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Royalty and Ruin
When they reached the house, Elisha went into the room where
the dead child lay, “shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed
to the Lord. And he went up and lay upon the child, and put his
mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his
hands; and he stretched himself out upon the child, and the flesh
of the child became warm. He returned and walked back and forth
in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him;
then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.”
The faith of this woman was rewarded. Christ, the great Life-Giver,
restored her son to her.
His faithful ones will be rewarded too, at His coming, when
Jesus robs the grave of the victory it has claimed. Then He will
restore to His servants the children that have been taken from them
by death.
Jesus comforts our sorrow for the dead with a message of infinite
hope: “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive
[89]
forevermore. ... And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”
Revelation 1:18
. “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of
God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to
meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
1
Thessalonians 4:16, 17
, KJV.
Elisha’s ministry combined the work of healing with teaching.
All through his long and effective labors, Elisha fostered the educa-
tional work of the schools of the prophets. The deep movings of the
Holy Spirit confirmed his instruction to the earnest groups of young
men.
The Poisoned Stew Made Edible
On one of his visits to the school at Gilgal, Elisha healed the
poisoned stew. “There was a famine in the land. Now the sons of the
prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, ‘Put on
the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.’ So one went
out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered
from it a lapful of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the
pot of stew, though they did not know what they were. Then they