THE RESURRECTIONS BEFORE THE RESURRECTION (part two)
2nd Kings 4:8-37
INTRODUCTION: In continuing the series on the resurrections that took place before Jesus' resurrection, last week we looked Elijah and the widow's son. God did a miraculous work through his prophet to bring about a faith response from the widow. Today, we'll look at how God used Elijah's successor, Elisha, to accomplish another resurrection.
1) A blessing for the one who was a blessing (8-17).
"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.”
"Well to do woman". KJV-great woman. Adam Clarke's commentary: "She is said to have been the sister of Abishag, the Shunammite, well known in the history of David. Instead of great woman, the Chaldee [Hebrew dictionary] has, a woman fearing sin; the Arabic, a woman eminent for piety before God. This made her truly great." So this woman was someone who had a heart for God and wanted to serve the servant of God.
"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.”
By mentioning the king Elisha is making it clear that he could get her whatever she wanted; even relocating and enjoy the luxury of living in the king's palace or surrounding area. Her response is a humble one. She basically says, "I'm content where I am. It might be fancier there but what matters more to me is being with my people".
Her response is also a selfless one. It shows that her motive in helping the man of God was not to get something from him in return. We don't see her respond to Elisha saying, "Well, it's about time!" And then she pulls out her payback list. She was content; content with where she was, with what she had and content with being a help to God's prophet. Well, she may have been content but Elisha was not content with her answer.
“What can be done for her?” Elisha asked. Gehazi said, “Well, she has no son and her husband is old.”
Gehazi recognizes a concern; she has no son to care for her after her husband is gone. She may have been financially well off but was in poverty when it came to the more important treasure-having children.
As she looked around at the other families I can only imagine the sorrow in her own heart over being a barren woman. It would be common for a woman in this position to think she was cursed by God and therefore have some animosity toward God for allowing this.
But even though she didn't have the one thing she had probably wanted most of all she considered herself blessed; she was grateful for what she did have. And although she wasn't blessed with a child she still wanted to be a blessing to others.
How about us? If we don't have something we really want do we still consider ourselves to be blessed? Are we still willing to serve God if he hasn't blessed us with something we've longed for? Do you ever feel like God has blessed others more than you? Is there something legitimate and reasonable, like a child, a spouse or a job you've been asking God for and you're wondering why he hasn't blessed you with it?
Perhaps that has caused you to feel some kind of way toward God. We need to develop the attitude of this woman so that we can still have a heart for God even if we haven't received the blessings we've been wanting to.
"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. “Don’t mislead your servant, O man of God!”
When she was prompted by Elisha to request what could be done for her it may not have crossed her mind to ask for a child. Even if she had I'm sure she felt such a request would be preposterous. Do we feel that way? Do we have certain things that we don't ask God for because they seem too impossible?
Perhaps she didn't ask for a child because she had asked for a long time and since it hadn't come to pass she stopped hoping for it. Do you feel that way? Perhaps you've given up praying for something, concluding that it's not doing any good. "If it hasn't happened by now I doubt that it's going to."
But her the response to Elisha's prophecy was probably not due to a lack of faith so much as it was her thinking Elisha was teasing; which would be nothing to tease her about and therefore she may not have been too happy. But, she found out soon enough that Elisha wasn't joking.
"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."
Think of the joy this couple had to have this miracle birth happen. The child she had prayed for all those years was now here. All those years spent in disappointment were now over; the void was filled. I'm sure she was elated every day watching him grow up; being thankful that now the family name would continue.
But then something unexpected happened that would disrupt the happy family dynamic.
2) Joy turned to grief (18-28).
"The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. “My head! My head!” he said to his father. 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. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out."
It was a day most like any other. She has breakfast with her young son and then sends him out into the field to work with his father. And by lunchtime she's holding her dead son in her lap. It isn't known what the boy's ailment was, but it may have been an aneurysm or something similar.
But here we have an incident, like the widow last week, where the unexpected happened. This was worse in one regard, the child himself was the result of a miracle and now that miracle was snatched away from her.
Can you sense the confusion and the anger that could be rising up within her? "I didn't have a child, I was finally getting to the point to accept the fact that it was never going to happen and then this man of God comes along and tells me I'm going to have the child I've always wanted. Oh how delighted I've been to be the recipient of such a miracle and now he's gone."
I can't imagine her agony as she held her precious child in her lap, hoping beyond hope that he was going to start feeling better and that it was all going to be okay. But then, in one depleting moment, he was gone.
Could you see her crying out to God something like, "Why couldn't you have just let me be? I've been a blessing to your servant despite not having any children and this is the thanks I get? Now you've given me the pain of loss; you gave me a child and then you took him away. Why did you do this to me?"
"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.”
She keeps the death of his son from him at this time, until she has a chance to see the prophet. The father didn't understand why she wanted to go since it wasn't one of the customary times one would seek out a prophet. But she knew she needed to get to Elisha about this.
It's suggested that she may have had knowledge of what Elijah had done for the widow's son so it made sense to go to Elijah's successor to see if something could be done for her son. This would explain why she took him and placed him on Elisha's bed. It was a sign that she was going to put the matter in the hands of the man of God who pronounced the blessing.
“It’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.” 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. "It's all right".
She makes this statement to her husband and then later to Gehazi. She probably wanted the first person she encountered about this to be Elisha; not her husband, not Gehazi but the one who had given the word about the miracle child.
Obviously everything wasn't all right but I believe she said this because she thought everything would be. Do we think that way? When we experience a major setback or loss do we believe that things will turn out okay?
We're going to be emotional and it's normal to have some doubts but do we have enough faith and trust to believe that despite how things look right now, God is going to intervene and do something? Are we hopeful that although we're in a current state of pain and suffering, in time, things will be all right? There may be loss, there may be change, but can we be optimistic that our joy will return?
Psalm 30:5b, "Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning."
"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’?”
Here we see the mother expressing her grief to Elisha. I don't think this negates her belief that things would be okay it's just that she's experiencing a wave of emotions and they're coming out.
Have you ever felt like God has played with your emotions? Perhaps he brought some blessing into your life and you were elated. You enjoyed a time with that blessing; whether it was something or someone and then, perhaps out of nowhere, it was gone. You feel hurt; you feel angry. You feel as if you'd been better off had this not happened in the first place.
How do you reconcile all that? It's not easy. Perhaps you come to the place where, although the loss was painful, you did get to enjoy the blessing for a time; which really is better than not to experience it at all.
And you reconcile it by holding onto the fact that despite it all, God still loves you. He didn't allow the loss because he's cruel and likes to see you suffer; he allowed it for a more purposeful reason. What is there to gain from the experience? Will you allow it to draw you closer to Jesus? Will you use it to strengthen your devotion?
Will you be willing to use it to minister to someone who goes through a similar ordeal? Will we be like Job who had pretty much lost everything yet responded with, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." We need to be careful to not allow the pain of loss to change our view of God.
3) The blessing returns (29-37).
"Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, 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.”
Elisha senses the urgency of the matter but sends his servant with his staff instead of going himself. It's suggested that he didn't think the boy was dead but that he just needed to be healed. But, when nothing happened he realized it was worse than he expected.
What's interesting is that we see the mother chooses to stay with Elisha instead of traveling with Gehazi. You would think the woman would rather be there with her son as Gehazi performed this act in anticipation of her son's life returning to him but instead she states she is staying by the servant of the Lord. Perhaps she knew that if something was going to happen it was going to require the presence of the man of God.
"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."
God hadn't revealed to him the nature of the mother's grief and now he doesn't yet reveal to him what he needs to do here. So he prays. It doesn't mention that he prayed before he sent Gehazi with his staff so perhaps that had something to do with it not working. God wanted to put Elisha in a position of praying for the answers. He may have been a great prophet but he still needed to rely on the Lord for answers.
Are we like that? Do we realize that regardless of how spiritual we are we'll always need to pray for God's wise instruction? There are times when God won't move until we pray.
When Elisha prayed it was revealed how God wanted him to proceed. When we're facing a situation we need to pray and ask God what we should do.
"Then he got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon 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 upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes."
So we see, albeit it in a little bit different manner, God commissioning Elisha to do what Elijah did to the widow's son. Think of the excitement when the boy started getting warm. Elisha knew he needed to get up and perhaps regroup and pray some more before commissioning himself back over the boy. I'm thinking the sneeze startled Elisha but he saw it as a sign of returned life.
"Sneezed seven times". Seven is a number that signifies completion. The significance of the sneezing may be connected with the reason for the death. Remember, he had complained of head pain.
Adam Clarke's commentary: "When the nervous influence began to act on the muscular system, before the circulation could be in every part restored, particular muscles, if not the whole body, would be thrown into strong contractions and sneezing would be a natural consequence; particularly as obstructions must have taken place in the head and its vessels, because of the disorder of which the child died. Most people, as well as philosophers and physicians, have remarked how beneficial sneezings are to the removal of obstructions in the head."
"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."
The blessing had returned. Elisha saw the life return to this dear woman's son and he could probably hardly contain his excitement as he sent for the mother. We can't know what was going through her mind as she made her way up to the room. I'm sure she was searching Gehazi's expression for a sign one way or the other. He probably gave it away; how contained could he really be after something like this?
She comes into the room to find Elisha presenting her with her living son. She falls to his feet; not in worship but in gratitude. She scoops up her returned blessing and departs to no doubt rejoice.
We're not told but I would guarantee a lot of lives were changed as a result of this miracle. How might this have empowered the prophet? How might this have strengthened the family? How might this have inspired the townspeople once word got out? God provided a miracle but I'm sure it wasn't simply for the benefit of this woman or her son.
God has purposes beyond the initial parties involved. It's not just about a life being restored it's more than that; it's about faith being strengthened and it's about people coming to know the Almighty God.
We need to make sure that when God works miracles and blessings in our lives that we look to gain all we can from them and make sure others hear about it so they can know God too.
