Wild Gourds
2 Kings 4:38-41
The ear tests the words it hears just as the mouth
distinguishes between foods (Job 34:3).
As you probably know, not all mushrooms are
safe to eat. In fact, only 3,000 of the 14,000
known mushroom species are edible. Poisonous
mushrooms are also known as toadstools (thought to
have originated from the German word todes which
means death). That’s why I rely on the experts, for I can’t
tell a good mushroom from a bad toadstool.
Due to a famine, Elisha once sent his servant to look
for some food to eat (not necessarily mushrooms!). The
young man came back with herbs and wild gourds, and
shredded them to make a pot of hot stew.
The famine referenced in 2 Kings 4 came about because
the people had rejected God’s Word (Leviticus 26:3-4;
1 Kings 18:18). This resulted in both a natural famine and
one of not hearing the word of the Lord (Amos 8:11).
I see a spiritual analogy here. For the world we live in
is like that pot of stew—full of all kinds of ideas, beliefs,
convictions, philosophies, and teachings. They’re tossed
in together, mixed, adapted, assimilated, and served to
Christians as wholesome biblical truth.
God’s people should be hungry for His Word. But
there is no shortage of “wild gourds” out there. You or
someone in your church family may read a book or go
to a conference that presents what sounds like sound
teaching from God’s Word, but it’s actually nothing but
“wild gourds.” Soon it’s served in “a pot of stew” to the
rest of the congregation. That’s why it’s so important
that we grow in our knowledge of what God’s Word actually says, and what it
doesn’t say (Hebrews 5:14; Ephesians 4:11-14).
Got some “wild gourds” that you’ve taken in? Test them by the scrutiny and
authority of God’s Word (Job 12:11; Mark 4:24). If you don’t, their poison will
pass from you to others. —K.T. Sim
more›
What did the Bereans
and the Thessalonians
do to test the teachings
they were hearing?
(Acts 17:11; 1 Th. 5:21).
next›
Where do you go to get
your spiritual food? Have
you been feeding on the
Word of God—reading
and studying it daily?
How have you been
searching the Scriptures
to see if what you’ve
been taught is true?
