In 2 Kings 4:38-44, the passage ends with incredible hope. What started in famine, ends in abundance. It is a great pair of stories. And then there is the mysterious end where there is leftover food. Leftovers are common in the Bossardet home, especially as we approach Thanksgiving. We have tons of food leftover, which promptly goes into the refrigerator and feeds us for the next week and a half.
But what do you do with leftovers in the desert? What do you do when you don't really have food storage? Bread can last a little while, but the prophets were constantly on the move- where would they store it?
The reality that in the ancient world, as well as the developing world, only the wealthy can afford to store food. Jesus tells a parable about a man who builds huge barns for himself to save for the future (only to find that he is going to die that night in a tragic irony). The rest can only take enough for the journey. The prophets' meeting was almost over, and they had a ton of leftover food. What to make of this leftover food?
It's for the journey. God's people are always to be equipped for a journey. Beyond comfort zones and corner offices (I have both), the Christian path is a process that will take us to our real-life neighbors and to the ends of the earth. The leftover bread was walkin' food, and a sign that the promise of Jesus is true: that He will be with us, even to the end of the earth.
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