LESSON XXIX.

THE MIRACLES OF THE OIL, THE GOURD, THE BREAD,
AND THE AXE.

2 KINGS iv. 1-7, 38—44; vi. 1—7.

The order of Elisha's miracles as they stand in the Book of Kings has been a little displaced here, in order to keep the longer histories of the Shunammite and of Naaman unbroken. The date is unfixed; it is only clear that they took place in the reign of Fehoram of Samaria, which lasted from 896 to 883.

Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.

And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.

Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.

And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.

So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out.

And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.

Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.

And 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.

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 pot of pottage: for they knew them not.

So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, Q thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof.

But he 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.

And there came a man from Baal-shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the first-fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.

And his servitor* said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the LORD, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.

So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the LORD.

*

*

And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait† for us.

Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye.

And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. he answered, I will go.

So he went with them.

wood.

And

And when they came to Jordan, they cut down

But as one was felling a beam, the axe-head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed.

And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim. Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.

COMMENT.-Some of the Jews say that the widow who cried to Elisha had been the wife of the good Obadiah, who had hid the prophets by fifties in caves during Jezebel's great persecution. At any rate she experienced the truth of the Psalm that declares that the seed of the righteous are never forsaken; though she was almost despairing when she cried out to Elisha. The custom of the whole world, where there was bond-service or slavery, permitted the man who could not pay his debts to be sold, so that his price might be the payment; and this was not unjust; therefore the law of Moses only modified the custom by enacting

And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:

But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:

And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.

So that the poor debtor was to be treated as a servant, not a slave, and was necessarily set free and restored to his land at the year of jubilee; but even thus the misfortune was great, and the poor

pot of olive oil she had in

woman might well entreat the prophet to help her. Elisha required of her and her sons an act of faith, in going forth to borrow every jar and other vessel they could obtain. Then, when all were ready, she was to begin pouring from the little the house. Behold, the oil never ceased flowing till every vessel was full, and she had wherewithal to pay her debt and maintain her children. Just so, that blessed oil, the grace of God's Holy Spirit, will never, never fail those who seek for it and use it aright. It will always come in proportion to our need.

Instead of living in the desert like Elijah, Elisha seems to have gone from one school of the prophets to another, to teach and train them, and never to have been far off when the king or the nation needed him. When visiting the college of prophets at Gilgal, the sacred place of passage of the Jordan, in the time of a scarcity, one of the scholars brought in some of the fruit of the wild gourd, and cut it in shreds into the broth that was being prepared. The large handsome fruits of the plants we know as gourds and pumpkins vary strangely in wholesomeness; though much alike in appearance, some are good and others exceedingly bitter and poisonous, so that the first taste might well alarm those who were eating of it. Elisha, at their cry, healed the bitter burning pottage with meal, and made it wholesome. So our Lord promised His Apostles that if they should drink any deadly thing, it should not hurt them. So, however bitter and poisonous the draught before us may seem, whether of hardship or affliction, the power of the Bread of Life can make it sweet and healthful to us.

Again, when a faithful Israelite, unable to carry the first-fruits of his field to the Temple at Jerusalem, brought the Man of God his offering of twenty barley loaves, and what seems to be properly sacks of the flour of early corn, at the time of the Passover, God granted His servant the power of showing a faint likeness of that miracle which, just before another Passover, filled not a hundred, but seven thousand men, with not twenty but five loaves, so that there remained twelve baskets of fragments-from the offering of the young lad. So God can ever bless and multiply the offering of faith.

The last miracle here described probably happened somewhat later, when the school of young prophets seems to have grown too

large for their abode-probably that at Gilgal-and Elisha led them to the thickly wooded gorge of the Jordan to cut down wood to build a new dwelling. There, when an axe-head fell into the river, he threw in a stick, upon which the iron rose to the surface. This wonder speaks to thoughtful minds of the power of the wood, the Cross of Christ, to raise our hard and heavy souls when otherwise they would be lost and ruined, when their cry is

"I am come into deep waters,

And the floods run over me.' ""

Then, as the wood in the hand of Elisha caused the iron to rise, so the Cross in the hand of the Lord Jesus will bring us back to life and light.

LESSON XXX.

THE SHUNAMMITE.

2 KINGS iv. 8-24.

And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.

And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually.

Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick : and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.

And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there.

And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. he had called her, she stood before him.

And when

And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people.

And he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no child, and her husband is old.

And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door.

And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid.

nd the woman bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, to the time of life.

And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to

his father to the reapers.

And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother.

And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.

And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out.

And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.

And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, Well.

Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee.

COMMENT.-Shunem is a lovely spot on the slopes of the great valley of Esdraelon, and here amid her waving cornfields dwelt an Israelite lady of much rural wealth and a devout and large heart, who, more than anyone else we read of, comes up to the description of the virtuous woman in the " Song of King Lemuel which his mother taught him." She saw the prophet go by on his rounds, and when he needed food, he found it at her house; but her hospitality went further. She built for him a little chamber on the roof of the house, to be reached by steps from without, and put there all the holy man needed for his few and simple wants. So she "received a prophet in the name of a prophet, and therefore she received a prophet's reward." What she had done was, however, so purely for the love of God and of goodness, that when Elisha asked what he should do for her, and whether he should speak for her to the king or the captain of the army, she made a reply of dignified contentment: "I dwell among mine own people." Her lot had fallen to her in a fair ground; she had friends about her, and she wanted nothing the king could give. But Elisha consulted Gehazi, who was attending him as he himself had attended on Elijah, and who suggested that she was childless. The promise of a son was then made to her in God's name, in the very words in which it had been made to Sarah of old; and the son was born, to fill her cup of joy to the full. Then came the day when, going out with his father into the harvest-fields, under the heat that renders the valley of Jezreel a furnace, the boy seems to have been smitten by a sunstroke. He cried, "My head, my head." His father sent him