WWUTT 504 Elisha Raised the Shunammite's Son?

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When you were born, you were physically alive, but spiritually dead, and it's only when you heard the gospel of Jesus Christ that your dead spirit was raised to life by the power of God.

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There is a glimpse of that gospel in a miracle that Elisha performed when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

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Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

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Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of the book of 2

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Kings. This week we are up to chapter 4, and here in this chapter we read a series of miracles performed by the hands of the prophet

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Elisha. Israel is still an evil place. The worship of false gods prevails.

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The people's hearts are far from God, and yet there is a chosen few who have never bowed the knee to Baal.

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God spoke about them to the prophet Elijah, and it is among those faithful that we will see these miracles performed here in chapter 4.

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Jesus said in Matthew 5 that God causes His Son to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

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So good things happen to bad people, and bad things at times happen to good people as well.

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This is part of life. It is because God has subjected all things to futility. This world has fallen, and as a result of our sin, at times we'll go through some pretty difficult trials.

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And yet in these trials that we'll read about in 2 Kings 4, God works all things together for His glory.

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Let's begin here with verse 1. Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the

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Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.

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Now this is a woman whose husband was one of the prophets. Remember that when Elijah and Elisha were walking together, just as Elijah was about to be taken away up into heaven, the different towns that they stopped in, there were prophets that came to them.

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And in particular, they came to Elisha and said, don't you know that your master Elijah is about to be taken from you?

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And Elisha's response would be, hush, yeah, we're not going to talk about that right now. So that happened a couple of times. And then it was the prophets there in Jericho that Elisha partnered with for a time.

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He purified their water source so that they could dwell there, plant crops, and continue to live off of the land.

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So there were faithful prophets in various places, and it's kind of like there would be these little schools, because we read about 50 prophets there around the vicinity of Jericho before Elijah was taken up into heaven.

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And so there would be a main prophet, Elijah or Elisha. We even read about this in 1

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Samuel, for Samuel was kind of the head prophet over Israel, but then there would be other prophets, other lesser prophets as well.

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They would learn from that main prophet of the Lord. So Elisha is the main prophet in this sense.

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He is the prophet of God. And he is teaching other lesser prophets to be faithful to the

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Lord, to listen for his voice and how to communicate to the people of Israel to repent and worship

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God. And so this is likely the relationship that he has with this woman. Her husband was one of his students before he died.

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And now that he is deceased, her sons are not old enough to take care of all of his property.

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And there are debts that they owe. Well, in the book of Leviticus, it says if a person owes debts, they have to work off those debts.

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So the creditors are going to come and seize the land and then use her sons to work to pay off the remainder of those debts.

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And then she's going to be left with nothing. So she's kind of panicking here. And Elisha says to her, verse two, what shall

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I do for you? Tell me, what have you in the house? And she said, your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.

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And then he said, go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few.

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Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels.

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And when one is full, set it aside. So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons.

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And as she poured, they brought the vessels to her. And when the vessels were full, she said to her son, bring me another vessel.

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And he said to her, there is not another. Then the oil stopped flowing. She came and told the man of God and he said, go sell the oil and pay your debts.

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And you and your sons can live on the rest. Now, Elisha could have just filled her jars with oil.

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So why put together this this exercise of going door to door and asking for empty jars and and then filling up those jars with oil?

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Well, I think that there's there's a couple of aspects of this. First of all, telling her that she needed to step out in faith.

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If she believed that the Lord would take care of her, then do what it is that the man of God has told you to do.

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And she responded in obedience as an exercise of her faith. If you truly have faith, you will obey

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God. The person who does not have faith does not obey God. So she is obeying this man of God to do what it is that he has said.

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And then in going door to door, it gets the neighbors involved. So the neighbors realize this is a woman that is in need and they are able to provide for her and help her.

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And we have instructions even in the New Testament on caring for widows. In First Timothy, chapter five is where Paul gives an instruction on having a registry for widows.

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Verse nine, let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband and having a reputation for good works.

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If she is brought up, children has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted and has devoted herself to every good work.

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Then skipping down to verse 16, if any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them.

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Let the church not be burdened so that it may care for those who are truly widows.

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So this this woman is is still abled bodied, must have had a husband who probably died young, especially considering that her sons are also young.

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So she goes from door to door and then the community sees her need and is able to provide for her as well, just as we've been given instructions in the

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New Testament on caring for widows. In James, chapter one, verse 27, religion that God, our father finds pure and faultless is this to care for orphans and widows in their time of need and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

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So we know that these prophets, this woman and her family even kept themselves unstained by the evil that was going on in Israel and remaining faithful to the

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Lord and obeying the instructions of Elisha. They responded in faith and the

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Lord provided for them, but still expecting them to work. It's not like God just handed them a handout.

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There was still work that was to be done. And indeed, she did those things and her needs were provided for.

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We read in Isaiah 54, verse five, for your maker is your husband. The Lord of hosts is his name.

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And the Holy one of Israel is your redeemer. The God of the whole earth, he is called.

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Next story here in verse eight, Elisha and the Shunammite woman. Here's the next miracle that we read about in this chapter.

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One day, Elisha went on to Shunam, where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to eat some food.

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So whenever he passed that way, he would turn in there to eat food. It was his favorite restaurant.

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You know how that is. And she said to her husband, behold, now I know that this is a holy man of God who is continually passing our way.

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Let us make a small room on the roof with walls and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair and a lamp so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there.

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One day he came there and he turned into the chamber and rested there. And he said to Gehazi, his servant, call this

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Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him and he said to him, say now to her, see you have taken all this trouble for us.

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What is to be done for you? Would you have a word spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?

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And she answered, I dwell among my own people. And he said, what then is to be done for her?

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Gehazi answered, well, she has no son and her husband is old. And he said, call her.

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And when he had called her, she stood in the doorway and he said at this season, about this time next year, you shall embrace a son.

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And she said, no, my Lord, oh, man of God, do not lie to your servant. But the woman conceived and she bore a son about that time the following spring, as Elisha had said to her.

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Now, this is a woman who was actually very well to do. So you have the first woman, the widow in in the first seven verses of the chapter who had nothing.

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And her husband died. They had debts that they had to pay. She had two sons that were not yet old enough to work the land and be able to care for the property.

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But in this case, this woman was very wealthy. It even says that in verse eight. One day, Elisha went on to shun him where a wealthy woman lived.

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So even when he offered to her a word to the king or something spoken on your behalf, some sort of blessing that I could give you, she basically said,

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I'm blessed. I live among my own people. I know that there is safety here. But she never had a son.

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And so that is what Elisha promised to her. And that is what she received. But then something happens in the life of that child, which we read about in the next miracle starting in verse 18.

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When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers.

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And he said to his father, oh, my head, my head. The father said to his servant, carry him to his mother.

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And when he had lifted him and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died.

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And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door behind him and went out.

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Then she called to her husband and said, send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys that I may go quickly to the man of God and come back again.

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And he said, why will you go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath. And she said, all is well.

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Then she saddled the donkey and she said to her servant, urge the animal on. Do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.

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So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. Now remember,

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Mount Carmel was where Elijah had performed the miracle before the priests of Baal.

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He said to them, call upon your God. I will call upon my God. Whoever answers with fire, he is

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God. And so that's where that had taken place. And Elisha even made a pilgrimage there, which we read about at the end of chapter two.

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So it's almost like Elisha wanted to cover all the ground that Elijah did in his own ministry.

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We read about this at the end of first Kings, a little bit at the beginning of second Kings, how much admiration

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Elisha had for Elijah and the enthusiasm he had as a prophet.

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This calling that was upon him when Elijah told him to leave all of his property and possessions and follow him,

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Elisha did it with great joy, with zeal. He was ecstatic to do this work.

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And so likely he is still trying to understand the ways of the master that he followed, even here being at Mount Carmel when the

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Shunammite woman finds him. This is a man who truly sought after God. And so when the man of God saw her coming, this is continuing in verse 25, he said to Gehazi, his servant, look, there is the

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Shunammite, run at once to meet her and say to her, is all well with you, is all well with your husband, is all well with the child.

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And she answered, all is well. And when she came to the mountain to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet and Gehazi came to push her away.

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But the man of God said, leave her alone for she is in bitter distress. And the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me.

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So this is Elijah saying that prophets are not omnipresent. We don't know everything.

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It is only what God has chosen to reveal to us. And in this case, I do not know why this woman is under such stress.

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Verse 28, then she said, did I ask my Lord for a son?

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Did I not say, do not deceive me? And he said to Gehazi, tie up your garment and take my staff in your hand and go.

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If you meet anyone, do not greet him. And if anyone greets you, do not reply and lay my staff on the face of the child.

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Then the mother of the child said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.

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So he arose and followed her. Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life.

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Therefore he returned to meet him and told him, the child has not awakened. When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed.

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So we went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Then he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands.

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And he stretched himself upon him. The flesh of the child became warm.

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Then he got up again and walked once back and forth in the house and went up and stretched himself upon him.

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The child sneezed seven times and the child opened his eyes. Then he summoned

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Gehazi and said, call the Shunammite. So he called her. And when she came to him, he said, pick up your son.

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She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.

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Now, whether or not you recognize it, this story of what Elisha did to bring this boy back to life is the way that we are brought from death to life by the

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Holy Spirit of God. Ephesians 2, 1, you were dead in your sins and your trespasses in which you once walked.

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Every person who is a descendant of Adam, and that's everyone, is born physically alive, but we are spiritually dead.

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And it's when we hear the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed that the

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Holy Spirit revives our dead spirit and brings life where there was once death, gives faith where there was once unbelief.

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And now we are reborn by the Holy Spirit of God, brought to life in Jesus Christ by the power of the gospel.

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This is Romans 1, 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

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So it is the gospel that saves, it is the Holy Spirit of God that resurrects.

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And so what happens here with Elisha and this boy is he goes and he stretches himself across him, his eyes against his eyes, his mouth against his mouth, his hands against his hands.

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And he breathes into him just the way that the Holy Spirit of God breathes life into us when the gospel is proclaimed.

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Now, at first, the boy's body is warmed, but there doesn't really seem to be any liveliness to him.

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It doesn't seem like he comes to life. And so this is like what happens when the gospel is proclaimed.

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We hear it. There is some sense of life in us, but we've not really shown that we have come to life.

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The dead spirit that is inside us has not yet shown evidence of having been revived.

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So Elisha paces. He comes back, lays himself on the child again, then his eyes open and he is responsive.

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Just as by the Holy Spirit of God, our eyes are open to see the truth, we are able to see

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Christ for who he is, God in the flesh who died on the cross for our sins, who came back again from the grave so that all who are in Christ are crucified with him in their sins.

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They are risen again to new life, to the life of Christ, to live a life just as Jesus did.

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And then he is ascended into heaven where he is seated at the right hand of the father, interceding for his children on our behalf.

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And we know that he is going to come back again to receive us to himself. He will make our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

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And then we will forever be with the Lord. This is a truth that comes to us that we understand, that we believe, that is alive in us by the

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Holy Spirit of God. Our eyes are open to receive it. Our hands are given the ability to do the works of God that are pleasing to him, where previously we had dead hands.

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We could do nothing that would be pleasing to the Lord. And it is only by the Holy Spirit of God that we've been brought to this life.

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So you see this in the child's eyes, his breath, his hands, just the same way that by the

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Holy Spirit of God, our eyes are open to see the truth. We are able to speak words that are honorable to God.

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We've been given the breath of his spirit, and we are able to do works with our hands that are now pleasing to the

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Lord, where previously with our dead hands we could do no good thing. And so just as we see that in this story with Elisha and this boy, so we see it with every person who is brought from a dead spirit to being alive in Jesus Christ.

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This is the story of being born again. And we actually see this same kind of story with Ezekiel's vision of the

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Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel chapter 37. We see the same thing with Jesus giving sight to the blind man at Bethsaida in Mark chapter 8 verses 22 through 26.

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He first heals the man's eyes, but he can't comprehend what it is that he is looking at.

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And then Jesus heals the man's mind to be able to not only see, but his brain is able to compute what it is that he is seeing.

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So that works the same way with us when we are brought from death to life by the Spirit of God.

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We hear but can't understand it. And the Spirit of God even gives us the ability to comprehend what it is that we are hearing in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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So anyway, a beautiful story that gives us a picture of how we are brought to life by the

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Holy Spirit of God. And at the time this was written, 2 Kings, it would not have fully been understood how this was going to apply to a spiritual people in Christ Jesus.

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And yet we can read this now and see by the Spirit of God how he was going to communicate to us spiritual truths through the reviving of this dead child.

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May God be glorified because we were once dead in our sins and our trespasses and by his power, we have been brought from death to life.

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Amen. Praise the Lord. Verse 38, as we finish up 2

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Kings chapter 4, this is another miracle that Elisha performs. And Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land.

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And as the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, set on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.

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Set on the large pot, not sit on it. That's an important distinction. One of them went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds and came and cut them up into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were.

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And they poured out some for the men to eat.

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I was about to say they poured out some of the men to eat. See, this is why language is so important.

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But while they were eating of the stew, they cried out, oh man of God, there is death in the pot.

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And they could not eat it. He said, then bring flour. And he threw it in the pot and said, pour some out for the men that they may eat.

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And there was no harm in the pot. A man came from Baal, Shileshah, bringing the man of God, bread of the first fruits, 20 loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack.

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And Elisha said, give to the men that they may eat. But his servant said, how can I set this before a hundred men?

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So he repeated, give them to the men that they may eat. For thus says the Lord, they shall eat and have some left.

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So he said it before them and they ate and had some left according to the word of the

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Lord. And so this is what we receive every time we open up the word of the

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Lord. We eat, we are nourished by this word of God and there is plenty left. Much more for us to study and learn and glean from as we come back to this word again tomorrow.

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Let us pray. Our Lord God, we thank you for the word that has been given to us and thank you for your spirit that has opened our mind and our hearts up to receive this and understand this.

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The natural man cannot understand spiritual things for they are spiritually discerned, but it is because we have the spirit of God within us that we are able to discern these spiritual things.

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May we proclaim this to others, the gospel of Jesus Christ that saves souls from death so that their dead spirits might be revived by the power of the gospel and they would be brought from death to life just as we have been when we heard the gospel proclaimed to us.

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Let us not be ashamed of this word, but know that it is in the power of Christ that a person would believe and have eternal life.

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If their sins would be forgiven and they would dwell forever with God. We thank you and praise you for the salvation we have in Christ, in His name,

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Amen. Gabriel Hughes is a pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .utt