Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Elisha Purifies Deadly Stew

³⁸ Afterward Elisha returned to Gilgal. Now there was famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”

³⁹ Then one of them went out into the field to gather herbs, found a wild vine and picked from it a lapful of wild gourds. Then he came back and sliced them into the stew pot, for they didn’t know what they were. ⁴⁰ Then they served it for the men to eat. But it came to pass as they were still eating the stew, they cried out and said, “O man of God, there is death in the pot.” So they could not eat it.

⁴¹ But he said, “Bring some flour,” and he threw it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people and let them eat.” So there was nothing bad in the pot.

³¹ Meanwhile, the disciples were pressing Him, “Rabbi, eat!”

³² But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³ So the disciples were saying to each other, “No one brought Him food to eat, did they?”

³⁴ Yeshua tells them, “My food is to do the will of the One who sent Me and to accomplish His work. ³⁵ Don’t you say, ‘Four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields! They are white and ready for harvest.

³⁶ “The reaper receives a reward and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷ For the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you haven’t worked for. Others have worked hard, and you have joined in their work.”