2 Kings 4:43
“And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the LORD, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →The servant objects that the small amount of food cannot feed a hundred men, but Elisha affirms God's promise that there will be enough.
Context
This echoes the feeding miracles throughout Scripture. The servant sees the natural impossibility, not enough bread for a hundred hungry men. Elisha sees the promise: the Lord has said they will eat and leave some.
What Does 2 Kings 4:43 Mean?
The servant's doubt is not sinful but human. 'What, should I set this before an hundred men?' he asks. His arithmetic is right: twenty loaves cannot feed a hundred. But Elisha's knowledge is different. 'Give the people, that they may eat,' he says, and then: 'Thus saith the LORD, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.' The promise is stated plainly. Faith rests in the word spoken.
Again and again in Scripture, the disciples, the servants, the people count loaves and find them insufficient. And again and again, Christ breaks bread and feeds the multitude with baskets left over. The arithmetic of the kingdom is not the arithmetic of the world. It is rooted in the inexhaustible supply of God. When we give what we have and trust, multiplication happens. Not through magic, but through the blessing of one who can do abundantly more than we ask or imagine.
Application
When we obey God's word even in the face of impossible arithmetic, we participate in his miraculous provision.