Outlines of Sermons 2 Kings 4:40-41 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… Notice here — I. A SUPERNATURAL INTERPOSITION TO COUNTERACT A NATURAL MISTAKE. When the Son of God was invited to the marriage feast in Cana, He found there had been a mistake on the part of the provider as to the quantity of wine required, and He rectified the mistake by making more. Here the mistake was not in the quantity; there was enough — there was too much there was death in the pot. But the mistake was in the quality of the food, and was such a mistake as could be rectified by supernatural intervention only. II. A SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTION WATCH DID NOT TAKE PLACE UNTIL THE VERY MOMENT WHEN IT WAS NEEDED. "And as they were eating," etc. (ver. 40). Man's extremity is often reached before God interposes. The wine was quite exhausted at Cana before the Saviour made more. Abraham's knife was lifted to slay his son, when the angel of Jehovah called to him (Genesis 22:11). Israel came to the very border of the Red Sea before the waters were divided. So here the hungry men tasted the pottage before the miracle was wrought. III. A SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTION IN WHICH HUMAN EFFORT WAS REQUIRED TO BE PUT FORTH. When Jesus was about to raise Lazarus, He said, "Take ye away the stone." So in the miracle at Cana, "Fill the water-pots with water." Elisha could have rendered the pottage harmless by the power of God without the meal, and the Saviour could have filled empty water-pots with wine quite as easily as those filled with water. But human effort must do what it can. Lessons: 1. Mistakes made through man's ignorance can be made right by Divine power and wisdom. 2. Sincerity of purpose and good intentions are no guarantees of the harmlessness of actions. 3. We ought to seek to know for what work we are qualified. The man who volunteered to gather herbs for the pottage might have been well fitted for other work; but his undertaking that for which ignorance of the nature of herbs disqualified him had well-nigh been the death of all the sons of the prophets. (Outlines of Sermons.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. |
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