The Response that Raises the Dead
2 Kings 4:8-37
Acts 26:8 (NIV)
Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?
Matthew 10:8 (NIV)
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
Romans 4:17
He’s the, “God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.”
2 Kings 4:8–10 (NLT)
One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she urged him to come to her home for a meal. After that, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there for something to eat. She said to her husband, “I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. Let’s build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by.”
1. Hope for the Unimaginable
2 Kings 4:14–16 (NLT)
Later Elisha asked Gehazi, “What can we do for her?” Gehazi replied, “She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is an old man.” “Call her back again,” Elisha told him. When the woman returned, Elisha said to her as she stood in the doorway, “Next year at this time you will be holding a son in your arms!” “No, my lord!” she cried. “O man of God, don’t deceive me and get my hopes up like that.”
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
2 Kings 4:17 (NLT)
But sure enough, the woman soon became pregnant. And at that time the following year she had a son, just as Elisha had said.
2. Belief during the Unthinkable
2 Kings 4:18 (NLT)
One day when her child was older, he went out to help his father, who was working with the harvesters.
2 Kings 4:19–21 (NLT)
Suddenly he cried out, “My head hurts! My head hurts!” His father said to one of the servants, “Carry him home to his mother.” So the servant took him home, and his mother held him on her lap. But around noon time he died. She carried him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and left him there.
2 Kings 4:22–23 (NLT)
She sent a message to her husband: “Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the man of God and come right back.” “Why go today?” he asked. “It is neither a new moon festival nor a Sabbath.” But she said, “It will be all right.”
You will never be able to believe God for miracles if the pain of your past is more real to you than God’s promise for your future.
3. Faith for the Impossible
Belief is knowing God can do something.
Faith is the conviction that God will do something.
2 Kings 4:24–25a; 27-28 (NLT)
So she saddled the donkey and said to the servant, “Hurry! Don’t slow down unless I tell you to.” As she approached the man of God at Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her in the distance... But when she came to the man of God at the mountain, she fell to the ground before him and caught hold of his feet. Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? And didn’t I say, ‘Don’t deceive me and get my hopes up’?”
2 Kings 4:29–31 (NLT)
Then Elisha said to Gehazi, “Get ready to travel; take my staff and go! Don’t talk to anyone along the way. Go quickly and lay the staff on the child’s face.”... Gehazi hurried on ahead and laid the staff on the child’s face, but nothing happened. There was no sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and told him, “The child is still dead.”
2 Kings 4:32–37 (NLT)
When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there on the prophet’s bed. He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the LORD. Then he lay down on the child’s body, placing his mouth on the child’s mouth, his eyes on the child’s eyes, and his hands on the child’s hands. And as he stretched out on him, the child’s body began to grow warm again! Elisha got up, walked back and forth across the room once, and then stretched himself out again on the child. This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes! Then Elisha summoned Gehazi. “Call the child’s mother!” he said. And when she came in, Elisha said, “Here, take your son!” She fell at his feet and bowed before him, overwhelmed with gratitude. Then she took her son in her arms and carried him downstairs.
