Elisha went from one place to another, teaching the people to love and serve the true God. He visited in the homes of the rich as well as in the homes of the poor. And one day he came to the little city of Shunem, where a rich woman and her husband lived, and their servants. The woman and her husband had no children. This woman invited Elisha and his servant into her home, and she cared for them as long as they stayed in Shunem. She believed Elisha was a prophet of the true God, and she wished to show her respect to such a great man by entertaining him and his servant.
Elisha often passed through Shunem on his journeys, and he stopped each time to rest at this kind woman’s home. One day the woman said to her husband, “Let us build a room for this prophet, and place in it a table, a candlestick, a bed, and a chair, that he may rest here with us whenever he comes to our city.” So they built a special room for Elisha and his servant.
Not long afterwards Elisha passed that way again, and he was pleased to see the nice room that his kind friends had built for him. He wished to repay them for their kindness, so he sent his servant to speak to the woman to ask her what they might do for her. But she told the servant that she needed nothing at all, for she was happy to live among her own people and she did not care for a special favor from any one, not even the king.
Elisha’s servant noticed, however, that there were no little children playing about in that home, so he came back and told his master. And Elisha told the woman that because she had been so kind to him and to his servant, God would give her a little son. The woman thought this promise seemed too good to be true. But God had heard Elisha’s words, and God gave her and her husband a baby boy.
A few years passed by and the child grew old enough to follow his father about. One day he went with his father out to the harvest-field, where the servants were cutting the ripe grain. As he ran here and there, playing in the warm sunshine, suddenly he became very sick. He called his father and cried, “My head! my head!” And his father told a servant to carry the child home.
When the servant came, bringing the sick little boy, the mother was alarmed. She took the child in her arms and held him on her lap until noon. Then he died. Now what should she do? she wondered. First she carried her dead child to Elisha’s room and laid him on the prophet’s bed. Then she called for a servant and prepared to go at once to find Elisha to bring him back to Shunem.
It was a long ride to Mount Carmel, where Elisha and his servant were staying that day. But the woman did not think about the distance, for she thought only about the great sorrow that had come to her, and she believed the prophet could help her in her time of trouble. Perhaps as she hurried on the way she prayed that God would help her find the prophet.
Elisha saw the woman coming far down the road, and he sent his servant to meet her. He told the servant to ask if it Was well with her, and with her husband, and with her child. So the servant ran forward and asked her the questions Elisha had bidden him. And the woman. answered, 4 4.It is well.’? But she hurried on till she came to the place where Elisha was, and then she fell down at his feet and seemed to be in great distress.
Elisha was troubled; for God had not shown him what had happened to grieve the good woman who had been so kind to him. Finally the woman cried, “Did I ask you for a child?” Then the prophet knew that something had gone wrong with the little boy. So he told his servant to take his staff and hurry on to Shunem and place the staff across the face of the child. But the woman was not satisfied. She said, “I will not. go back with only the servant. You, Elisha, must come too.”
Elisha’s servant reached Shunem first, and found the body of the dead child lying on his master’s bed. He placed his master’s staff across the child’s face, but no signs of life appeared. Then he went out of the room and started back to meet Elisha and the woman. When he came to them he said, “I have obeyed your words, but the child is not wakened.” Soon Elisha came and saw that the little boy was dead. He understood the grief of the mother, and he felt sorry for her. He shut the door of his room and began to pray earnestly that God would cause life to come into the child again. After praying, he went up to the child and lay with his face upon the child’s face and his hands upon the child’s hands. And as he lay there the child’s body grew warm. He rose up and walked about in the room, then went back again and lay upon the child as before. And then the child sneezed seven times, and opened his eyes.
Elisha called his servant at once, and told him to bring the woman. And when she came to his room he said, “Take up your son.” She looked and saw that her child Was alive again, but she bowed thank-fully at Elisha’s feet before she took the boy away.