The Man from Baal Shalisha

The Man from Baal Shalisha
What matter though our loaves be few?
Alike the little and the much
When He shall add to what we have
His multiplying touch.
—ANNIE JOHNSON FLINT

A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.

“How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked.

But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord. (2 Kings 4:42–44)

Baal Shalisha was a region in the tribal allotment of Benjamin. In earlier times the region was known simply as “Shalisha” (1 Samuel 9:4), but with the advent of Jezebel’s Baalism the name of the region was changed to Baal Shalisha to express devotion to her pagan god.

Shalisha is the number “three” in Hebrew, used in Semitic imagery to express plurality. It signifies “a rounding out,” or “completion.” In other words, in pagan thought, Baal was the god that had it all together.

A certain man from Baal Shalisha, however, had another idea. He had labored over his fields—plowed the soil, planted the crops, fertilized and irrigated and reaped the results. Yet this man knew it was Yahweh, not Baal, who gave the grain, new wine, and oil. To show his gratitude he brought the first fruits of his harvest to God’s prophet Elisha: a few loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain.

The “firstfruits” was the ten percent given to support the clergy in Israel (Numbers 18:13; Deuteronomy 18:4). The prophets and priests had no “inheritance” in Israel (no land to claim, no fields to work), for their calling was to devote themselves to caring for others. So this man from Baal Shalisha brought his offering to the prophet, and it was enough to sustain him for a season.

This offering was an unexpected provision in a time of profound need. Elisha, like others in Israel, was hard-pressed by the drought. But the prophet determined that he would share this gift with others. His servant pointed out his improvidence: the gift would supply Elisha’s immediate needs, but if he set it before “a hundred men” he would lose any good from the loaves. There simply was not enough to go around.

Nevertheless, Elisha commanded his servant, “Give it to the people to eat,” adding a promise that this scanty provision would amply supply. “This is what the LORD says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’”

The verb translated “have some left over” means “to have more than enough,”23 and the grammar suggests an axiom: When God gives,He gives more than enough.

True to God’s word, when Elisha’s servant set the loaves before the people, “they ate and had some left over” (2 Kings 4:44).There was enough—and more than enough.24

At times there are good reasons to say no to a need or to a request, but we should never say no merely because we feel inadequate.

“We have few loaves,” we say.

“Give them to Me,” our Lord replies. “They are more than enough.”

Taken from Out of the Ordinary, © 2003 by David Roper. Used by permission of Discovery House Publishers, Box 3566 Grand Rapids, MI 49501. All rights reserved.