Elisha Feeds 100 people
Spark pp. 144-147
MATERIALS: 2 loaves
of bread (some sort of challah or round/artisan loaves) to represent the 20
loaves
Do you remember at VBS how we talked about Jesus and his
disciples feeding 5,000 people? Did you
know that this wasn’t
the only story of God feeding a lot of people in the bible? He used others in earlier times to feed and
care for his people. Our story today is
about a man named Elisha. Elisha was a
brave man who shared messages from God with his people. He prayed for them and helped them give their
offerings to God.
You see, at this time, everyone brought their “first
gifts” to
God—the first 10 percent of food they harvested, things they made, what they
had—the first part was always
God’s and they got help from prophets (like Elisha) and temple
workers to usually offer it on an altar to God.
One day, a man went to see Elisha, and asked for help giving
his offering to God—he had cut barley in his fields and made bread, delicious
bread, to eat and to sell. He carried a
sack that held his first 20 loaves that
were his gift to God. The man walked up to Elisha and gave Elisha the bag (pull out the 2 loaves) He told Elisha, “Here. These are my gifts to God.” The man expected Elisha to pray with him and
put the loaves on the altar. But after
Elisha peeked into the bag and saw the bread inside, he did a surprising thing.
He told the man:
Elisha: “Take this bread and give it to the people to eat.”
The man was surprised.
He thought the bread was for God.
He thought it would go on the altar. And then he noticed the hungry
crowd.
Man: “There
are 100 people waiting to eat! How can
20 loaves of bread feed 100 people?”
Elisha looked at him, and repeated his words, louder this
time.
Elisha: “Take this bread and give it to the people to eat!”
The man still didn’t understand. This bread was God’s wasn’t
it? He frowned and shook his head. Elisha remained the man of God’s
promise:
Elisha: “God promised to take care of us. God will give us enough food to eat. We will even have leftovers!”
The man finally listened to Elisha. Carefully, he began to break the bread and
give it to the people. (break bread and
begin to pass it around to kids and adults)
He waited. He
worried. Would there be enough? Would everyone have enough to eat?
Yes! (All cheer!) All people ate bread until they were
full. When they were done, the man
helped clean up. And just as Elisha
said, there were leftovers—still more bread!
What did we learn?
God helps to feed his people.
Sometimes our offerings meant to serve God also help to serve others. What
are some ways God has used your offerings this week to help others?
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