Sermon preached by David Bond at Waterside Baptist Church, Kings Langley on 29 January 2017

CASTING ALL YOUR CARE ON HIM  Reading: 2 Kings 4:38-44

We live in a world of constant uncertainty and danger. Who of us knows what the very next moment will bring!

So how do we cope with uncertainty?

I went on to a Website entitled Health Guidance and it recommends the following:

Stop expecting and start planning – reasonable enough advice.  Next it said, focus on the things that are within your control – again, fair advice. Further it said, learn some stress relief techniques.
And for stress relief it recommends: ‘If all you’ve got is a couple of minutes, take a moment to just be alone and breathe. When the uncertainty builds up, you tend to start feeling like you are drowning. Stop and breathe, think clearly, regroup, and really look at things from a perspective of clarity. When you slow down and look at the big picture, you will often find that things are not as bad as they seem’.  There is much good sense here, but Scripture points us to a higher, more certain remedy to deal with life’s uncertainties and fears. We read in 1 Peter 5:7 ‘Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you’

The truth of this is wonderfully evidenced in the experience of Elisha and ‘the sons of the prophets’.

The passage under consideration this morning is 2 Kings 4:38-44.

I have 4 headings,
1. Protection.
2. Reversal.
3. Provision.
4. Compassion.

So my first point – PROTECTION

This is what 2 Kings 4:40-41 says: Then they served it to the men to eat. Now it happened, as they were eating the stew, that they cried out and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. So he said, “Then bring some flour.” And he put it into the pot, and said, “Serve it to the people, that they may eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

One of Elisha’s main concerns was to train companies of young men known as ‘the sons of the prophets’. He was instructing and fitting them to continue the work of Elijah and Elisha in opposing widespread worship of false God Baal in Israel, calling God’s people back to God’s Law

This present incident took place in Gilgal, near Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. It was a time of famine in land, perhaps a famine referred to in chapter 8, which lasted 7  years.

Elisha called on his servant to gather herbs from the field to put in a large pot of stew to be shared together by ‘the sons of the prophets’. Verse 39 reads ‘So one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered from it a lapful of wild gourds’. Commentators are not always agreed on the identity of the wild vine or wild gourds. It was possibly the colocynth, which has a yellow round fruit, the size of an orange. It is a very bitter yellow fruit, with a strong purgative effect to say the least, and could even lead to death. But whatever plant it was, Elisha’s servant made a serious mistake in gathering these poisonous wild gourds, so putting Elisha and the others in an unseen danger. Matthew Henry says in his delightful way: ‘the sons of the prophets, it seems, were better skilled in divinity than in natural philosophy, and read their Bibles more than their Herbals’

Yes! It was an unseen danger, but these men immediately saw the danger from the very first taste of the stew. They immediately cried out, ‘Man of God, there is death in the pot’. It was an unfortunate mistake by the servant who unwittingly created this unseen danger. But it was not a fatal mistake, because they quickly saw the danger and stopped eating.

God in His providential overruling, protecting His faithful servants so that nothing fatal would happen to them.

The Book of Esther is full of instances of God’s overruling protection and providence on behalf of His people under Persian rule.

There is no direct mention of God by name in the Book of Esther, there are no miracles as such, but the overruling providence and protection of God is evident from beginning to end, protecting His people from their enemies. As with the poisoned stew, God intervened repeatedly on behalf the Jewish nation under Persian rule in His overruling protection and providence.

All of us who belong to God through faith in Jesus have experienced His providential overruling protection.  Perhaps, as with this man in our passage who made a serious mistake, God in His providential protection, keeping us from consequences of our honest mistakes.

Perhaps by protecting and keeping us safe when danger was near, maybe we didn’t know it, and perhaps will not know it this side of heaven. God guards and protects His people in a world where there are many dangers, whether hidden or seen. Therefore, it is with every good reason that Scripture says ‘Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you’

My second point is REVERSAL

2 Kings 4:41 reads: So Elisha said, “Then bring some flour.” And he put it into the pot, and said, “Serve it to the people, that they may eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
Elisha put flour into the pot to turn it into wholesome food. Not that flour alone could turn something poisonous and bitter into something wholesome and nourishing. Elisha, being a prophet of God, performed a miracle in the power of God. In this instance, a miracle of reversal, when something bad was made good.

And surely, in this occurrence, we have a vivid picture of how God’s almighty power can change something bad into something good, a reversal, whether by miracle, or in His providential overruling.

The Book of Esther again gives examples of reversals under the sovereign power of God.
As when the very plot of wicked Haman to have all Jews murdered was foiled and turned back on the enemies of Jews, the Jews, in self-defence, being allowed by royal decree to put their enemies to death first. As also when Haman’s plan to hang Mordecai the Jew on high gallows, but this reversed and turned back on Hayman when he was hung on his own gallows.

Many Christians were put to death under Roman rule. But if many wanted to see the end of Christians and Christianity, persecution repeatedly had the effect of reversing all this, with even more turning to Christ.

As Tertullian said in the second chapter of the book Apoligeticus, ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church’.

Not that it always works out in this way, but often it has been the case.

In Iran today, in the face of opposition to the Christian faith and persecution of Christians, more Muslims have become Christians than ever before in Islamic history, God reversing the intended effect of persecution to bring many to salvation.

In our personal experience, I’m sure we could point to times past when God somehow reversed things for us, turning unhelpful and difficult things to our good.

And the past gives us reason to look in faith to God now, when things are against us, casting all our care upon Him in the sure knowledge that He cares for us.

Let me add that the greatest act of reversal by God is the miracle of conversion. We, of whom Scripture says we were sinners from our very conception, sinners by nature, enemies of God in our preference for our sins, running away from God as we continued our self-chosen, sinful pathway. But now, all this has been wonderfully reversed by the almighty saving power of God, God enabling us to repent of our sin and unbelief and look to Christ in faith. A radical reversal, when we, who were once running headlong into sin and a lost eternity are now pursuing God and His righteousness, and heading for eternal glory.

So point one, Protection, Point two, Reversal,

And now Thirdly, PROVISION

As we read in 2 Kings 4:42, In this time of famine, a faithful man of God came to Elisha and ‘the sons of the prophets’ with the first-fruits of his harvest, just like the faithful Shunammite women, earlier in this chapter, who gave so faithfully to Elisha himself.

It’s a further encouragement to us to be faithful in giving of our time or money in serving God and helping others.

But this man’s gift of food was not enough for the needs of ‘the sons of the prophets’, so Elisha, as a prophet of God, simply commanded the food to be set before the whole company, and by a miracle, they all had sufficient, with some left over afterwards. It was a miracle of gracious provision by God in time of need.

It was a reminder that it is God who provides all our needs, a reminder that God gives us everything good in this world.

This is why Jesus taught us to pray, ‘give us this day our daily bread’, hence also the Harvest hymn that says:

All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above;
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all His love

This miracle of Elisha points us to the similar but far greater miracle of Jesus when He fed 5,000 from 5 loaves and 2 fish. Indeed, more than 5,000 were fed, because there were also hungry women and children present who were fed, so it was far more than 5,000.

That was a miracle that showed Jesus was greater than Elisha and all the prophets.

It was a miracle pointing, in fact, to His power as the almighty Son of God, who upholds, commands and guides all things by His word of power, and who is therefore able to supply our every need, whether by means extraordinary, or more ordinary means in His providence. Therefore, we can trust in Him in every situation, always mindful of the promise: ‘Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you’.

It was a miracle also pointing us to the fact that Jesus, as all-powerful Son of God, is not only the Giver of physical life and sustenance, but also of our spiritual life, granting us spiritual life by His Spirit when we first trust Him in faith for salvation, then sustaining and feeding us spiritually as we spend time in fellowship with Him in prayer and studying His written Word, looking daily to Him in faith to strengthen and sanctify us by His Spirit.

So then, point one Protection, point two Reversal, point three Provision, and now lastly, point four Compassion.

The life and career of Elisha overall was predominantly a ministry of compassion. Elijah was often engaged in a ministry of judgment, but not so Elisha. Yes, there was one miracle of judgment through Elisha, in 2 Kings 3:23-24, when a large group of young men, not children as some translations wrongly say,  emerged from the idolatrous Baal-worshipping city of Bethel to mock  Elisha as a prophet of God, hence the judgment of God through Elisha, when 42 were killed by bears.

But the overall character of Elisha’s career as a prophet of God was one of compassion:
Purifying a bitter-tasting spring for the people,

Supplying water for 3 kings,
The miraculous supply of oil for a widow,
Raising a Shunammite’s son back to life,
Purifying poisonous food,
Healing Naaman the Syrian,
And this present miracle of feeding of large company with grain and loaves, Elisha, a man of compassion, acting under the guidance and power of the God of compassion, the God of compassion in whom we can trust wholly, casting all our care upon Him, knowing that in His compassion and love, He cares for us.

Again, God’s compassion displayed in Elisha points forward to a day when God in His compassion and love for us as lost sinners, sent His Son into our world for our salvation. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life’.

And also the compassion of Jesus to lost sinners, willingly coming into this world in order to die for our sins and bring us life. As Galatians 2:20 says, ‘The Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me’.

As to our practical response to this saving love of God and saving love of Christ, 1 John 4:19 says – ‘We love because He first loved us’, ‘We love Him because He first loved us’.

Let me conclude with these comments.

In Elisha and ‘the sons of the prophets’, given the uncertainties of our daily lives, and given perhaps, in our present trials and worries, we see 4 reasons why we can safely, in faith, cast all our care on the Lord. The Lord who shows Himself in this incident to be the God of Protection, the God of Reversal, The God of Provision, the God of Compassion,  and The God of providence who cares for all who look to Him through faith in Jesus.

So we have every good reason to trust Him, whatever our fear or anxiety may be. As one hymn writer puts it,

O Lord, how happy should we be if we could cast our care on Thee,
If we from self could rest; and feel at heart that One above
In perfect wisdom, perfect love, is working for the best.

Or as 1 Peter 5:7 says, ‘Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you’.

Amen