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The work of Elisha, part 14

The 7^th sign of Elisha is recorded in 2 Kings 4:18-37. It took place some years after the 6^th sign. In the 6^th sign, the child was born to the Shunammite woman who had provided a Bed and Breakfast for Elisha whenever he traveled through the town of Shunem. Elisha prophesied that she would have a son, and that son was born the following year according to his word.

A few years passed. When the child was grown enough to help in the fields, he suddenly died, and that is where the 7^th sign began. The story begins this way:

¹⁸ When the child was grown, the day came that he went out to his father to the reapers. ¹⁹ He said to his father, “My head, my head.” And he said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰ When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her lap until noon, and then died. ²¹ She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door behind him and went out.

The story gives very few details, leaving most of the drama to our imagination. The boy seems to had sunstroke and died within hours (by noon). His mother laid him on the bed in the room that had been provided for Elisha.

It is Well

She did not tell her husband that his son had died, nor did she explain to him why she had to visit the prophet. 2 Kings 4:22, 23, 24 says,

²² Then she called to her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and return.” ²³ He said, “Why will you go to him today? It is neither new moon nor sabbath.” And she said, “It will be well.” ²⁴ Then she saddled a donkey and said to her servant, “Drive and go forward; do not slow down the pace for me unless I tell you.”

It does not seem that she rode the donkey herself or that the servant ran behind her all the way to Mount Carmel. It appears that she hitched a donkey to a wagon and told her servant to drive fast to Mount Carmel, where Elisha was living. Mount Carmel was a lengthy journey of five or six hours each way, so it is likely that it was already late in the afternoon when she finally saw the prophet. 2 Kings 4:25, 26 says,

²⁵ So she went and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Behold, there is the Shunammite. ²⁶ Please run now to meet her and say to her, “Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, “It is well.”

The woman’s faith is apparent. Instead of telling her husband that her son had died, she told him, “It will be well.” Later, instead of telling Gehazi that her son had died, she said, “It is well.” By the eye of faith, she saw beyond the immediate problem. Though she was certainly distressed, she also believed that Elisha was able to raise her son from the dead. By focusing upon the solution, she could say, “It is well.”

This story was the inspiration behind the hymn, It Is Well With My Soul, written by Horatio Spafford in the 1800’s. As a Chicago lawyer, he had prospered financially. But then his son died, and shortly afterward (1871) the great Chicago Fire destroyed almost everything he owned. A few years later (1873) he sent his wife and four daughters on a vacation to Europe, but the ship sank, and only his wife survived. As he rode on a ship to meet his wife in Europe, he penned the words of this hymn,

When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Philip Bliss, the composer, was moved by his poem and put it to music. It was published in 1876.

https://www.godtube.com/popular-hymns/it-is-well-with-my-soul/

The Marah Solution

2 Kings 4:27 continues,

²⁷ When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. And Gehazi came near to push her away; but the man of God said, “Let her alone, for her soul is troubled [marar, “bitter”] within her; and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me.”

God had not revealed the problem to Elisha ahead of time. God often hides things, even from His prophets, for reasons that only He knows. 2 Kings 4:28 says,

²⁸ Then she said, “Did I ask for a son from my lord? Did I not say, “Do not deceive me?”

The woman had not asked Elisha to pray for her that she might have a son. That was a prophecy from Elisha. In fact, she had not believed the prophecy at first. Her response was, “do not lie to your maidservant” (2 Kings 4:16). Nonetheless, she gave birth to a son the following year.

She knew that her son was a child of promise and that he had a purpose in life that yet remained unfulfilled. We do not know any more of their conversation, but no doubt she explained to Elisha how her son had died.

Knowing that the journey was long and that it was already late in the day, Elisha sent Gehazi ahead, telling him to put his staff upon the boy’s face. Perhaps the prophet remembered how Moses had put a “tree” into the bitter water of Marah, which then made the water sweet (Exodus 15:23-25). In that story, the tree represented the cross of Christ, which alone can turn the bitter heart sweet.

The woman did not go with Gehazi but insisted upon remaining with the prophet (2 Kings 4:30). Gehazi’s mission appeared to be a failure, for we read in 2 Kings 4:31,

³¹ Then Gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff on the lad’s face, but there was no sound or response. So he returned to meet him [Elisha] and told him, “The lad has not awakened.”

Elisha’s staff did not raise the dead boy, for this situation was different from that of Marah and therefore required a different solution.

The New Creation

2 Kings 4:32-37 says,

³² When Elisha came into the house, behold the lad was dead and laid on his bed. ³³ So he entered and shut the door behind them both and prayed to the Lord. ³⁴ And he went up and lay on the child and put his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands, and he stretched himself on him; and the flesh of the child became warm. ³⁵ Then he returned and walked in the house once back and forth and went up and stretched himself on him; and the lad sneezed seven times and the lad opened his eyes. ³⁶ He called Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite.” So he called her. And when she came in to him, he said, “Take up your son.” ³⁷ Then she went in and fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground, and she took up her son and went out.

This is a picture of the new creation. In the first creation, God breathed into the man’s nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). It was a face-to-face encounter. In the case of Elisha, his actions apply the principles of unity and identification. In other words, the resurrection will raise the dead in the image of Christ. There will be unity between the Head and the body. The body of Christ will be identified fully with Christ Himself. Everything they speak with the mouth will be what God speaks. They will see all things with spiritual eyes. Their hands will do only what they see their Father do. Every breath they take will be their heavenly Father’s breath.

The woman’s son was brought back to life after many hours in a state of death. We too, as mortals, are like the Shunammite woman’s son, having died in Adam.

Elisha represents Jesus Christ Himself here, for his name means “my God [Eli] is salvation [shua].” Jesus’ Hebrew name is Joshua, or Yeshua [Yah is salvation]. As a type of Christ in this story, the lesson is that salvation comes through Jesus Christ. Peter testified of Christ in Acts 4:12, saying,

¹² And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

So after Jesus was raised from the dead, He appeared to His disciples and “breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22). What Elisha did as a type and shadow was fulfilled in Christ in John 20:22. The son of the Shunammite woman was raised from the dead as a prophecy of our own resurrection.

That resurrection has already begun, though it comes in stages. Baptism signifies moving from death into resurrection life (Romans 6:4), but our faith in Christ was only the start of this new life. Paul speaks of the completion of this transformation “at the last trumpet” (1 Corinthians 15:52, 53), where “this mortal must put on immortality.”

In Revelation 20:5, 12 John goes further by telling us of two resurrections, the first for the overcomers and the second for the rest of humanity. The Shunammite woman represents the mother of the overcomers—Sarah, not Hagar—who appeals to Christ through the prophet Elisha and refuses to leave his side. Her faith in the promise of God (in giving her a son) speaks of the New Covenant faith inherent in Sarah, which steadfastly believes in the resurrection of the dead.

This also suggests that Gehazi, the servant, had a lesser faith that was unable to raise the son from the dead. We might say that he had Old Covenant faith, for though he was obedient, he was unable to use the authority of Elisha’s staff to bring life to the dead. But Gehazi’s flaws yet remained in the background and only came into prominence in the 11^th sign of Elisha.