Daily Devotion – July 22, 2021 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
2 Kings 4:42-44
4:42 A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.”
4:43 But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the LORD, ‘They shall eat and have some left.'”
4:44 He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the LORD.
This little Elisha story should seem familiar, for Jesus actually lived it out in the only miracle told in all four Gospels.
The Elisha story has all the elements: a finite number of loaves (20) and some grain, a fairly large number of people (100), a disbelieving servant/disciple, and the promise that there would be more than enough to have leftovers. Elisha says that the Lord has told him this would happen and that the Lord would make it so. Jesus doesn’t say those words in the Gospel accounts, but perhaps those words were in the blessing Jesus said over the loaves and fishes in his story. Anyway, God was gracious and abundantly blessed the food and the people and there were leftovers, just as in Elisha’s story.
It will be important to remember, in our little lives, that this story happens repeatedly in Scripture and that there is always more than enough. There is always more than enough.
If we put God first (the man brought Elisha from the “first fruitsâ€) and trust in God, there will always be more than enough.
Gracious God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for graciously providing for us in good times and in bad times. Help us to trust that you are a God of abundance and that we will always have more than enough.  Amen.
