Come And Reason Ministries
Come And Reason Ministries helping you learn to discern.
Come And Reason Ministries
Come And Reason Ministries – helping you learn to discern.
In 2 Kings chapter four, we read the story of a Shunammite woman who asks her husband to make a small apartment for Elisha to use whenever he comes to town. In response to this kindness, Elisha inquires if there is anything he can do for her. When she asks for nothing, Elisha’s servant Gehazi observes that she has no son and that her husband is old. Elisha tells the woman that she will have a son by this time the following year, which came to pass.
Sometime later, the Shunammite woman’s boy has a terrible headache and is taken to his mother. He dies in her arms. She lays his body on the bed that Elisha used and then goes to find the prophet. We pick up the story as Elisha reaches the house:
When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD. Then he got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy’s body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.” She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out (2 Kings 4:32–37 NIV84).
What an incredible story! It demonstrates the power and majesty of our God, giving us real hope in Christ’s victory over death and the resurrection of the dead. Yet, I believe there are deeper lessons illustrated in this real historical account.
As I have described many times, the Bible not only records real events from the lives of real historical people who did real things, but these events often teach us about the larger conflict between Christ and Satan and the plan of salvation.
While I believe this account about Elisha and the Shunammite woman and her son actually took place—that the woman really lived, that she conceived a child, that her child died, that a real prophet named Elisha was used by God to perform a miracle through that series of steps, and that the boy was resurrected from the dead—I also believe these events were recorded in Scripture to teach us larger truths.
The first object lesson of this story is the boy; he is one of seven non-virgin miracle births recorded in the Bible; these stories reveal something about Jesus our Messiah. You can read about them in our blog Joseph: A Foreshadow of Christ.
But there is another powerful object lesson in this story. Elisha serves as a type of Christ. Here are some of the miracles God performed through Elisha that demonstrate this:
All these miracles demonstrate how Elisha was a type of Christ. But the boy who died was also a type of Christ. This need not be confusing, because in many illustrations in Scripture, Jesus is simultaneously represented by more than one person or element. For instance, in the sanctuary service, Jesus is represented by:
Jesus does so much that it isn’t possible for just one element or one person to fully represent Him, so many people or elements are often used to represent Him and His work for us. This is true in this story of Elisha, as both Elisha and the boy represent Jesus. The question is, what do we learn from this?
How is it that the boy who died represents Jesus while the one who raised him from the dead also represents Jesus at the same time? It is because Jesus gave His life freely and then took His life up again! Jesus said:
The Father loves me because I am willing to give up my life, in order that I may receive it back again. No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back. This is what my Father has commanded me to do (John 10:17, 18 GNT).
But what do we learn from Elisha lying on top of the boy with his mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, and hands to hands? This is a powerful lesson. According to Scripture, we sinful humans must be cleansed from sin in all aspects of our being:
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it (1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24 NIV84).
Jesus, as our substitute, as our second Adam, had to purify humanity from sin in spirit, soul, and body—all three. And this complete healing was illustrated by Elisha’s method of resurrecting the boy:
So, the overall object lesson is that Jesus was a miracle child, born in a miraculous way, who, after winning the battle over every temptation, died as our substitute in order to destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil (Hebrews 2:14), destroy death, bring life and immortality to light, and eliminate the death-causing principle from humanity (2 Timothy 1:10; He then raised His humanity back to life, a humanity purified in spirit, soul, and body—mouth, eyes, and hands—a perfected and completed humanity.
Finally, the boy sneezes seven times; seven is the number of perfection; sneezing is breathing, blowing out, representing Jesus purging the infection of sin purifying humanity, which is symbolized by the sneezing seven times. This victory, applied to our lives, is represented in the sanctuary service when the high priest (who represents Jesus) sprinkles the blood of the lamb (which represents Jesus’ sinless life) seven times over the ark on the Day of Atonement. Jesus cleanses us completely from sin.
What an incredible story! How amazing is our God to weave into history such powerful lessons to the plan of salvation.