2 Kings 4:18-44 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 2 Kings 4:18-44. As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first. See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
2 Kings 4:18-37 (NIV)
18 The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers.
19 “My head! My head!” he said to his father. His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”
20 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.
21 She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.
22 She called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return.”
23 “Why go to him today?” he asked. “It’s not the New Moon or the Sabbath.” “It’s all right,” she said.
24 She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on; don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.”
25 So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite!
26 Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?'” “Everything is all right,” she said.
27 When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me why.”
28 “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”
29 Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.”
30 But the child’s mother said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.
31 Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”
32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch.
33 He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD.
34 Then 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.
35 Elisha 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.
36 Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.”
37 She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.
On verses 18-37: Here God uses Elisha to raise a dead boy back to life. We’ll look at some of the lessons we can learn from this incredible miracle when we talk about verses 42-44.
But for now notice that the Shunammite woman was willing to pour out her heart in front of Elisha, but not in front of Elisha’s servant Gehazi. It seems as if the Shunammite woman was not interested in talking to Gehazi, but only to Elisha. Also, notice that when Elisha’s servant Gehazi went at Elisha’s instruction to the dead boy by himself and touched the boy with Elisha’s staff, nothing happened. It was only with Elisha went with Gehazi that something happened.
Do you ever feel like Gehazi, Elisha’s servant? You’re serving a master who is much greater than you, and when your master sends you out, you’re not able to get the response that your master gets? What do you do when that happens? Treat it as an opportunity to be humble, to learn and to grow.
2 Kings 4:38-41 (NIV)
38 Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these men.”
39 One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine. He gathered some of its gourds and filled the fold of his cloak. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.
40 The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.
41 Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
On verses 38-41: Elisha takes a pot of stew that has apparently been contaminated and he makes the stew edible again. We’ll look at some lessons we can learn from this when we talk about verses 42-44 below.
2 Kings 4:42-44 (NIV)
42 A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.
43 “How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked. But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the LORD says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.'”
44 Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.
On verses 18-44: In these verses we see God using Elisha to effect three incredible miracles: the raising up of a dead boy (v18-37), the de-contamination of a contaminated pot of stew (v38-40), and the feeding of 100 men with 20 loaves of bread (v42-44). In each case we see the same sequence of events:
– First, someone moves in faith to bless others. Elisha speaks in faith that the rich barren woman would have a child and she does (see 2 Kings 4:16-17). Elisha offers to feed his fellow prophets in the midst of a famine (v37). A man offers his first 20 loaves of bread to Elisha (v42).
– A major challenge or problem arises. The boy dies. The stew becomes poisonous. Elisha wants to feed the 20 loaves to the people but his servant fears it won’t be enough.
– Through faith that challenge is overcome and an even greater story is told as a result. The boy is raised back to life. The pot is de-contaminated. The bread not only satisfies the 100 men but there are leftovers.
What can we learn from these miracles? Every miracle is a parable, a lesson on who God is and how God works. From these miracles I learn the following:
1. God is in the business of raising the dead, healing the sick, and feeding the hungry.
2. What seem like impossible situations for us are opportunities for God to show His power and glory.
3. When you step out in faith, you will sometimes meet a major setback (a loss, a disappointment, a defeat). Treat that setback as an opportunity for you to learn and for God to tell an even greater story than the one you originally had in mind.
4. All of these miracles foreshadow the even greater miracles Jesus would accomplish. Not only would Jesus raise the dead, but He himself would rise from the dead. Elisha decontaminated a pot; Jesus purified us so that we could be with God. Elisha feed 100 men; Jesus would feed 5,000.
Father, thank You that every miracle is a parable. Thank You that every setback is an opportunity for me to learn and for You to tell an even greater story than the one I originally had in mind. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
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