This incident, and that which follows, furnish us with a sort of typical picture of man’s history from the Creation to the Millennial age. Christ in His two comings is suggested in the deliverances wrought by the man of God.
“And Elisha came again to Gilgal” (2 Ki. 4:3838And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. (2 Kings 4:38)). Gilgal was originally the place of blessing. There the presence and power of God were experienced by Israel in a remarkable degree. The earth could once be described in the same way. But for man’s defection it might be so described still. The sons of the prophets being assembled around Elisha, “he said unto his servant, set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pottage; for they knew them not.” The gourds were poisonous. The man had gathered a lapful of colocynths, really a wild cucumber, though in appearance like a vine. His eyes deceived him, and so he introduced a death dealing element into the food of his fellows. How like to what happened in Eden! The forbidden tree was pleasant to the eyes, and in every way so desirable that the woman yielded to the temptation of the evil one, and so ate thereof, “and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat” (Gen. 3:66And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (Genesis 3:6)). Death followed. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Rom. 5:1212Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12)). “O thou man of God,” cried the sons of the prophets, “there is death in the pot!”
But the remedy was at hand, for God is very good. He desires not the death of any. Elisha “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.” The meal (as in the Levitical sacrifices) typifies Christ. He is God’s great remedy for all the mischief which man’s sin has brought into the world. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:20-2120Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 21That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:20‑21)). His death is our deliverance from the old sin-stricken order of things to which once we belonged; it has become the means of life to us; and eternal life is ours now in Christ risen. We belong to another sphere where death can never come, and where the power of Satan is unknown.
For the Christian, while walking here, there is always “a dearth in the land.” There is absolutely nothing that can satisfy the new man. Whatever men provide for their own satisfaction, there is always “death in the pot.” The simplest things that men devise they spoil. Science, art, music—all those occupations with which men seek to delight themselves, and which are not necessarily sinful, yet contain in them the element of death, as many unwary saints have proved to their hurt. Only when the meal is cast in is anything fit or safe for the people of God. Everything earthly that we venture to handle apart from Christ is to our spiritual damage. When shall we learn the lesson for ourselves, and for our children? How many once faithful witnesses lie scattered and wrecked upon the rocks through lack of vigilance and care, and how many of the children of God’s saints have been ruined from the same cause! There is “death in the pot” at every turn in this scene where Christ is not, yet how often do we forget it!