While journeying from place to place, Elisha had frequent occasion to pass through the town of Shunem, where he received much hospitality at the hands of one of the prominent residents. The Shunammite woman is spoken of as being "great," (2 Kings 4:8) and the narrative shows that her husband possessed servants, land and cattle in plenty, but when Elisha first made her acquaintance she was without the blessing counted chief of all among the women of Israel, the possession of a son.
Instead, however, of giving way to bitterness and repining, she seems to have set herself to the work of helping others. Seeing that Elisha was a man of God, she proposed to her husband that they should build him a room in their house, and furnish it, so that he might regard it as his own home, whenever he should pass that way.
You Have Done It Unto Me
Elisha was much touched by this unusual evidence of kindly consideration, and God, regarding the attention and honor as paid unto himself, moved the prophet to declare unto his hostess that her own darling wish was granted, and that she should at last embrace a son.
Anyone would be glad to entertain a stranger if they believed him to be a prophet, who would reward them with the bestowal of some much-desired blessing, but the opportunity of doing what the Shunammite woman did is offered to all even now. Christ says, "Whose shall receive a little child in my name receives me." (Matthew 18:5) "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward." (Matthew 10:42)
"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." (Hebrews 3:3)
The Child's Death
"And when the child was grown, it tell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head." (2 Kings 4:18-19)
Under the fierce blaze of an Eastern sun, it is not unusual for a person to receive severe injuries to the brain, which quickly prove fatal. The little child was taken to his mother, and "sat on her knees till noon, and then died." (2 Kings 4:20)
Without saying anything of the child's death to her husband, the mother went up to Elisha's room with the body, laid it on the prophet's bed, and went out. She then asked her husband to let a servant go with her to Mount Carmel, "that I may run to the man of God, and come again." (2 Kings 4:22)
Expressing some surprise at this sudden idea, her husband consented, and she set out, urging the servant to make all speed and slack not his driving on her account.
The Mother's Faith
Why should she thus hasten to the prophet, without telling a soul that her child was dead? What meant that assuring answer to her husband's question, "It shall be well," (2 Kings 4:23) when the fast-stiffening body of their only child lay cold and still in the room upstairs?
God had given her the child. It had not come as other parents received their children, for this, like Isaac, was a child of promise. It may be that the mother's heart had dwelt much on the similarity of circumstances, and had loved to think of her son as a second Isaac, destined to an honorable place in the work of God.
Now the resemblance was more complete, for the trial of Abraham had come to her. Isaac's life was spared at the last moment. Her son's had been taken, but still Abraham, knowing not the turn events would take, had accounted that God was able to raise up Isaac from the dead, and this was the faith that sustained her now.
The Gifts of God Without Repentance
God had given her this son in acknowledgment of her kindness to His servant, but a gift, taken away again, was no gift, and she believed that what God had given her He would not take back, and none other could. Therefore she goes to the prophet, strong in her confidence in God's love and justice, that it will confirm her in the possession of the son whom death has for the moment taken away.
Surely the Shunammite woman is among the great cloud of witnesses to the power of faith, of whom we read in the 11th chapter of Hebrews. "Women received their dead raised to life again." (Hebrews 11:35)
Elisha saw her coming afar off and told Gehazi, his servant, to run to meet her, and enquire after the welfare of herself and her family. He did so, but she had no word for him, beyond what she had said to others: "It is well." (2 Kings 4:26)
She came to Elisha, and poured out the pent-up torrent of her mother's heart in the words, "Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?" (2 Kings 4:28)
She appeals to the power that gave her a son. That can restore him to her. Elisha is its channel to her, and she refuses to leave him, even to go with Gehazi to the body of her child. Elisha yields and follows with her to her home.
An Old Testament Judas
Gehazi is Elisha's servant. He is to him what Elisha was to Elijah, and has doubtless been selected for his superior qualifications, to be Elisha's successor, when death shall take away his master. He may have been well-adapted by natural abilities for the place, but is now making evident most clearly his unfitness to be to Israel a prophet of the living God.
He has a high opinion of the dignity of the position, for when the Shunammite woman casts herself at the feet of Elisha, he attempts to thrust her away. He takes no note of her agony of distress, but thinks only of maintaining the propriety of approach to an office which will be his one day to exercise. Like Judas he failed to learn the character of his high calling, and, like Judas, he finally fell.
Doubtless it is with considerable elation that Gehazi bears the prophet's staff to the body of the dead child. The miracle he is about to perform will considerably elevate him in the popular respect, and increase his already high standing in the schools of the prophets. He forgets that the rod of Moses, the mantle of Elijah, and the staff of Elisha are but symbols. The power is of God, and not in the staff, or the man who wields it. He lays it, as instructed, on the mouth of the child, but there is no response, and he returns to Elisha to report, with chagrin, that the attempt has been a failure, "The child is not awaked." (2 Kings 4:31)
The check and disappointment might have taught Gehazi a heart-searching lesson, but it did not, and shortly after we find him lying to Naaman and his master for the sake of gain. The deceit is revealed to Elisha, the judgment of God is sent upon the covetous imposter, and he who might have been an honored successor of his master, goes from Elisha's presence a leper white as snow.
Restored to Life
"And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. ... And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm." (2 Kings 4:32,34)
Elisha's proceeding seems strange until we reflect upon the circumstances. He had been closely concerned in the child from the beginning. It was by his mouth that the promise of its birth had been given. He would be greatly interested in the coming of the little one, in noting its growth from time to time as he sojourned at the Shunammite's home, and doubtless his sympathy and cooperation were strongly enlisted in the mother's efforts to bring up her child in the knowledge of the living God.
This continual and intimate association with the little child cannot have failed to unite the two in the closest mutual affection, and Elisha's first impulse on beholding the body, would be to clasp the poor little dead form to his heart, with the intense desire, born of deep strong love, that he might wake it to life again, and find it responsive to his caress.
Gehazi's indifferent soul could be content with laying a staff on the mouth of the child, but this in no wise represented the tender interest of the Divine Father over His sleeping children. The vitalizing touch of Christ's own hand, and His tears over the grave of Lazarus, like Elisha's close embrace, were far more expressive of the attitude of God's heart of love, not only over the Shunammite's son, but over all those who sleep in the grave till the resurrection. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." (Psalm 116:15)
Elisha's amiable, approachable disposition may be judged from the way in which the sons of the prophets brought all their little troubles to him. And the way in which God wrought miracles to remove those troubles, shows that "He has respect unto the lowly," (Psalm 138:6) and that Elisha's spirit revealed His own. Elisha's prayer was heard. Life returned into the little body, and the child was given to his waiting mother. Her thankfulness and joy seemed too great for words. "Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out." (2 Kings 4:37)
Death an Enemy
If it were true, as is generally taught, that the soul goes to heaven at death, it would have been an evidence of great selfishness on the mother's part to desire that her son might be recalled from scenes of bliss. Evidently she did not take this view, nor did Elisha, nor did the Lord who restored the child. When children come back to life again, it is not from the glory of heaven, but from "the land of the enemy." (Jeremiah 31:16)
Death is an enemy, the last enemy that shall be destroyed. It is not a blessing to man, for it only comes as the consequence of sin, and any teaching that minimizes the evil of death, calling it the "gate of life," (Attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux. Isaac Watts made a similar statement popular in the hymn "Christ's presence makes death easy," from Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707-1709), Book II, Number 31, which has the line, "Death is the gate of endless joy") to that extent obscures the evil of sin, in its nature and effect.
A New Life
Doubtless in after-life the Shunammite woman would impress upon her child that his life must be always yielded to God, as being doubly the Lord's. Not only was he a child of promise, but when his life had once been lost, it was restored again. His was not an ordinary life, for he had been raised from the dead.
But this is a consideration which should influence all of us. Paul tells us to "yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead," (Romans 6:13) "that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:4)
Men say sometimes that if they could only have a new life, they would gladly yield up everything. Nothing else than this does the Lord offer to all. Whoever confesses his sins to God may know that those sins were the crucifixion of Christ. But since "in Him we live and move and have our being," (Acts 17:28) if He is crucified, we are too. So whoever is baptized into Jesus Christ, taking His name, thereby confesses his belief, that he is baptized into His death. "Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?" (Romans 6:3)
Now if we be dead with Christ, and He is raised from the dead, it is equally clear that we must live with Him. "Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death has no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He lives, He lives unto God. Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:4-11)
Therefore, whoever confesses his sins to Christ may know that he has new life indeed, even the life of Christ. "We know that we have passed from death unto life." (1 John 3:14)--Present Truth, August 4, 1898--Notes on the International Sunday-School Lessons--2 Kings 4:25-37
E.J. Waggoner