2 Kings · chapter 4 of 25
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2 Kings 4 gathers four miracles of Elisha on behalf of ordinary people: oil that does not run out for an indebted widow, a promised son who is later restored to life for the woman of Shunem, a poisoned stew made harmless, and twenty loaves that feed a hundred men. Each account shows that the Lord cares for the needy through his prophet.
After acting before kings in chapter 3, Elisha now appears among families and communities of prophets. This chapter shows the closer face of his ministry: provision for a widow, hospitality rewarded, the rescue of a dead child and food in a time of famine. The miracles recall those of Elijah and anticipate those of Jesus, who also feeds crowds and raises the dead.
The widow of one of the sons of the prophets cries out to Elisha because a creditor is coming to take her two sons as slaves. She has only a jar of oil. Elisha tells her to borrow many empty jars from her neighbors, shut the door and pour. The oil flows until there are no more jars, and Elisha tells her to sell it, pay the debt and live on the rest with her sons.
In Shunem a prominent woman invites Elisha to eat and, seeing that he is a holy man of God, suggests to her husband that they build a small room on the roof for him. Elisha wants to repay her and, through his servant Gehazi, learns that she has no son and her husband is old. He announces that in a year she will hold a son, and it happens. When the boy has grown, one day he goes out to his father in the field, complains of his head and dies on his mother's lap.
She lays the body on the prophet's bed, shuts the door and goes to Elisha at Mount Carmel. He sends Gehazi ahead with his staff, but the boy does not respond. Elisha comes, enters the room, prays to the Lord and stretches himself over the child, and the boy sneezes seven times and opens his eyes. Elisha calls the mother and gives her son back alive.
There is a famine in Gilgal. One of the prophets gathers poisonous wild gourds and puts them in the stew. When they taste it they cry out that there is death in the pot. Elisha adds flour and the stew becomes harmless. Then a man arrives with twenty loaves of barley and fresh grain. Elisha tells him to give it to the people to eat. His servant objects that it cannot feed a hundred men, but they eat and have some left, as the Lord had said.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Elisha asks the widow what she has in her house, and she answers that she has only a jar of oil. God begins his work with the little she has and turns it into abundant provision.
Elisha announces to the Shunammite that about this time next year she will embrace a son. She responds with disbelief, afraid of being deceived, but the promise of the Lord comes true.
Elisha stretches himself over the child, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands, and the body grows warm; the boy sneezes seven times and opens his eyes. It is one of the resurrections of the Old Testament, a preview of God's power over death.
Elisha tells his servant to give twenty loaves to a hundred men, and the servant doubts there is enough. They eat and have some left, according to what the Lord said, an echo of how Jesus would multiply bread for the crowds.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Only a jar of oil. — 2 Kings 4:2
Answer: When there were no more empty jars to fill. — 2 Kings 4:6
Answer: A small room on the roof with a bed, a table, a chair and a lamp. — 2 Kings 4:10
Answer: That the next year she would have a son. — 2 Kings 4:16-17
Answer: Seven times, and then he opened his eyes. — 2 Kings 4:35
Answer: He added flour to the pot. — 2 Kings 4:41
The widow had very little, but God used precisely that. We often think we have nothing to offer, and the Lord asks what we have in the house. In a small group you can reflect on what concrete resources, time or talents we can place in God's hands without waiting to have more.
The woman of Shunem also shows generous hospitality that expects no reward. When grief came, she went to the prophet with stubborn faith: she would not accept that everything was over. This chapter encourages those who suffer loss not to let go of God, and those who have means to open their homes and hands with simplicity.
2 Kings 4 shows Elisha as an instrument of God's goodness in daily life: oil, a son, a stew and bread. In chapter 5 the prophet will again help a powerful foreigner, Naaman, a Syrian commander sick with leprosy, who will discover that there is a God in Israel.
She was a well-off believing woman of the town of Shunem who offered lodging to the prophet Elisha. The text does not give her name. She is remembered for her hospitality and for her firm faith when her son died. Her story continues in 2 Kings 8.
The text describes the gesture in detail but does not explain it. It was a symbolic act of intercession and identification with the child while Elisha prayed to the Lord. Life did not come from a method but from the Lord, who answered the prophet's prayer.
The prophets made a stew with wild gourds they did not recognize, and they turned out to be poisonous. Elisha added flour and the stew was no longer harmful. The account shows that God cares for his people even in ordinary mistakes.