2 Kings 4:39
And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not.
The incident took place at Gilgal during a famine, while Elisha was there together with the sons of the prophets. Its setting was a training institution for workers, called a college or school of the prophets. In that time of scarcity one man went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine.
He gathered from it a lapful of unfamiliar wild gourds that he and the others did not recognize. He came back and shredded them into the communal pot of pottage for all to share. Because the gourds were unrecognized, they poisoned the food.
That poisoning created the need for Elisha's healing of the pot. The experience warns against introducing spiritually harmful influences into church meetings, as the wild gourd was introduced into the stew. God's grace counteracts the element of death in such influences, just as the meal added to the pot counteracted the poison.
The lesson is that the flock is to be fed nourishing spiritual food at the proper time, rather than what is harmful and unrecognized.