved there. So a lot of this is kind of copying a little bit of the life of Elijah, but nonetheless, we're told that it fell on a day that Elijah passed to Shunem, and there was a great woman. Okay, now I believe she was great, just a great person, but really great as in, you know, resourceful. Okay, I believe she had the means to be able to take care of other people, probably well off. Okay, and what does she do? Well, she recognizes that he's not down with the system, that he's not, you know, with the program of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat and the sins of that religion, that he's a true man of God. And so what does she do? She takes care of him. She says, you know, hey, here's bread, here's provision, and she takes care of the man of God, which would ultimately what? Take care of her for the rest of her life, I believe. So we can see her hospitality. Okay, that's one thing that makes her great. She has great hospitality. Look at verse nine. It says, and she said unto her husband, behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually, you know, and again, if you ever come here on Wednesdays, or you listen to the prayer, that's one of the things that we pray for, is that our community would become more receptive to the Word of God and, and more receptive to the idea of learning and absorbing truth and pouring that out into other people, also known as edification. And literally, she perceives that this is a man of God. So what does that mean? She has a great heart, great heart and concerns for the truth, okay? She wants the truth. She's all about the truth. And so she brings this situation to her husband. Why? Because she wants to take care of this prophet. Look at verse number 10. It says, let us make a little chamber, I pray thee on the wall, and let us set for him there a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick, and it shall be when he cometh to us that he shall turn and thither, okay? So she enjoys this man of God coming through, enjoys taking care of him. And keep in mind, she's not doing this initially just because she's thinking, oh, I'm gonna get something in return. She's doing this because she's a great woman. She's great in every aspect, probably great in resources, money because of, you know, how they live or whatever. But also notice she's great in hospitality, meaning large. She's got enough to go around. She has enough love and care for the truth to take care of this prophet here. So we see that. Verse 11, it says, and it fell on a day that he came thither and turned into the chamber and lay there. So again, she's got all of his needs covered, bed, a table, you know, a chair, lights so he can see, all of this stuff here. Now also think about this. In the northern kingdom of Israel, in this town, there's no temple, okay? There's a lot of the priests have already obviously left and gone down to the southern kingdom of Judah because of the kings of the past driving them out. Jezebel obviously still influencing the area, hates God, hates his prophets, hates the priests. And so there's a suppression of the truth. So when the truth comes through her town, she appreciates that. She values that and doesn't want to let that go, okay? So what does she do? She provides for him. She takes care of him. She sets up a place where he can come and rest and be able to go on his way. Verse 12, and he said to Gehazi his servant, call the Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him. And he said unto him, say now unto her, behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care. What is to be done for thee? What is thou be spoken for to the king or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among my own people, okay? So again, he's like, okay, what do you want here? You know, do you want to speak to the king? Is there something you want? What's going on here? And her answer is, I dwell among mine own people. So in other words, she's telling him, I care about the truth. I want to take care of you, and I want the truth to prevail, okay? Just because there's wicked countries and wicked nations in the world does not mean that 100% of the people all the time are absolutely wicked, and that's what you have here. Remember what God told Elijah, I've reserved 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to bail. So look at verse 14, it says, and he said, what then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, verily, she hath no child and her husband is old. And so you can see Gehazi here, he's talking to the Shunammite woman and basically interpreting for Elisha so that he can understand what is going on. And he brings up the fact that she has no child and her husband is old. So there is something that she now wants that he has perceived that she wants. Verse 15, look what it says, and he said, call her, and when he called her, she stood in the door. And he said about this season, according to the time of life, thou shall embrace a son. And she said, nay, my Lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid. So she hears something that she didn't even ask for, but obviously instinctively wanted. She wants to have a family, wanted to have a child. There's no doubt about that when she hears this, it's almost too good to be true for her. And so what does she do? She's like, don't lie to me. Like, are you kidding? Are you serious? This is really going to happen here. Verse 17, and the woman conceived and bear a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life. So again, confirming, this is a sign confirming that he is a man of God, that he bears the word of God. When the word of God comes and says something, it always gets fulfilled every single time. And so that there is basically the first of three situations in this Shunammite woman's life. So the first thing you notice here is what? She gives birth to a son. The impossible happens. Now obviously very simple here, you could look at that and see how Christ fits into that. It was initially impossible without God for her to have a son. Well guess what? It's impossible to the human mind for God to become a man, but yet that miracle happened. And because of that miracle happened, we can have life forever. Now let's take a look at the next part of the last half here of this narrative. Look at verse 18, it says, and when the child was grown, it fell on a day that he went out to his father, to the reapers, and he said unto his father, my head, my head, and he said to Elad, carry him to his mother. Now again, this always goes back to why man hates the Bible, because the Bible condemns man. The Bible tells the truth. So if a man wrote this, okay, a man would say, okay, my son came to me and I held him and I cared for him and I tried to take him to the hospital, I ran through sticker bushes, I dodged lines, you know, it would be something along those lines, okay? But God records the conversation here, like, oh, you hurt your head, go see your mom, okay? And that's literally more reflective of how we are oftentimes as fathers, right? Kids come to us like, hey, don't bother me with that, so go see your mom, oh, you got shot, go drink some water. You know why you're having so many issues? Because you don't do enough squats, you don't exercise enough. You know why you can't figure out your problems? Again, because you're not eating enough beef, you're not eating enough steaks, you know, whatever it is, that's just kind of how we are. And this guy here is like, oh, you cracked your head up and go see your mom, she'll fix it. Mom can fix everything, okay? That's the reality of men in the manosphere, if you will, okay? Verse 20, and when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon and then died. Now, imagine how she must have felt right then and there, okay? The son whom she never thought she would have, who probably didn't really even cross her mind, has obviously been born, lived a life, and has now died in her arms. So obviously she is heartbroken, obviously she is just distraught beyond belief here. Verse 21, and she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door upon him and went out. And she called unto her husband and said, send me, I pray thee, one of the young men and one of the asses that I may run to the man of God and come again. So again, what does she do? She goes to the man of God. She has trouble. She has a problem. She runs to the man of God, who is obviously what? He is a picture of the word of God. That is, again, how we are supposed to live our lives. We have issue. We go to the Bible. We go to the word. We go to the truth. Okay? Verse 23, and he said, wherefore would thou go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath. And she said, it shall be well. Well, that's interesting there. Let's talk about that for a second here. And he said, wherefore would thou go to him today? You know, it's kind of interesting how he's just like, again, he's just like, what are you going to do going to him for? It's almost like he's unfazed by this. Now, of course, I'm sure he's not, but, you know, just, just straightforward answers. Just as why it's not the new moon or the Sabbath. And again, you know, what that pictures is that Elisha was sent here to literally be the presence of God, to be that temple that they couldn't go to because of their situation. Okay. You see that because obviously on the new moon and on the Sabbath, there were sacrifices and things of that nature. And so he had a habit of obviously passing through here during those times. So that pictures the fact that he's fulfilling what they didn't have access to. Okay. Didn't have access or the means to go down to the Southern kingdom of Judah, but yet they love God. She has a heart for God. She's a great woman as far as, like I said, everything, you know, great monetarily, probably great and resource, but just has a great heart overall. She cares about the truth. She cares about God. She wants to go to God and she says, it shall be well. Well, what is that? That's a demonstration of faith. Okay. That's what that is. She has a problem. She's like, it just doesn't make sense to me how this miracle would happen. I would have a son, my husband's old and he would just die like this. There has to be something else. There has to be more to the story here. So what does she do? She doesn't get paranoid. She doesn't get crazy. She goes right to the Bible, right to the prophet. Okay. And she says, it shall be well. So again, we see, she has great faith. Verse 24, then she saddled an ass and said to her servant, drive and go forward, slack not thy writing for me, except I bid thee. Okay. Look at this. Then she saddled an ass and said to her servant. So again, she has servants, you know, obviously proving the fact that she's well off. She has finances, she has resources. So that's obviously why we call her great. But I'm just saying that I think she's great in all these other areas as well. Okay. And she tells us that her servant like, you know, hey, don't slow down unless I tell you. Okay. Verse 25. So she went and came unto the man of God to Mount Carmel and it came to pass when the man of God saw her afar off that he said to Gehazi his servant, behold yonder is that Shunammite. Run now I pray thee to meet her and say unto her, is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered it as well. Okay. Well, is it really well? I mean, she just lost her child. She just lost the only child that she had. So obviously it's not well, but that's what she says. Okay. And again, why? It goes back to her character. Okay. She loves God. That is the whole reason why God even allowed this to be a possibility. Remember what Elisha last week told the king of Israel, you know, and the king of Edom's like, I wouldn't even be here right now if it wasn't for Jehoshaphat. I wouldn't even regard your presence. So again, please understand that the whole reason that God is even allowing Elisha to go through this, to bless her, to even be in this area is because of her faith, because of who she is and because she loves God. Verse 27, and when she came to the man of God, to the hill, she caught him by the feet. But Gehazi came near to thrust her away and the man of God said, let her alone for her soul is vexed within her and the Lord hath hid it from me and hath not told me. So Gehazi kind of reminds me of the disciples. Remember when the people brought the children to Jesus and the disciples were like, hey, get back here, you munchkins, you know, get back here, get away. And Jesus is like, no, suffer the little children to come to me for such as are the kingdom of heaven. Verse 28, then she said, did I desire a son of my Lord? Did I not say, do not deceive me? Verse 29, then he said to Gehazi, gird up thy loins and take my staff in thine hand and go thy way. If thou meet any man, salute him not. And if any salute thee, answer him not again and lay my staff upon the face of the child. So this is Elisha's answer here. Remember the Lord hasn't told him anything yet. He's got to figure this out on his own. Okay. So remember, I mean, remember this Elisha has a double portion of Elijah's spirit. Okay. You say, well, why is that important? Well, that's important to understand because as you're reading this, you know, some people might say, well, you know, this shouldn't be translated this way and that and this and the other thing, you know, because of whatever reason, I've heard all sorts of crazy interpretations of these stories in my Christian life. But the point that I believe that the Bible is trying to make here is the fact that Elisha is still man. He's still human. The best of men are men at best. Okay. So in his own reasoning, he's thinking, well, we got to try something here. We need to do something. Well, send my staff. Okay. Go, how's it? You go take my staff, touch the face of the child. Don't talk to anybody. Just go do this as quickly as possible. Okay. Well, let's see what happens. Verse 30. And the mother of the child said, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose and followed her. Okay. So again, look at her persistence here. You know, we would talk all the time about wanting to get things done and accomplishments and things like that. There's a reason why she's great financially. Okay. There's a reason why she probably chose the husband that she had. You know, I believe that together that was their personality. That's who they were. They had tasks to accomplish and they went out and accomplished them. They got things done because you can tell this by her persistence here. So I'm not leaving until we get results until I understand exactly what's going on here. Verse 31. Because he passed on before them and lay the staff upon the face of the child. But there was neither voice nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him and told him saying, the child is not awake. Okay. Now again, Elijah is probably like, what am I going to do here? What's the solution to this? Okay. Verse 32. And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead and laid upon his bed. So again, he's just probably thinking like, what in the world am I going to do in this situation? But think about this. Okay. Remember, obviously he loves the Lord. You know, the Shunammite woman's family loves the Lord. Why didn't God allow the staff thing to work? Well, think about what's going on around them. Okay. What's going on around them? They have a wicked king, wicked Jezebels in charge. They're doing their own thing religiously. You know, idolatry is out of control. I often wonder, and I can't prove this. I'm just saying this is my own opinion here. I believe if that were to be allowed at this time, that that could be blown way out of proportion. They're worshiping that staff, and it could have just led to further idolatry. Okay. And there's another example of that in the law. And some of you may be familiar with this, with Moses and the rod that he had. People began to worship that thing later on and just became idolatry, became an issue here. And so we're looking at this now, and God's not going to allow that to happen. Okay. So God has to learn by himself that he needs to be all in if this is going to happen, if this miracle is going to take place. Look at verse 32. So again, the Lord hasn't said anything to him because he wants Elisha to be where Elisha's at. He wants Elisha to understand that it is still God who is in charge. It is God who gives these powers, God who gives forth the ability for these miracles to happen. Verse 34. Now, I've heard this, and I've read this so many times, and you're probably already thinking it. You know, CPR, right? This is the first case of CPR. He gave the chest pumps. That's really what happened here if you really break it down to the Hebrew. But that's not what's going on here. This is a miracle. Again, for every miracle in the Bible, there's always somebody outside who wants to disprove it even to this day. Why is that? Because the Bible is true. The Bible condemns man. The Bible teaches that man needs to go to God, that man is the one that needs the saving. Okay. So Elisha does this after he prays to the Lord. What's the result? Well, life comes back to the child. Verse 35, then he returned and walked in the house to and fro and went up and stretched himself upon him, and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. Now, I don't have time to get into that seven there, but again, a lot of times you'll read these numbers. Okay. Why did he sneeze seven times? Well, you know, again, seven is a number of completion in the Bible. The number of life. Okay. So he's coming back to life. That's why I believe the Bible records for us that he sneezed seven times. I believe it's a sign to us living today that would read these things again so that we can connect that to all the other times where life appears and the number of seven again, seven days in a week, and we could just spend a lot of time here, but we won't. The point being Elisha, not knowing what to do, being a great man of God himself goes to the Lord in prayer, does this where he stretches himself upon the child. Life comes back into him. So again, this is a picture here of the word of God covering us who are dead. Okay. Verse 36. And he called Gehazi and said, call the Shunammite. So we called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, take up thy son. Then she went in and fell out his feet and bowed herself to the ground and took up her son and went out. Let's stop right there for a second. Okay. So what do you have here from verse eight all the way to verse 38? Well, you have the Shunammite woman. Okay. She's taking care of the man of God as he passes through her town. He says, Hey, what was it? What is it she would like? Gehazi says, well, she doesn't have a son. She would desire a son. Okay. That happens by the mercy of God, by a miracle. So you see the birth of the son. And then what's the next event? You see the death of the son. What happens after that? You see the resurrection of the son. So this entire story here literally just pictures humanity where we have our physical birth. And then what slays every single one of us? What kills all of us? Sin. Okay. That is what takes us all out. Okay. Sin takes us all out and makes it so that we have to have a savior. Okay. How do we get saved? By being placed into the body of Christ. So Elisha being placed on and covering that boy completely is a picture of us being in Christ completely. Okay. Sneezing seven times, signifying life completion. Okay. So again, this whole story here, this whole situation, again, points to the fact that you cannot work for your salvation. It is a free gift. Once you're in, you're always in. There is nothing you could do to lose that salvation ever. It's a done deal. It is forever. So that's what that pictures here. Okay. It's got a few verses left. Look at verse number 38. So the Bible says, and Elisha came again to Gilgal and there was a Dirthan land. Okay. And the sons of the prophets were sitting before him and he said unto his servant, set on the great pot and seed pottage for the sons of the prophets. So again, why is there Dirthan land? Again, because the Northern kingdom of Israel has rejected the word of God. And so God is punishing the land. That land we could say is morally sensitive. Okay. It is sensitive based on the fact whether or not the nation serves the Lord. Verse 39 and went in. So he says, Hey, we need to get some food going here. We're going to see some potters. We're going to boil this stew, basically verse 39 and one went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine and gathered there of wild gourds, uh, his lap full and came and shred them into the pot of pottage for they knew them not. Okay. So they poured out for the men to eat and it, uh, and it came to pass as they were eating of the pottage that they cried out and said, Oh, thou man of God, there is death in the pot and they could not eat thereof. Verse 41, but he said, then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot and he said, pour out for the people that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. Okay. Keep your place there. But real quickly, just go forward in your Bible to Isaiah chapter number 53 Isaiah chapter number 53. Okay. So Elijah says, Hey, we need to get some food going here. The sons of the prophets, it's time to eat. Sit on the great pot, the big pot. Okay. Let's get this pottage going. So they go out and they go gather herbs and then someone notices this wild vine. Okay. They're probably hungry and they're just like, well, this is here, you know, let's just take it and you know, we can eat these game in, in the process of them eating. They notice, wait a second. Okay. Something's not right here. There is death in the pot. This is not okay. We're, you know, we're, we're all going to die basically here. So they have an issue. They have, they have this problem here. What does all this mean? What is, what is the solution here? What does Elijah do? Well, they have them throw in meal and then there's no harm in the pot and they all eat. Now some people say, well, see, there's no miracle here. And I just read this before the service, I should've printed out the article, but I just read this where this scholar was like, no, no, no. Basically this is just, you know, chronicalizing the events that happened. This is not a miracle. Not everything in the Bible is a miracle, blah, blah, blah. Basically we're just being taught here that flour, okay, that flour absorbs toxins and things like that. And so that was the solution. This was a cooking tip to the people that live out in the woods at forge. You know, this is a good lesson to us who are preppers, okay? Because if we carry flour and we're out in the wilderness and we put something that might be harmful in the pot, all you gotta do is put some flour in there and you're good to go. Okay. If you know anything about survival, that's not true. There are things out there that you can put all the flour in that you want and it will kill you. Okay. That's bad interpretation. And again, that's why we don't go to lost people to get our doctrine, okay? This means something, okay? These things were written a four time, four hour learning, meaning it applies to everyone of every generation from the time it happened to the end of time, whenever that's going to be. So let's take a look at what these things represent. Well, first of all, okay, I mean, you could see this and you could read this story here and apply it to people that preach the word of God, okay? We go out and we study the word of God. We go all these different chapters. You know what some people do is they look over there, oh, there's a book by a scholar by a, you know, I'm going to go grab some of that. Oh, there's a book by Billy Graham who doesn't believe that salvation is a free gift and that people that, you know, just look to any life that they have that they'll be saved. I'll take a little bit of what he says. Okay. And they're taking all this wild stuff, this stuff that has not been proven and they bring it into the house of God. They bring it into the pulpit and they preach it and what does it do? It causes confusion. It causes harm. Okay. So you could look at the story from that angle, but there's another meaning here. There's another metaphor and that meal is a picture of Christ. Okay. Because meal or flour that they put into the pot, think about it. Okay. How do you get flour? Well, somebody has to do the work. Somebody has to take that corn or somebody has to take that grain, whatever it is. Okay. And they actually have to pick it. They have to gather it. They have to clean it. They have to grind it. They have to process it and get it to its state of, to the state of meal to where it can actually be used in a situation like this or use in baking cakes or whatever the case is. And just to kind of show you this, Isaiah 53 look at verse number five. This is obviously old Testament prophecy about Jesus Christ. It says this says, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes, we are healed. So again, Christ, God came down from heaven, took on the form of a man, lived a perfect life, never sinned, took on chastisement. He was mocked. He was ridiculed. He was offered up as a solution for, to, to, to overcome death. Okay. And so go back if you would to second Kings and we'll finish up here. So I see that here play out in this picture says set on potage case set on this great pot and let's cook some potage. Let's cook some stew here. Okay. Well somebody comes in with contamination and contaminates this stew. What's the solution? Well, the solution is the meal that Elisha says, just throw the meal in there and they do that verse 41, but he said, then bring meal and, and he cast it into the pot and he said, pour out for the people that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. Okay? So again, the meal was already prepared. Somebody already did the work and put it in their possession. So they already had it. All they had to do was just take that meal, put it in the pot. Boom, saved. Boom cleanse. Good to go. And there was no harm in the pot. Okay. So that's what I see going on there. I see that as a picture of Christ. See that as a picture of us who, who preached the word of God, not to take things that are contaminated. Okay. We're supposed to look at things that appear to be religious out in the world and be able to compare that with the word of God and say, Hey, has this been proven? Has this been dissected? Is this true? And we need to, if it's not, we need to call that out. We need to expose that for what it is. Okay. And how do we do that? We add the meal. We add the word of God. God did all the work. He's the one that was offered up. He lived the perfect life. He is the solution for us to not suffer harm. Okay. And then we're almost done right here. Look at verse 42. And it says this, and there came a man from Baal-Shalishia, that's some helpful, and brought the man of God, bread of the first fruits, 20 loaves of barley, and full ears of corn and the husk thereof. And he said, give unto the people that they may eat. Verse 43, and his servitor said, what should I set, he says, what should I set this before 100 men? And he said, again, give the people that they may eat. For thus saith the Lord, they shall eat and shall leave thereof. So he set it before them, and they did eat and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord. Now, then it goes on to talk about name in the Syrian, which we'll get into next week. Okay. And so if you're wondering like, what's the deal here with this quick three verse narrative? Why does it follow the story of the pottage and the meal going in there and cleansing it? Well, I think it's pretty obvious when you really think about it. So if that's a picture of salvation, the meal is a picture of Christ cleansing us. After we're cleansed, we're supposed to have faith, because I mean, what does this story sound like? The last three verses? Okay, Jesus feeding the 5,000, I mean, you know, that's very similar, okay? So that's what you have. So we are supposed to, after salvation, and you know, after we can receive the word of God, and we can accept it, and we can grow, we are supposed to take that and give it to other people, even when it seems impossible. It seems impossible that we would be able to evangelize even our own community. But with the right amount of people, with the word of God in them, it is possible. Just take a while, but it's definitely possible, okay? And so that's what this picture's here at the end of the Bible, because these guys are like, how are we going to feed a hundred guys with this stuff? It looks good, looks great, you know, sounds good, smells good, but how does that happen? It happens by faith, because the word of God said that it would happen, okay? And so again, the idea here as you're going through the gospels and you're reading these stories here, when the disciples were like, hey, you know, they're like, Jesus, tell these guys to go and buy food so they don't pass out. And Jesus is like, set them all down by ranks of 50 and we're going to feed them all. And they're like, we have like a boy's lunch here. We have some loaves and some fishes, how's this going to work, right? They're completely dismissing everything that he's done, because that's what we do in our humanity when we get into trouble, it's so easy to just think in the flesh. I mean, that's what Elisha did, okay? He comes, the Shunammite woman comes to him with a problem. What's his solution? Well, the Lord hid it from me. I'll take the stick, okay? That doesn't work. Oh, yeah, I need to pray to the Lord, okay? And then after the prayer, what happens? Life's restored, all is well. Well, what happens here after the doubt? Well, how are we going to feed a hundred men? Okay, what was the answer? The Lord said that these people are going to eat. So don't ask how, just feed it to them, okay? That's the miracle, because the Bible says we walk by faith, not by sight. And so that's why you have this intermission of these five narratives in the middle of the battles of the kings and so on and so forth. So we're going to leave it right there, stop right there for tonight, and we'll talk about Nima the Syrian, and we're getting close to learning about the Terminator, okay? You don't need to go to a Hollywood movie or rent a movie and watch Arnold Schwarzenegger. All you need to do is read about Jehu, who's coming on the scene soon. He is the original Terminator, he's the best Terminator, and I can't wait till we get to that. So with that being said, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for these great stories and truths in the Bible. Just pray you help us to remember the applications and teach them to others. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.