We will continue our look at the ministry of Elisha in 2 Kings 4.
• His ministry, in many ways, parallels that of Elijah in terms of the miracles that he performed.
• The author penned down these miracles to show us that Elisha did indeed receive that double portion of Elijah’s spirit.
Last week we saw how the Lord provided for a widow in great need.
• Today we are going to look at the second incident in 2 Kings 4 and it has to do with the death of a son in the family.
• God is going to restore hope for the hopeless and reveal Himself as the only HOPE we have. Let’s read 2 Kings 4:8-37.
Particularly in chapter 4 we see God’s care and concern for the ordinary, for the helpless and hopeless.
• We have a couple staying in Shunem (SW of the Southern tip of Sea of Galilee), a place Elisha passes by often.
• The Shunammite woman honoured Elisha as a man of God (a phrase used 8 times in this story) and showed him great hospitality.
• It started with just stopover meals but soon the host decided to provide a small room instead, so Elisha could stayover wherever he comes by.
• You can sense she takes delight in doing that. She honours God by using her wealth and resources to support the ministry of the prophet of God.
After some time, Elisha wanted to reward her for her kindness, but she didn’t really need anything because she is a well-to-do woman (4:8).
• What about moving on from this place to a better living or working environment?
• Elisha was willing to put a good word for her to the King or commander of the army, since he ministers before them.
• But she was contented to stay among her own people (cf. 4:13). She ask for nothing in return.
What to do for the woman who has everything? Bless her with a son.
• This was probably what the couple longed for, because we find her saying to Elisha at the end, why have you raised my hopes? (cf.4:28)
• Elisha proclaimed God’s blessing and “the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.” (4:17)
We have seen a couple of impossible births in the Bible – Sarah, Rebekah, Hannah, This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. God gave them hope.
• We’ve a couple of impossible births in the Bible, in Sarah (Gen 17), Rebekah (Gen 25), Hannah (1 Sam 1), Elizabeth (Luke 1)… God is the Giver of life.
Amazingly right after this good news, the author gave us a short biography of this boy’s life – in just two verses 4:18-19.
• 18The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. 19"My head! My head!" he said to his father.
• (No explanation given, probably heatstroke or a disease of some kind.)
• And in 4:20 he passed on. It was very abrupt: he grew (4:18), and he died (4:20).
The mother was suddenly thrown into a crisis, a very unkind one.
• The well-to-do woman, who has been enjoying a decent and independent life, now finds herself in a great need.
• And the more painful thought is this - the God, who gave her this gift, has now taken him away. That’s the conclusion most would just to.
What can she make of God here? Why didn’t God prevent this?
• This is not just her crisis, it is our crisis of faith too, when unexplained tragedy happens. We struggle with the same questions.
• Does God make us happy, only to increase our pain later on? Does God lift us up in order to drop us all the harder? If the Lord gives, why He takes away?
I’m glad that God has inspired writers to pen down such realities of life. Don’t have to camouflage anything. This are the painful realities of life.
• But we don’t live by sight, we live by faith, in a God whom we cannot see but we are willing to trust.
• In a crisis, our thoughts are directed towards God, who is present and in whom we can trust.
Her first reaction was to lay the child onto Elisha’s bed (not even his own bed) and rushed off to look for the prophet.
• She needs to hear from him; more precisely, she needs to hear from God.
• This is not a time to be angry with God, which is the mistaken but common response of most. We need God most at such times.
• God is still her source of hope, despite the perplexity of what is going on.
She left in a hurry, without telling her husband that the boy has died. We can sense the urgency and also her anguish.
• She wasted no time in talking to Gehazi (gay hay zai) and insisted on seeing only Elisha.
• When she saw him, she took hold of his feet and Elisha could tell that she was in “bitter distress”. (4:27)
• 4:28 "Did I ask you for a son, my lord?" she said. "Didn't I tell you, `Don't raise my hopes'?"
I don’t read this as a complaint. The urgency and the anguish showed me that this was more of a plea.
• You don’t rush all the way here just to complain but seek urgent help.
• It’s her faith crying out. Despite the confusion, she believe God is still her hope.
• Heb 11 has a list of men and women of faith who trusted God despite the odds, and it states in 11:35 “Women received back their dead, raised to life again.”
• We have only two women in the OT that received back their dead (that we know about). One, the widow at Zarephath that Elijah stayed with, and this Shunammite woman. Hebrews 11 recognises them as women of faith in God.
It is like Job who refused to “curse God and die” (as his wife suggested), but said, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10)
• We may not fully understand, but we don’t fault God.
Even the man of God couldn’t understand. Elisha said to his servant, “… the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why.” (4:27)
• If he is a man of God, then he speaks the truth. When he does not know, he says he does not know.
• We can expect a fake prophet to say otherwise, to pretend that he knows or to say something that sound intelligent, to keep up the status of a prophet.
Elisha says, “I don’t know what’s happening, God did not tell me.”
• This is the truth. We are not God. We are limited in knowledge (when God does not reveal) and limited in power (when God does not act).
• If a man of God like Elisha, who has performed so many miracles, can have times of ignorance, then it serves as a good reminder to us not to pretend to have all answers to life perplexities.
• We just do not know why some things happen, nor do we always need to give an ‘answer’.
So what do we do? PRAY. Sensing the urgency of the hour, Elisha asked his younger servant Gehazi to run ahead of him and pray for the boy.
• So he passed him his staff, probably signifies the authority that Elisha has given him to pray on his behalf. The servant got there and prayed, but nothing happens.
• Elisha arrived and went into the room alone with the boy and prayed.
4:34-35 ELISHA 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. 35Elisha 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.
God answered his prayer. It’s not his peculiar actions that works; it’s God.
• God, who gave this life, restored it back. He is the Giver of life and the restorer of hope. Elisha prayed and God answered.
God gave them and us today, a rare preview of His power over death.
• It assures us that He is the Giver of life and death does not have the last word.
• The Shunnamite woman encountered the Giver of life, twice over.
• God gave her a son, when it was impossible to have one.
• And the second time, God breathed life back into her son’s dead body. Death was conquered.
• She now knows God in a way she could not without this crisis. He is not just the Giver of life, but the Restorer of hope.
In the same way, God also breathes life into us, not just once, but twice.
• He breathes life into us once at birth. Then when we receive Jesus as our Saviour, He breathes spiritual life into us, the born again, new life.
• Jesus: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die…” (John 11:25)
And in both cases, it’s a gift. Not something we can work for or attain or earn.
• It’s God-given. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Eph 2:8-9)
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Let us reflect upon this truth again as we prepare ourselves to take the communion.
1 Cor 15:55-58
55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.
Ultimately, it is not this physical life that God is concerned about, but our spiritual life, our relationship with Him through Christ.
• It may take a crisis to really bring us back to Him, to help us understand that we are hopeless without Christ and that we need to put our faith in Him.
• If you have not trusted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, now is the time. We need Jesus and the forgiveness of our sin.
For those who are enjoying this victory in Christ, GIVE THANKS for this new life and hope. Ponder: “Lord, this is how I want to thank you…”
