Stone Soup is a child’s story that has a few different versions, but the gist and main lesson of the story is the same. One version I like is about three soldiers passing through a village after a time of war when food was scarce and people were suspicious. The villagers refused to provide the soldiers with a meal, so the soldiers declared they will make stone soup. The curious villagers wanted to see this and wondered how it would taste. The soldiers asserted that it would taste good, but it would be even better if potatoes were added with the stone. A certain villager happily revealed, “I have potatoes.” The soldiers continued to entice the imagination of the villagers, adding a new ingredient each time, declaring that the soup would taste good, but would be so much better only if it had another ingredient. Each time a different villager would volunteer that they could provide that ingredient. As a result the soldiers had prepared a wonderful stew that all the villagers were able to eat together with the soldiers. (Brown, Marcia. Stone Soup. Aladdin Paperbacks: NY, NY 1947, second edition 1997).
In a time when things were scarce and people were suspicious, the villagers of Stone Soup discovered the way to peace, fellowship and abundance by sharing together in the making and eating of stone soup. Suppose one of the villagers brought an ingredient to the soup to give it flavor, but by mistake it was poison. The result would be sickness, perhaps death; so suspicion and hostility would prevail. There is a story in the Bible about an effort among the community of prophets to relieve their hunger in a time of famine by gathering the ingredients for a pot of stew. See 2 Kings 4:38-44. One of the sons of the prophets selected gourds that looked good but poisoned the pot. It was ignorant and unintentional, but still deadly. He was one of them and not against them, but still the meal prepared for their survival would have brought death. People, even good people, cannot escape that no matter how hard we try, no matter how sincere we are, we still manage to bring sin and death into our lives and relationships. So we need a constant cure and source of life through God’s own provision. In this incident, God’s provision of life came from the prophet Elisha who mixed flour into the pot in order to neutralize the poison. Then later another son of the prophets brought 20 loaves of barley bread made from the firstfruits of the harvest of grain. Through God’s miracle of increase this bread brought life and abundance to the prophets.
Grain, flour, bread and firstfruits are symbols of life, fellowship and the start of something new and wonderful. God provides the sustenance of life, bread. When we eat the bread together with thankfulness to God, we enjoy a wonderful fellowship. More profoundly I think the works of God through Elisha the prophet anticipate God’s provision of the spiritual bread of life, the firstfruits of eternal life, the blessings of abundant life, and the creation of a worldwide stew pot of peace and fellowship in the kingdom of God. (See e.g. Luke 13:29, John 6, Romans 8:18-25, 1 Corinthians 10:17 and 15:20-28).
Buttram, Bryan. “Making Divine Stew from Stone Soup.” WordPress.com: 2007/05/04.
