Bible Commentaries
2 Kings 4

Verse 6

2 Kings 4:6

I. We see here how exactly the oil matches the capacity and number of the vessels provided. According to the provision made, so was the miraculous gift. This shows us the law of God's dealing with men's souls. He gives grace, but He gives it in measure. He gives grace as much as man is ready to receive; but He requires man to prepare vessels to receive the grace He gives, and to use and not "leave of it."

II. The oil is Divine grace. Our thoughts, our wishes, our purposes, our conversations, our acts, are all vessels into which the grace of God may be poured from the little cruse of our heart, filled with oil at our baptism. As often as we pour Divine grace into the vessels of our daily acts, so long it flows and fills; but if we stay our hand, the oil is stayed.

III. The oil was given to be used; so is Divine grace. If we use what God gives and value it, he who gathers much shall have nothing over, and he who gathers little shall have no lack.

S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii., p. 163.

References: 2 Kings 4:6 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1467; Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 69. 2 Kings 4:8-25 . A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet, p. 91.

Verses 8-38

2 Kings 4:8-38

What Elisha did for the Shunammite's son, the Church wishes to do for you.

I. The Church is like Elisha because it touches you. It touches you through its one book, the Bible; it touches you through its prayers, and praises, and sermons.

II. The Church is like Elisha because it fits you. As the prophet carefully adapted himself to the child, so the great truths of the Gospel fit your mind and heart. Christ lowers His vast mind to our level, and teaches us truth as we are able to bear it. The Bible truth is likened to bread, to water, and to light. All these are for young and old alike.

III. The Church would also fain warm you into life. It may do as much for your souls as Elisha did for the young Shunammite. Pray that God's Spirit may touch you, and then you shall be warmed into a new life that shall live for ever in the paradise of God.

IV. You will then be a blessing in the Church and in the world, like the revived boy in the home of the Shunammite. When the young yield themselves to the Saviour, the Church is like that boy's mother when, overcome with joy, she bowed herself to the ground and folded her living son in her bosom. That was the day of days in her history. The chief crown and joy of any flock is the fresh, warm life of young Christians who have life before them, and who mean, by God's help, to lay themselves on His holy altar.

J. Wells, Bible Children, p. 107.

Reference: 2 Kings 4:8-38 . Parker, Fountain, March 22nd, 1877.

Verse 9

2 Kings 4:9

This brief, simple statement, taken in its general form, sets forth so far what we ought to be in our own life.

I. "A man of God" a very striking title to give to a human being, and a very grand one, even if for the moment we drop the adjective "holy." And yet is not this the title which every man should be able to adopt and proud to bear? We all come from His creating hand. We live on His beneficence. We are subject to His providence. A great many different kinds of life men can live on the earth, lower and higher, but there is only one best life that which a man may live in God. A man of God should be proud of his title. Other men are proud of theirs the man of the world, the man of letters, the statesman, the man of honour. The man of God should never be ashamed of his name, if only he has the right to bear it.

II. "An holy man of God." Holiness means wholeness. To be holy is to be without disease and without defect, all the parts of the living personality present, all acting harmoniously. Scriptural holiness means keeping in health, and growing in grace, and rising towards the measure of the ultimate perfection in Jesus Christ "a man of God; an holy man of God."

III. Contemplate now the man of God at work. "Behold now an holy man of God, which passeth by us." There can be no health of any kind, physical or moral, without movement. If we want to be men of God, we must do the duties of our life as they come. Let every one remember that there is a round of duty for him, along the track of which no feet but his can walk, a daily task which no hand but his can touch, a life-work that will be undone unless he does it.

IV. "Continually." All the great things in life are produced more by constancy and in quietness than in loudness and by force. Step by step will take you to the end of the longest journey. Duty after duty done, although poorly done many a time, will enable you one day to say with the Master Himself, "It is finished."

A. Raleigh, The Way to the City, p. 104.

Verse 10

2 Kings 4:10

I. How did this little chamber come to be? It originated in the quick and clear conception of this woman of Shunem. The perceiving, the observing, eye is the gate of knowledge, the quickener of sympathy, the informer to benevolence. It brings before the benevolent heart the material on which it can act. It is at least the hewer of wood and the drawer of water to nobler faculties than itself.

II. Let us see how these nobler things come out in this case. Immediate action is taken. It is good to know men and things somewhat correctly; but the higher pleasure is later born, and is always associated with doing and with duty. "Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do, do it." There are duties and privileges which are possible to us only within a certain limit and line of time, and beyond that impossible for ever.

III. Do not think of these duties of helpfulness as involving great exertion, or very considerable expenditure of time or money. It is not so. It is even in some cases very much the reverse, as in this case of the good Shunammite. Her gift, after all, is very simple, and to herself and her husband very inexpensive. The room she gave the prophet was hung round with no pictures; the three inscriptions we may see on the walls are these: (1) considerateness; (2) simplicity; (3) contentment.

A. Raleigh, The Way to the City, p. 115.

I. The little chamber was built by a great woman whose name is not told us. If we live to do good and to make others happy, our names will be where hers is.

II. The prophet Elisha conducted himself in such a way in this woman's house that she knew he was a man of God. If some of those who do not eat and drink to the glory of God could see themselves as others, and especially as God sees them, they would be ashamed.

III. In the little chamber Elisha raised the Shunammite's dead son. God pays good rent for all that His servants use.

T. Champness, Little Foxes that Spoil the Vines, p. 46.

References: 2 Kings 4:13 . J. Van Oosterzee, Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 479. 2 Kings 4:19 . J. Hamilton, Works, vol. vi., p. 474. 2 Kings 4:20 . T. L. Cuyler, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 104. 2 Kings 4:23 . E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, 2nd series, p. 400. 2 Kings 4:25-37 . A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet, p. 105. 2 Kings 4:26 . E. J. Hardy, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxviii., p. 284; A. P. Stanley, Good Words, 1878, p. 140; A. K. H. R., From a Quiet Place, p. 117; G. D. Macgregor, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 49; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 411; Preacher's Monthly, vol. ii., p. 179; M. Nicholson, Redeeming the Time, p. 286; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. xi., p. 20, and vol. xxii., p. 93. 2 Kings 4:30 . Ibid., vol. xvii., p. 24.

Verse 31

2 Kings 4:31

I. The reason why Gehazi failed to awaken the child was that he was not a fit agent for the wonder-working power. God saw in him the selfishness, the covetousness, which soon came to light, and so He refused to acknowledge him. To give life a man must have life, and have it in its purity and abundance.

II. There are some of you, many of you, who have lived long enough to have grown somewhat dull and dead. Boys and girls are "dead" dead in spirit, dead in the worst kind of death if they have lost all care for God, for truth, and righteousness, and kindness.

III. Some of you, if you are not dead, are at least "fast asleep." You are dreaming, and pursuing dreams. You have eyes, but they are not open.

IV. If you are diligent, thoughtful, quick to seize occasion as it rises, because it is your duty, because you love God and hold His law to be the true law of life, then you are alive and awake. And if you are alive and awake, your life will be a happy preparation for the better life to come.

S. Cox, The Bird's Nest, p. 64.

References: 2 Kings 4:31 . H. Macmillan, The Olive Leaf, p. 136. 2 Kings 4:31-34 . S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii., Appendix, p. 24. 2 Kings 4:32-35 . J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. iii., p. 78. 2 Kings 4:34 . D. J. Vaughan, The Days of the Son of Man, p. 400; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1461. 2 Kings 4:34 , 2 Kings 4:35 . H. Macmillan, The Olive Leaf, p. 136. 2 Kings 4:36 , 2 Kings 4:37 . J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. i., p. 75. 2 Kings 4:38-41 . A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet, p. 115. 2 Kings 4:38-44 . Parker, vol. viii., p. 132. 2 Kings 4:40 . J. Thain Davidson, Talks with Young Men, p. 161; T. L. Cuyler, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 104. 2 Kings 4:41 . J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. iii., p. 86. 2 Kings 4:42 . H. Macmillan, Sunday Magazine, 1873, pp. 42, 126; J. dimming, Penny Pulpit, No. 072. 2 Kings 4:42 , 2 Kings 4:43 . T. Champness, New Coins from Old Gold, p. 21. 2 Kings 4:42-44 . A. Edersheim, Elisha the Prophet, p. 125. 2 Kings 4:0 Parker, vol. viii., p. 113.