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Chapter 4: More Miracles of Elisha, Man of God
Both Elijah and Elisha had ministries to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, but Elisha's ministry was different from Elijah's in several ways:
- The focus of Elijah's ministry was to call the people to repentance and to demonstrate the sovereignty of the one God while Elisha's miracles were designed to resolve difficulties for the people with whom he came into contact.
- Both Elijah and Elisha confronted the kings of the Northern Kingdom but Elisha was more involved in political affairs and had a greater influence with the king and his court.
- Elijah was more a solitary prophet with only a little contact with the communities of the prophets while Elisha took responsibility for the communities of the prophets and was acknowledged their "father" who provided for them.
- While Elijah was Israel's harsh judge who pointed out the people's covenant failures, Elisha had a much closer personal relationship with the people, showing them the love God had for them.
Elijah performed 8 miracles but Elisha performed double; God worked 16 miracles through Elisha, the "man of God."
Elijah's 8 miracles:
- Shut up the heavens causing a drought (1 Kng 17:1)
- Multiplied flour and oil for a widow (1 Kng 17:14-16)
- Raised a widow's son from the dead (1 Kng 17:17, 22-23)
- Defeated the prophets of Baal with fire from heaven (1 Kng 18:25-38)
- Brought rain to end the drought (1 Kng 18:41-45)
- Destroyed 51 soldiers with fire (2 Kng 1:9-10)
- Destroyed 51 soldiers with fire and lightening (2 Kng 1:9-11-12)
- Parted the waters of the Jordan River (2 Kng 2:8)
Elisha's 16 miracles:
- Parted the waters of the Jordan River (2 Kng 2:14)
- Purification of the water source for Jericho (2 Kng 2:18-22)
- Protection of the prophet by two she-bears (2 Kng 2:23-25)
- Water for the army of Israel and success over the Moabites (2 Kng 3:16-25)
- Providing the widow's oil (2 Kng 4:1-7)
- Elisha's annunciation prophecy for the woman from Shunem (2 Kng 4:8-17)
- Resurrection of the son of the Shunammite woman (2 Kng 4:18-37)
- Purified the poison soup (2 Kng 4:38-41)
- Multiplication of loaves (2 Kng 4:42-44)
- Healing of Naaman (2 Kng 5:1-19)
- Gehazi cursed with a skin disease (2 Kng 5:25-27)
- Miracle of finding the axe (2 Kng 6:1-7)
- Capturing a band of Aramaeans by striking them blind (2 Kng 6:8-23)
- Prophesizing relief from the enemy and the famine (2 Kng 6:24-7:20)
- Prophesizing the death of Ben-Hadad and the rise of Hazael (2 Kng 8:7-15)
- Prophesizing that Israel's defeat of King Hazael of Damascus (2 Kng 13:14-19)
Elijah and the Widow's Oil (unknown Artist)
2 Kings 4:1-7 ~ The prophet's widow and her jug of oil
Elisha is now the leader of the communities of prophets who look to him for their protection and provision. A widow of a member of the brotherhood is in so much debt that she fears her sons will be sold into servitude to pay her creditors. She comes to Elisha for help. In her appeal to the prophet she mentions that he knows her husband "feared Yahweh" (literal translation). To "fear God" is an expression of piety and reverence toward God and in the woman's statement is also probably said with an emphasis on loyalty both to God and His prophet. The seizure of the property of a debtor and the practice of selling his children to pay the debt was common in the ancient world, but the Law of the Sinai Covenant regulated the seizure of wives and children for the nonpayment of debts (see Ex 21:7; Am 2:6; Is 50:1).
Question: What was the law concerning the servitude of such people in Leviticus 25:35-42?
Answer: Under the Law, Israelites must be treated as employees instead of slaves and could not be kept in permanent servitude. They were to be freed and their land restored to them in the Jubilee Year.
The miracle requires her cooperation in collecting as many jars as she can to hold in which to pour out the oil she has in her one jar. The oil does not stop flowing until she runs out of jars, and Elisha tells her to sell the oil to pay her debts. Notice that Elisha is called "man of God" instead of "prophet" throughout these stories. "Man of God" is a term that is used frequently in 1 and 2 Kings. It does not mean "clergyman" as the term is used today but is used as a synonym for "prophet," one who speaks the word of God.
These two miracles can be seen as foreshadows to the mercy of God to an impoverished mankind. Mankind has a debt of sin that cannot be paid by ordinary means, and yet God, in His mercy, has provided a miracle in pouring out the never ending cleansing blood of His Son on the sins of mankind. He has redeemed mankind from bondage to sin and death and given everyone who accepts Christ as Lord and Savior the food of everlasting life in the Eucharistic cup that never fails.
2 Kings 4:8-17 ~ The Shunammite woman and Elisha's blessing
The Biblical account reveals that Elisha travels a great deal between Mt. Carmel, the capital of Samaria, and the communities of the prophets in Gilgal, Bethel and Jericho. He has a servant who travels with him named Gehazi. Perhaps he is a prophet-in-training as Elisha was to Elijah.
2 Kings 4:18-28 ~ The death of the Shunammite woman's son
Like the annunciation story of Isaac, this son born after an annunciation is also threatened with death. Since we are told that the boy became ill after being with his father and the reapers at harvest time, it is possible that sunstroke caused his death.
20 He lifted him up and took him to his mother, and the boy lay on her lap until midday, when he died.
The mother's anguish is intensified by her child still being alive when he was brought to her and then dying as she desperately tried to save him. After he died, she took him to the only place in her house that she associates with holiness and that is the room and bed of the "man of God."
2 Kings 4:29-37 ~ The resurrection of the Shunammite woman's son
Realizing that time is of the essence, Elisha decides to send his young servant and prophet-in-training to run to the boy and to try to revive the child, using Elisha's staff of authority. The mother, however, is not satisfied and swears in the name of Yahweh that she will not leave him; she is not putting her trust in a "magic" staff but in the person of Elisha, prophet of God. By her oath she is insisting that Elisha must go with her to her child. Gehazi is not successful in resuscitating the child and meets Elisha and the mother on the road to report on his failure. The boy's mother was correct in her intuition that it is the "man of God" who is needed to raise her son to life. The delay in time and Ghazi's unsuccessful attempt proves that this is not a question of the child being unconscious or needing resuscitation. The boy is truly dead and his spirit has left his body.
Elisha begins with prayer and then his actions demonstrate not an attempt to use mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the child but the intention of imparting his own vital life force to the child. The sneeze is the sign that the breath of life has again come into the boy.
Question: What miracle of Elijah does this miracle recall? See 1 Kng 17:17-24 compared with 2 Kng 4:11, 21, 32-34
Answer: It recalls a similar miracle performed by Elijah for his benefactress the widow from Zarephath whose son had died and was restored to life by Elijah in a similar way; both resurrection miracles took place in an Upper Room with each boy laying on the prophet's bed (1 Kng 17:19; 2 Kng 4:11). Elijah stretched out on top of the boy three times and Elisha seven times.
Question: What do all these resurrection miracles prefigure?
Answer: The resurrection of Jesus Christ.
2 Kings 4:38-41 ~ The poisoned soup
You will recall in 2 Kings 2:1 that Elijah and Elisha started out from Gilgal (the Gilgal to the north of Bethel and not the Gilgal near Jericho) and travelled south to Bethel and then east to the Jordan River near Jericho on the journey to Elijah's assumption into heaven. There was apparently a third community of prophets at Gilgal in addition to Bethel and Jericho and all the communities recognized first Elijah and now Elisha as their superior. The visit of Elisha is the occasion for a communal meal and perhaps a teaching. Despite the famine, Elisha is determined that they should all eat together and tells his servant (Gehazi ?) to set a pot to boiling to make a soup. One of the community prophets went out to gather herbs for the soup, perhaps a young member of the community who was not familiar with the local poisonous plants. He gathered some fruit from a plant that looked promising, identified by the Septuagint as "bitter apples", also called "apples of Sodom" a vine's fruit that grows in the region with small yellow melon-type fruits that is a strong purgative and has been known to be fatal. Other members of the community recognize the poisonous addition and call out to Elisha. Elisha saves the men and the meal by curing the soup with a miracle in which meal is added to the soup. It is God and not the meal that cures the soup.
2 Kings 4:42-44 ~ Elisha's multiplication of loaves
The Feast of Firstfruits took place on the day after the Sabbath during the 8 days from the Passover sacrifice to the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:9-14). The covenant people were required to bring grain and bread made from the first fruits of the barley harvest to the Temple and to make a profession of face in front of the altar when presenting their gift (Dt 26:1-11). The same type of offering was made fifty days later in presenting the first fruits of the wheat harvest in the Feast of Weeks (Lev 23:15-22). Since the people of the Northern Kingdom were not allowed to visit the Jerusalem Temple, this religiously observant man may have brought his first fruit offerings to the community of prophets and their leader.
Elisha commands that the offering be shared with the brotherhood of prophets, but his servant points out that there is not enough bread. Elisha reveals that he has a "word of knowledge" from God that not only will there be enough for them to eat, but there will be food leftover.
| Elisha's Feeding Miracle | Jesus' Feeding Miracle |
| In Elisha's miracle there was only a small amount of food (20 loaves of barley bread). | In Jesus' miracle there was only a small amount of food (5 loaves of barley bread and 2 fish). |
| Elisha's servants protested that there was not enough food to feed so many men. | Jesus' disciples protested that there was not enough food to feed so many men. |
| The small amount of food became enough to feed 100 men. | The small amount of food became enough to feed 5 thousand men not counting women and children. |
| There was some food left over. | There were 12 large baskets of food left over. |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2015 | |
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CHALLENGE: “The word ‘purgatory’ doesn’t appear in Scripture, which tells of only two destinies for man—heaven and hell. It doesn’t say anything about a third destiny or a second chance after death.”
DEFENSE:Something can be biblical even if the word isn’t used. Purgatory is not a third destiny or a second chance.
Many terms—like Trinity, original sin, and even Bible—were coined after the Bible was written but still express biblical realities.
Purgatory is the final purification God performs for those who died in his friendship but who are still impure. Thus it is not a third destiny besides heaven and hell. Everyone who goes to purgatory goes to heaven. It’s simply a stage preparing people so that they have the purity needed for heaven (cf. Heb. 12:14).
Neither is purgatory a “second chance” after death. “It is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Heb. 9:27). There are no second chances. You either die in God’s friendship or you don’t.
One biblical passage that alludes to purgatory is 2 Maccabees 12:38–46, in which Judah Maccabee discovers the bodies of men who fell in battle while fighting for the Lord, yet while also wearing pagan amulets. He then turns to prayer, asking that this sin might be blotted out, and he takes up a collection so that a sacrifice may be offered for them in Jerusalem. This reflects an awareness that by prayer the living can help those in need of purification after death.
This passage is not found in the Protestant Bible, but 1 Corinthians 3:11–15 is. In the latter passage, Paul speaks of how our works will be tested “with fire.” He says that if a person’s work survives, he will receive a reward, but “if any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” The person’s salvation is not in question, but Paul compares his experience to escaping through flames as he is purified from the impure works he performed in life.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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