ODJ: wild gourds
February 22, 2011
The ear tests the words it hears just as the mouth distinguishes between foods (Job 34:3).
READ: 2 Kings 4:38-41
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
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?
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