The Poisonous Stew
38 When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. [t]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.” 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. 41 But he said, “Now bring meal.” 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.
42 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.” 43 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.’” 44 So he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.
Obviously, Elisha’s assistant had never seen Jesus feed thousands with a basket full of food, as he looks at the food brought by this man from Baal-shalisha. He had to be scratching his head, thinking, “Well, this is nice and all, but it’s just not enough for all of us!”
But Elisha knew the provision of God, indeed they had just seen it earlier (though we don’t know how much time was between these two stories). So he trusted that God would make it enough. One of the most common names we hear of God is Jehovah Jireh (or Yahweh Yireh), which literally means “God my Provider”.
What do you need? Are you feeling like you just don’t have enough? Look to God and trust Him to provide for your needs. Then go write out a budget. No seriously, in our culture we have so much waste, that even when God IS providing, we squander too much and then there’s not enough for essentials. That’s not to say He won’t honor our honest attempts to make ends meet, but we need to do a self evaluation too. And maybe we’ll find the means was there all along! Ask Him every day for His provision, and be diligent with what He gives you.