Elisha Raises The Shunammite Woman’s Son

In 2 Kings chapter four, we read the story of a Shunammite woman who asks her husband to make a small apartment for Elisha to use whenever he comes to town. In response to this kindness, Elisha inquires if there is anything he can do for her. When she asks for nothing, Elisha’s servant Gehazi observes that she has no son and that her husband is old. Elisha tells the woman that she will have a son by this time the following year, which came to pass.

Sometime later, the Shunammite woman’s boy has a terrible headache and is taken to his mother. He dies in her arms. She lays his body on the bed that Elisha used and then goes to find the prophet. We pick up the story as Elisha reaches the house:

When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD. Then he got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy’s body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.” She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out (2 Kings 4:32–37 NIV).

What an incredible story! It demonstrates the power and majesty of our God, giving us real hope in Christ’s victory over death and the resurrection of the dead.