The Mission and Miracles of Elisha - Part Three

Extract

The Mission and Miracles of Elisha – Part Three
A. W. Pink

8. Seventh Miracle
9. Eighth Miracle
10. Ninth Miracle

8. Seventh Miracle

“And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life” (2 Kings 4:17). As Matthew Henry pointed out, “We may well suppose, after the birth of this son, that the prophet was doubly welcome to the good Shunammite: he had thought himself indebted to her, but from henceforth, as long as she lives, she will think herself in his debt, and that she can never do too much for him. We may also suppose that, the child was very dear to the prophet, as the son of his prayers, and very dear to the parents as the son of their old age.” What is more attractive than a properly trained and well behaved child! And what is more objectionable than a spoilt and naughty one? From all that is revealed of this “great woman” we cannot doubt that she brought up her boy wisely and well, that he added to the delightfulness of her home, that he was a pleasure and not a trial to visitors. Alas that there are so few of her type now left. Godly and well-conducted homes are the choicest asset which any nation possesses.

“And when the child was grown, it fell on a day that he went out to his father to the reapers” (verse 18). The opening clause does not signify that he was now a fully-developed youth, but that he had passed out of infancy into childhood. This is quite obvious from a number of things in the sequel. When he was taken ill, a “lad” carried him back home (verse 19); for some time he “sat on her knees” (verse 20), and later she—apparently unaided—carried him upstairs and laid him on the prophet’s bed (verse 21). Yet the child had grown sufficiently so as to be able …