We're going now to our young people's address and we're going to 2nd Kings chapter 4. We're continuing in these chapters in the early part of the book of 2nd Kings that speak to us about Elisha, predominantly Elisha, and all of the things that were happening, occurring in his life as he served the Lord in the land of Israel. So we have particularly in mind the young people, but if you don't consider yourself young, you're still free to listen in. And we trust that the Lord will bless these thoughts to us. So we're going to 2 Kings chapter 4. There we are.

2nd Kings chapter 4 and we're going to read from verse 18 2nd Kings chapter 4 and verse 18 And when the child that is the child of the Shunammite woman when the child was grown it fell on a day that he went out to his father to the reapers and And he said unto his father, my head, my head.

And he said to a lad, carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him and 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 and shut the door upon him and went out. 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.

And he said, wherefore wilt thou go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath. And she said, it shall be well. Then she saddled an ass and said to her servant, Drive and go forward, slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee. 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, 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. 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. Then she said, Did I desire a son of my Lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me? Then he said to Gehazi, gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy 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.' 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. 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. And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord, 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.

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. And he called Gehazi and said, call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when he was come in and when she was come in unto him, he said, take up thy son. Then she went in and fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground and took up her son and went out.

Amen. May the Lord bless to us this reading from his word. Last week we learned how the Lord blessed the Shunammite woman with a son for the sake of her kindness to Elisha. She had provided him a little room on her property so that he could rest and recuperate, perhaps study a little while on his journeys. But here is a fact. that we all should know. Here is a fact about the Lord's dealings with his people. In this life, the Lord's people will be tried and tested. And so it proved with this Shunammite.

Who'd have thought that a blessing given would be so soon removed? Who would have expected this child given as a blessing from God, a gift from God, given as a result of a prophet's prayer and his desire to do good to this woman for her kindness? Who would have thought that she should so soon suffer such a loss or the child such an illness? I think it would be safe to say that none of us expected this story to develop in this way. Yet it is the lesson of Scripture to teach the Lord's people that trouble will come and for us to remember the faith of the Shunammites.

Several years pass, and the child is old enough to go out to the fields at harvest time with his father. I don't know what age he would be, maybe six or seven, but interestingly, the father is well enough to be supervising the gathering of wheat. I say interesting because you'll remember that Gehazi thought him too old to have children. But parenthood seems to have done the old man good and it seems to have kept him fit and active.

But something is wrong and the child begins to cry. He cries, my head, my head. Perhaps he's had sunstroke. It was a hot time of year. It was harvest time, although it was not the hottest part of the day. Maybe it was an infection and some fever that had taken hold of him.

His father, probably unable to leave the field for the work that is being done, perhaps he is active himself in the work, gives orders to take the child home to his mother, hoping no doubt that she might be able to give him something to ease his pain. Back home, the Shunammite cradled the child in her lap. And she cradled him until noon, when we're told that the child expired and died.

What a heavy heart she must have had. And yet, it does not appear that she sinks into depression or despair. Because now we see the true character of this woman shine forth. She's a woman of faith. She's a woman of extraordinary faith. We would say great faith. She believes the Lord will raise her child to life again.

And she neither announces the death to other members in the household. She doesn't go back to the fields to where the husband is working. She doesn't prepare the body for burial. Her thoughts at once turned to the prophet and to the Lord. Elisha had prayed to God and given her the child once. She will have him pray again and have the child restored to her alive. And she lays her son's body on the bed of Elisha.

She shields it from disturbance and she calls her husband to provide and asks for a journey to Mount Carmel. I don't know what distance that would be. He can't understand why she is going. But her words are these, it shall be well. And these words confirm her trust in the Lord, her confidence in this task that she is embarking upon. I want to draw your attention to a little verse in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 35, where it says, women received their dead raised to life again. And I have wondered whether perhaps, if it's the Apostle Paul that's writing the book of the Hebrews, whether perhaps that was a direct reference to this Shunammite woman. Perhaps she is the very one that the writer to the Hebrews is referring to when he writes, women received their dead raised to life again. Off she goes with her servant to Mount Carmel as fast as she can.

From his elevated position, Elisha sees her coming in the valley down below. And he sends Gehazi to inquire what ails her. Elisha's perplexed. He realises something is wrong. But the Lord has not revealed to him what it is. And she won't tell Gehazi. Her words are for Elisha alone. When she arrives with the prophet, she falls to the ground and lays hold upon his feet.

Gehazi, well, he's a bit affronted by this example of passion. He tries to intervene. Push the lady away. But Elisha prevents him. Elisha realises how sorely distressed the woman is and she unburdens her soul to the man of God and she asks for his help. At once Elisha dispatches Gehazi with the prophet's staff, with his stick. to go with speed and touch the body.

Now I'm not altogether sure what was intended by this. Be that as it may, the Shunammite was not impressed. We might say good for her. She will not return except Elisha go with her. And he consents to do so. Gehazi, as he was instructed, runs ahead and he lays the staff upon the child as he was told, as Elisha instructed, but there's no response. And unsuccessful, he returns to his master with that news. When Elisha arrived, he entered the room alone. The child lay dead and Elisha began earnestly to pray to the Lord. he lay upon the child's body.

Or perhaps he was laying beside the body so as not to crush it. Either way, placing mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands, all which might have been done even by embracing the child, holding the child's corpse close to himself. And we learn that warmth slowly began to return to the child's body.

But it was not immediate. Elisha pauses in his activity. He leaves off. He paces the room, no doubt praying earnestly for the Lord's help. He returns to the boy's body and he repeats the process. And suddenly the boy sneezed. Not one time, but seven times. As if perhaps to expel all the sickness out of his body. And he opens his eyes.

Elisha called his servant to fetch the Shunammite and he returned her son to him. Sorry, to her. He returned her son to her. With joy, she fell at Elisha's feet. She bowed herself once again to the ground. She took up her son in her arms and she went out.

Her faith was justified by God's goodness and mercy. And here are some lessons which I think we can take from this passage. The first one is this. I think this Shunammite is a great example of faith in the Old Testament. From the moment this child died in his mother's arms, she was a woman on a mission.

She seemed to have been convinced that the Lord wouldn't give this child only to take him away again. Perhaps she was drawing on the history of the Jewish nation. Perhaps she was thinking about Abraham. Because this was similar to Abraham with Isaac. Abraham trusted the Lord could raise his son from the dead. Abraham knew that the promises God had given him were incompatible with the death of his son. And so Abraham trusted the Lord for the resurrection of his son. And perhaps it was that the Shunammite drew upon that principle. Because the same conviction rested upon this dear lady's heart. She wisely took her trouble. She took her need to the Lord's servant and by him, by Elisha, to the Lord himself. Now let me be clear, the lesson here is not that we can bring dead children back to life if only we believe hard enough. That's not what this passage is teaching us at all. That is not what these old miracles are showing us.

The miracle points to Christ, we know that. It points to Christ and it teaches us about faith in him. The lesson is this, there is life, there is spiritual life, there is eternal life to be found in trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what the Lord is telling us in this account. God the Holy Spirit imparted faith as a gift to this woman.

He gave her that conviction that it would be well. That's what she testified to her husband. He wondered why is she going to see the prophet? She knew that it would be well. She had faith to believe that it would be well. Faith that God would give her the life of the child. And she went to Elisha in demonstration of that faith.

The parallel then for us is that when the Holy Spirit gives faith to a sinner like you and me who are dead in sins, we go in faith not to Elisha, but to the Lord Jesus. We go to the Lord Jesus to obtain spiritual and eternal life that God is pleased to give to those whom he loves. Elisha was God's representative in these Old Testament days, and our Lord Jesus Christ is our representative with God, our mediator, our advocate with God today. And this is our application. If we trust in the Lord, as this woman trusted in the Lord, we shall be delivered from eternal punishment. We shall be saved to new life in Christ. We shall be partakers by grace of the divine nature and Christ's own holiness. Here's another wee lesson for us. As we've mentioned, as always, these Old Testament miracles point us to Christ in a special and powerful way.

But did you notice that it was only when Elisha came to the child that life was restored? Gehazi brought Elisha's staff and he touched the child. He touched the child with the stick, but no life came by the stick. Likewise, the Lord sends his ministers, his servants, to set the gospel before men and women and boys and girls, to, as it were, lay it on them, to speak it to them, to pray over them, to care for them.

But preachers can't give spiritual life. They can't make dead sinners live. That's God's work alone. We are blessed and I trust grateful when the Lord sends us a preacher. But what we must have is the Lord himself. The Shunammite realized this and she humbly took hold of Elisha's feet and she would not let them go except he came with her. She knew only he could make the difference and fulfill her need. So may we too be so convinced that we must have the Lord that nothing and no one else will do in our life.

It isn't the doctrine that we know. It isn't the Bible knowledge that we have. It isn't trying to do our best, trying to do good or seeking to be moral or upright. What we need, what you need, what I need is redemption and forgiveness of sin and Christ to save our souls. And lastly, just this.

We saw a few weeks ago how Elijah, not Elisha, but Elijah, raised the son of the widow of Sarepta to life. That woman that had given Elijah help during the time of the famine and the drought in Israel. Now Elisha raises the Shunammite's son. So here we have two resurrections of two boys by these two prophets. But do not imagine that these resurrections were commonplace. They were very rare. But they are recorded in the lives of the prophets and in scripture to open to the Old Testament people the possibility of resurrection and to prepare the church for the resurrection of Christ.

Elijah prayed to God for the widow's son and lay on him just as Elisha did here. Perhaps he did that in imitation of Elijah. But the Lord Jesus Christ did not pray for life. He commanded it as God. He commanded that life come into the dead corpses of those whom he raised from the dead. To Jairus' daughter, he said, maid, arise. To the widow of Nain's son, he said, young man, I say unto thee, arise. To Lazarus, he said, Lazarus, come forth. Do you see the difference? Christ is God, with power over life and death. He said, I am the resurrection and the life.

He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Such a one will have spiritual life. Such a one will have eternal life in me. We believe in resurrection. We believe in resurrection from spiritual death when we first trust in Christ and are converted. We believe in bodily resurrection in the last day when the Lord Jesus Christ will come again to take the church to heaven.

Next week, I am going to bury the body of our sister, Annabelle, one of the ladies that used to come to this service every week. But although we will put Annabelle's body into the ground, her body will not lie in her grave forever. The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4, for 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. May the Lord give us faith to trust Christ, to trust him for spiritual life, to trust him for forgiveness, and to trust him for everlasting life in heaven. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us.