Passage: 2 Kings 4:18-37

The Big Idea

We never outgrow trusting God; we just go deeper. The Shunammite woman’s son, God’s unasked-for gift, died suddenly in her lap. Her faith was tested, and every step she took showed it: she laid him on the prophet’s bed, didn’t plan a funeral, pressed on to find Elisha, said “It is well,” and refused to let go. She had no specific promise that her son would live, but she knew God’s character: He doesn’t give a gift only to snatch it away. Elisha prayed and persisted, and God raised the boy to life. God is honored when we trust Him for resurrection.

Faith Goes Deeper

The more God is trusted, the more He is honored. We never grow out of trusting God! We just enter deeper levels of faith. Faith spreads like the roots of a tree, deeper and wider, able to stand through stronger storms year after year.

The foundation of faith is God’s work and gifts, not ours. God’s character, not ours.

The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29).

He doesn’t go back on His promises.
He doesn’t regret His lifelong commitment to you.
Don’t doubt Him! This is His character, and it will never change.
He has plans to bless you, heal you and use you (Jeremiah 29:11).
To believe that is called faith.

Hebrews says women received their dead raised to life again (Hebrews 11:35). In the Old Testament, that happened twice: once through Elijah and once through Elisha, here.

This is a lesson in living by faith.

You can only really see a life lived by faith when hard things happen. Even Satan knew this. He claimed Job only trusted God because God protected him from trouble (Job 1:9-11).

God could see the faith in Job’s heart.
But no one else could, until the test came.
The more God is trusted, the more He is honored.

You will be tested, because you trust the Lord, not in order to make you trust Him.

In our tests, we humbly trust the Lord and bring Him our need, counting on His almighty power and goodness.

The Gift (4:17)

The woman conceived and bore a son at the appointed time, as Elisha had told her.

She never asked for this child.
But God blessed her with him: a supernatural gift of life.
The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.
The word she was given came true. We can always trust the Word.

The Test (4:18-21)

The child grew. One day he went out to his father among the reapers and cried, “My head, my head!” His father told a servant to carry him to his mother. He sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

The day began like any other. The boy was full of energy.
No one knew he’d be gone by noon.
Notice: she loved her child. She held him on her lap until he died.
Notice: she didn’t make her child an idol.
Yes, there was grief and sorrow. But her eyes were on the Lord the whole time.
From the beginning, she seems to see this as a test of faith.
If he’d been an idol, she’d have been too devastated to seek the Lord. That’s what idolatry does: it blocks our view of the One who loves us and can help us.
You can recognize idolatry by asking: What can’t I surrender to the Lord? What do I believe I can’t live without?

From here on, everything she does shows how her faith shaped her actions. Faith without works is dead (James 2:26).

Many would say this is unfair: God gave her a gift and then took it away. But a heart of faith sees it differently. Yes, God’s ways can seem strange. People die. Loved ones are taken. How do we handle it? Faith. And faith leads to victory. The enemy is skilled at turning these moments into reasons to doubt God’s goodness.

She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door and went out.

She doesn’t plan a funeral.
She doesn’t grieve as those without hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
She shows she trusts God’s Word, the word spoken through His servant that she would have a son.
She lays the boy on the prophet’s bed!
She doesn’t despair. She has faith.
God’s grace is real. And believers are sometimes given hard trials so that others can see how real and sufficient His grace is.

The Journey (4:22-26)

She called to her husband: “Please send me a servant and a donkey, so I can hurry to the man of God and come back.” He said, “Why go today? It’s not the New Moon or the Sabbath.”

She shows faith by having a plan to seek God’s help.
She shows faith in how she treats her husband. He seems unaware, indifferent or simply without hope that seeking God would help. But she still respectfully asks him, rather than going around him.
She sees even her husband’s lack of faith as part of the test, not an obstacle to escape.
Notice how lack of faith tends to make us self-focused and unhelpful.

She said, “It is well.” Then she saddled the donkey herself and told her servant, “Drive hard. Don’t slow down unless I tell you.”

He didn’t go with her or encourage her. He didn’t even saddle her donkey.
But she persevered on a hard journey.
Is your journey hard? Keep going. Don’t give up.

She came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When Elisha saw her in the distance, he said to Gehazi, “Look, it’s the Shunammite woman! Run and ask her, ‘Is it well with you? With your husband? With the child?'”

Here we meet Gehazi again. We’ll learn he liked being around God’s work but didn’t know God’s power himself.
Elisha has a heart for the people he serves. He knows them and carries them on his heart.

She answered, “It is well.”

She isn’t saying, “I accept this as God’s final will.” She’s saying she believes God’s grace will make it right.
She isn’t resigned to God failing her. It’s the opposite!
She’s looking past the storm clouds to the blessing God will give.
She simply believes in God’s goodness and power.
“It is well” means “I trust You.”
Can you say “It is well” while you seek God with a broken heart?
Only faith can see the unseen the way she did.

At His Feet (4:27-28)

When she reached Elisha on the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came to push her away, but Elisha said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me and hasn’t told me.”

This reminds me of the children brought to Jesus. The disciples tried to send them away, but Jesus rebuked them: “The kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Mark 10:14).
Children know how to trust.
This woman has the same trust. She clings in hope. She isn’t embarrassed by her need or by her desire to see God work.
Gehazi tries to push her away. But Elisha now realizes God is at work in all of this.

She said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t deceive me’?”

“I didn’t ask for this son. He was God’s gift.”
“It doesn’t make sense that God would give a gift and then take it away forever.”
“I trust God’s character.”
And Elisha agrees with her.

The Staff and the Servant (4:29-31)

Elisha told Gehazi, “Tuck in your cloak, take my staff and go. Don’t stop to greet anyone. Lay my staff on the child’s face.”

Perhaps Elisha was testing whether Gehazi was empowered for ministry, whether he had faith.
You can probably guess the outcome.

The child’s mother said, “As the Lord lives, and as you live, I will not leave you.” So Elisha got up and followed her.

She didn’t put her hope in Gehazi or a staff. She trusted the living God, and His servant.
Her commitment was to stay close. To abide.
(She uses the very words Elisha once spoke to Elijah: “I will not leave you!” 2 Kings 2:2.)

Gehazi went ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound and no response. He went back and said, “The child hasn’t awakened.”

Gehazi’s failure is sad. He had no power because he had no faith.
He doesn’t seem to pray. He relies on the method, not on God. We’ll see this more clearly later.

Elisha Prays (4:32-35)

When Elisha came into the house, the child lay dead on his bed. He went in, shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Then he lay on the child, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands, and stretched himself out on him.

Elisha has faith, and love!
Why lie on the boy like that? Loving identification.
Intercession means taking others’ needs and making them our own, carrying them in our hearts and spreading them before the Lord.

The child’s body grew warm. Elisha got up, walked back and forth in the house, then went up and stretched himself out on him again.

A small sign of hope, but not the full answer yet. So what does he do?
He goes back again.
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7). The verbs mean keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking.

Then the child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!

God was so willing to answer the prayer of real faith!
Elisha and the woman had no specific promise. But they had God’s character to hold on to.
God had given the gift unasked. He wouldn’t take it back and leave her worse off than before.
That was enough to build faith on: God’s character!
It’s easier to pray with a specific promise. But it’s a higher thing to lay hold of God Himself, because you have to know Him deeply.
How do we know God’s character? In His Word, and in the life and words of Jesus.
Ask: What would Jesus do if He were here with me right now? Then ask God for that. Depend on it. Keep asking until you see it.

David had no specific promise that God would forgive his adultery and murder. Yet he prayed, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the abundance of Your compassion, blot out my transgressions” (Psalm 51:1). He trusted God’s character, and he was right to.

Ask in faith, without doubting, James says, because the one who doubts is like a wave driven and tossed by the wind (James 1:6-7).

Praise (4:36-37)

Elisha called Gehazi: “Call the Shunammite.” When she came, he said, “Pick up your son.” She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.

The joy of God’s miracle of grace produces praise and humility. She bowed down!

What We Learn

Paul wrote of a trial in Asia so severe, far beyond their ability to endure, that they despaired of life itself. They felt they had received the sentence of death. But this happened so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. He delivered them, He keeps delivering, and they trust He’ll deliver again (2 Corinthians 1:8-10).

Trusting self leads to despair. Trusting God leads to hope.
Trials teach us, train us and test us.
Sometimes trials are more than we can handle for a reason: so we’ll stop trusting ourselves.
We’re called to trust that God can and will bring life to dead things!

“But I feel silly trusting God to raise this or that from the dead. People tell me to let it go, give up hope, even give up on God.”

Call out to the Lord in faith!

The Lord redeems the life of His servants, and none who take refuge in Him will be condemned (Psalm 34:22).
Those who know Your name will trust You, for You, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You (Psalm 9:10).

God is honored when we trust Him, especially when we trust Him for resurrection! It blesses Him when we come to Him alone when everything seems lost.

Is there an area of your life that needs resurrection? A dead relationship? A part of your heart that died long ago, and you’ve stopped asking for life? Someone you’ve stopped praying for because the answer has taken so long?

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).

We live by trusting God alone, and it’s His will to teach us how, every day.
His character never changes. So we let our faith grow to match His character and His Word.
Believe the things He says He’ll do. Even the impossible. Even raising the dead.

Grace Takeaway

The Shunammite woman held a dead child and still said, “It is well,” not because she understood, but because she knew the God who gave the gift. Whatever has died in your life, take it to the One who raises the dead. Lay it on His bed, hold on to His feet and don’t let go. Faith that trusts God’s character, even without a specific promise, honors Him greatly, and He delights to answer it.

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Elisha’s Seventh Miracle: The Child Restored