Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 4
The servant cooked the meal for everyone in one large pot. When it was ready, he served it to the men. So, they tasted it.
At once, they realised that something was seriously wrong. They should not have put into their pot the wild plant that the man gathered. Clearly, that plant was poisonous; it had given its awful taste to the whole meal. None of them could eat the food. They had wasted all their food, at a time when food was particularly expensive.
They asked Elisha what they should do. It seems that Elisha taught them a lesson from that experience. A little of something bad can destroy much that is good. In the same way, one evil act can ruin much that is good.
We ask, however, whether the opposite is also true. If so, then something good can correct much that is bad. Elisha took some good flour, and he put it in the pot. Then the men tasted the food, and it was good.
Of course flour cannot remove poison from food. So this was clearly the work of God. In a wonderful way, God used the flour to make the food good.
So, bad things naturally make other things bad. However, good things do not naturally make other things good. That can only happen by means of the work of God.
Next part: The first grain of the harvest (2 Kings 4:42)
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