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2 Kings 4:8-37 – Praying through the Bible #116 – A Prayer for Resurrection Again
The Bible is filled with unnamed heroes. This nameless woman’s story sounds familiar, but that is how the Bible is inspired. God keeps telling the same stories with different characters. One reason is to show He is the God who controls history, including the written account leading up to Jesus. The comparison of Elisha to Elijah is purposeful (1 Kings 17; 2 Kings 4). Another comparison to another prophet is coming as this is another prayer for another resurrection leading to yet another.
Elisha is a traveling prophet and miracle worker. Hospitality is a cultural norm and necessity. Not too many Holiday Inns scattered along the non-existent interstate in 850 BC. This family goes even beyond what is normal or expected. For Elisha’s comfort, an unnamed woman persuades her husband to “make a small room upstairs and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp there for him” (2 Kings 4.10). Talk about going above and beyond. Puts to shame those Peter wrote to saying, “Be hospitable to one another without complaining” (1 Peter 4.9). While there needs to be a resurrection of loving hospitality among people today, that is not the resurrection emphasis of this story.
Touched by their personal service, Elisha sends his servant to ask: “What can we do for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?” (4.13). Her reply is “I am living among my own people” (4.13). Basically she is content, and possibly could be implying she did all these good things needing, expecting and wanting nothing. Long story short, Elisha discovers the couple has no child, so he promises them a son; she replies, “Do not deceive me.” The son, after a few years, dies. The bereaved mother travels to the prophet and says, “Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me?’” (4.28).
Jesus, in foreshadowed form, is the ultimate story in this story: A son born miraculously then dies and is resurrected. Elisha sends his servant, Gehazi, with his personal staff to lay on the boy. Nothing happens. Why not? Maybe, just as we are saved by the cross, it is not the physical wood, but the God-man on the cross that saves. Therefore it won’t be the staff that gives life. Before God resurrects the boy, Elisha prays. Jesus too prays on the cross. The method of restoration is peculiar and personal: “he put mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand” (2 Kings 4.34). It’s as if Elisha becomes one with and part of the boy. This resurrection scene looks substitutionary, as does Jesus’ crucifixion leading to our resurrection. Strangely, the boy sneezes seven times. Jesus said seven sayings on the cross. Is that part of the story? Sneezing is evidence of life, in a peculiar way.
The Bible is filled with stories of Jesus even when He is not named. Jesus is our crucified and resurrected hero. God knows my name.
Prayer Challenge: Do well without expectation. None of us asked for Jesus to die and be resurrected, and yet He did. Thank God for Jesus’ substitutionary sacrifice.
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