A Family’s Hospitality Is Rewarded
Elisha’s kindly spirit enabled him to exert a powerful influence over many in Israel. We see this in the story of his friendly dealings with a family at Shunem. In his travels here and there, one day “Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat some food.” 2 Kings 4:8. The lady of the house recognized that Elisha was a “holy man of God,” and she said to her husband, “Let us make a small upper room on the wall; and let us put a bed for him there, and a table and chair and a lampstand; so it will be, whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there.” Elisha often came to this retreat. God took notice of the woman’s kindness. She had been childless, and now the Lord rewarded her hospitality by the gift of a son.RR 87.6
Years passed, and the child was old enough to be out in the field with the reapers. One day he was stricken by the heat, “and he said to his father, ‘My head, my head!’” A young man carried the child to his mother, and “when he had ... brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went out.”RR 88.1
In her distress, the woman determined to go to Elisha for help. She set out immediately with her servant. “When the man of God saw her afar off, ... he said to his servant Gehazi, ‘Look, the Shunammite woman! Please run now to meet her, and say to her, “Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?”’” But the stricken mother did not reveal the cause of her sorrow until she reached Elisha. When he learned of her loss, Elisha told Gehazi, “Take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. ... Lay my staff on the face of the child.”RR 88.2
But the mother would not be satisfied till Elisha himself came with her. “I will not leave you,” she declared. So “he arose and followed her. Now Gehazi went on ahead of them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice nor hearing. Therefore he went back to meet him, and told him, saying, ‘The child has not awakened.’”RR 88.3
When they reached the house, Elisha went into the room where the dead child lay, “shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. And he went up and lay upon the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands; and he stretched himself out upon the child, and the flesh of the child became warm. He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him; then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.” The faith of this woman was rewarded. Christ, the great Life-Giver, restored her son to her.RR 88.4
His faithful ones will be rewarded too, at His coming, when Jesus robs the grave of the victory it has claimed. Then He will restore to His servants the children that have been taken from them by death.RR 88.5
Jesus comforts our sorrow for the dead with a message of infinite hope: “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. ... And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” Revelation 1:18. “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17, KJV.RR 88.6
Elisha’s ministry combined the work of healing with teaching. All through his long and effective labors, Elisha fostered the educational work of the schools of the prophets. The deep movings of the Holy Spirit confirmed his instruction to the earnest groups of young men.RR 89.1