And there came a man from Baal-shalisha.
The farmer’s gift
I. A lesson on providence. This dearth came in consequence of sin. The proud and wicked people would never yield, except they were obliged by God’s strong hand. And when He punishes, He makes men know how powerful He is. Some men nowadays would not be touched in any other way. When God takes to preaching, His voice is heard outside the churches and chapels. You cannot have retributive providences, and only the wicked suffer; the godly have their share of want. Elisha was in need. But the godly have some one to look up to. The God of to-day is the God of the Old Testament:--the manna God,--the barrel of meal God,--the God who has said, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee.”
II. There is here a beautiful example of benevolence. We don’t know the farmer’s name who relieved the prophet. He was one of a noble band of nameless ones. We know where he came from,--the village has got into the Bible, through the man’s goodness. It is possible to make our birthplace famous by living for Jesus. We sometimes say, he gives twice who gives quickly. The farmer gave as soon as he could. Don’t wait till you have churned, and give God the buttermilk. For many wait to be rich before they will be generous, only to find that their heart is too sour to give anything. First fruits 1 Give God the best part of your life, that which has the sunshine. If you will care for God with your May and June, He will care for you in November.
1. He came himself. He did not send it. If you want a thing well done, do it yourself. Especially is this true of acts of benevolence. Be your own almoner. “Pure religion, and undefiled, before God the Father, is to visit the fatherless and widow.”
2. This farmer increased God’s capital. The rule is, that God works by means. He does not usually act without the assistance of His creatures. Many of His plans are unfinished because the men are on strike! Let it be said, with all reverence, this miracle could not have been performed if the man had not come from Baal-shalisha with the corn and cakes. The prophet might have been fed, but not in this way.
III. The good farmer accomplished a great deal more than he intended. He meant feeding the prophet, and he fed a hundred others! And is not this the ease nowadays? When Robert Raikes began his Sunday School he only thought of the poor ignorant children of Gloucester; he little thought that he would be imitated, and that there would be thousands of Sunday Schools. When Charles Wesley asked Bohler if he must tell of his joy in Christ, the answer was, “If you had a thousand tongues, tell it with them all.” He little thought that the idea would be set to rhyme, but Wesley wrote--
O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise!
and that has been sung by millions of happy Christians in all parts of the world. The fact is, God can make a much better use of our talents than any one else can. You cannot get so much interest for your money anywhere else. Lord Byron was a much greater poet than Isaac Watts, but they will be singing Watts’ hymns when Byron’s name is forgotten. Elisha would not have had the chance of feeding his students if the farmer had not brought the corn. And the good man was equal to his opportunities. In spite of the sneer of his wretched servitor, who was then in training for leprosy, he would have the cakes divided. “Give unto the people that they may eat.” How like God! He does not sell, but gives, and so it is with the bread of life. It is given to whoever will come. Are you hungry? Does your soul need satisfying? His mercy can do it. (T. Champness.)
Love to our neighbour
It is love to our neighbour which has purged the slum, and built the orphanage, and gathered the children into schools. It has had compassion on the poor; it has given bread to the hungry and covered the naked with a garment; it has given the Bible to the nations; it has launched the lifeboat to the perishing; it has taken the prodigal by the right hand, and opened the door of repentance to the harlot and the thief. It was love to our neighbour, burning like a fire of God in the hearts of a Carey, a Livingstone, a Romilly, a Howard, a Clarkson, which sent missionaries to the heathen; modified the ferocity of penal laws; purified the prisons; set free the slaves. It was love to our neighbour which, enriching even an age of torpor and of mammon worship, sent Wesley to fan a flame amid the dying embers of religion; and Gordon to toil among his ragged boys; and Coleridge Patteson to die at Nukapu by the poisoned arrows of savages; and Father Damien to waste away at loathly Molokai, a leper among the lepers. It is a dim reflection of the love of Him who lived and died to redeem a guilty world. It differentiates the worldly life with its low aims from the noble and the Christian life, which is ready to do good to men that despitefully use it and persecute it. Every true life is nearest the life of Christ in love to its neighbour; and this love is the essence and epitome of all pure religion; it is the end of the commandment and the fulfilling of the law. (F. W. Farrar, D. D.)
Give unto the people that they may eat.--
Punctual love
We wonder at the smooth working of the machinery for feeding a great city; and how, day by day, the provisions come at the right time, and are parted out among hundreds of thousands of homes. But we seldom think of the punctual love, the perfect knowledge, the profound wisdom which cares for us all, and is always in time with its gifts. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Beneficence
The great ocean is in a constant state of evaporation. It gives back what it receives, and sends up its waters in mists to gather into clouds; and so there is rain for the earth, and greenness and beauty everywhere. But there are many men who do not believe in evaporation. They get all they can, and keep all they get, and so are not fertilisers, but only stagnant, miasmatic pools.
The people’s needs provided
Oh, we are so glad when one seeks and finds the Bread of Life; when there is an Elisha to bring meal, sound and healthy, and life-giving, and when the meal is put into the pot, we are so glad when the hungry eat and go satisfied; there is joy in seeing the hungry feed. Away on the Marylebone Road, in London, there is a place where the hungry get free food, and those who supply it get their return for the money they give for the food in seeing the hungry eat. There was a wealthy young fellow who devoted a large sum to feeding the hungry, and he was always there. When he was asked why he was always among the poor, he replied, “It does me good to see them eat.” Ay, and gospel preachers, when the Lord sometimes does not as much as give us a bite for ourselves, when we see the crowd hungry for Jesus, when we see one step forth into the hall where the feast is spread, we rejoice as much as the soul that is saved, (J. Robertson.).