New Life Presbyterian Church
May 25, 2025.
Rev. Cameron Smith
Elisha: A New Passover
Sermon #4 of 7
2 Kings 4:38-44; Mark 6:30-44
To understand the stories in the Bible better, there are two questions that must be answered:
1. Where does it take place? And—
2. Did anything happen in this place or area?
Answering those questions sheds much light.
Therefore, in 2 Kings 4:38, we begin with: Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land. The answer to the first question is Gilgal. Gilgal marks the place of Israel’s first campsite in the Promised Land. And it was the place of major people-defining moments.
According to the book of Joshua, chapters 4 and 5, the people set up twelve memorial stones taken from the dried-up Jordan River where they miraculously crossed over. It says, then you shall let your children know, 'Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.' For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea …so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.”
Gilgal, from that day forward, was to be a place for Israel to remember God’s goodness to them. Actually, the first deposit on the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. So, look to the twelve stones and remember the faithfulness of God.
Gilgal is also the place where circumcision and observing Passover resumed. Both disappeared during the forty years in the wilderness. Therefore, in Joshua 5:9-12, God said, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. [So] they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month… And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land… And [then this big, paradigm shift] the manna ceased the day after they ate of …the fruit of the land of Canaan. No longer would manna rain down from heaven. The Land’s seasonal rains would provide going forward— As long as they were faithful— the Land would provide for them.
And then, there’s this one last juicy detail in Joshua 5:13, 15, it says, Joshua …looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand… the commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.”
Gilgal became holy ground because it marked a new Genesis: A re-opening of the gates of Eden so that the descendants of Adam and Eve could return. When Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden, it says cherubim with flaming swords protected the holiness of the place. Here at Gilgal, the sword is being lifted to permit re-entry.
In these nuggets of situational note— you have the stuff to make sense of what’s going on with Elisha and the company of prophets. Coming to Gilgal, we read, there was a famine in the land. Israel has not remained faithful. How far they’ve fallen. First it was the golden calves of Jeroboam. From there, a slow, uncritical drift away from God: Seamless assimilation into the potpourri of nations surrounding the Promised Land.
They wanted a king like all the other nations— and hit paydirt when Omri and his son Ahab came to the throne in the northern kingdom of Israel. They became “so worldly and wise.” The Land flowing with Milk and Honey had now reverted to the darkness that prevailed before Joshua and the people crossed over Jordan for the conquest.
There was famine in the Land where God once said that this Land would provide faithfully for the faithful. Gilgal was supposed to mark the place of remembrance. But now theological amnesia reigned. The consequence of this forgetfulness is played out in famine.
What seems like a strange, inconsequential miracle with a pot of stew gone bad, takes on meaning. Elisha comes to Gilgal with his disciples (“the sons of the prophets” who I call the company of the prophets). They go into the field to collect foodstuff for a stew. But poisonous ingredients are thrown into the mix, so that (4:40) while they were eating of the stew, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.
Elisha heals the stew with a handful of flour. Death in the Pot was the previous prevailing darkness. Symbolically, the “man of God” returns Gilgal to the status God gave it in Joshua’s day. Elisha’s mission is the mission to reclaim (re-conquer) the Promised Land and the People of God to faithfulness.
The miracle in vv.42-44 following the healing of “death in the pot” serves as a powerful exclamation point to this episode. (4:42-43) A man came [to Gilgal] from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” (Familiar words, are they not?)
Elisha is insistent (4:43-44): Do it – for thus says the LORD, 'They shall eat and have some left.' So, he set it before them— And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the LORD.
Remembering that Gilgal was the first place in the Promised Land where a Passover meal was celebrated, after a long, forty year “exile” in the wilderness, Elisha’s miraculous feeding of 100 becomes meaningful. It is putting the Promise back into the Land by demonstrating God’s determination to restore his People. The end of famine; and restoration of life and provision.
God is a pursuing God, as the Psalmist declares (103:8-12): The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
In the Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, like that of Elisha— but much greater than Elisha— God has come down from heaven “in the fullness of time”— in the middle of world history— to reclaim and restore his people. (Matt. 4:16) The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. The evidence of this radiant revelation is found in our NT reading from Mark 6— Jesus, in “a desolate place,” provides yet another miraculous feeding. Grander. More cosmic in scope. It is a new Passover meal celebrating a re-entry of sorts into the Promised Land. A new Exodus begun in Christ Jesus— 5,000 men plus the women and children fed.
Elisha’s feeding of the 100 and the feeding of the 5,000 by the Lord, are both predecessors of our sacrament of Communion, the Lord’s Table. While the meaning of this sacrament is rich and there are many theological angles to unpack it, I suggest to you today, that this miraculous meal that we celebrate on the first Lord’s Day of each month is our “Gilgal.” God in Christ, comes to us in our lostness. Our anxiousness. Our skepticism. Our broken relationships. Our darkness. And reclaims us and restores our relationship to him. He reminds us of his love. And then he feeds us.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise him all ye creatures here below
Praise him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Amen.
