2 Kings 4:25b-37 – Have a tenacious faith

In 2 Kings 4:18-25a, we learned that the son of the lady from Shunem, whom Elisha prophesied, was seized by a headache one day and died. Requesting a donkey and a servant from her husband, she went in search of Elisha. She firmly had the faith that God’s prophet Elisha could do something to help restore her son and bring him back to life. After all, it was he who had prophesied that she would have this son. When the prophet saw her from a distance, he suspected that something was not right, although he could not quite put his finger on what was wrong. So he despatched Gehazi to inquire from her if everything was alright with her, her husband, or her son. Refusing to disclose to Gehazi the real problem, she cursorily responded saying said to him, “It is well.” She was effectively declaring what she believed would be the outcome.

But when she came face to face with Elisha, she caught hold of his feet. Instinctively Gehazi trying to protect his master pushed her away, but he was stopped by Elisha. For being the prophet of God, he could sense that her soul was troubled, and wondered why the LORD did not reveal it to him. When the lady opened her mouth, she could not even bring herself to say that the son she was given had died. But from her two questions, Elisha surmised that her son was dead.

Summoning Gehazi, Elisha said, “Gird up your loins and take my staff in your hand, and go your way; if you meet any man, do not salute him, and if anyone salutes you, do not answer him; and lay my staff on the lad’s face.” Although Elisha had sent Gehazi, the woman was not prepared to accept that arrangement. Her words to Elisha were:  “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” She was in effect insisting that Elisha must personally attend to her son. Understanding what she wanted, Elisha went with her.

Nothing happened when Gehazi who rode ahead of them and laid the staff on the son’s face. So when he returned and met  Elisha with the lady, he told his master saying, “The lad has not awakened.” When Elisha arrived at her home, he found that the son had indeed died. He entered the room where the boy was laid and shut the door behind him, leaving the mother and Gehazi outside. Then he prayed to the Lord for the lad. What he did next to restore the lad was unusual. Verse 34 said, “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.” In verse 35, we are told that he paused a while and paced in the house before he went and stretched himself on the boy again. An astounding thing happened. The lad sneezed seven times before life returned to him and he opened his eyes. Elisha then called for Gezahi to summon the lady to the room. When she came in to meet him, the prophet presented her son to her alive and told her to take him up. Before she did so, she fell at Elisha’s feet and bowed herself to the ground, then took up her son and went out.

This account teaches us true faith is tenacious and resolute. A person with such kind of faith is enabled to spiritually see the outcome of believing in God before it happens. Because true faith is the substance of things hoped for and the conviction of things unseen. It makes us resolute and enables us not to take no for an answer. Furthermore, it helps us to stay focused refusing to be distracted by neither opposition nor obstacle. Without such faith, Hebrews 11:6 says, it is impossible to please God. True faith empowers us to believe that God is capable to see us through and will reward us when we faithfully and diligently seek Him. We must trust God with tenacious faith, in order to achieve great things!