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Scott's Reference Library
2 Kings 4:8 through 2 Kings 4:17 (NIV)
8One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged
him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. 9She
said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man
of God. 10Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a
chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”
11One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. 12He said
to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood
before him. 13Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble
for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or
the commander of the army?’”
She replied, “I have a home among my own people.”
14“What can be done for her?” Elisha asked.
Gehazi said, “Well, she has no son and her husband is old.”
15Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway.
16“About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.”
“No, my lord,” she objected. “Don’t mislead your servant, O man of God!”
17But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave
birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.
2 Kings 4:32 through 2 Kings 4:37 (NIV)
32When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch.
33He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD. 34Then he
got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to
hands. As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy’s body grew warm. 35Elisha
turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and
stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his
eyes.
36Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she
came, he said, “Take your son.” 37She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the
ground. Then she took her son and went out.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 8-17
Elisha was well thought of by the king of Israel for his late services; a good
man can take as much pleasure in serving others, as in raising himself. But the
Shunammite needed not any good offices of this kind. It is a happiness to dwell
among our own people, that love and respect us, and to whom we are able to do
good. It would be well with many, if they did but know when they are really well
off. The Lord sees the secret wish which is suppressed in obedience to his will,
and he will hear the prayers of his servants in behalf of their benefactors, by
sending unasked-for and unexpected mercies; nor must the professions of men of
God be supposed to be delusive like those of men of the world.
VERSES 18-37
Here is the sudden death of the child. All the mother’s tenderness cannot keep
alive a child of promise, a child of prayer, one given in love. But how
admirably does the prudent, pious mother, guard her lips under this sudden
affliction! Not one peevish word escapes from her. Such confidence had she of
God’s goodness, that she was ready to believe that he would restore what he had
now taken away. O woman, great is thy faith! He that wrought it, would not
disappoint it. The sorrowful mother begged leave of her husband to go to the
prophet at once. She had not thought it enough to have Elisha’s help sometimes
in her own family, but, though a woman of rank, attended on public worship. It
well becomes the men of God, to inquire about the welfare of their friends and
their families. The answer was, It is well. All well, and yet the child dead in
the house! Yes! All is well that God does; all is well with them that are gone,
if they are gone to heaven; and all well with us that stay behind, if, by the
affliction, we are furthered in our way thither. When any creature-comfort is
taken from us, it is well if we can say, through grace, that we did not set our
hearts too much upon it; for if we did, we have reason to fear it was given in
anger, and taken away in wrath. Elisha cried unto God in faith; and the beloved
son was restored alive to his mother. Those who would convey spiritual life to
dead souls, must feel deeply for their case, and labour fervently in prayer for
them. Though the minister cannot give Divine life to his fellow-sinners, he must
use every means, with as much earnestness as if he could do so.
See Healing