They Ate and Were Filled

2Kings 4:44 - So he set it before them, and they ate, and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD. 

I was reading in 2Kings chapter 4 about various miracles Elisha the prophet did. There were five in this one chapter.

A woman knowing Elisha was a prophet was in debt and couldn't pay. He asked what she had in her house. Only a jar of oil. He told her to have her sons gather as many empty vessels as possible and bring them home. She was to fill those vessels with that one jar of oil...she then sold the oil and paid her debt. Sounds like turning water into wine.

Elisha occasionally visited the town of Shunem. A certain Shunammite woman lived there and offered him food when he came. She eventually suggested to her husband they prepare a room for him so he had a place to stay as well. Elisha wanted to repay her in some way. He found out she had no son and her husband was quite old. She did not offer this information and she did not ask for a son. He told her that in a year she would have a son. It happened as he had said. Reminds me of Mary. Or even her cousin Elizabeth. 

Years later her son died. Elisha was not in town. She laid the boy's body on Elisha's bed and went for him telling her husband it was well. She repeated this to Elisha's servant, that it was well. But Elisha knew something was wrong. She told him she had not asked for the son he gave her. He immediately went with her to her home where he prayed to the LORD and twice laid on him till his body became warm...he came alive. Reminds me of Lazarus. 

There was a famine yet he suggested others make a pot of stew out of vegetables in the field. They had some they did not recognize and the stew became poisoned. Elisha ordered flour be thrown in the pot; the stew became edible and the people were fed. (No remembrance here!)

A man then came bringing a certain amount of food. Elisha said to share it with the people but there were too many people and not enough food. He told his servant again to feed the people...and there would be food left over. Sounds like Jesus feeding the multitudes.

As I read the last part an incredible thought came to mind. There is nothing God can't do. He has done all these things and He does them even today. 

God can heal bodies. I've heard several stories of people returning to their doctors after getting a bad prognosis only to be found completely healed, as if nothing had happened. But there is another healing that is far greater than this. It can be looked at in a spiritual vein. 

Our debt has been paid through Christ's death on the cross. We may not have children, but when we come to Christ we have a multitude of them within the body of the church...and brothers and sisters...a family. While physical bodies may not be healed or raised from the dead, He supplies life through His Son Jesus. The truth of His Word does not put death in our pots. Even though there may be famines, we can be filled with the bread of life and living water that Jesus gives and be forever filled. There is always something left over for Him to give. A never ending supply of Christ, forgiveness, life. Receive what He has to offer. We serve an amazing God. Praise Him! 

Luke 9:17 - So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.