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Elisha, Gentle Prophet of Peace
113
A Family’s Hospitality Is Rewarded
Elisha’s kindly spirit enabled him to exert a powerful influence
over many in Israel. We see this in the story of his friendly dealings
with a family at Shunem. In his travels here and there, one day
“Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a notable woman, and she
[88]
persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed
by, he would turn in there to eat some food.”
2 Kings 4:8
. The
lady of the house recognized that Elisha was a “holy man of God,”
and she said to her husband, “Let us make a small upper room on
the wall; and let us put a bed for him there, and a table and chair
and a lampstand; so it will be, whenever he comes to us, he can
turn in there.” Elisha often came to this retreat. God took notice of
the woman’s kindness. She had been childless, and now the Lord
rewarded her hospitality by the gift of a son.
Years passed, and the child was old enough to be out in the field
with the reapers. One day he was stricken by the heat, “and he said
to his father, ‘My head, my head!’” A young man carried the child
to his mother, and “when he had ... brought him to his mother, he
sat on her knees till noon, and then died. And she went up and laid
him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went
out.”
In her distress, the woman determined to go to Elisha for help.
She set out immediately with her servant. “When the man of God saw
her afar off, ... he said to his servant Gehazi, ‘Look, the Shunammite
woman! 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?”’” But
the stricken mother did not reveal the cause of her sorrow until she
reached Elisha. When he learned of her loss, Elisha told Gehazi,
“Take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. ... Lay my staff
on the face of the child.”
But the mother would not be satisfied till Elisha himself came
with her. “I will not leave you,” she declared. So “he arose and
followed her. Now Gehazi went on ahead of them, and laid the staff
on the face of the child; but there was neither voice nor hearing.
Therefore he went back to meet him, and told him, saying, ‘The
child has not awakened.’”