2 Kings 4:18 - Meaning and Application

We can reasonably think that after this son was born, the prophet became even more welcome to the good Shunammite woman. He had once felt indebted to her, but from then on, as long as she lived, she would feel she owed him everything and could never do enough for him. We can also think the child was very dear to the prophet, because he was the son given in answer to prayer, and very dear to the parents, because he came in their old age.

Now we see, first, the child’s sudden death, even though he was so loved. He was old enough to go out into the field to his father, who no doubt enjoyed his lively talk, and took more joy in his son than in his harvest. But either the cold or the heat of the open field overcame the tenderly raised child, and he complained to his father that his head hurt (2 Kings 4:19). Where should we bring our complaints except to our heavenly Father? The Spirit of adoption, the Spirit who brings believers into God’s family, leads them to come to him with all their troubles and desires, teaching them to cry out with deep groans, “My head, my head; my heart, my heart.”

The father sent him to his mother’s arms, not suspecting danger in his illness, and hoping he would fall asleep in her lap and wake up well. But the sickness proved fatal. He fell asleep in death (2 Kings 4:20). He was well in the morning and dead by noon. All his mother’s care and tenderness could not keep him alive. A child of promise, a child of prayer, and a child given in love was still taken away. Little children are open to sickness and death.

Yet how beautifully this wise and godly mother guarded her lips under such a shocking loss. Not one bitter or complaining word came from her. She believed strongly that the child would live again. Like a true daughter of Abraham, in both faith and family line, she believed that God was able to raise him from the dead, because in a figure she had received him from the dead in the first place (Hebrews 11:19). She had heard of Elijah raising the widow’s son in Zarephath, and she knew Elisha had the same Spirit resting on him. So she trusted God’s goodness enough to believe that he who had so quickly taken away what he had given would also give it back. By this kind of faith, women received their dead back to life (Hebrews 11:35). Acting in that faith, she made no plans for burial, but for resurrection, laying him on the prophet’s bed (2 Kings 4:21), expecting that he would help her. O woman, great is your faith. The one who gave it would not let it be wasted.

Second, the grieving mother went to the prophet at this sad time. It was providential that he was then at the school of the prophets on Mount Carmel, not far away. She first asked her husband’s permission to go to the prophet, but did not tell him why, fearing he might not have enough faith to let her go (2 Kings 4:22). He objected, “It is neither the new moon nor the Sabbath” (2 Kings 4:23). This suggests that on those holy days she usually went with other godly people to the assembly where he led worship, to hear God’s word and join in prayers and praise. She did not think it enough to have his spiritual help only at home. Even as a woman of rank, she attended public worship, though this was not one of the appointed times. So her husband said, “Why are you going today? What is the matter?” She answered, “All is well. You will agree with me about it later.”

See how this husband and wife matched each other in kindness. She was so respectful that she would not go until she had told him of her trip. He was so kind that he did not stop her, even though she did not tell him her reason.

She hurried as fast as she could to the prophet (2 Kings 4:24). When he saw her from far off, he sent his servant to ask whether anything was wrong (2 Kings 4:25-26). His questions were careful: Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child? It fits the servants of God to ask after their friends and families with tenderness and concern. She answered only, “It is well.” Gehazi was not the one she came to complain to, so she gave him a brief answer. She said little, and when little is said, the matter is often easier to handle (Psalm 39:1-2). Yet even that little was patient: “It is well with me, with my husband, with the child.” And yet the child was dead in the house.

When God takes our dearest loved ones by death, it becomes us quietly to say, “It is well” both for us and for them. It is well, because everything God does is right. It is well for those who have gone, if they have gone to heaven. It is well for those who remain, if the affliction helps us move closer to heaven.

When she reached the prophet, she humbly pleaded with him about her sorrow. She fell at his feet, full of grief, which she had not shown until she came to the one she believed could help her (2 Kings 4:27). She knew when to let her pain show, and when to hold it back. Gehazi knew his master would not like to see her lying at his feet, so he wanted to lift her up. But Elisha waited to hear from her, since he did not yet know from God what had caused her trouble. God reveals things to his prophets as he chooses, not always when they want.

Her words were full of feeling. She spoke to the prophet about how little she had wanted this mercy before it was taken from her: “Did I ask my lord for a son? No, you know I did not. It was your own promise, not my request. I did not long for a son like Hannah, nor cry out like Rachel, ‘Give me children, or I die.’” When any earthly comfort is taken from us, it is good if grace lets us say we never clung to it too tightly. If we did, we should fear it may have been given in anger and taken away in anger.

She also spoke of her complete trust in the prophet’s word: “Did I not say, Do not deceive me?” She really had said that before (2 Kings 4:16). This may be taken in two ways. It may mean she was tempted to think the prophet had deceived her, and that she had been mocked by a mercy that was so quickly removed. She may have felt it would have been better never to have had the child than to lose him just as she began to enjoy him. We should not let the loss of a blessing make us think lightly of the gift itself.

Or she may have been using those words to plead for the child’s life. “I told you, Do not deceive me, and I know you will not.” Whatever disappointments come through providence, we may be sure God’s promise never deceives us, and never will. Hope placed in that promise will never end in shame.

Third, we come to the raising of the child to life again.

We may suppose that the woman gave Elisha a fuller account of her child’s death, and that he gave her a fuller promise that the child would rise again, than the short account here records. Here we are only told briefly that Elisha sent Gehazi in great haste to the dead child, gave him his staff, and told him to lay it on the child’s face (2 Kings 4:29). I do not know exactly what to make of this. Elisha knew that Elijah had raised a dead child by a very close act, stretching himself out over the child and praying again and again. So could he really expect to raise this child by such a slight action, especially when nothing kept him from going himself? Could such power be handed over to Gehazi, and to no better man than he?

Bishop Hall suggests that Elisha acted from human thought rather than from direct guidance from God, and that is why it did not work. God does not let great gifts be treated too cheaply, and they are not given too easily, or people will think little of them. The woman refused to go back without the prophet himself (2 Kings 4:30): “I will not leave you.” She had little hope in the staff. She wanted the prophet’s own presence, and in that she was right. Perhaps God meant to teach us not to place in servants the trust that belongs only to the power of the Creator, their Master and ours.

Gehazi came back with no success, and no sign of life in the child (2 Kings 4:31). He said, “The child is not awakened.” That word brought comfort to the mother, because it suggested that the child’s death was only sleep, and that he expected the child would soon wake. In raising spiritually dead souls to new life, ministers can do no more by their own power than Gehazi could do here. They place the word before people, like the prophet’s staff, but there is no response until Christ comes himself by his Spirit. The written law alone brings death, but the Spirit gives life. Preaching to dry bones will not make them live unless breath comes from heaven and breathes on the slain.

The prophet then obtained from God, by earnest prayer, the restoration of this dead child to life. He found the child dead on his own bed (2 Kings 4:32), and he shut the door on the two of them (2 Kings 4:33). Even in death, the child is spoken of as one of the two, because he was still in being and not lost. Elisha shut out everyone else so that he would not seem to boast in the power God had given him, or use it as a display before people.

Notice how closely the prophet gave himself to this great work. Perhaps he felt that he had gone too far in trying to do it by the staff in Gehazi’s hand, and that the failed attempt was a rebuke. He now found it a harder task than he had first thought, so he approached it with great seriousness. He prayed to the Lord (2 Kings 4:33), likely as Elijah had done, asking that the child’s soul would return. Christ raised the dead with authority, saying, “Little girl, get up,” “Young man, I say to you, get up,” and “Lazarus, come out” because he was powerful and faithful as the Son, the Lord of life. But Elijah and Elisha did it by asking, as servants.

Elisha then lay on the child (2 Kings 4:34), as if he might pass on some of his own warmth or life. In this way he showed how earnestly he desired the child’s recovery, and he gave a sign of the divine power he was depending on. First he put his mouth to the child’s mouth, as if, in God’s name, he would breathe in the breath of life. Then his eyes to the child’s eyes, to open them again to the light of life. Then his hands to the child’s hands, to give strength to them. After that he went back and walked in the house, full of concern and fully focused on what he was doing.

Then he went up again and stretched himself on the child a second time (2 Kings 4:35). Those who want to help bring spiritual life to dead souls must be moved by their need in this way, fit themselves to their case, and pray earnestly for them. The work was done step by step. At the first touch, the child’s flesh grew warm (2 Kings 4:34), which gave the prophet reason to keep praying without giving up. After a while, the child sneezed seven times, which showed not only life, but full vitality.

Some have said that an old tradition claims that when God breathed the breath of life into Adam, the first sign that he was alive was sneezing, and this led to the custom of showing respect to those who sneeze. Others have noticed that sneezing clears the head, and that was the part of the body affected in this child’s illness. At last the child was brought back alive to his mother (2 Kings 4:36, 2 Kings 4:37), and everyone involved was greatly comforted (Acts 20:12). See the power of God, who kills and makes alive again. See the power of prayer, which, as it has the key to the clouds, also has the key to death. See the power of faith, for even the fixed rule of nature, that death is a road with no return, will give way rather than let this believing Shunammite be disappointed.