Throw in the Tree!
This is a simple Bible message with two main points: 1. Beware of Poisonous Stew, and 2. The remedy if you have consumed some poisonous stew, or bitter water.
Two remedies in the word of God for bitter things: The cross, and the word of God. When there is death in the pot, and the water of life is undrinkable God has a cure for you.
We are going to look at a passage in the OT where the Sons of the Prophets literally had a poisonous stew, and how Elisha the prophet remedied the situation. From that literal story I want to make a spiritual application that sometimes words and deeds can be spoken to us and done to us that if not dealt with can produce very negative consequences.
I am going to show an incredible example from the life of Moses, and the life of Jacob, where both of these men prevented poison from ruining their lives.
First let’s look at the literal text:
2Ki 4:38 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."
2Ki 4:39 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.]
2Ki 4:40 So they poured [it] out for the men to eat. And it came about as they were eating of the stew, that they cried out and said, "O man of God, there is death in the pot." And they were unable to eat.
2Ki 4:41 But he said, "Now bring meal." And he threw it into the pot, and he said, "Pour [it] out for the people that they may eat." Then there was no harm in the pot. (NAS)
That’s the literal, now lets look at it in a different light and see what we might learn. In our story there was a community stew, lots of people contributed, some things were healthy and some were poisonous. What I want to say to you is that there is a part of your personality that is just like a community stew and people are throwing things in the pot of who you are all the time.
In Proverbs 4:23, we read: "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."
There is a certain amount of diligence we need to undertake to be sure that poisonous and ruinous thoughts and ideas don’t take hole on our inner man. Every word you hear, every thing you see, every idea someone expresses is an attempt to put something into the stew of who you are. Consider what we are told in the book of James about the danger of certain words:
Jas 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, the [very] world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of [our] life, and is set on fire by hell.
We read in Ephesians about the fiery darts of the enemy. Many times those darts come in the form of words, and we need to be very careful about what we let in or we will wake up to the realization, "there is death in the pot!"
Sometimes the words we say to ourselves are more dangerous than the words others say to us.
Let me show you something very amazing from the life of Moses.
Moses was a Jew raised by Pharoah, at 40 years of age, he reconnects with his people, sees an Egyptian beating a Jew, probably mercilessly, he attacks the Egyptian, and in the process kills him. It becomes known by the authorities what Moses had done, and he flees for his life into the desert wilderness, where he remains for the next 40 years.
So he went from the palace, to the desert, and he stayed in the desert for a very long time.
He marries and he has two children, Gershom, and Eliezer. Gershom is the firstborn Eliezer the second. I hope that you are learning to look up the meaning of names because they tell a story.
Gershom is Moses firstborn and his name means thrust out. Kicked out, rejected, shut down, disavowed. Every time Moses called this boy by name he was reminded of personal rejection, and personal failure. When Jewish people read the Bible, they read what the text actually says. Every time we English readers read the bible and we come to the name of Moses’ firstborn we read the Hebrew word, "Gershom." In other words the Hebrew is not translated, we read the actual Hebrew word. When Jews read the Hebrew Bible they don’t read the name Gershom, they read what the word Gershom means: "thrust out." In English we would read, he named his firstborn Gershom. In Hebrew they would read, he named his firstborn, "thrust out."* (Pastors see note at end of message on the meaning of the name Gershom)
Some people are like Moses, continually bringing up a failure or rejection. That is poison in your stew. When you view your life through the lens of failures and disappointments you will be eating a meal that has no nourishment and is very destructive.
Now here is the amazing thing, Moses names his second son, "Eliezer." Eliezer means, "God has helped me." What a much better way to view your life! There is a part of us that is like the spin room at a political convention. We take words that have been spoken by the candidate of our choice and put the best possible spin on them, and we also take the words of the candidate we don’t want and put the worst possible spin on them.
Everything that happens to us, we put a spin on it, categorize it, and put in into the stew of who we are. Sometimes we are like Moses and speak of our rejections, and sometimes we put it under the God has helped me category. Scripturally speaking everything should be in our, "Eliezer file," because the bible says God causes all things to work together for God. If you don’t learn how to categorize life events through the lens of the word of God you can become a very miserable and depressed person.
Whatsoever is pure, whatsoever is lovely...
Let me show you this principle in the life of Jacob.
Ge 35:18 And it came about as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.
Jacob and Rachel is probably the greatest human love story in the bible. In the scene before us the love of his life is dying giving birth. The last thing she did was name her son Ben-oni which means, "son of my sorrow." Jacob immediately overrules her and says, no he will be called Benjamin, son of my right hand. Jacob in effect said, I am not going to remember this boy as the cause of your death, but as a wonderful gift you gave me, to be a son that will always be at my right hand. I have met people whose mother died in giving birth, it causes and incredible head trip for the whole of their life. Jacob gave his son a wonderful gift in his name, by saying we will view this for the good, and not for the bad. We make decisions and put things in our memory like this almost every day of our life.
Now for my second point, how to effectively deal with poison that may be in your pot.
In the text Elisha is told the stew is poisonous and the remedy he proscribes is to throw some meal in. That is what they did, and the cure was effected. Meal has no known power to mitigate poisonous stews, it might reduce acidity to but to change the nature of the stew required a miracle of God. So what might be the lesson God is trying to teach us in this passage?
First let me show you a similar incident in scripture where the spiritual lesson is very apparent to even to those who have been Christians but a short time. In the Jews wanderings in the wilderness the following incident takes place:
Ex 15:23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they [were] bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. {Marah: that is Bitterness}
Ex 15:24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
Ex 15:25 And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, [which] when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet...
The water supply was fouled, much like the pot of stew in 2 Kings. In 2 Kings there was death in the pot, in Ex 15 the situation was very similar, undrinkable water in the desert is a death sentence. Moses prays and God shows him a tree which when he cast it into the waters the bitter waters were made sweet and they were able to drink it safely..
Looking at the passage from a Christian perspective we can easily see that God is implying that the cross can make a bitter life sweet. That is not a big stretch, but is an obvious application. So lets go back to 2 Kings. What was the remedy for the death in the pot: meal. Meal is flour the basic ingredient of bread. Bread is a common metaphor for the word of God. I don’t think I am over spiritualizing when we suggest that the word of God has incredible power to remove bitterness from our heart and bitter things out of our life.
A heavy dose of the word of God is a strong reagent to counteract all the negative thoughts and ideas that have been placed inside of us.
As I close this message I want to ask you are you living with Gershom - thrust out, or Eliezer - God has helped me? Do you sum up your life as Benoni - Son of Sorrow, or Benjamin - Son of the right hand?
Have you applied the biblical remedy for bitterness? (Throw in the tree - the cross)
Have you been allowing the enemy to put bitter gourds into the stew of who you are?
Who is in charge of the spin room in your heart? Ask God to help you filter all of life’s events through the meal of the word, Be careful what you put in the pot. And what you let others throw into your pot.
Note to Pastors on the meaning of the name Gershom: In Exodus 18:3 the text seems to indicate that the name Gershom means a stranger there, but there are a number of authorities who argue for the meaning I have given and including Smith’s Bible Dictionary, ISBE among others. Additionally there is a great deal of evidence in the scriptures where God changes names to reflect a better destiny. For example Jacob - cheater becomes Israel the prince with God. Linguistically my point should be taken with a grain of salt, but the principle that we should not view our life through our tragedies, but through the lens of God’s mercies is a very valid point. Here are two links that briefly discusses the meaning of the name Gershom:
http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?q=gershom&s=References
http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Gershom.html#.URlaRmfNkYI
