Editor’s Note: This is an edited and revised version of a series of lectures which I presented in 1991. When I quote other works, it should be noted that any remarks enclosed in brackets like this [ ] are mine. Also, all emphases, unless otherwise noted, are mine.
Previously in this blog series, we studied the barley grain in the natural, looking at the physical and natural characteristics of the barley plant. We found out some amazing characteristics and properties of barley.
We discovered how barley is spiritually related to a feast of the Israelites; namely, the observance of Passover and the accompanying Feast of Unleavened Bread. Moreover, we made correlations to the Feast of Pentecost in the late spring, and to the Feast of Tabernacles which occurs in the fall at the harvest time.
Next, we looked at barley as it related to the story of Ruth and discovered some very poignant insights as to the symbolism of barley in this story. For the next few essays, we are going to examine the significance of barley in the story of Elisha and the poison stew. This is found in 2 Kings, chapter 4.
Elisha is not to be confused with Elijah. Elisha was Elijah’s assistant and successor. Both Elijah and Elisha were prophets to the northern ten tribes after the split in the Kingdom of Israel following the death of Solomon.
The northern, ten-tribed House of Israel went astray quite rapidly. It came to its end when the Assyrians invaded and deported the people in three separate invasions from 745 to 721 B. C. These were the people to whom Elijah had prophesied and ministered, and when he left the scene, his servant, Elisha, had asked to take his place and requested of Yahweh a double portion, a double blessing. We find the story beginning in 2 Kings 4:38.
2 Kings 4: 38 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.
39 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.
40 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.
41 But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he [Elisha] said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.
Recall that we pointed out how barley is symbolic in the Bible of Christ. We know that Christ is mentioned and is equated with the unblemished lamb, the lamb without a spot. But in addition to that, Christ is also typified in barley, particularly at the wave sheath offering at the springtime of the year when barley was the first crop to mature.
Because it was such an early crop there was no chance for blight, mildew and other kinds of pestilence to ruin the crop. It was a rather perfect crop and as you recall further, barley is a rather perfect food from a nutritional standpoint. So barley is a type of Christ, a symbol of Christ as Savior, Redeemer, and Deliverer. In this case we are going to see how it saved the School of the Prophets from being killed by some poisonous ingredients in their stew.
Notice in verse 38, it said there was a dearth in the land. I want to point out again that God has created barley as a food which is able to thrive in drought and famine conditions. Barley is a crop which will do well when there is not much rainfall.
Thus, here we see barley being used to save, or to deliver the School of the Prophets from famine. Somebody is going to say “Wait a minute, I don’t see the word ‘barley’ in this passage.” Well, glance at verse 41: But he (that is Elisha) said, Then bring meal.
I maintain that the meal there is barley meal. And someone replies, “Well, I don’t see that in the Bible” and I agree that it is not revealed right there in that spot. But we have to use our “thinkers” a little bit. I have made a presumption based on verse 42:
42 And there came a man from Baalshalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.
The King James Version says “corn.” Of course, we know those were full ears of grain in general, not the specific grain we know as corn today.
We can discern that this is at the springtime of the year because the man is bringing a tithe, or an offering of first fruits of barley to Elisha. Think about it. If a man was bringing an offering of firstfruits of barley; then obviously, no other crop (such as wheat) would be anywhere near ready for harvest at this time.
Consequently, not only is this proof that this was a barley meal, but we can also make a logical deduction that it was barley meal by observing the result of what happened when Elisha commanded the cook to add the meal into the poison stew. What happened? They could eat of it and they were fine. Somehow, the poisonous substance from the gourd had been neutralized.
Remember that I quoted previously some excerpts from a little book called The Spiritual Roots of Barley? Listen to this concerning one of the amazing properties of raw barley. QUOTE:
Scientific studies on barley have shown that raw barley contains several hundred enzymes corresponding to those found in human body cells. It is this multitude of enzymes, if left intact and fully alive, that makes it a powerful weapon for our defense. One of the most important functions of enzymes is to neutralize poisons.
There is a whole family of enzymes whose sole purpose in life is to resolve, or to break down indigestible and even toxic substances. You can do this by turning the harmful chemical into something harmless, either into something the body can use or into something it can easily get rid of. Either way you can see that enzymes in the barley are an awesome provision of God for our protection. END QUOTE
I realize that some people may be thinking: “But James, this is a miracle, and you are blaspheming if you try to say this was something natural.” Well, I believe in miracles and there is a tremendous miracle we are going to examine later in our study, but I believe there is a natural explanation for what happened here.
The fact is that somebody had accidentally put some poison into the stew and Elisha called for some barley meal. Now either Elisha understood the properties of the barley plant, or God supernaturally guided him to use the barley meal in this fashion.
We do not know which was the case, but we do know that one of the properties of raw barley is to neutralize poisons. I don’t know how healthy this stew was, but at least it didn’t harm them. That is what I believe happened there. Let’s go back to verse 39:
39 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.
The way I see it, it could not have been the cook that was sent out to gather some plants to throw into the stew because he would presumably have known better. It must have been one of the young “sons of the prophets.” I picture this as either like a seminary or an Old Testament “Bible College,” or a young ministers’ conference or something like that.
One of the young students or ministers was sent out to get some things to dice up into the stew and he goes out and “Hmm, these look interesting,” so he brings a whole lap full in his apron and he slices them into the stew.
Most of us think, “How stupid! He didn’t even know what they were, and there he goes and dices them into the stew! He didn’t even know what he was eating.” Well, are we really any different today? Are we any different from the days of our forefathers?
A Modern Application
Do we know what we are eating? I have a book called A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives. Let’s just select at random some ingredients which we find in modern food products. Beginning with the A’s, we find the word amyl alcohol:
“A synthetic berry, chocolate, apple, banana, pineapple, liquor and rum flavoring agent for beverages, ice cream, ices, candy, baked goods, gelatin desserts and chewing gum. Occurs naturally in cocoa and oranges. Highly toxic and narcotic. Ingestion of 30 mg could kill humans. Smells like camphor. Inhalation causes violent coughing.”
Look on your packages. These are food additives. Or how about ammonium chloride:
“Colorless, odorless crystals or white powder used as a yeast food and dough conditioner in breads, rolls, buns and so on. Saline in taste and incompatible with alkalies. Industrially employed in freezing mixtures, batteries, dyes, safety explosives, and in medicine as an expectorant, urinary acidifier and diuretic; keeps snow from melting on ski slopes.
“Can cause vomiting and acidosis in doses of .5 to 1 gram. The final report to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) by the select committee on GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) substances stated in 1980 that it should continue its GRAS status, generally recognized as safe for packaging only with no limitation other than good manufacturing process.”
Have we eaten any store-bought bread or buns or rolls lately? Are we eating any ammonium chloride in our foods? Here’s another one, ammonium sulfide:
“A synthetic spice flavoring agent for baked goods and condiments. Also used to apply patina to bronze and in film developers. May evolve into toxic hydrogen sulfide and a fatality has been reported from the use of ammonium sulfide in permanent wave lotions.”
You ladies who go the beauty shop and get those permanents, do they have ammonium sulfide in them? There are natural permanents available now. My wife has to drive an hour and a half one-way to get her hair done, but she located a shop that uses only natural, non-harmful substances to produce the permanent.
Ice Cream and Radiator Antifreeze
Let me share a personal anecdote. A number of years ago I went into a convenient food mart and went to the frozen dairy products and looked for some kind of ice cream snack. Lo and behold, there was one of those delicious little sweets with the round oatmeal cookies on the top and on the bottom and about an inch of ice cream in the middle and the whole thing is coated with chocolate. Oh boy, did that look good!
I don’t know what made me stop and read the ingredients first, but perhaps it was because I had bought those types of ice cream sandwiches before at the local health food store. I figured that the ones at the health food store are reasonably good product because they use carob instead of chocolate and so forth.
So, just out of curiosity, I suppose, I wanted to see what was in this one. It had a list about two inches long (I’m serious!). And of all those polysyllabic words, only one stood out in my mind. It was propylene glycol.
I thought, “propylene glycol?” That sounds like antifreeze! So I put the seductive sweet treat back in the freezer—oh, it was hard to do, mind you, but I was able to exit that convenience store sans sweets. Then, when I found this book, A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives, I remembered that incident and I looked up propylene glycol and it says this.
“This is a slightly bitter tasting solvent, wetting agent and humectant. It is the most common moisture-carrying vehicle used in cosmetics, other than water itself. It permeates better through the skin than glycerin and is less expensive, although it has been linked to more sensitivity reactions in cosmetics. It is being reduced and replaced from cosmetics by safer glycols such as butylene and polyethylene glycol.
“In food, it is used in confectionery, chocolate products, ice cream emulsifiers, shredded coconut, beverages, baked goods, toppings, icing and meat products to prevent discoloration through storage. [That is why that steak looks so nice and red in the meat cooler. Actually, it is brown underneath.]
“Used in antifreeze, breweries and dairy establishments. Practically nontoxic. [I don’t care if it is practically nontoxic!] Large oral doses in animals have been reported to cause central nervous system damage and slight kidney damage. The final report to the FDA of the select GRAS substances stated it should continue in its GRAS status with no limitations other than good manufacturing processes.”
In other words, the FDA is saying: “We will leave it up to you industry folks whom we are supposed to regulate to protect the public. You decide what is good and what is not. If it makes you a profit and keeps this ice cream from melting too fast, then keep using it. Here are a couple of general statements from this same dictionary.
“Food processors have in their armamentaria an estimated 10,000 chemicals that they can add to what we eat. Some are deleterious, some are harmless, and some are beneficial... The majority of food additives have nothing to do with nutritional value, as anyone can see from the contents of this Dictionary.
Most of the chemicals are added to enhance consumer acceptability, to feed our illusions. We want enhanced foods because all of our lives we have been subjected to the beautiful pictures of foods in our magazines and on television. [See how the Babylonian Medianites play their role here?] We have come to accept an advertisers concept of perfection in color and texture even though Mother Nature may not turn out all her products that way.
“As a result the skin of the oranges we eat is dyed bright orange to match our mental image of an ideal orange. Our poultry is fed a chemical to turn the skin yellow and more appetizing. Our fruits and vegetables are unblemished because of the fungicide, pesticide, herbicides and other antispoiliants.
“To improve the keeping quality of some products’ shelf life, processors embalm them. Bread has 16 chemicals to keep it feeling “fresh.” One type of bread, balloon bread, undergoes rigor mortis thanks to its additive, plaster of Paris.”
Can you believe that!? Plaster of Paris in our bread! Our modern economic system causes a dilemma. You see, when mom is at the job working all day, she doesn’t want to have to come home and spend three hours preparing dinner—and who can blame her?
So we have convenience foods and microwave ovens and we are feeding non-food “food” to our people. Could this be another fulfillment of the prophecy given in Micah?
Micah 6:14 Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied;
Due to the food being nutritionally dead, we eat, and yet we are starving. So which one of us in the modern era can throw the first stone at the ignorant man who diced some poisonous plant into the stew back there in Elisha’s day? We are doing at least as bad, except that the effect of our self-poisoning is not so readily apparent. It might take years before being manifested in the plethora of degenerative diseases we suffer in our day.
Jesus Multiplies the Loaves—Foretold in Type
2 Kings 4:42 And there came a man from Baalshalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he [Elisha] said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.
43 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 [Yahweh], They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.
44 So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the LORD [Yahweh].
“ ... and left thereof.” Now this doesn’t mean that they ate and they got up and left. It means that they ate and there was a lot left over from the 20 loaves of barley. Furthermore, I don’t suppose that these loaves were your big, one-and-a-half-pound loaves that you buy at the local supermarket.
These were rather small loaves of bread because of the astonishment of the servant that said “What? You want me to give 20 little loaves of bread to a hundred hungry ministers out there?” As if he were saying, “Are you crazy, there is not enough to go around!” But Elisha said: Give it to them and there will be enough, plus some left over.
Can you picture that? I visualize this scene as a ministers’ conference, maybe with the tables set up cafeteria-style and Elisha is up there teaching to them, perhaps all morning, perhaps all day; and these fellows are getting quite hungry.
Their bellies are growling so loud that their bellies are talking to one another and the noise is beginning to drown out Elisha. And so here is one man at the conference who brought a tithe to Elisha. He brought bread of the firstfruits; he brought a tithe to the minister.
Maybe the others didn’t have any barley crops to tithe from, or maybe they just didn’t bring any. To digress for a moment, I have often wondered what percentage of the 300,000 to 450,000 Christian ministers in America today actually give tithes to other ministries as they teach their flock that they are supposed to do. I think we would be disappointed to learn the answer to that.
Anyhow, here is a man from Baalshalisha. “Baal” means “lord” and “shalisha” means “trembling.” A man from the “lord of trembling” brings 20 loaves of barley to the ministers’ conference. We know what happened, the barley was available even in the time of famine.
Barley is the superior quality grain, although as we learned earlier that it is very lightly esteemed among men. This is the grain which can thrive and grow to maturity in drought and in famine conditions. Let us consider barley in this condition in allegorical terms.
(To be continued.)
~END~
