Elisha, Gentle Prophet of Peace

Picture: Elisha, Gentle Prophet of Peace 2TC 120.1

This chapter is based on 2 Kings 4. 

God had committed messages of condemnation and judgment to Elijah, who raised his voice in fearless reproof. Elisha’s mission was more peaceful—to strengthen the work Elijah had begun, to teach people the way of the Lord. The Bible pictures him as coming into personal touch with the people, bringing healing and rejoicing. 2TC 120.2

Elisha had a mild and kindly spirit, but he could also be stern, as when some ungodly youth mocked him on his way to Bethel. They had heard of Elijah’s ascension and made this solemn event into a taunt for Elisha, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” 2 Kings 2:23. Under the Almighty’s inspiration the prophet pronounced a curse on them. The awful judgment that followed came from God. “Two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two” of them. Verse 24. 2TC 120.3

If Elisha had allowed the mockery to pass unnoticed, he would have continued to be ridiculed by the rabble, and his mission in a time of national danger might have been defeated. This one example of severe judgment was sufficient to command respect throughout his life. For fifty years he went from city to city, passing through crowds of rude, unrestrained youth, but none mocked him as the prophet of the Most High. 2TC 121.1

Even kindness should have its limits. The so-called tenderness of parents who coax and indulge their young people is one of the worst evils that can come on the youth. In every family, firmness and positive requirements are essential. 2TC 121.2

Every child should be taught to show true reverence for God. Never should His name be spoken lightly or thoughtlessly. Children should show reverence for God’s representatives—ministers, teachers, and parents, who are called to act in His place. In respecting them, young people honor God. 2TC 121.3

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 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. 2TC 121.4

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.” 2TC 122.1

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.” 2TC 122.2

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.’” 2TC 122.3

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. 2TC 122.4

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. 2TC 122.5

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 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. 2TC 123.1

Elisha’s ministry combined the work of healing with teaching. All through his long and effective labors, Elisha fostered the educational work of the schools of the prophets. The deep movings of the Holy Spirit confirmed his instruction to the earnest groups of young men. 2TC 123.2

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 served it to the men to eat. Now it happened, as they were eating the stew, that they cried out and said, ‘Man of God, there is death in the pot!’ And they could not eat it. So he said, ‘Then bring some flour.’ And he put it into the pot, and said, ‘Serve it to the people, that they may eat.’ And there was nothing harmful in the pot.” 2TC 123.3

Also at Gilgal, while the famine was still in the land, Elisha fed one hundred men with the present “a man from Baal Shalisha” brought to him— “twenty loaves of barley bread, and newly ripened grain in his knapsack.” When the offering came, he said to his servant, “‘Give it to the people, that they may eat.’ But his servant said, ‘What? Shall I set this before one hundred men?’ He said again, ‘Give it to the people, that they may eat; for thus says the Lord, “They shall eat and have some left over.”’ So he set it before them; and they ate, and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.” 2TC 123.4

Again and again since that time, though not always so clearly and noticeably, the Lord Jesus has worked to supply human need. If we had sharper spiritual perception we would recognize more quickly than we do God’s tender dealings with the human family. 2TC 124.1

In Christ’s earthly ministry, when He performed a similar miracle by feeding the multitudes, people showed the same unbelief as did those associated with the prophet: “What? Shall I set this before one hundred men?” And when Jesus told His disciples to give that large assembly food to eat, they answered, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” Luke 9:13. What is that among so many? 2TC 124.2

When the Lord gives a work to be done, let no one stop to ask whether the command is reasonable or what the results of their efforts to obey are likely to be. The supply in their hands may seem to fall short of the need, but in the hands of the Lord it will prove more than enough. The servant “set it before them; and they ate, and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.” 2TC 124.3

We should not waste time worrying about how small our resources appear. Energy and trust in God will develop resources. The gift we bring to Him with thanksgiving and prayer for His blessing, He will multiply as He multiplied the food Elisha gave to the sons of the prophets and that Jesus Himself gave to the weary multitude. 2TC 124.4