Reflections on 2 Kings 4

2 Kings 04 (Contemporary English Version)

1. One day the widow of one of the LORD's prophets said to Elisha, "You know that before my husband died, he was a follower of yours and a worshiper of the LORD. But he owed a man some money, and now that man is on his way to take my two sons as his slaves."
   
2. "Maybe there's something I can do to help," Elisha said. "What do you have in your house?" "Sir, I have nothing but a small bottle of olive oil."
   
3. Elisha told her, "Ask your neighbors for their empty jars. And after you've borrowed as many as you can,
   
4. go home and shut the door behind you and your sons. Then begin filling the jars with oil and set each one aside as you fill it."
   
5. The woman left. Later, when she and her sons were back inside their house, the two sons brought her the jars, and she began filling them.
   
6. At last, she said to one of her sons, "Bring me another jar." "We don't have any more," he answered, and the oil stopped flowing from the small bottle.
   
7. After she told Elisha what had happened, he said, "Sell the oil and use part of the money to pay what you owe the man. You and your sons can live on what is left."
   
8. Once, while Elisha was in the town of Shunem, he met a rich woman who invited him to her home for dinner. After that, whenever he was in Shunem, he would have a meal there with her and her husband.
   
9. Some time later the woman said to her husband, "I'm sure the man who comes here so often is a prophet of God.
   
10. Why don't we build him a small room on the flat roof of our house? We can put a bed, a table and chair, and an oil lamp in it. Then whenever he comes, he can stay with us."
    
11. The next time Elisha was in Shunem, he stopped at their house and went up to his room to rest.
    
12. He said to his servant Gehazi, "This woman has been very helpful. Have her come up here to the roof for a moment." She came, and Elisha told Gehazi to say to her, "You've gone to a lot of trouble for us, and we want to help you. Is there something we can request the king or army commander to do?" The woman answered, "With my relatives nearby, I have everything I need."
    
13. (SEE 4:12)
    
14. "Then what can we do for her?" Elisha asked Gehazi. Gehazi replied, "I do know that her husband is old, and that she doesn't have a son."
    
15. "Ask her to come here again," Elisha told his servant. He called for her, and she came and stood in the doorway of Elisha's room.
    
16. Elisha said to her, "Next year at this time, you'll be holding your own baby son in your arms." "You're a man of God," the woman replied. "Please don't lie to me."
    
17. But a few months later, the woman got pregnant. She gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had promised.
    
18. One day while the boy was still young, he was out in the fields with his father, where the workers were harvesting the crops.
    
19. Suddenly he shouted, "My head hurts. It hurts a lot!" "Carry him back to his mother," the father said to his servant.
    
20. The servant picked up the boy and carried him to his mother. The boy lay on her lap all morning, and by noon he was dead.
    
21. She carried him upstairs to Elisha's room and laid him across the bed. Then she walked out and shut the door behind her.
    
22. The woman called to her husband, "I need to see the prophet. Let me use one of the donkeys. Send a servant along with me, and let me leave now, so I can get back quickly."
    
23. "Why do you need to see him today?" her husband asked. "It's not the Sabbath or time for the New Moon Festival." "That's all right," she answered.
    
24. She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, "Let's go. And don't slow down unless I tell you to."
    
25. She left at once for Mount Carmel to talk with Elisha. When Elisha saw her coming, he said, "Gehazi, look! It's the woman from Shunem.
    
26. Run and meet her. And ask her if everything is all right with her and her family." "Everything is fine," she answered Gehazi.
    
27. But as soon as she got to the top of the mountain, she went over and grabbed Elisha by the feet. Gehazi started toward her to push her away, when Elisha said, "Leave her alone! Don't you see how sad she is? But the LORD hasn't told me why."
    
28. The woman said, "Sir, I begged you not to get my hopes up, and I didn't even ask you for a son."
    
29. "Gehazi, get ready and go to her house," Elisha said. "Take along my walking stick, and when you get there, lay it on the boy's face. Don't stop to talk to anyone, even if they try to talk to you."
    
30. But the boy's mother said to Elisha, "I swear by the living LORD and by your own life that I won't leave without you." So Elisha got up and went with them.
    
31. Gehazi ran on ahead and laid Elisha's walking stick on the boy's face, but the boy didn't move or make a sound. Gehazi ran back to Elisha and said, "The boy didn't wake up."
    
32. Elisha arrived at the woman's house and went straight to his room, where he saw the boy's body on his bed.
    
33. He walked in, shut the door, and prayed to the LORD.
    
34. Then he got on the bed and stretched out over the dead body, with his mouth on the boy's mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hand on his hands. As he lay there, the boy's body became warm.
    
35. Elisha got up and walked back and forth in the room, then he went back and leaned over the boy's body. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
    
36. Elisha called out to Gehazi, "Have the boy's mother come here." Gehazi did, and when she was at the door, Elisha said, "You can take your son."
    
37. She came in and bowed down at Elisha's feet. Then she picked up her son and left.
    
38. Later, Elisha went back to Gilgal, where there was almost nothing to eat, because the crops had failed. One day while the prophets who lived there were meeting with Elisha, he said to his servant, "Fix a big pot of stew for these prophets."
    
39. One of them went out into the woods to gather some herbs. He found a wild vine and picked as much of its fruit as he could carry, but he didn't know that the fruit was very sour. When he got back, he cut up the fruit and put it in the stew.
    
40. The stew was served, and when the prophets started eating it, they shouted, "Elisha, this stew tastes terrible! We can't eat it."
    
41. "Bring me some flour," Elisha said. He sprinkled the flour in the stew and said, "Now serve it to them." And the stew tasted fine.
    
42. A man from the town of Baal-Shalishah brought Elisha some freshly cut grain and twenty loaves of bread made from the first barley that was harvested. Elisha said, "Give it to the people so they can eat."
    
43. "There's not enough here for a hundred people," his servant said. "Just give it to them," Elisha replied. "The LORD has promised there will be more than enough."
    
44. So the servant served the bread and grain to the people. They ate and still had some left over, just as the LORD had promised.
    

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This was a period of apostasy in Israel as the various kings led the nation away from God to worship Baal. But there were still people in Israel who worshipped God and through them God did mighty works which chipped away at Baalism. Since we know Israel did not turn back to God during this period this may seem rather fatalistic, but God was no doubt offering hope to those who would believe inspite of the official religious position of the nation. The kings had witnessed sufficient works of God to have turned away from Baal and had chosen not to. They would set the direction of the nation. But for those who were not sympathetic to this official direction, God would offer help.

There are a series of five miracles described in this chapter that God provided through His prophet Elisha illustrating God's activity in Israel during this period. No matter how bleak the situation, there is always a remnant who remain faithful to God. This was the case during the time of Elisha as it was during the time of Elijah when he became despondent thinking he was the only person in all Israel who remained faithful to God. But God informed him that there were at least 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed before Baal. The widow and the Shunammite woman are representative of the faithful remnant remaining in Israel. Word of the miracles performed on their behalf would have encouraged faithfulness among others. It is interesting that in a male dominant society God used women in these instances.

The setting for the first miracle involved the widow of one of the "sons of the prophets." With the death of her husband she had lost her source of income and had incurred debts for which she could not pay. It was not uncommon at the time for boys to be taken into slavery to pay debts and this was the threat this woman faced concerning her two sons. She appealed to Elisha for help on the basis of her husband having been a god-fearing man. Elisha asked what she had in the house, which was only "a jar of oil," and this is what he used to supply her need. He instructed her to borrow empty containers from all her neighbors, and not to get just a few. The number of containers she gathered would be a measure of her faith. Once she and her sons had gathered the containers she shut the door of her house and began pouring oil from her one jar into the gathered containers. It filled all of the containers she gathered, and when the last one was full the oil ran out. This would have been the case whether she had gathered only a few or even more than she collected. She could then sell the oil and pay the debt and have money left over on which to live for a while.

The second and third miracles involved a woman and her husband who lived in Shunem. In contrast to the poor widow in the first miracle, this woman had a husband and she was well-to-do. Because Elisha stopped at her home periodically to eat as he passed through the area, the woman decided to build a room on the roof of her house for him to use when he was in the area. She knew that he was "a holy man of God," and this was no doubt a way for her to serve the Lord. In return, Elisha wanted to do something for her to express his appreciation, so he asked, "What can we do for you?" But she replied that she was satisfied with what she had. Then Elisha inquired of his servant, Gehazi, what should be done for her and he pointed out that she had no son and her husband was old. So Elisha told her that, "At this time next year you will have a son in your arms." (4:16) Sure enough, a son was born to her the following year.

The third miracle came a few years later when this son was a young boy. One day the boy went to the field with his father and while there was suddenly struck with a tremendous headache. He was carried home by a servant and by noon, as his mother held him in her lap, he died. The woman laid the boy down in the room she had built for Elisha and shut the door. Then she summoned her husband and and said, "Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so I can hurry to the man of God and then come back." (4:22) We can only guess that the reason she did not tell her husband of the boy's death was her fear that he would try to detain her from going to Elisha. It is curious, though, that he did not inquire about the boy after sending him home with a headache.

When the woman came to Elisha she simply said to him, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn't I say, 'Do not deceive me?'" (4:28) He gathered from this that the boy was dead and immediately sent his servant ahead of him with his staff to place on the boy's face. Then he and the woman followed behind. It is unclear why Elisha had Gehazi place his staff on the boy's face, but it seems that he may have thought this would resuscitate the boy, for Gehazi told Elisha when he arrived at the house, "The boy didn't wake up." (4:31) Elisha went up to the room and lay on the boy and his flesh became warm. Then he went downstairs for a while before returning and bending down over the boy. This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. Elisha called for the woman to come to the room and told her to pick up her son. She bowed at Elisha's feet and then picked up her son.

The setting for the fourth and fifth miracles was a famine that was going on in Israel when Elisha returned to Gilgal. The sons of the prophets prepared a stew with what they could gather from the fields. It turned out that a wild gourd found by one of the prophets contaminated the pot of stew which they realized with the first taste of the stew. Elisha asked for some meal which he threw into the pot and the stew was cured so they could eat it. The fifth miracle took place when a man brought to Elisha a sack of 20 loaves of bread. This was evidently the firstfruits of his harvest which he brought to the Lord as an offering. Elisha instructed his attendant to give the bread to the people to eat, but the attendant said, "What? Am I to set 20 loaves before 100 men?" (4:43) But Elisha told him to do it anyway for the Lord had said, "They will eat, and they will have some left over." (4:43) And that is what happened.