Hebrews 11:6.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Many times we shy away from asking too much of God, because we don't want to put Him on the spot, or because we're afraid that He "doesn't do things like that." However, we serve a God to whom nothing is impossible, a God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we are able to ask or think. Our God has encouraged us to come boldly before His throne to seek grace in our time of need. As we grow in our knowledge of Him, and as we grow in our obedience to His will, we can grow also in our confidence toward Him, knowing that we will receive those things that we ask of Him in accordance with His will, because we do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
I want to look in this study at two people who took God at His word in spite of seemingly impossible odds. One was the prophet Elisha; the other was an unnamed woman from the city of Shunem in Israel. Together they asked God for the impossible and received it, because they refused to let go of their confidence in Him.
II Kings 4:8-10
8 And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.
9 And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually.
10 Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.
Elisha first met the Shunemite woman when she began to stop him and invite him to dinner during his regular passages through her city. Soon Elisha became a regular dinner guest at her home.
Over time, the woman came to realize that Elisha was a prophet of God. This was at a time when idolatry was popular in Israel, and prophets of God were not always eagerly welcomed by the people of Israel. This woman and her household, however, were an exception to the general rule. When she found out who Elisha was, she went a step further, consulted with her husband, and set up a bedroom and study in their home for the prophet.
Elisha readily accepted their hospitality. The Shunemite's home provided a welcome rest in the middle of his journeys, and no doubt did wonders for his hotel bills. Elisha was very grateful for all that this woman had done for him.
II Kings 4:11-13.
11 And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there.
12 And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him.
13 And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people.
Elisha could not think of a way to repay this woman for her kindness, so he called her one day and asked her what he could do for her. Elisha was on good terms with the king at this time, and he was willing to use his connections at court to help her; but the woman could think of nothing she needed.
Determined to do something for her, Elisha asked the advice of his servant, Gehazi. Now Gehazi was not a servant in the way we usually think of the word. He was not someone Elisha hired or purchased off the street to meet his day to day needs. Gehazi was a prophet in training. As Elisha's servant, he saw the prophet day in and day out, and got to know him as no other man did. He got to see what made him tick. In the same way, Elisha had once served as the servant of Elijah the prophet, and had succeeded him as the chief prophet in Israel when Elijah was taken away.
II Kings 4:14.
14 And he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no child, and her husband is old.
Gehazi had noticed something that Elisha hadn't. This woman was childless, and, realistically, there was no hope that this would change. In their culture, being childless indicated that a woman was under the curse of God. Other women in similar circumstances in scripture raged against God or their husbands, or went into long periods of mourning or depression. This woman seems to have resigned herself to her lot. All in all, hers was a good life, and she was not about to let the fact that she had no child rob her of her thankfulness to God for all the good He had done for her.
But Elisha was not only on talking terms with the king; he was on talking terms with God. He had the spirit of God, and this gave him options that were not open to most other men. What would have been a lost cause to most people was an open door to Elisha, because he trusted in God.
II Kings 4:15-16.
15 And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door.
16 And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid.
When Elisha prophesied to the woman that she would have a son, her reaction was pretty strong. In today's language, what she said was, "Don't play with me about this! This is too important to me!"
But Elisha was just as serious as the woman was, and shortly after this, she became pregnant.
II Kings 4:17.
17 And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life.
The Shulemite woman had done all the good she had done with no idea or expectation of gain. She was only trying to be hospitable to a stranger, and, later on, to a man of God. Now, through Elisha, God had sought out and granted her the deepest desire of her heart. She truly had all she wanted in life.
Then one day something happened that seemed to turn her greatest blessing into a cruel joke.
II Kings 4:18-20.
18 And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers.
19 And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother.
20 And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.
In a single day she lost her child. He was fine when he woke up, but before the day was half over, he was dead.
Now in that culture, at that time, mortality among infants and children was high. What had happened to her child was not uncommon. Children died every day, from a variety of reasons. The mature thing to do was to accept what had happened and go on with your life.
The Shulemite woman had no intention whatsoever of doing that.
II Kings 4:21.
21 And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out.
This woman and her husband were fairly well off, and the child was their only child. It seems very likely, then, that he had his own room and his own bed. However, that's not where the woman took him. She took him instead to the room of Elisha, and laid him on his bed.
When Elisha had prophesied that the woman would have a son, she had made it very clear to him how serious this was to her. God had blessed her with a child, and she was convinced that God did not give defective gifts. She decided from the beginning that what was happening was not right, and that somebody was going to fix this.
II Kings 4:22-23.
22 And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.
23 And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well.
Here again she did something unusual: she didn't tell her husband about their child's death. Instead, she let him know where she was going, and assured him that all was well. These are not the words or the actions of a woman who has just lost her child. Most husbands would be able to tell from their wife's face or voice or demeanor that something catastrophic had just happened; but she gave no clue to her husband as to how serious the situation had become. She was going to get the man of God to help their child; that's all he needed to know for the present.
II Kings 4:24-26.
24 Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee.
25 So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite:
26 Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well:
This woman hadn't come all this way to talk with Gehazi. She told him as politely as she could, "Get out of my face." Then she continued on to see Elisha.
She didn't come to Elisha with a proud attitude. Instead, she humbled herself before him, prepared to plead her case.
II Kings 4:27.
27 And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the LORD hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.
Why didn't God reveal what was wrong with the woman or her child to Elisha? Because everything he needed to know about the situation he could learn from the woman. The diagnosis was simple: the child was dead.
II Kings 4:28.
28 Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?
The woman reminded Elisha that she had not asked for a son. She also reminded him that she had warned him not to play with her about this, because this was far too important to her.
Elisha got the message. Immediately he dispatched Gehazi to take care of the situation.
II Kings 4:29-30.
29 Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child.
30And the mother of the child said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her.
This woman hadn't come all this way to get Gehazi to pray for her child. Now Elisha often used Gehazi to minister in his place to people. When Namaan the Syrian came to Elisha to be healed of his leprosy, Elisha never came out to meet him; instead, he sent Gehazi to tell Namaan what to do. Initially, Namaan was irritated by what he considered to be a slap in the face; but when he obeyed Elisha's words through Gehazi, he was healed. As far as Elisha was concerned, the situation with the woman's son had been taken care of when he sent Gehazi with his staff.
The Shulemite woman wasn't buying it. Her response to Elisha's assignment of Gehazi to the task was to swear by God that she wasn't leaving until Elisha did. Either he was coming home with her, or he'd better start preparing for a house guest. Elisha knew when he was licked.
II Kings 4:31.
31And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awaked.
It's easy to pass over this verse without recognizing the significance of what took place. Gehazi ministered to the child, but nothing happened. We think, Of course nothing happened. Gehazi ministered to the child. What did you expect. We forget that Gehazi, too, was a prophet, and that he was acting under the instructions of Elisha.
This is one of several instances in scripture where a manifestation of the spirit seems not to have worked properly. Why is this?
II Kings 4:32-33.
32And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed.
33He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the LORD.
The first thing Elisha did when he arrived was to pray. Why did he do this? More specifically, if God had already told him what to do, why was he praying?
And here we have the reason for the apparent failure of Gehazi. Where a man of God has already received instructions from God, there is no need for him to pray. He already has God's answer for the situation. All he has to do is obey.
When God instructed Moses to cast his rod on the ground, Moses didn't know what to expect, so he couldn't believe God for specific results. Nor did he pray before he cast down his rod. All he did was obey God. When he did, God brought the miraculous to pass. When Moses instructed Aaron, by the word of the Lord, to stretch out his rod over the Nile, Aaron didn't pray for the water to turn to blood. Instead, he obeyed, and what God had said would happen came to pass.
When God has told you in advance what to do, you don't have to pray about the situation. All you have to do is obey. When you see someone praying before doing a mighty work by the spirit of God, it's a pretty good indication that they are acting on faith, and not acting on specific instructions from God. This is characteristic of the manifestation of faith, rather than the manifestations of working of miracles or gifts of healings. With the latter two, obedience to God is critically important. With the manifestation of faith, it is one's confidence in God which is critical -- so critical that in one instance, Peter's walking on the water, the manifestation began to stop working when Peter began to doubt.
Elisha prayed. Clearly God had not told him what to do in this situation. Instead, Elisha came to God with the same confidence with which the woman had come to him. He believed firmly in his heart that God didn't give defective gifts, that God wasn't toying with this woman when he gave her a son, and that God would and could fix this situation. He came to God in faith, expecting God to raise this woman's son from the dead.
Gehazi, too, had come to God in faith; but his faith was shaken when he saw nothing happen to the child. At that point he gave up and reported back to Elisha. Fortunately for the woman and her child, Elisha was more stubborn.
II Kings 4:34.
34And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm.
Elisha saw some progress when he ministered to the child, but the child was still dead. Elisha could have given up, like Gehazi, but he refused to. Perhaps he understood that this mother wasn't taking "No" for an answer.
II Kings 4:35-37.
35Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
36And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son.
37Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out.
Elisha left the room, paced for a while, then returned and ministered to the child again. This time the child was restored to life. He was only the second person in the history of the world to be raised from the dead. The first had been raised only a few years before by the prophet Elijah.
Elisha and the woman both went to God asking for something that seemed outrageous. The woman showed no signs before this of having such great faith and determination. Perhaps if it had been something pertaining to herself that had been at stake, she would not have done so even then. But this child was her life, her crowning blessing from God. He was her miracle baby, her gift from God, and she absolutely refused to let him go, even to death itself.
Elisha showed the same stubborn determination in prayer that was manifest in Elijah, his mentor. He was certain that what he was asking, though impossible, was in accordance with God's will, and he grabbed hold of God by faith and refused to let go until God came through for him. How easy it would have been for him to have concluded that it wasn't really God's will for this woman's son to be raised from the dead, or that he was asking God for far too much. But he didn't back down, and his prayer of faith was answered with the sneezings of a living child.
If we want to see the same kinds of mighty works that Elisha did, we're going to have to show the same kind of stubborn, "unrealistic" determination in the face of impossible odds that Elisha did. His faith was based on his working relationship with God, his faithfulness to do God's will, and his remembrance of what God had done by, for and through himself and others in the past.
We've been given the spirit of God, just like Elisha had. But we've been given even more. We have a High Priest, Jesus Christ, who sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us. How much more confidence ought we to have in the power and willingness of our God to come through for us in times of need than even an Elisha had!
Jesus said to his disciples, "The things that I do shall ye do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." (John 14:12).
I John 5:14-15.
14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
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