Welcome!
Today we continue our exploration into the life and ministry of the prophet
Elisha. Last week we saw how Elisha was used by God to help out a desperately
poor woman, a widow who was being hounded by creditors who threatened to take
away her children to be slaves and whose slavery would serve to pay off her
debt. Tim mentioned last week how hard it was to be a widow back then and how
hard it is to be a widow even today, especially in poorer countries. All she
had left was a jar of oil. God used Elisha to minister to her by having Elisha
tell her what to do, in this case, to gather as many jars as she could find and
then begin pouring the oil into these jars. The miracle here is that God
multiplied the oil many times over, so much so that she could provide for her
family.
I
have continued to reflect on this passage from last week, and one thing really
stood out to me: the genuine faith of the widow in God She did not go to a king
or to a wealthy patron; perhaps they wouldn’t have done anything for her
anyway. Instead she went to the prophet Elisha. Elisha was not rich; he had
once had some wealth, as can be seen from the details of the events when Elijah
had called him to be his servant or helper, but Elisha left everything behind
to follow Elijah (that is, to follow God); he even burnt up his plow and ate
his oxen! This reminds me of what Jesus said in Luke 9:62: “No one who puts a
hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God
My
point is that when the widow came to Elisha, she didn’t come looking for a
large handout; she knew Elisha, and she knew he didn’t have anything to give.
With some frequency, people come by our church or call our church hoping for a
handout. Some people, in fact, “make the rounds” calling church after church
after church almost as if it is a full-time job for them. There have been
multiple times when this has happened that Fred or John or I have offered in
response not a quick handout but the offer of us as a church body; that is, we
invite them to come to our church on Sunday morning and experience the
fellowship and family that we are, to let us get to know them, and then to
allow as a body to help them with their deepest needs, their underlying issues,
to pray for and with them and then to help them in a combination of material
and non-material ways. This is our invitation, but for someone to take us up on
this is exceedingly rare. What this tells me is that most people who call
churches are not really looking for God to solve their deepest needs.
What
a contrast was this widow! She came to a man without means but with God; she
came to Him with faith in God, speaking of her departed husband’s faith in God,
and by faith in God she, and not Elisha, did something that to the world would
seem supremely foolish – she gathered a bunch of jars. This was faith in God!
And as we saw last week, God rewarded her faith by miraculously multiplying the
oil, so much so that she was able to get out of debt and provide for her
children.
Anyway,
this has spoken to me this week, how especially in our hyper-materialistic
culture, we look for our security in money, we look for answers in money, we
put our trust in money – so much so that it is hard in our culture to really
depend on God. Well, I think today’s passage from 2 Kings 4 speaks to this. So let’s get into this passage.
One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a
well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he
came by, he stopped there to eat. She said to her husband, “I know that this
man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. Let’s make a small room on
the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he
can stay there whenever he comes to us.” – 2 Kings 4:8-10
Shunem was a town in Northeastern
Israel ; today it is a small Arab village called Sulam. Excavations
there have found remains going back to times much earlier than even the events
in today’s passage. Shunem is mentioned not only in the Bible but also in the
Amarna tablets, tablets from about 1400 years before Christ between Egypt and its outposts in Canaan .
Anyway, at the time of today’s passage, Shunem was a town in one of the areas
where Elisha made his “rounds,” encouraging and serving those people in Israel Mount Carmel , somewhere not terribly
far from there. (Of course, Israel
When Elisha would come to Shunem, it’s not clear where he
might have stayed initially; he might have simply slept beneath the stars. But
this woman, who is not named, one day invited Elisha for a meal. She is
described as well-to-do, that is, she was relatively rich, in stark contrast to
our widow from last week. She was a woman of faith in God, and one thing God
does to people who really have faith in Him is to make them grow in the
character qualities of God; that is, God makes them become godly. Hospitality
and kindness are part of God’s nature, and so people who love God tend to grow
and grow in these qualities themselves. This woman was like this, and so she
convinced her husband to make an add-on to their home up on the roof, a simple
structure furnished with the necessities, a bed, a table, a lamp and a chair.
This would give him some privacy; he could come and go as he pleased, and he
would have a place to stay whenever he came to Shunem. And so from what comes,
we know that the husband agreed, and the place was made for Elisha.
One day when Elisha came, he went up
to his room and lay down there. He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the
Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him. Elisha said to him,
“Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for
you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’”
She replied, “I have a home among my own people.” “What can be done for her?”
Elisha asked. Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.” – 2 Kings
4:11-14
It’s not entirely clear why Elisha was speaking to her
through her servant; it may have simply been part of the customs of the times.
Because she was a married woman, it may have been inappropriate for Elisha to speak
to her directly. In any case, Elisha is very grateful and offers to help her
and her husband. The offer of speaking to the king or commander of the army may
have been to secure a position for her husband. Of course, if they had
accepted, it might have led to them moving, which may have meant that Elisha
would no longer be able to stay at this place. If this is a correct analysis,
it is commendable that Elisha is giving no thought to himself as he seeks to
reward or bless her for her hospitality.
In response she says in effect that her home is here. This
makes sense if Elisha’s offer was as I have described. It could also simply be
an idiom that indicates that she is content and doesn’t need anything. But
Elisha still wants to help her, and so he consults his servant, who points out
that she and her husband do not have any children, and it seems somewhat
unlikely that will change due to the age of the husband (and presumably also
the wife). Culturally at that time, to not have any children was viewed quite
negatively; those who gossiped about such things might say that it was proof
that they had done something to cause God to punish them. More importantly,
most married people greatly desired to have children for many of the same
reasons many today desire to have children.
Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he
called her, and she stood in the doorway. “About this time next
year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord!” she
objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!” But the woman
became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a
son, just as Elisha had told her. – 2 Kings 4:15-17
God miraculously bringing children to barren couples is a
theme repeated throughout the Bible. Examples include Abraham and Sarah (to
whom God gave Isaac), Isaac and Rebekah (to whom God gave the twins Jacob and
Esau), Jacob and Rachel (to whom God gave Joseph), Manoah and his wife (to whom
God gave Samson), Elkanah and Hannah (to whom God gave Samuel), and in the New Testament,
Zachariah and Elizabeth (to whom God gave John the Baptist). In each of these
cases, God used the couples’ inability to have children to test and strengthen
their faith and to demonstrate His power. In reality God is the author of all
life; the Bible tells us He knew us intimately even in the womb. Now, God does
not always answer prayers that couples have for children with children of their
own; He may also have plans for some through adoption or in some cases a life
without children. Although children are definitely (and Scripturally) a
blessing from God, it is not true
that a lack of children means that a couple cannot have a completely fulfilling
life in God, and it certainly does not mean that God is punishing them in any
way.
But as for this rich woman, no amount of riches could help
in the least with her desire for a child of her own; indeed, she almost dared
not to believe Elisha when he told her she would have a son in a year’s time. I
may be reading something into the passage that is not there, but to me it seems
like I can hear her past disappointments in her voice. “Don’t give me false
hopes!” If you have ever prayed for a long time for something important to you
that you have no promise in whether it will come or not come, you should be
able to identify with these feelings and sympathize. But no, Elisha did not
deceive her; He was speaking only what God told him to speak, and just as he
said, she did become pregnant and then give birth to a son.
The child grew, and one day he went
out to his father, who was with the reapers. He said to his father, “My head!
My head!” His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” After the
servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap
until noon, and then he died. – 2 Kings
4:18-20
What a terrible tragedy! We don’t know the physical malady,
it could have been many things, from a brain aneurism to a disease attacking
his brain or spinal cord, but the cause doesn’t really matter. In a short
period of time, the precious son had perished. Note that the father did not at
this point know his son had died; he only knew that the son had not been
feeling well.
Only the mother knew. And she had to be thinking, “How can
this be?” Why would God miraculously give me a son only to take him away? This
reminds me of the account of Abraham being told to offer up Isaac as a
sacrifice. I am sure he thought the same thing. “How can this be?” Now most
people in the mother’s situation would simply at this point give up hope and
grieve. After all, her son is dead, and dead is dead. But not this woman, whom
I believe must be one of those alluded to in Hebrews 11:35a: Women received back their dead, raised to
life again, for as we shall soon see, this child will in fact be raised to
life again. By faith, she did not say
“dead is dead,” but she thought, “with God, somehow, all things are possible.”
Again this reminds me of Abraham. In Hebrews 11:17-19 this
is said of Abraham: By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac
as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one
and only son, even though God had said to him, “It
is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that
God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive
Isaac back from death.
And of course, believing that God can raise the dead is an
essential tenet of the Christian life. It is exceedingly rare that God raises
someone from the dead now, but a day is coming when all will be raised from the
dead. And so if God can do it then, he can
do it now. Do not ever equate rareness with impossibility. Anyway, back to
our woman and her tragedy:
She went up and laid him on the bed
of the man of God, then shut the door and went out. She called her husband and
said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man
of God quickly and return.” “Why go to him today?” he asked. “It’s not the New
Moon or the Sabbath.” “That’s all right,” she said. She saddled the donkey and
said to her servant, “Lead on; don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.” – 2
Kings 4:21-24
Why did she not tell her husband? The “That’s all right” she
says is actually Shalom in Hebrew.
Shalom is a pretty nonspecific answer, as it can mean hello, goodbye, and
peace. Here I think it is a combination of goodbye and peace. So why did she
not tell her husband? Perhaps she thought he would have told her she was out of
her mind and not to bother the prophet. In any case, because of her faith, and
I would say, her great faith, she went straight to Elisha. By the way, that
comment of the husband about it not being the New Moon or the Sabbath shows
that she, at least, if not both she and her husband, went at least
semi-regularly to worship with the other believers in God.
So she set out and came to the man
of God at Mount Carmel . When he saw her in the
distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the
Shunammite! Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband
all right? Is your child all right?’” “Everything is all right,” she said. – 2
Kings 4:25-26
So she also did not tell Gehazi; again she says Shalom. Again a possible reason is that
Gehazi might have prevented her from talking to Elisha if she had told him what
she intended to tell Elisha; we just don’t know for sure. Again here, we see
Elisha’s kind heart. He truly cares with God’s love for her and her family.
I think we sometimes get a distorted view of Old Testament
prophets – that they are mean and only condemning, only speaking of punishment
and destruction – and so I really appreciate these glimpses into the heart of
Elisha. God is just and holy and righteous, but He is also kind and loving and
merciful, and as God is, so should be those who serve and represent Him.
When she reached the man of God at
the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but
the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the Lord
has hidden it from me and has not told me why.” “Did I ask you for a son, my
lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?” – 2 Kings 4:27-28
Now some may argue that perhaps she didn’t have such great
faith after all. Here she is simply, so it would seem, complaining and
grumbling against God’s prophet. But I think this is an overly harsh
assessment. Yes it is true that perhaps someone with truly gigantic faith could calmly come to the prophet and simply
request that he ask God to use him to raise her son from the dead, but the fact
that she has come at all, to me (and to the author of Hebrews) is a sign that
she, despite conflicting emotions, despite almost overwhelming feelings of
grief and despair, has come to God by coming to His servant. And I am reminded
that Jesus doesn’t tell us we need to have truly gigantic faith; He says that
if we have faith even the size of a mustard seed, we can tell a mulberry tree
to uproot itself and plant itself in the sea, and it will obey (Luke 17:6), and
we can tell a whole mountain to move from one place to another, and it too will
obey (Matt. 17:20).
Note how Gehazi is ready to push her out of the way, but
Elisha rebukes him strongly. This reminds me of how Jesus similarly rebuked His
disciples after they complained about various people coming to Him, including
little children and even, as in this passage, weeping women. Once again, as we
have seen over and over in this series, we see how Elisha is a foreshadowing of
Jesus.
Elisha quickly discerns from the woman’s words that her son
has died. It is fascinating to me that Elisha seems surprised that God has not
already told him about this before hearing it from the woman. This actually
touches on something I have long wondered – how often did an Old Testament
prophet of God actually hear God’s voice? How often did He speak to him? From
this passage, at least in the case of Elisha, it would seem to be quite often, even perhaps a daily or
almost continual part of the prophet’s life. If this was the case, I can understand why Elisha wondered why God
did not speak to Him about this. Why then was it? I would presume it is because
if God had told Elisha much sooner, Elisha would have immediately set off
towards the woman, who may then have been deprived of the chance for her to
exercise her faith to leave her family and go to Elisha. Actually this reminds
me of how Jesus waited several days before coming to raise Lazarus from the
dead. At the time Jesus said this delay was for the glory of God, and I think
the same can be said here. And when Jesus did come to raise Lazarus, Mary fell
to His feet much like this Shunamite woman.
Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak
into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. Don’t greet anyone you
meet, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.”
But the child’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I
will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her. Gehazi went on ahead and
laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi
went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.” – 2 Kings 4:29-31
I have to admit that I am not terribly impressed with Gehazi
here. How long did he try? How many times did he try? Did he even pray? I just
picture him coming back after trying for a few seconds and saying, “Um, boss, I
did what you tolds me to do, but it didn’t work.” Again, I am reminded of the
disciples’ various failures; in particular I am reminded of how the disciples
failed to cast out a demon in Matt. 17. When they asked Jesus why they failed,
Jesus said it was because they had so little faith; it is here that Jesus said
that if they had even faith the size of a mustard seed, they could move
mountains.
When Elisha reached the house, there
was the boy lying dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door on the two of
them and prayed to the Lord. Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth
to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the
boy’s body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room
and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed
seven times and opened his eyes. – 2 Kings 4:32-35
By the way, Elijah also raised a boy back to life. What he
did was similar. First he prayed, and then he too laid on the boy. According to
I Kings 17, Elijah did it three times before the boy was revived. Elisha did it
twice. Perhaps this is in keeping with how Elisha asked for and received a
double portion of Elijah’s spirit. And so God performs this tremendous miracle
through Elisha.
It is interesting to compare how Elijah and Elisha, as God’s
servants, raised people from the dead with how Jesus did it. Apart from the
fact that Lazarus had been dead for far longer than the people Elijah and
Elisha brought back to life, what strikes me is that Elijah and Elisha
beseeched the Lord to do it, whereas Jesus commanded the dead person to rise.
In the case of Lazarus, Jesus said, “Lazarus, come out!” In the case when Jesus
raised Jairus’ daughter to life, He said, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little
girl, I say to you, get up!” That is, Elijah and Elisha may have foreshadowed what
Jesus would do, but Jesus did it with the very authority of God (because He was God).
There is one more thing that strikes me about how Elijah and
Elisha brought back the two boys from the dead. Once again, I think it is a
powerful foreshadowing of the work of Christ. Notice that both of the prophets
had to lie down assuming the same position as the dead children. In a symbolic
sense, they had to “die” so that the children could live. The symbolism goes
even further when you think about how the dead bodies were cold, and how the
warmth of the prophets went out from them to the children; in other words, the
prophets themselves became cold with the coldness of death of the children. And
by being in the same position of the children, matched up head for head down to
foot for foot, there is a picture of them almost replacing the children in
their deaths. Of course all of this perfectly symbolizes what Christ has done
for us; He has died for our sins; He
has taken our place; He has received
the death that we deserve. And
through Him, becoming the penalty of death for us, we too are given life,
eternal life. I also think the picture of the physical closeness between the
prophet and the dead child is a picture of the closeness that Christ has with
us. He doesn’t heal us from a distance, but indeed, spiritually enters into us
just as the prophet’s breath entered into the child.
I don’t really have anything to say about the seven sneezes,
although I think it might make a great name for a rock band.
Elisha summoned Gehazi and said,
“Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.” She
came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and
went out. – 2 Kings 4:36-37
The woman’s response to Elisha, if it had been directed at
Elisha himself, could be viewed as worshiping him. This would of course be
terribly inappropriate, because only God should be worshiped, never His
creation.
In contrast, when people fell at Jesus’ feet to worship Him,
it was entirely appropriate, because Jesus was God. Two examples of this from
the Book of Revelation drive this point home.
The first is in Revelations 19, after hearing the great
crowds shout praises to the Lamb:
Then the angel said to me, “Write
this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And
he added, “These are the true words of God.” At this I fell at his feet to
worship him. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you
and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship
God!” – Rev. 19:9-10
The other is in Revelations 1, after John in his vision sees
Christ in power, His eyes like blazing fire, His feet like bronze glowing in a
furnace, His voice like the sound of rushing waters, with stars in His right
hand and a sword from His mouth, with His face shining with all the brilliance
of the sun:
When I saw Him, I fell
at His feet as though dead. Then He placed His right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I
am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! –
Rev. 1:17-18
Praise the living God, the author of life, the One who has
redeemed us from the penalty of death, the One who gives new life, the One who
will be with us and the worthy object of our worship forever!
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