Elisha Raising the Dead

Robert Thomson

A further testing came upon the woman at Shunem when the sorrows of sickness and death were to roll in upon her spirit by the removing of her dearly loved son in death. What can she do? To whom can she turn? For no possible relief from earthly sources can meet her present sorrow and need. Her hope and faith are in God, and the prophet of God upon whose bed she lay the body of her son. Then shutting the door upon him, she departed to seek the man of God. In faith, she left him with God, who sees all, and does all things well. With the determination of peace in the expression ‘It shall be well’, she sought with diligence the man of God until she found him at Mount Carmel.

Elisha recognises her and sends his servant to enquire after her and her household. Again, the same answer of peace is given, ‘It is well’. Here we see her faith laying hold upon the God of resurrection in the darkest hour of trial; and falling down at the feet of the prophet, she finds a refuge for her sorely tested spirit. 

Perhaps Gehazi would speak of profession with no power; for every detail of Elisha’s word is done, but there lacked with the servant the true spirit of the master. He was like Sardis in Revelation 3:1: ‘thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead’. With Elisha, we see a deep searching of heart before God, for on reaching the house and beholding the child in death upon his bed, he went in, shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord. There had been the ‘shut door’ with the woman and the oil, proving God in secret; and now the circumstances of another scene of deepest gravity call for the ‘shut door’ and the secret of the presence of God.

The heart is released in prayer, and the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. But there is more: the contact of life with death must be made; and in the blessed secret of God’s mind, Elisha lay upon the child, and with mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes and hands to hands, he stretched (or maybe contracted) himself upon the child. Now the flesh is warmed, but there is yet no visible sign of life showing. Coming to the scene again, the prophet walks to and fro in the room, suggesting to our hearts the exceeding deep exercise of soul regarding the present situation of death and life. 

Again to the movements of intimate reality he applies himself, going through the same actions upon the child as before. Life is restored, and made evident in the sevenfold sneezing and the opening of the eyes. Outside the room was the mother, probably in keeping with all that the prophet was doing, and waiting upon the God who quickens the dead. As she enters the room, once the scene of death, she is asked now to take up her son again in life. No words are recorded by her as she obeys the prophet’s request, but her actions speak louder than words. She fell at his feet, bowed herself to the ground, took up her son and went out. 

What a scene of holy reverence! The power of death had been broken and the joyful heart freed to contemplate God, not only as life-giver, but as the one who can raise up from among the dead.

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From: Truth and Testimony, 2021