This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elisha” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 11, 1988.
About this sermon
Setting 1 Kings 17:17-24 beside 2 Kings 4:8-37, Gehazi stands for old-covenant bondage and Elisha for new-covenant liberty. The child raised in both stories points past itself to resurrection through Christ.
Sermon transcript
Tonight we are reading from 2 Kings 4, we are reading from verse 8 through verse 37. Now there came a day when Elisha passed over to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman, and she persuaded him to eat food. And so it was, as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat food.
And she said to her husband, Behold, now I perceive that this is a holy man of God passing by us continually. Please let us make a little walled upper chamber and let us set a bed for him there and a table and a chair and a lamp stand. And it shall be when he comes to us that he can turn in there.” One day he came there and turned in to the upper chamber and rested. Then he said to Gehazi, his servant, And when he had called her, she stood before him. And he said to him, say now to her, behold, you have been careful for us with all this care.
What can I do for you? Would you be spoken for to the king or to the captain of the army? And she answered, I live among my people. So he said, what then? is to be done for her, and Gehazi answered, Truly she has no son, and her husband is old. And he said, Call her. When he had called her, she stood in the doorway.
Then he said, At this season, next year, you shall embrace a son. And she said, No, my lord, O man of God, do not lie to your maidservant. And the woman conceived and bore a son at that season the next year, as Elisha had said to her. When the child was grown, the day came when he went out to his father, to the Reapers. And he said to his father, My head! My head! And he said to his servant, Carry him to his mother. When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her lap till noon and then died.
And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door behind him and went out. Then she called to her husband and said, Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys that I may run to the man of God in return. And he said, will you go to him today?
It is neither new moon nor Sabbath. And she said, it will be well. Then she saddled a donkey and said to her servant, drive and go forward. Do not slow down the pace for me unless I tell you. So she went and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. And it came about when the man of God saw her at a distance that he said to Gehazi, his servant, Behold, yonder is the Shumanite. Please run now to meet her and say to her, Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.
When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet, and Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, Let her alone, for her soul is troubled within her. And the Lord has hid it from me and has not told me. Then she said, Did I not ask for a son from my Lord? Did I ask for a son from my Lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me?
Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up your loins and take my staff in your hand and go your way. If you meet any man, do not salute him, and if anyone salutes you, do not answer him and lay my staff on the lad’s face. And the mother of the lad said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.
And he arose and followed her. Then Gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff of the lad’s face on the lad’s face, but there was neither sound nor response. So he returned to meet him and told him, the lad has not awakened. When Elisha came into the house, behold, the lad was dead. and laid on his bed. So he entered and shut the door behind them both and prayed to the Lord.
And he went up and lay on the child and put his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands. And he stretched himself on him and the flesh of the child became warm. And then he returned and walked in the house once back and forth and went up and stretched himself on him. And the lad sneezed seven times and the lad opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi and said, call this Shumanite. So he called her. And when she came into him, he said, take up your son. Then she went in and fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground and took up her son and went out.
Our Father, you are sovereign over all the affairs of life, and you are sovereign in this matter of your word. For it comes forth from you to accomplish your purpose, and Lord, we rejoice that it has been your purpose to have that word have an abode in us, to have its effect upon us in our lives. We pray our God We would also observe as your word accomplishes your purpose, for surely that word will not return to you void. Now, our God, we ask that as we conclude this day as we began it, that our hearts and minds may be directed towards you and be informed by your word for our good and your glory. Through Christ, the living word. Amen.
We are dealing now with the life of Elisha, and as we do so, we are observing some of the parallels that exist between the life of Elisha and the life of Elijah. The stories that we read with respect to each of these prophets bring before us similar themes, similar considerations. The stories themselves seem parallel. And so it is with the story that we have before us tonight. This story is quite extensive. The corresponding story in the life of Elijah is quite compact. But you may recall that story from the life of Elijah.
It’s recorded for you in the 17th chapter of 1 Kings. You may want to keep your thumb or finger in that passage while you look at 2 Kings 4. You might also note the progression. If you consider, first of all, the story that begins in the 8th verse of that 17th chapter, 1 Kings. Moving on then to the conclusion of that 17th chapter. And then you take up chapter 4 in 2nd Kings and move on to the 37th verse of that chapter. That the content of those respective portions of God’s word have many remarkable similarities.
We have already dealt with the story that occurs in 1st Kings 17.8-16.
You know that that is the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. Elijah was directed by God to first of all cross the Jordan into the territory to the east of the Jordan by the brook Cherith, and there the Lord would preserve him. The provision would be brought to him by the ravens, and he would drink from the brook and thus be sheltered in the time of distress, that time of distress that had come upon the nation of Israel. But the eastern movement of Elijah the prophet is then countered by a western movement. The Lord speaks to him, has him cross the Jordan, pass through the territory of Israel into that territory to the west of Israel, namely the territory of Sidon to Zarephath, Gentile territory, and there he was to be preserved by the provision that would be given him from that widow.
We have the story of the provision then given to Elijah through this Gentile woman who has nothing. is brought to her, so that with that provision, supply may be made to the prophet of God. And that’s verses 8 through 16 of that 17th chapter in 1 Kings. Provision, of course, being given her, is that the flour will not be exhausted in her bowl, and the oil will not be exhausted in the jar. And thus she shall have provision for her house, and also provision for the Prophet as long as the famine endures. So you look at 2 Kings 4, and you note the story here with respect to the Prophet Elisha. And this time you have the story there in verses 1 through 7. with respect to the Prophet. One of the widows of the sons of the Prophets is in desperate straits, and in order that her need may be alleviated, she is given seemingly a remarkable, miraculous supply of oil, and her distress is removed.
The last story, as we open the fourth chapter of 2 Kings, does parallel the story that we have in 1 Kings 17. There are also, with the parallel, dissimilarities, and we’ve spoken about those dissimilarities in order to understand the significance of the respective passages. But this evening, we move on to consider the relationship that exists between verses 17 through 24 in 1st Kings 17 and verses 8 through 37 of 2nd Kings 4. We have here the stories then of Elijah in the one instance, Elisha in the other. Noting the similarities.
Each of the stories involve, each of the stories involves a woman. Each story records for us the fact that the woman in view provides for the prophet. In each story, there is a child. That child is an only child, and the child is a son. In each story, the child dies. In each story, the woman turns to the Prophet for help. In each story, The Prophet turns to the Lord through prayer. In each story, the Prophet stretches himself out upon the corpse of the child, and this takes place in the Prophet’s quarters, quarters that have been set aside for the Prophet by the woman in view. And finally, in each story, the dead child revives. Comes to life again.
With these similarities, it should be plain to us that there is a deliberateness with regard to these stories. Now, it might be that we are led down the road, as many have been, to suggest that the similarities in the stories are simply a device of a literary kind. A device that has its origin in those who write, those who have produced the story, the stories, and therefore These are only stories that are matched for us, brought together through a literary device. The similarities, however, are more than just those of a literary nature. They’re more than just a device in order to bring Elijah and Elisha together, as if the author’s intention was merely to tell us that the power that was in Elijah is the power that is now resident in Elisha, who follows him. A sort of literary device intended to reinforce the Prophet’s claim, a literary device to underscore Elisha’s authority after Elijah was gone. Now, it is not just a writer of literature that we are considering here.
We are considering the Lord God, whose word this is. And therefore, you see, these similarities are here for the purpose of underscoring God’s intention. The stories are brought together in order to teach us messages from God himself. Now, having noted the parallels, the similarities, we can also go on and note the dissimilarities. How are the stories different?
Well, in the story of Elijah, 1st Kings 17, we have presented to us a woman who is a Gentile. while in 2nd Kings 4 and the story of Elisha, the woman is a Jew. We have moved from the consideration of a Gentile to the consideration of a Jew. More about the woman. In the Elijah story, the Gentile woman is poor. In the Elisha story, the Jewish woman is rich. She is described as a prominent woman of the city of Shunem. However, note this further contrast. The woman in the Elijah story, though poor, is rich in that she has a son. While the Jewish woman in the Elisha story, though rich, is poor because she has no son.
Contrast further then. The prophet in the one story needs not be appealed to in order to give what the woman already has, namely a child. While in the other, the prophet becomes that one through whom then appeal is made to God on behalf of the woman. so that they would be supplied what she doesn’t have. Those considerations with regard to contrast, as we’ve looked at the woman, note this further contrast.
In the story of Elijah, there is no servant figure. There is no corollary figure alongside of the prophet. The prophet himself is there without the attendance of anyone else alongside of him. There is no servant figure in the Elijah story. We come to the Elijah story and the servant figure is very prominent. So prominent, in fact, we are told his name. he is definitely going to have some significance for us as we move through the consideration of the story of Elisha. His name, Gehezi.
Note this further implication of that particular contrast. The prophet in the Elijah story is immediately accessible to the woman. But note the language repeatedly in 2 Kings 4. The woman is always using the intermediary, the servant. And the prophet is using that intermediary as if he speaks through the servant to the woman. And only as a secondary consideration is there then an immediacy of access by the woman to the prophet.
No servant in the story of Elijah, the servant being so prominent in the story of Elisha. But note also this contrast with the introduction of the figure of the servant. No need for a servant, apparently, in the Elisha story. But the introduction of the servant in the Elisha story, and then going on from that point, the ineffectiveness of that servant and his ministration, finally, as the story progresses.
Yes, we have the appeal of the servant initially with regard to the woman and her reproach, her poverty. Though rich, she is really poor because she has no son. And we have the intervention then of the servant in that respect. But note, as we move towards the end of the story, the servant’s ineffectiveness. He’s given the staff of the prophet, he goes to the home where the dead child lies, and he applies the staff, and there’s no effect through the servant, even with the staff of the prophet.
There are further contrasts in relationship to the ministration of the prophet to the child. In the Elijah story, the prophet stretches himself out upon the child three times. It seems that in the Elijah story, there is but a double prostration upon the child. In the Elijah story, the child seemingly simply revives. No other commentary is given to us. While in the Elisha story, we are told not only does the child revive, but he revives to the tune of seven sneezes. They were counting. Some of these contrasts, I’m not at all certain what to do with them. There’s one other one that’s interesting and I don’t know what to make of that. It would be fun to play with it though for a while.
And that is that in the Elijah story, the prophet takes the child down to the mother who then acknowledges the prophet, the prophet’s person and authority. Okay, takes the child down. In the Elijah story, the prophet calls the mother up. In the Elijah story, the prophet descends. In the Elisha story, the woman ascends. And the mother ascending then acknowledges the prophet by prostrating herself before him. a sign that God is in fact improper.
Now as I said, it certainly would be fun to work with all of these wonderful little contrasts in the story and see exactly what we could do with them all. But my intention this evening is not to exhaust you with a detailed analysis of all these contrasts and their significance. However, I think that we can say some things about the significance of these respective stories. As I said to you before, the stories are here in order to tell you about God and his activities. These stories are here in order to tell you much about the plan and purpose of God, His person, His intention. So it’s not just some sort of literary activity on the part of some Jewish authors, writers, theologians from some earlier time in the history of their nation. The stories are here to tell us something quite concrete about the actions and the activity and the person of God.
Well, let’s see how well we can do this evening in terms of putting that in front of us. First of all, then, 1 Kings 17. and the story of Elijah. This much should be clear. Elijah’s ministry previews the ministry of the word to the Gentiles. And we have that on divine authority, we have that on the authority of Christ himself. You remember his exchange with the folks at Nazareth.
He says to them, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah. But Elijah didn’t go to any one of them. He went to the widow of Zarephath in the territory of Sidon, a Gentile woman. And that movement by Elijah is a premonition of, a preview of, the coming ministry of the Word to the Gentiles. We can say that much then. Elijah bears the Word into Gentile territory as an indication of the coming ministry of the Word to the world. Now note the progression of this ministry by Elijah with respect to this widow in Zarephath.
There is a movement in the story itself. The woman with her child is at the point of death, and that due to the famine. But the prophet’s arrival at Zarephath holds at bay the threat of death, signaling the triumph of the word, the ministry of the word, the gospel itself, if you will, over death. In an initial capacity, in a preliminary capacity, death is stable. But the staying of death that is affected by the appearance of the prophet and the extension of the word to these Gentiles, or to this Gentile specifically, must go on unto completion. There is therefore a movement in the story of Elijah with respect to the widow of Zarephath.
There is a movement that carries us from the triumph over death to a subsequent triumph over death. And that signals then in the death of the child and the resurrection of that child. So the gospel comes. So there is the salutary effect of the gospel in the world. This triumph of life over death, but it yet seems that death stalls. So as to obliterate what in fact the gospel has announced and declared, There is that movement then, as the gospel, the word of God, has its full effect. You moving from the stay of death, if you will, to the literal resuscitation of life, the resuscitation of the dead, literally into, then, the resurrection of the body. The ministry of the Word is completed, as the Gentiles who have been given life by the Word are by that same Word redeemed from the still-threatening shroud of death.
And the curtain, in effect, comes down upon the last enemy completely. and death is swallowed up in victory. You move from triumph to triumph and thus it is as the gospel comes into gentile lands as it moves through the world from triumph as one hears the gospel, new life given unto triumph as resurrection is conferred.
The certainty then of the ministry of the word with regard to the nations. 2 Kings 4, if in fact the ministry of Elijah previews the ministry of the Word to the Gentiles, then what is the ministry of Elisha all about? We can say this much. It seems that as surely as Elisha follows Elijah, there is a ministry of this one Elisha in whom the spirit of God is affected, in whom the spirit of God is seemingly accentuated, following upon the heels of the one who has literally given the word himself. We can set up the parallel, Elijah is to Elisha as Christ is to the Holy Spirit. So, focusing then upon the Spirit and the Spirit’s ministry. Not that we would disassociate the ministry of the Spirit from the ministry of the Word, but we have respectively placed before us the operations of Word and then Spirit with regard to the audiences in view. Elijah and the word to the Gentiles, Elisha and the spirit to the children of God.
That’s the significance of the woman’s Jewishness. The focus is on the house of God, the people of God. She is indicative of all of the people of God. There is a sense in which we are to see Israel herself, in her totality, in the woman. And the Prophet’s dealing with her is like unto his dealing, or like unto the Spirit’s dealing, with Israel, the people of God as a whole.
Elijah’s ministry previewed the ministry of the Word to the Gentiles. Elisha’s ministry previews the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the children of God, to God’s Israel. It is then in this ministry that we are able to perceive the pattern of God’s dealings in his Holy Spirit with his people. Elijah is not a permanent resident at the home of this Jewish woman.
He only makes periodical visits, just like the Spirit made periodical visits to the nation of Israel. That ministry of the Spirit was seemingly through intermediaries, thus the importance of the servant, Gehazi. He becomes truly the Old Testament figure in the story, while Elisha becomes the one through whom we are perceiving the pattern of New Testament things. He is called servant because he’s yet in bondage. He is a slave, just as the children of Israel were still in bondage, slaves. Even through their intermediary ministry, perfected as it was in their prophets, and their priests, and even their kings.
But Elisha’s intermittent visits, his ministry through an intermediary, anticipate the movement from Old Testament ministry to New Testament ministry. anticipate the movement from the Holy Spirit’s Old Testament ministry to the Holy Spirit’s New Testament ministry. And this then brings before us the significance of Gehazi’s failure. Gehazi is indicative of that Old Testament ministry of the Holy Spirit.
It is incomplete, it is inadequate, It simply will not do. In the end, it does not bring life. Even if you give to him the prophet’s staff, it does not bring life. Could it be that the staff in the story is reminding us of the staff of Moses? Lord of Aaron or the administration of the Old Testament as a whole, it simply cannot, it does not bring life.
Finally fooling. What brings life then? Will in the end be that ministry of the Holy Spirit that is placed before us? in the direct ministration of Elisha, the prophet. There is a movement in the story itself, like the movement that we perceived already in the story of Elijah.
The movement of the story in this case is from the removal of the woman’s reproach. She had no son, though rich she was poor. But her reproach was removed because she was made rich through the gift of the sun. Yet she moves from that point to have that which was the removal of her reproach removed from her yet again. The sun dies. And thus it is.
The people of God move from that initial removal of reproach through the ministrations of God’s Holy Spirit, but unto that which will mean the final resolution. The final resolution to that threat of the removal, rather the threat of that return of the reproach that still comes upon them. The people of God. God’s people, then, who have been benefited by the Holy Spirit for the removal of their reproach, must then be carried in the ministry of the Spirit yet further, so that they are delivered from any threat of that reproach’s return. and the conferral upon them of that estate in which it is impossible for the reproach to return is the realization of the estate of resurrection.
So each story, we say, moves on to a common end. whether it be for Gentile or Jew, whether it be for those who are outside or those who are inside. The common destiny, the objective, the goal in the plan and purpose of God is resurrection. For while the threat of death may be stayed, and while the reproach may be removed through the ministry of the gospel, the word, and the Holy Spirit, Yet there is that prospect while we are here in this world and short of resurrection for death yet to improve and for reproach yet to return. God’s purpose is not complete, you see, until we are brought to the position enjoyed seemingly through a figure by these children who have been revived by the prophet. And thus it is, even in Elijah and Elisha, we are moved on in our considerations of the purposes and intentions of our God.
His design. And the gospel is proclaimed to us. Our goal. From death to life. but from death to life, so that death will never intrude or threaten again. How then, the revival of these children speak to us of something even greater. For there will be that ministry of that One who is greater than Elijah and Elisha, that One in whom the ministry of the Word and the Spirit is perfected, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the conferral of His ministry is resurrection from the dead and a state in which death nor reproach can ever threaten. Teach us, our Father, to read out the gospel from every text. May we be compelled to see the history of salvation crammed into
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