Hell’s Kitchen in the Bible

Hello, I’m Andy Darnell And I am a reality show junkie.

Just last night, I was watching Hell’s Kitchen on Fox. If you aren’t familiar with the show, the contestants are chefs from all sorts of food backgrounds. They are competing for a job as head chef for one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants. Ramsay has very high standards, and there will be no arguing with him on any matter. He is the law in the kitchen.

Besides the excessive profanity, Ramsay often will “Shut it Down!” or “Switch it Off!” if the kitchen is in complete chaos. The pressure cooker that is the kitchen is so high, that many mistakes are made and occasionally food will be presented for service dangerously undercooked.

“Are you trying to Kill Someone!” Ramsay will scream.

Imagine my shock as I am reading in 2 Kings today and get to this story (that I promise you I had no memory of) of Elisha in the kitchen.

Elisha is this prophet of God in Israel. He has been a part of some fantastic miracles in early 2 Kings. First off, he was given a double portion of Elijah’s Spirit in 2 Kings 2. He is able to part the Jordan River so that he can walk back through on dry ground after Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. Awesome.

Next in 2 Kings 4, he’s a part of this amazing little story where a widow (actually his daughter in law) is going to have to sell her sons into slavery to pay a debt owned by her deceased husband. Elisha asks her what she has to sell. She says, that she has a little oil. Elisha tells her to fill up a bunch of jars that are given to her by her neighbors. This small jar of oil is miraculously able to fill enough empty vessels to be sold and pay the owed debt. Her sons are safe.

Then, also in chapter 4, there is this unbelievable story of Elisha raising the Shunammite’s Son back to life. I’ll let you read that one. Unbelievable.

And then there is this little diddy at the end of chapter 4. My Bible labels it: “Elisha Purifies the Deadly Stew”

Elisha comes to this place called Gilgal. There is extreme famine in the land. Elisha tells these “sons of the prophets” to put a pot on and boil some stew. Apparently there is this one contestant guy that goes out in a field and gathers herbs and a “wild vine with wild gourds.”  He cut these wild ingredients up and places them in the stew.

When they are eating the stew, They cried out “O man of God, there is Death in the pot!”

I read this today, and visually I see Gordon Ramsay come over to it and taste it, then spit it out in a trash can. He picked up the pot and through it across the room. Yelled some profanities at the chef contestants, and finally tells them to “Shut it Down!”

That of course did not happen.

Elisha says “Then bring flour.”

He adds a small amount of flour, pours it out, and serves it to the men. They all ate and there was no harm in the pot. It wasn’t the flour that purified the stew, it was God that purified it making it nourishing rather than poisonous.

The kitchen miracle doesn’t end with the stew.

A new man arrives on the scene with some food. Elisha tells him to give it to all the people (which numbered over 100)The man says “How can I set this before 100 men?”

Elisha answered “They shall eat and have some left.”

And like in the new testament… like the feeding of the multitudes…they all eat and have some left over.

Takeaways

1. The Word of the Lord is true. Elisha was speaking God’s Word. It didn’t become true because that would indicate that it isn’t true in the first place. God’s Word Is True.
2. We may think we can cook on our own. But without God and the Flour, life can be bitter and even poisonous.
3. God takes little… makes enough, and even leaves some leftovers.

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By the way… If you made it this far, you need to know something else. I don’t want to make light of Hell. It is a very real place. If you don’t know that you’ll be in heaven when you die, chances are you’ll be in Hell. All of us are enemies of God. We’ve broken each of the 10 commandments which is His law. Because the law has been broken, our judgement is death-eternity in Hell. Once there, there will be no getting out.

The fine and penalty must be satisfied.

Jesus Christ, came to earth as a very real person and lived a sin free life. He kept the law completely. He was killed because He claimed to be God (which he was.) He took all your sin upon Himself when He died on the cross. Like the widow selling all she had in the oil to pay a debt (yep, that was a foreshadowing of Jesus 100s of years before he was born – The Old Testament is FULL of them) He Paid your debt in full.

You’ve now heard the truth.

Now you must Believe the Truth.

Repent… turn away from and ask forgiveness for your sins

Last Confess and place your faith in Jesus Christ as the Way the Truth and the Life.