2nd Kings chapter 4 and we're
going through to verse 18. 2nd Kings chapter 4 and verse
18. We're continuing our account
from the life of Elisha. And when the child was grown,
it fell on a day that he went out to his father, to the reapers. And he said unto his father,
my head, my head. And he said to the lad, 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 her,
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 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. And the mother of the child said,
As the Lord liveth, and as my 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 awake. When Elisha was come into the
house, behold, the child was dead and laid upon his bed. And 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 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. May God bless to us the reading
of this wonderful passage of the word of God. You know, sometimes sad and difficult
things happen to us in our lives. And while this is a story principally
for the younger people amongst us, we all need to know that
disappointment comes into the lives of boys and girls, mums
and dads, men and women from time to time. Last week, we read
a little bit about the death of this little boy that had been
born to a lady who worshipped God. And so that reminds us that
bad things or hard things, difficult things happen to those who love
the Lord as well as to other people. And this lady loved God
and she worshipped God and she showed great kindness to God's
prophet, Elisha. We ought to remember that none
of us deserve God's goodness. And if the Lord is kind to us
with good gifts, we must be both grateful and careful not to be
angry if he takes those gifts away from us. Perhaps one of
the first questions that we might ask in this narrative is, why
would God give? That's what the lady asked. Why
would God give a child and then take that child away? Why would
he do that? Well, you know, I think there
are probably a number of important reasons why this event happened
in this lady's life. I don't think that there's any
question that God wished, even in the Old Testament, to reveal
to his people that he has power over life and death. And we need
to remember that the God that we trust has power over life
and death. That is physical life and that
is spiritual life. And the way in which we understand
the power of God over spiritual life and death is by understanding
his power over physical life and death. Remember what the
scribes said, who is this man? They were speaking about Jesus.
who claims power to forgive sins. And the Lord said, is it easier
for me to say to this man, rise, take up your bed and walk than
to say your sins are forgiven? He showed by the miracles that
he did that he had power over life and death in the spiritual
realm. And so too, We see that these
things point forward for all of us to understand something
of the importance of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
here is a principle for us all. If the Lord gives us grace, and
if the Lord gives us good things, the Lord will also bring with
those good things exercises that will test our faith. They must be afflicted. The faith
of the people of God must be tried on the purpose that the
Lord's people will thereby turn to the Lord and trust on Him. When this lady's little boy died,
she laid him down on Elisha's bed and she went to see the prophet. She took an ass and she went
to find Elisha. He was at Mount Carmel, that
was probably something like 15 to 20 miles away. So she had
a long journey to take. But it's a good lesson for us
all. When we are sad, When we are in trouble, when we are tried,
we should go to the Lord. Before we do anything else, we
go to the Lord. He has brought these trials upon
us. we take them back to him and
we leave them at his feet. And this is what the lady did.
By the revelation that she had in her time, she knew that God
was represented here in this man Elisha. So she went to where
the word of the Lord was to be found at the mouth of Elisha. And whether we're older or whether
we're just young, whether we're little ones, It is good when
we are in need always to go to the Lord and we should learn
to pray. I hope that you learn to pray as children because the
Lord is pleased to receive the prayers of children and he is
pleased to hear us and to answer those prayers. When Elisha saw
the lady coming, he sent Gehazi, his servant, out to see her. Now, I think Elisha was probably
up on the top of a hill because Carmel was a mountain, Mount
Carmel. And he probably stayed in some
caves. There are lots of caves in Mount
Carmel. And I imagine that he could look over the plain and
see this lady coming. And he recognised her quite a
long way away. And so he sent his servant and
he said, go and ask the lady if everything's all right. And
the lady said to Gehazi, yes, everything is fine. She said that, I think, not because
everything was fine, but because she knew that Gehazi wasn't the
person who needed to hear her trouble at this time. She knew
that Gehazi wasn't the person that she was looking for. She
needed Elisha. Later, Elisha would send Gehazi
with the prophet's staff to the boy's side. But again, we see
here that Gehazi was not the man for the job, even with the
staff of the prophet. I think Gehazi is a little bit
like religion for some people. Some people like the idea of
having God in their lives, but they become taken up with
the things around about the faith of God. They become taken up
with the temporal things of religion, the outward things of religion,
and they never truly come to the Saviour. It would be as if
this lady had stopped in her tracks and started explaining
everything to Gehazi. What value was that? She needed
Elisha, or rather she needed the Lord of Elisha. And so she
made her way to where her help was to be found. True faith.
is powerful, and it is real, and it is lively, and it is sweet. And we must take all our troubles
to the Lord. It has to be a personal relationship
with God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The lady knew she
needed delicious God, and she would not leave the prophet. The Bible teaches that we have
to be patient in this life and also that we have to have persistence. And this lady said to Elisha,
when Elisha sent Gehazi off with his staff back to her home, she
said to Elisha, as the Lord liveth and as my soul liveth, I will
not leave thee. You see, here was a lady who
was a true Convinced and humble believer in God. And she knew
that she had to stay with God's word. She had to stay with God's
man and not be diverted or distracted away. She bowed at the feet of
God. And these were fine words that
the lady spoke because she knew where her only hope lay. And I hope that some of the younger
people here as well will learn as this woman did where their
true hope lies. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a time in the life
of our Saviour when He was with His disciples and in John chapter
6 He asked them if they would be going away like so many other
people went away. And Peter answered and said to
Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. That woman understood that. She
knew that the words of life were only with Elisha, were only with
God, were only with God's man, the Lord Jesus Christ. So Elisha
went with the lady. Perhaps now, having made this
journey, all day it was dark as they made their way back across
the fields and the plain in order to get to her home in Shunem.
I wonder what they talked about. I wonder if she prayed. I wonder
if Elisha prayed as they made their way through the darkness
back to that lady's home where her little dead boy lay. Look
at verse 32 with me, please. 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. Observe how the prophet laboured
in this situation. See him laboring with God for
the life of this child. He shut the door. There is privacy
about spiritual experience. It's not something that happens
in a crowd, not something that happens when we are too busy.
There is to be a quietness and a privacy about our dealing with
God. And he prayed. because he knew
that there was no spiritual power except that the Lord Jesus Christ
would grant it. And he worked. He embraced the
boy. He held the boy. He laid down
beside the boy as if holding the dead by the living. And life came back to him. and
the prophet gave him back to his mother. I think the lesson on this story
for us all this morning is this. God here was being gracious to
teach these Old Testament people all those years ago about the
resurrection from the dead. And in doing so, he was pointing
to the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, I am the resurrection and
the life. Elisha had to pray for a miracle,
but our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, commands death to give
up its prize. Elisha waited on God's mercy,
but our Lord Jesus Christ is God. how blessed we are to be
able to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, to pray to Him, to bring
before Him our troubles and our trials and our hardships, and
to know that He has power to do all things, and He is the
power over life and death. Spiritually speaking, we understand
these things today, to be revealing that the Lord Jesus Christ can
give us life in our hearts and in our souls. May we be a people
who are ready to go to him and seek these gifts at his hand.
Amen.