Elisha’s Ministry–Conflict with Syria

I. The Syrians Blinded (2 Kings 6:8-23)

⁸Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. ⁹ And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down. ¹⁰ And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice. ¹¹ Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel? ¹²And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. ¹³And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. ¹⁴ Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. ¹⁵ And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? ¹⁶ And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. ¹⁷ And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. ¹⁸ And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. ¹⁹ And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. ²⁰ And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. ²¹ And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? ²² And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. ²³ And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.

In this third lesson on the ministry of Elisha, we will look at events that take place in the latter part of Jehoram’s 12-year reign as King of Israel (852-841 BC).  In 2 Kings 8:1-2 Elisha tells the Shunamite woman whose help had been such a blessing to him and who son he raised from the dead that there would be a seven-year famine coming and he advised her to depart from the land for her own safety, which she does.  Gehazi, who had been stricken with leprosy on account of his greed in connection with the cleansing of Naaman the Syrian, reappears after departing Elisha’s company and at the end of the famine.  Given the frictions the Israelites had with the Syrians during most of Jehoram’s reign, it would make most sense if he came after peace had been restored between Israel and the Syrians.  All of these events took place during the reign of Jehoram.  With all that in mind, the famine was probably done by 845 BC, which meant that it would have started in around 852 BC.[1]

The events described in 2 Kings 6:8-23 probably took place sometime during this famine period.  Israel’s weakness would have made it ripe for plunder by its neighbors to the north in Syria, hence frequent border raids into Israelite territory.  Elisha’s prophetic ministry was not only to the remnant of the people of God, but to the king and nation of Israel as well.  The king of Syria was looking for places to set up encampments inside of Israel, but at every place that they sortied into, they were met by the Israelites.  This gave the king of Syria the impression that he had a spy in his court, what we would day consider a counterintelligence problem.  In reality, God is giving that information to Elisha who is then transmitting it to the king, who acts on it.  When he learns that Elisha is the one providing this information, he decides that if he can separate Elisah from his connection to the Israelite court, then he would be successful.  So, he thus sends an armed incursion to Dothan, which is within ten miles of the Israelite capital of Samaria—well inside the nation, illustrating how ineffective Israel’s army was.

The armed band arrives outside Elisha’s residence at night, and on the next morning, Elisha’s servant (possibly Gehazi, but not named) sees he and Elisha surrounded and despairs.  Elisha, however, does not despair—he prays to the LORD that the servant’s eyes be spiritually open to see that the LORD has a multitude of angelic warriors across the mountain who will protect them.  Then, in an ironic twist, Elisha prays that the eyes of the Aramean band be blinded so that they did not recognize him, nor know where they were.  In this dullard state—they probably were not totally blind—Elisha then leads them into Samaria.  When their “sight” is restored, they suddenly realize that they are in the heart of Israel’s capital surrounded by Israel’s military.  Joram, the King of Israel, is ready and eager to destroy them, but Elisha holds him off.  To slaughter captured prisoners would have been contrary to the biblical laws of war given in Deuteronomy (Deut. 20:11), namely that captured prisoners could be used as slaves, but were not to be slaughtered outright.

Some things are worth pointing out in this narrative.  It is God who saves the nation, especially since Israel’s army was not doing an effective job of that.  To the readers of 2 Kings, languishing in exile, that would have been an important lesson to hear so as to not put their faith in kings and militaries to save a people.  Second, God also protects and preserves His own people.  That is something also that should be an encouragement to God’s people.   Lastly, there is an interesting contrast between Jehoram and Elisha in this episode.  Jehoram exhibits a typical tribal mentality—if our enemies are weak, then we should be merciless in destroying them, in exacting retribution from them.  Such a tribal mentality manifests itself even in our day, in that we want our enemies not simply defeated, but destroyed.  Yet, here we see Elisha, acting on behalf of the LORD, advocating for exercising mercy toward Israel’s enemies.  Yes, they needed to be defeated, but having been defeated, they are shown mercy.  In the New Testament, Christ would tell His disciples that in the Sermon on the Mount to foreswear retaliation (Matt. 5:39-42) and to love one’s enemies (Matt. 5:43-44).  Such mercy is balanced with God’s justice—in 2 Kings, it is consistent with God’s own Law—but it also reflects the greater mercy we have received from the LORD, as we too had been rebels toward Him but have been forgiven according to the work of Christ.

II. The Syrians Flee (2 Kings 6:8-7:20)

²⁴ And it came to pass after this, that Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. ²⁵ And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver. ²⁶ And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. ²⁷ And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? ²⁸ And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. ²⁹So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son. ³⁰ And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. ³¹ Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.

³² But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him? ³³ And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?

7 Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. ² Then ^†a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

³ And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? ⁴ If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. ⁵ And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. ⁶For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. ⁷ Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. ⁸ And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. ⁹ Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household. ¹⁰ So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were. ¹¹ And he called the porters; and they told it to the king’s house within.

¹² And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into the city. ¹³ And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed:) and let us send and see. ¹⁴ They took therefore two chariot horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see. ¹⁵ And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king. ¹⁶ And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord.

¹⁷ And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him. ¹⁸ And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria: ¹⁹ And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. ²⁰ And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.

This next account is vivid in both its depiction of depravity and in the pathos of deliverance.  The famine that came upon Israel was not merely a happenstance, as we treat so much of our weather today; it was a judgment of God upon a heretical and apostate nation.  As moderns, we tend to think that if we can provide naturalistic reasons as to why something happened then that necessarily discounts God’s providence over it or in it.  The ancients did not have such hubris and would have seen some kind of divine hand in it.  In the ratification curses of the Deuteronomistic covenant, God promises that, “Thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.  The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven it come down upon the, until thou be destroyed” (Deut. 28:23-24).  In this case, exacerbating this natural famine was the siege that the Syrians laid against Israel’s capital of Samaria.  So severe was the combination of the two that people resorted to eating the unclean parts of unclean animals, and to cannibalism of family members.  In one case recounted here, two women agree that they will eat their children and one is upset when the other reneges, calling for the king to judge between them.  This is a perversion of the famous case in 1 Kings 3:16-28 showing Solomon’s wisdom.  There Solomon’s wisdom rendered justice and spared a life; here Jehoram abandons justice and shows his foolishness by vowing vengeance upon God’s prophet, Elisha, with his trusted advisor blaming God and questioning why they should trust the LORD any longer.

A lesson for us here is to be wary of political leaders who claim they alone can save the people.  They cannot; only God can save.  For political leaders to make claims of being a savior or having their program be salvific is both fraudulent and blasphemous.  This is something that we should be mindful of in the corrupt politics of our own day, as we are not lacking in false messiahs.

When confronted by the king’s advisor, Elisha prophesies that within the next day, people will be able to get real food for prices that are not ultra-high.  The king’s advisor scoffs at this, and Elisha responds with a second prophecy—the advisor will see this change, but not eat thereof.

The description of the deliverance is almost comedic in a Shakespearian kind of way.  Four lepers discuss among themselves at the city gate their options.  If they go into the city, they will die of starvation like the rest of the city.  If they stay at the gate, they will die as well.  So, they decide to go into the Syrian camp in search of food, thinking they will either find food or be killed by the Syrians; what do they have to lose, since most of the options would result in them dying.  So, into the Syrian camp they go, only to find it totally deserted.  There was no orderly retreat; everything was left behind as the army left in apparent terror, believing that a convergence of mighty foreign armies was upon them.  The lepers find food and clothes, silver and gold.  They revel in their find, only to be conscience stricken shortly thereafter, sending word to the king regarding the withdrawal of the Syrian army.  The unbelieving king believes this is a Syrian ruse to get him to leave his city only to subsequently ambush his army.  Servants, however, impress upon the king to check out the account and they find it to be true.  Israelites come pouring out of the city and plunder the Syrian camp, resulting in the fulfillment of Elisha’s prophecy.  As for the scoffing advisor to the king, he saw the deliverance but was trampled to death by the streaming masses, in fulfillment of Elisha’s second prophecy as well.  The defeat of the Syrians was entirely the victory of the LORD, and His word fulfilled.

III. The Shunamite Woman Returns (2 Kings 8:1-6)

8 Then spake Elisha unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for the Lord hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years. ² And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God: and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. ³ And it came to pass at the seven years’ end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land. ⁴ And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done. ⁵ And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. ⁶ And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now.

This account brings us back to the faithful remnant of God.  It does say something about Jehoram at the end of his life that he is even interested in hearing about the great things that Elisha did during Jehoram’s reign.  We cannot extrapolate from this whether or not Joram ever repented or what his motive was in wanting to hear about the great things that Elisha did; the text simply does not give us any details.  The text does, however, show that despite his punishment with leprosy, Gehazi did maintain a faithful testimony to the work of God, a testimony that was corroborated by the Shunamite woman.  That would have been a reminder to Jeremiah’s readers to maintain a faithful testimony even as they were experiencing the punishment of exile to a foreign land.  It is still a remainder to God’s people in all ages to do likewise.  The restoration of the Shunamite woman would have held out to God’s people in exile the promise of a restoration to their homeland.  If Jeremiah did author 1 and 2 Kings, as we have supposed throughout this series, then the same author prophesied that the Exile would only last 70 years; there would be taken into Exile who would return from it and witness the beginnings of the reconstitution of God’s people.  For us, this picture has eschatological significance.  We see elsewhere in Scripture pictures of restoration for God’s people if they repent of their sins and return to faithfulness (e.g., Job 42:7-17), and while this is certainly possible within God’s providence, we should not view it as an automatic guarantee in this life.  It is a promise that will be fulfilled in the New Heavens and the New Earth when we are with the LORD Christ Jesus in eternity.

IV. Elisha’s Prophecy of Hazael (2 Kings 8:7-15)

⁷ And Elisha came to Damascus; and Ben-hadad the king of Syria was sick; and it was told him, saying, The man of God is come hither. ⁸ And the king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? ⁹ So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ burden, and came and stood before him, and said, Thy son Ben-hadad king of Syria hath sent me to thee, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? ¹⁰ And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the Lord hath shewed me that he shall surely die. ¹¹ And he settled his countenance stedfastly, until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept. ¹² And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child. ¹³ And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. ¹⁴ So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldest surely recover. ¹⁵ And it came to pass on the morrow, that he took a thick cloth, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead.

What is interesting about this account is that while Elisha’s impact on the Israelite royal house has been limited, his impact on the royal house of Syria has been more marked.  Ben-hadad, who had fought with Israel on multiple occasions, now sought to know from Elisha whether or not he would recover from his illness.  Ben-hadad sent an emissary, Hazael, to Elisha bearing many gifts.  Elisha provides a cryptic prophecy: Ben-hadad will recover but not live.  The meaning to this becomes clearer in the verses that follow:  Hazael is a ruthless and wicked man who will ascend to power after Ben-hadad dies and will be the bane of Israel’s existence.  Elisha weeps, perhaps in part because with Jehoram reflecting on the miracles which the LORD has wrought and Ben-hadad consulting Elisha that was a flicker of hope that maybe things were turning for the better.  In looking upon Hazael, however, Elisha knew that was not meant to be and that Israel’s downward trajectory would continue unabated towards God’s judgment.  Although Elisha would not die for at least another 40 years, this passage is the last major passage talking about Elisha’s ministry.  It is with this that we will transition to the next major era in the history of Israel and Judah.

[1] See Eugene H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests; A History of Old Testament Israel, 2^nd ed. (Grand Rapids MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 366-368.

Elisha’s Miracles

Note: This lesson was taught by Kyle Simmons

I. The Miracle of the Oil (2 Kings 4:1-7)

4 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. ² And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. ³ Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. ⁴ And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. ⁵So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. ⁶ And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. ⁷ Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.

 A few things to note in this passage.  First is the existence of a community known as “the sons of the prophets.” Little is definitively known about this community, but given the Scripture references, they begin to emerge during the ministries of Elijah and particularly Elisha.  There are nine references to such a community between 1 Kings 20 and 2 Kings 9 (1 Kings 20:35; 2 Kings 2:3, 5, 7, 15; 4:1, 38, 5:22, 6:1, and 9:1), and the community seemed to exist exclusively in the northern kingdom of Israel.  Commentators have described the variously as a guild, a class, or a school, but it may be best to think of them as an organized remnant of the godly in Israel.  As most of these references are associated with Elisha, it is likely that he was the leader of this community.  The purpose of this community was to maintain faithfulness to the LORD and speak His truth to the nation in light of the apostasy and idolatry of the day.

In this passage it is not surprising that the widow of one of these “sons of the prophets” was so impoverished that her sons were going to be taken into slavery.  If this is a community of the godly remnant, then people almost certainly had to make sacrifices for their faithfulness and, by not going along with the official religion, would be financially strapped.  What this episode shows is that God provides for His faithful servants.  Here it was not a handout, but the means by which she could raise the money to pay her debts.  Although this is a miracle, it was done in private. This preserved her dignity, while providing for her needs.  The care of widows and orphans is an important mark of the covenantal community, and in the New Testament, this can be seen in Paul’s description of the care for widows in 1 Tim. 5:2-16.

II. The Shunammite Woman and Her Son (2 Kings 4:8-37)

⁸ And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. ⁹ And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. ¹⁰ Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither. ¹¹ And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there. ¹² And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him. ¹³ And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people. ¹⁴ And he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no child, and her husband is old. ¹⁵ And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door. ¹⁶ And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid. ¹⁷ And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life.

¹⁸ And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers. ¹⁹ And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. ²⁰ And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. ²¹ And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out. ²² And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again. ²³ And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well. ²⁴ Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee. ²⁵ So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite: ²⁶ Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well. ²⁷ And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. ²⁸ Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me? ²⁹ Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child. ³⁰ And the mother of the child said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her. ³¹ And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awaked. ³² And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. ³³ He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord. ³⁴ And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. ³⁵ Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. ³⁶ And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. ³⁷ Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out.

Here is an account of another woman associated with the ministry of Elisha, this time a wealthy woman further to the north in Shunem.  Shunem is in the territory of Issachar, on the southern slope of Mount Moreh, near Jezreel.  The Shunammite woman recognized that Elisha was a genuine man of God, and she made her house into a lodging point for when Elisha was in the region.  She is not looking for anything in return, but Elisha does want to bless her in some way.  Elisha’s servant Gehazi recognizes that she has no children, and her husband is old, which means that when he dies, she could be left destitute, with no one to care for her.  So, God, through Elisha, promises her a son, which is born the following year.  Years later, that boy suffers some kind of ailment with his head and dies.  The woman puts him in the room where Elisha would usually stay, and then goes on a 17-mile journey to seek Elisha out personally, both to pour out her grief to him but also with an expectation that he can do something about it, which he does.  Like Elijah in Zarephath on the Sidonian coast (1 Kings 17:8-24), Elisha raises the boy from the dead.  In the case with Elijah, the miracle proved to the Zidonian woman that Elijah was truly a man of God and that the word of the LORD was in his mouth.  With the Shunammite woman, it proved her faith that the same was true for Elisha as well.

It is worth noting that these miracles, and particularly the one regarding the Shunammite woman, point forward to the earthly ministry of Christ Jesus.  Luke 7:11-17 records Christ performing a similar miracle in Nain.  Nain is on the north side of Mount Moreh, near Shunem.  No doubt word of Elisha resurrecting the Shunammite woman’s son probably became entrenched as part of the local tradition of that area.  Jesus’s miracle was the first of three resurrections that He performed in His ministry, which included the healing of Jairus’s daughter (Luke 8:40-56) and of Lazarus (John 11:38-44).  Given the tradition associated with Elisha, when Jesus healed the son of the widow of Nain, it almost certainly would have been seen in the same light, namely as a confirmation that Jesus was indeed a man of God and that word of God was truly in Him.

III. “Death in the Pot” (2 Kings 4:38-41)

³⁸ And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. ³⁹ And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. ⁴⁰ So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. ⁴¹ But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.

In this passage, we return again to the sons of the prophets community, this time in Gilgal, which is near Bethel, and was probably the center of the prophetic community.  Here, the failure of the one gathering the herbs to accurately identify the poisonous gourds could have led to the poisoning of the main community.  Had that poisoning been fatal, it would have struck a severe blow to the faithful witness in Israel.  Elisha’s response in curing the stew shows the graciousness of God in protecting and sustaining His people.

IV. Feeding a Multitude (2 Kings 4:42-44)

⁴² And there came a man from Baal-shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat. ⁴³ And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. ⁴⁴ So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord.

Baal-shalisha is a village near Gilgal, in the hill country of Ephraim, so again, near to the center of the sons of the prophets community.  He is bringing food to the community but (in his mind) it is not sufficient to feed the entire community of one hundred or so men.  He is told nevertheless to set it before the community, which he does and the men ate and had bread left over.  This clearly anticipates Christ’s miracles of the feeding of the 5,000 at Bethsaida (Matt. 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-14) and the feeding of the 4,000 at Decapolis (Matt. 15:32-39, Mark 8:1-9).  Again, this is a miracle of God providing for and sustaining His people as try to be faithful to Him.

V. Naaman’s Leprosy (2 Kings 5:1-27)

5 Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. ² And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. ³ And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. ⁴ And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. ⁵ And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. ⁶ And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. ⁷ And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. ⁸ And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. ⁹ So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. ¹⁰ And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. ¹¹ But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. ¹² Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. ¹³ And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? ¹⁴ Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

¹⁵ And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. ¹⁶ But he said, As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused. ¹⁷ And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules’ burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord. ¹⁸ In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. ¹⁹ And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.

²⁰ But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him. ²¹ So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well? ²² And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments. ²³ And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him. ²⁴ And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed. ²⁵But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither. ²⁶ And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants? ²⁷ The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.

There are a lot of things going on in this account.  There had been continuing frictions between the House of Ahab in Israel and Ben-Hadad, the king of Damascus in Syria.  It is in the course of these border frictions that a young girl was captured and made a servant in the house of Aram’s military commander, Naaman the Syrian.  When Naaman contracts leprosy, it is the servant girl who suggests he can be healed by Elisha, the prophet in Israel.  Rather than seeking him out privately, Naaman accompanies a diplomatic entourage to Samaria to first engage Jehoram, king of Israel, on the assumption that a prophet operating within Israel would actually be in the court of the king.  Jehoram’s spiritual blindness is such, however, that he completely misreads Syrian intentions and assumes that it is a provocation to initiate a war.  Elisha, upon hearing of the king’s reaction, sees this as an opportunity to demonstrate that there is a genuine prophet in Israel.  When Naaman comes to Elisha’s house, he is simply told to go and wash himself in the Jordan seven times.  At first indignant, he is confronted by his servants for his unbelief and backs down.  The washing in the Jordan actually heals Naaman by God’s grace, resulting in him being healed of his leprosy and in praising God.  Naaman’s confession of the true God and his newfound faith, contrasts starkly with the lack of faith of Jehoram and with greedy exploitation of Naaman by Elisha’s servant, Gehazi.

This experience would have been a prophetic warning to Israel that without repentance, it too would become unclean and would be banished from God’s presence, but that if it repented, then it too would be blessed.  Indeed, God’s blessing is not limited to Israel alone, but would be expanded to include the Gentiles.  This incident would also prefigure the truth we see in the New Testament, that grace entirely is by faith alone.  It cannot be bought or sold.  This is especially true of the salvation extended to us by God through Christ Jesus.

VI. The Floating Axe Head (2 Kings 6:1-7)

6 And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us. ² Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. ³ And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. ⁴So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. ⁵But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, master! for it was borrowed. ⁶ And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim. ⁷ Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.

Again we see God’s providence in providing for the community of the sons of the prophets.  In this particular age, iron tools probably were very expensive, and to accidently lose one could be financially costly, perhaps even to the point of risking indentured servitude to repay the debt.  Recovering the iron axe head, therefore, would have been cause for great rejoicing.

VII. The Significance of These Miracles

All these accounts beg the question as to why they are in 1 and 2 Kings, or, a better question is, “How do these narratives advance the overall theme of these two books?”  Remember, Jeremiah wrote these books to those in exile to explain why God’s chosen lost their land and were driven into exile.  These chapters notably deviate from the focus on kings.  The chapters on the kings focus on the retrograde actions they took or failed to take which contributed to the downward, unbelieving spiral.  These chapters, however, focus on the believing remnant, highlighting God’s miraculous providence for His faithful people.  To a people in exile, this provides a positive example for them to follow during their exile, namely to hold fast in faith to their God, who has delivered and will continue to deliver his people, and to follow true prophets speaking the true words of God.  This example is one that still applies to us even today.