In the story before us tonight we are confronted with this same nightmare of every parent - the death of their child, and in this case their only child. There are some great things to learn from this mother who lived by faith, even in the midst of the darkest hour of her life so far.

2. I believe these were or could serve as types of the death and resurrection of the Son of God.

3. We should not even think that God is playing around with this woman’s emotions, God doesn’t do that. He does test the faith of His people, even as he did with Job.

1. It was the harvest season and the sun was hot. Sunstroke could have been the cause of the child’s death.

2. She laid the dead boy on Elisha’s bed. It does not appear that she thought that just by laying the boy on the prophet’s bed he would be restored to life, for she shuts the door and leaves.

3. As we all know, death can come very suddenly and without any warning. This wonderful harvest day began with joy and the expectation of a fruitful harvest, only to have another harvester, death, arrive even before mid-day.

4. It was the woman’s response to the death of her son that tells much about her. It is our response in such times that tells much about our faith and trust in God.

2. The father’s response let’s us know that this couple was of the custom of going to the prophet Elisha on the Sabbath days, and the feasts on the new moon. This must have been a regular occurrence for them.

3. Notice how she calms her husband’s questioning by saying - “It shall be well.” She is telling him there is nothing to worry about. She is using the word shalom, or peace. This certainly is a steady woman of faith. As said before, it certainly appears that she doesn’t want her husband to know what is up.

4. I don’t know if I could recommend such an action on the part of a wife today, but possibly, because he was older than she, he may have had some physical problems that would have come on if he really knew what had happened to their son. He surely loved his son as much as she did.

1. She basically tells her servant to put the pedal to the metal and make tracks to Mount Carmel and the prophet Elisha. The only thing that was going to slow them down was if they got to going to fast. “Don’t worry about me, a woman, being concerned about you getting everything you can get out of these animals and this cart. Just make it go fast.”

2. There is a time to get things done fast and there is a time to take your time in getting a job done. This was a time to make all haste and get the prophet of God to come to your aid.

3. When it comes to prayer, we need to be making all haste all the time. Remember, we are to have an attitude of praying without ceasing.

2. It would almost appear that she is lying when she tells Gehazi that her son is well, when in fact, she knows he is dead. On the other hand, we already know that she is a great woman of faith, and so her answer to him can also be taken as a statement of faith in regard to what she knows God can do through the prophet Elisha.

3. This is the first of two times that Gehazi is sent by Elisha on fruitless missions. Is Gehazi to be learning something from these trips that somehow he doesn’t learn? It is possible.

1. Though she told Gehazi that all was well, as soon as she gets to Elisha she falls to the ground and grabs his feet. This was a sign that her supplication was from the very depths of her heart and that she desired an answer from the prophet. She tells Elisha, “didn’t I say Do not deceive me?”

2. What could she mean by this? What she means is that she had been better off without the child, than to have the child, and to love it with all her heart, and now for the child to be taken away from her. That seemed like a bitter pill to swallow and seems to vent some of her grief toward Elisha. She didn’t ask for a son, but she was given a son and now she has lost him to death.

3. God gives us wonderful gifts, but we had better be careful that we do not become attached to them in a greater way than our attachment and love for the Lord. Even a child can begin to take the place that the Lord should have in our life. We say we believe God is to have first place in our life, but we so often let things and others get in the way of that really taking place in our life. A child is a blessing from the Lord, and known of us here would say otherwise, but keep the Lord first in your life. It may be things that God has blessed us with, but as Job told his wife, “The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”

4. Elisha fully understood the depth of her grief and send Gehazi to do something about it with his staff.

5. It is clear that the mother is not going to trust in Gehazi doing the work that she believes Elisha will have to do. I have come all this way at break-neck speed for you to come, so “I will not leave you.” She was implying that she was not going to leave him until he himself went back with her to the child.

6. We need to have the same kind of persistence and steadfastness in the matter of prayer. Recall what Jesus taught in Luke 18:1-8a, the story of the widow and the unjust judge who finally did for her what he should have done all along, but only did so because of her persistence in asking him to do something about it.

1. The thought here is the need for haste in getting to the child.

2. We are not told whether Elisha thought this would bring the child back to life or not. Unless the Lord was leading, a prophet of God knew no more than another. We see this even in this story in verse 27c “the LORD hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.”

3. This is most likely Elijah’s staff , and Elisha used it, even as Aaron the high priest had used his staff on occasions.

4. It is quite clear, as we have seen already, that the mother didn’t believe for a moment that the staff would do anything - the prophet himself needed to be there.

2. How often do we start with out own works and devices, and then finally get around, when all else fails, to asking God to help us in the present dire circumstances we find ourselves in? Probably quite often, but it should never happen that way. Elisha teaches us the proper way to approach a matter that is totally out of our hands.

1. Elisha prayed, but then he laid himself upon the child and caused his body heat to pass over the child. He had to do this twice and then the child sneezed seven times and then he opened his eyes.

2. This description lets us know that the child was dead. His body temperature had cooled down considerably since his death, even though he may have had heat stroke and had experienced a lethal high temperature in his little body. Elisha is using his own body to restore some heat to the body, and maybe even some artificial respiration.

3. That last statement should not be taken to mean that something miraculous did not take place that day, for it did, but God wanted Elisha to have a part in the restoration of life to this little boy. In most cases, just laying on a dead person with the desire to transferring your body heat to them, will not result in them coming back to life. God obviously had a very important purpose for restoring life to this particular young boy. Maybe God had great things for him to do in the future.

We also saw a woman who was quick to action when action was required. How quick are we to bring our burdens and grieves to the Lord? How persistent in prayer are we over a matter or a person?