“And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, laid upon his bed. He went in, therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto Jehovah. And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and The child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out” (2 Kings 4:32-3732And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. 33He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord. 34And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. 35Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 36And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. 37Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out. (2 Kings 4:32‑37)).
We may notice here a striking analogy between this case and the similar instance of the son of the widow of Sarepta (1 Kings 17:17-2417And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. 18And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? 19And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. 20And he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? 21And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. 22And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. 24And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. (1 Kings 17:17‑24)). In the earlier case God made it manifest that He would be no man's debtor, even when Israel was under His governmental dealings. His servant Elijah, the object of the people's malice, as also of Ahab their king, was not allowed to be dependent upon any in Israel for food and shelter. “I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta of Sidon, unto a woman a widow” (Luke 4:25, 2625But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; 26But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. (Luke 4:25‑26)).
God graciously provided for the need of that Gentile widow and her son for “many days.” Nor was this all. When death claimed her son, and the mother was reminded of the sins of her past life, Elijah, in communion with the mind of God, would not allow it to be said that in yielding obedience to the claims of God she had really lost. Elijah took up her dead child and gave her a living one. It was sovereign grace acting in divine power which, if Israel refused, the Gentile would profit by. Here, however, in the woman of Shunem, a far deeper lesson is before us. Every one who has had to do with God in such extremities of need will have learned somewhat of His ways. Though the circumstances indeed may differ, the manner of the deliverance may have much in common. Nevertheless the distinctive pathway of each, with its fruitful results to the exercised soul, has its own appropriate character before God, as well as for ourselves. The obvious lesson for us in both cases is that whilst Christ, the Son of the living God, has broken the power of death for him that believes, the fruits of His victory remain to be realized and appropriated by faith.
We may also notice that the gracious sympathies of the one in whom divine power is acting have their full opportunity of display. They are not shut out or rendered superfluous by the existence of a power able and ready to act (see John 11:35-3835Jesus wept. 36Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! 37And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? 38Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. (John 11:35‑38)). A living man, the obedient one, has gone down into death that so His love might be fully manifested, and that those subjected to death might be raised up. “Jesus said unto her [Martha], I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” The righteous sentence of death upon man had to be upheld, but God, manifesting His love, “sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:99In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. (1 John 4:9)). “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)). Other truths, indeed, have their own place and value, but it is good for the soul to meditate upon the matchless love of God that takes account of our wretched condition to work for His own glory and for our deliverance. Christ has come down into our depths of misery and death, entering fully into our circumstances that we might be delivered and raised to His heights. He took hold of the seed of Abraham.
What amazing condescending grace! What abundant manifestations of love in considerate regard for others do we find! What untiring service! What self-abnegation, etc.! Surely all this should have reached the hearts of His people, and have made way for the message which he brought from God! But alas! instead of this, he had to say, “For my love I had hatred,” and “they hated me without a cause.” Notwithstanding the wonderful display of divine goodness-brought down to man in the person of Him who was “God manifest in flesh” walking this earth—divine goodness in the midst of all the circumstances in which man was found, and brought about by the presence of sin and death-we see that this display was in itself powerless to effect any real change in man as he was. The Son of God had become the Son of man, yet the corrupt heart of the sinner was hardened and closed against this love of God. This blessed One, God's righteous Servant, took account of every witness to man's guilty and helpless condition, and offered up Himself, the one infinite sacrifice which alone could avail for life, salvation and peace.
There were occasions on which it seemed as if the continual proofs of God's power and goodness were in some little way beginning to tell upon those who witnessed them. Such as, for instance, the desire of the Greeks to see Jesus. “And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship during the feast. The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus” (John 12:20, 2120And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast: 21The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. (John 12:20‑21)). But the Lord invariably rejected all these desires and professions that rested only upon the flesh, and by which man deceived himself and denied the truth as to his real condition in God's sight. “And Jesus answered them saying, The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (vers. 23, 24). “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (vers. 31, 32).
The solemn truth of man being wholly under the power of sin and death is constantly before us in the Gospel of John. It seems to be borne witness to in the restoration to life of the Shunammite's son, as also of the widow's son (1 Kings 17). In both, there is the personal contact of a living man with a dead body, that is, Christ's going into death, not to challenge Satan's right over the body founded upon man's act of disobedience, but to nullify those rights wrongfully obtained, and to set them aside by the completion of that one righteous act on which our salvation is founded. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned.... Therefore, as by one offense judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by one righteousness the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Romans 5:12, 18, 1912Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12)
18Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. (Romans 5:18‑19)).
But there is a great difference between type and antitype. Elijah and Elisha must needs make this personal contact, for they could not die for another. Their action was but figurative of Christ's great work. The Lord Himself, when on earth working similar miracles, had but to speak the word “and it was done.” Take, as an instance, the Lord by the bier of the young man, “the only son of his mother,” the widow of Nain. “And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother” (Luke 7:11-1511And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people. 12Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. 13And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. 14And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. 15And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. (Luke 7:11‑15)).
And from another Gospel. “Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I know that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes; and his face was hound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him and let him go” (John 11:41-4441Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. 42And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. 43And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. 44And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go. (John 11:41‑44)). All this is but anticipating the greater power that shall be manifested at His coming (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17)). The victory over death, which Christ has obtained for the believer, is known and appropriated now by faith, even though death is working in our mortal bodies. And if we realized this truth more, it would save us much bitter experience, for we are far too ready to cherish desires and to form plans (even of a religious character) which suppose something good in fallen man that God will use. When this is the case, we have to learn experimentally the painful truth of Romans 7, that we may also know and enjoy the real deliverance and power of Romans 8-” The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
The glorious resurrection of the sleeping saints, and the equally glorious change and rapture of the living ones (the one event for which we wait), are made to depend upon a work already accomplished and accepted by the God who gave His Son, and which is also attested by the Spirit's presence on earth and His indwelling of the Christian. It is not dead bodies but living ones that He inhabits. “Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies because of his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:9-119But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 10And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:9‑11)). “Behold, I shew you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 0 death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:51-5551Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (1 Corinthians 15:51‑55)).
The victory which Christ has already obtained shall then he celebrated and published (at least to spiritual intelligences). With regard to the future restoration of Israel, other principles will be brought into operation. The elect of Israel forming the nucleus of the new nation will, individually and collectively, be the subject of the Holy Spirit's action, who will awaken, convict and instruct by the scriptures. This we may see prefigured by the Lord's gracious and convincing testimony to the two disciples going to Emmaus (Luke 24:25-2725Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 27And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:25‑27)). He will open the understanding of the elect remnant that they may understand the scriptures, and more especially those parts in which the sufferings, sympathies, and graces of Christ rejected by His people are before us. Then will repentance, faith, and spiritual affections be evoked from His (now unbelieving) people in that day.
For proof of this two or three quotations may suffice. “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. And ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:25-2825Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 28And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:25‑28)). “Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath into you, and ye shall live: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.” “Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army” (37:4-6, 9, 10).
“Thou hast increased the nation, O Jehovah, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.” “Thy dead shall live, my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead” (Isaiah 26:15, 1915Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. (Isaiah 26:15)
19Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. (Isaiah 26:19)). The remnant of Israel will then he chastened and humbled that God may lift them up when He seeth that their power is gone. “Jehovah shall repent himself concerning his people.”
God's purpose in thus dealing with this daughter of Abraham was now attained. The promise had been fulfilled, the power of God in resurrection had been established. All through the history she had shown herself to be a believing woman. She is now a worshipper. “Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out.”
[G. S. B.]
(To be continued)