Presently, the stricken mother called the prophet’s attention to his own promise, meaning to say thereby, I did not complain of my childlessness, and did not demand a son; now, however, I am grief-smitten, for it is better never to have a child than to have one and lose it.
The grief and the lamentation of the woman moved the compassionate heart of the prophet so much that he desired to bring her relief as soon as possible. He therefore said to Gehazi, “Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand and go thy way; if thou meet any man, salute him not.” This shows that he was to go as quickly as possible. He was even to refrain from saluting any one. It is well known that salutations are far more ceremonious in the Orient than with us, and inferiors always remain standing until persons of higher rank pass by, and thus annoying delay was often occasioned. This command to hasten would draw off the attention of the mother from her excessive grief, and, possibly, Elisha may have hoped that life had not yet entirely left the child, and that utter decease might yet be prevented by swift interference. But the importunity of the woman, that Elisha himself should come, proceeded from the conviction that the child was already completely dead, and that now not Gehazi, but only the prophet himself, who had promised her the son, could help. To this deep confidence he promptly responded.
Gehazi carried out his commission by hastening on to Shunem, and placing the prophet’s staff upon the face of the child, and, by means of the divine power, of which the staff was the symbol, he was to execute a prophetical act in awakening the child out of the death-sleep.
Before Elisha, with the sorrowing mother, arrived at Shunem, Gehazi had discharged his commission, although in vain, and was on his way back again, when he met the prophet, and said, “The child is not awaked.” Though he had the external symbol of the prophet’s power, yet it lacked the spirit of Jehovah, which was the special gift of God, and which even Elisha might not delegate, according to his own will and pleasure, to his servant.
The want of success of Gehazi’s commission spurred on the prophet all the more to do what he could in order to restore the child to life. Having reached the house of sorrow, and the little chamber where the loving hands of the mother had laid the body of her child, Elisha shut the door, and “prayed unto the Lord.” In that awful hour of a mother’s heart-crushing suspense, God heard His servant’s cry, and gave back the precious child to life again.
The closing scene is very beautiful indeed. The mother having been called, when she reached the chamber, Elisha said, “Take up thy son!” We are not told whether the mother heart first leaped to embrace the child, or, out of modest gratitude, she first fell at the prophet’s feet in a flood of grateful thanksgiving. The bread of kindness she had been casting upon the waters, in honoring God’s servant, now all returned to her. She certainly was reaping with tears of joy, and, had she lived in this gospel age, she could have heard the Lord of life saying, “Inasmuch as ye did it to one of these My servants, ye did it unto Me.” Marvels of marvels, that prophets’ homes do not dot our land in this day of gospel light.
As Elisha broke asunder
Death’s cold hands and said, “Arise,”
Give the child back to his mother—
So Thy power doth still suffice.