QUESTION: II Kings 4:38,39; I wondered about this, but I did not bring my Bible and I don’t know just how it reads?
ANSWER: “And Elijah came again to Gilgal; and there was a drought 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 see to the potage for the sons of the prophets. One went out into the filed to gather herbs and found a wild vine, and gathered there of wild gourds, his lap full and came and shred them into the pot of potage, for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat, and it came to pass, as they were eating that they cried out and said, o thou man of God there is death in the pot, and they could not eat there of. But he said: bring meal and he cast it into the pot; and he said; pour out for the people every man eat, and there was no harm then in the pot.”
Now, in one of the earlier texts it was that there were deadly toadstools instead of mushrooms in the pot. And it said as they put a spoon in the pot it tarnished so they knew they had death in the pot. Some of the men had eaten of it so he cast meal in the pot and they were healed. It is just as simple as that. It did take a miracle, but the prophet prayed and they put whatever it took to counteract, and some places it says meal, some places ground powder, but whatever it was it just neutralized the poison. It doesn’t have any secret meaning, that is just what happened.
QUESTION: But God told him what to do?
ANSWER: Yes, God gave him the knowledge of what to do. Elijah was the type of prophet who could understand these things, could talk in those terms, that is rather interesting as there are many things talked about in the old records.