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Prophets and Kings
Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in
the pot.”
At Gilgal, also, while the dearth was still in the land, Elisha fed
one hundred men with the present brought to him by “a man from
Baalshalisha,” “bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and
full ears of corn in the husk thereof.” There were those with him who
were sorely in need of food. When the offering came, he said to his
servant, “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.”
What condescension it was on the part of Christ, through His
messenger, to work this miracle to satisfy hunger! Again and again
since that time, though not always in so marked and perceptible a
manner, has the Lord Jesus worked to supply human need. If we had
clearer spiritual discernment we would recognize more readily than
we do God’s compassionate dealing with the children of men.
It is the grace of God on the small portion that makes it all-
sufficient. God’s hand can multiply it a hundredfold. From His re-
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sources He can spread a table in the wilderness. By the touch of His
hand He can increase the scanty provision and make it sufficient for
all. It was His power that increased the loaves and corn in the hands
of the sons of the prophets.
In the days of Christ’s earthly ministry, when He performed a simi-
lar miracle in feeding the multitudes, the same unbelief was manifested
as was shown by those associated with the prophet of old. “What!”
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said Elisha’s servant; “should I set this before an hundred men?” And
when Jesus bade His disciples give the multitude to eat, they answered,
“We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should go
and buy meat for all this people.”
Luke 9:13
. What is that among so
many?
The lesson is for God’s children in every age. When the Lord gives
a work to be done, let not men stop to inquire into the reasonableness
of the command or the probable result of their efforts to obey. The
supply in their hands may seem to fall short of the need to be filled; but
in the hands of the Lord it will prove more than sufficient. The servitor