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Pastor Colin Smith: Elisha surely was a great man of God, and God worked through him in extraordinary ways. But the emphasis of the story is not on Elisha's strength and power, but on Elisha's limitations and on Elisha's weakness.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I'm Steve Hiller, glad you're listening today. And Colin, what we just heard to me sounds kind of counterintuitive or at least different than what I often hear people give as counsel. They'll often say something like, "Well, shore up your weaknesses, but really focus on or maximize your strengths." But it sounds like you're saying something different here.

Colin Smith: Yeah, well, I think the reality is that sooner or later God brings us to a place where we do experience our own weakness. And that's where Elisha was here. He was confronted with a boy who was dead. Well, what's he going to do about that?

In all of our lives, we come to a place where God takes us away from the position of saying "I can do this" and puts us in a position where we realize I am absolutely, completely, totally, and utterly dependent upon God. And that is to experience our own weakness, to recognize the limitations, that there are things that are beyond our power and that are only possible for God himself.

And I think that's why in the New Testament, Steve, Paul speaks about rejoicing in his weakness because it's there, he says, that God's power is made clear. God's power rests on him when he's most aware of what he can't do, and it becomes evident that whatever does happen has happened through the power and the grace and the mercy of God alone.

So, I think this theme of knowing our weakness, knowing our dependence upon God is really very important in the Christian life. And you're absolutely right, it's very counterintuitive to the kind of message that we hear around us each day.

Steve Hiller: Well, let's look more at what God's word actually does say to us from 2 Kings chapter 4. We're continuing a message called "God Will Comfort Us." Here is Pastor Colin.

Pastor Colin Smith: God's servants are greatly blessed. Never forget it. Never forget it. Second, God's servants endure great sorrow. The story continues, verse 18: "When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. And he said to his father, 'Oh, my head, my head!'" And the father said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother." And when they had lifted him and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died.

Suddenly, without any warning at all, this godly woman who had been so greatly blessed was afflicted by this terrible, terrible loss. And who in the world could have imagined when the sun came up that morning that this lady's son would be dead by noon?

We don't know how old the boy was when he died. He's referred to as a child who had grown in verse 18, but he was young enough still to sit on his mother's lap. And here we have every mother's nightmare, a nightmare that some among us have known, the unimaginable sorrow of the death of a child.

Now, you would think that the first thing the mother would do would be go and tell her husband. She didn't do that. She laid the boy on the bed in Elisha's room, and she told her husband that she was going to go and see the man of God. And then she said to her husband, "All is well."

She then rode on her donkey as fast as she could from Shunem to Mount Carmel where Elisha was, probably around a 20-mile journey altogether. And when Elisha saw her in the distance, he sensed immediately that something was wrong. Verse 25: "When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi his servant, 'Look, there is the Shunammite. Run at once to meet her and say to her, "Is all well with you? Is all well with your husband? Is all well with the child?"'"

Well, Gehazi went out to meet the woman. She clearly brushed Gehazi off with the same answer that she gave to her husband: "All is well." And when she saw Elisha, she let him have it. Verse 28: "Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say do not deceive me?"

You see what she's saying? This is exactly what I was afraid of: that my heart would be filled with joy and then that it would be broken. God's servants are greatly blessed, and God's servants endure great sorrows.

Now, this is a pattern in the Christian life. This godly woman received an unexpected gift, and she endured an unexpected sorrow. And you can't read this story surely about a godly woman who received the gift of a promised son who then died without thinking about another woman in the Bible whose son was promised and then died.

You remember the words of the angel to Mary? "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus." And then do you remember the words of Simeon, that old prophet who came to the temple when Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus there? And he took the infant Jesus in his arms and blessed him. Then he spoke words of blessing over Mary and Joseph, and then he said to Mary, "And a sword will pierce through your soul also."

And a sword did pierce through Mary's soul. Who can imagine the pain that she felt as she watched from the foot of the cross as her son hung there and suffered and died? When sorrow comes, and some of you know this from your own experience, when sorrow comes, there can be a condemning voice that sounds off in your head, and it says, "I must have done something wrong for this to happen."

But what I want you to notice here is that this is a story about the most godly of women, and it points clearly to the story of Mary, the mother of our Lord. Why do the godly suffer? God's providence is a mystery. All that we know is that the godly do suffer, that this too is within the purpose of God, and that one day God will wipe away all tears from our eyes.

You cannot serve Christ without in a profound way bearing the cross. You want to live a life of service, obedience to Christ? What should you expect? Well, you should know that God's servants are greatly blessed, and you should know that God's servants endure great sorrows.

Then there's a third thing that is a principle that will run throughout the lives of all who devote themselves to the service of Christ, and that is that God's servants depend on God. Now, it would be very easy for us to read this story in a way that makes Elisha the hero, but that would be a big mistake.

Elisha surely was a great man of God, and God worked through him in extraordinary ways. But the emphasis of the story is not on Elisha's strength and power, but on Elisha's limitations and on Elisha's weakness. The hero of the story is God himself, not Elisha. Elisha is dependent on God.

And that comes out very clearly in at least two ways. Notice first, for example, what Elisha doesn't know. Verse 27: "The man of God said, 'Leave her alone, for she is in bitter distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me.'"

That's a very humbling thing for a prophet to say. His experience was that God revealed mysteries to him, direct revelation. But now he comes to the situation of such great pain for someone who is very, very special in his life, and all he can say is, "God reveals many things to me, but this one is beyond me. I don't know what God is doing here. God has hidden it from me. He has not revealed it to me."

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, and a message called "God Will Comfort Us" as we're taking a look at one of the stories of Elisha's life. Now, God had hidden this from Elisha, but what does that mean for you and me today? What's our takeaway? We'll come back and we'll take a look at that in just a moment.

This message is part of a larger series entitled "In God We Trust." And if you ever miss a broadcast in the series, you can come and listen online. Our website is OpenTheBible.org. There you can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. You can also listen if you have the Open the Bible app, and you'll find that for free at your app store. Let's go back to the message. Here is Pastor Colin.

Pastor Colin Smith: Now take this into your heart. It will be helpful to you. However wise, however discerning, however godly you may be, there will be some things that you will not understand because God has not chosen to reveal them to you.

You will find yourself in life saying at times, "This is beyond me. I'm walking with God, but right now I really don't know what it is that he is doing. I can't see the way ahead. I am completely and utterly dependent upon God." And you see, that's why he sometimes hides things from us so that we will remember and know how much we depend on him.

And dear friends, this is very humbling. If you walk closely with God, as many of you do, there will be some people around you who think that you have all the answers. And God will put you in a place where something happens and you just don't know. And you have to say, "I don't know. I cannot understand."

So, there were things that Elisha didn't know, and then there was something that Elisha attempted that proved to be unsuccessful. Notice that he sent Gehazi back to the house in Shunem and gave to Gehazi his servant Elisha's prophet's staff and told him to lay the staff on the face of the child.

So, Gehazi went back, did as Elisha had told him to do. This was Elisha's initiative in this desperate situation, and we're told in verse 31 that Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life.

God sometimes allows his servants to fail in something that we thought would succeed. And he does that so that we will know and we will remember that we are utterly, always completely dependent upon him. Remember, Elisha was one of God's best servants. He received direct revelation from God.

We hear the word of God by opening the Bible; Elisha as a prophet heard the word of God directly, like a hotline from heaven being revealed to him. You imagine the temptation that might come with that, to feel that somehow you have the truth resident within yourself, that it's in you, that you have what it takes.

How easy it is for us today to live on our gifts, to feel that we have what it takes to do the work of God. "Yeah, we've got it, we can do it." And here's how God deals with that arrogance. God sometimes allows his own servants to fail so that we will remember that we are always completely and utterly dependent on him.

Has that ever happened to you? You said, "Let's do this," and you were very confident of success, only to be confronted by failure. Well, you see, that was Elisha's experience. And if that was the experience of a man who walked so closely with God, then we shouldn't be surprised if it's our experience as well.

Now, the woman was not at all impressed when Elisha sent Gehazi to the house. Elisha may have thought that God would work through Gehazi taking the staff and laying it on the face of the child, but the woman wasn't buying that, not for one minute. Verse 30, she said, "As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you."

Now, you see what she's saying to Elisha? "Look, you've sent your servant, but I'm not impressed with that. I want you to come, and I'm not leaving here until you come with me." And so, verse 32, Elisha came to the house.

And that leads to our fourth and last observation. We've seen that God's servants are greatly blessed, God's servants will endure great sorrow, God's servants depend on God, and lastly, God's servants have a glorious future.

We're told here that when Elisha came to the house, he saw the child lying on the bed (verse 32). So he went up and shut the door and prayed to the Lord. Then verse 34: "Then he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. And as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm. Then he got up again and walked once back and forth in the house and went up and stretched himself out upon him. The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes."

There is no greater miracle than the miracle of resurrection, and that's what we have right here. There are just three stories in the Old Testament of resurrections, just three, and they're all from the time of Elijah and Elisha, and of course this is one of these three.

And why are they there? They all point forward to the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to the glorious hope of triumph over death that is ours in him. It is almost as if God couldn't wait to give the good news of the glorious hope that is ours in the Lord Jesus Christ. Death will not be the end. His servants have a glorious future. They will enjoy a glorious resurrection.

And there is the most marvelous picture here of how the Lord Jesus gives us this new resurrection life. Notice verse 34, Elisha lay on the child. He stretched himself upon him. Now, in the Old Testament law, even touching a dead body would make you unclean. And so by stretching himself out over the boy, Elisha is making himself totally unclean.

And when the Lord Jesus Christ stretched himself out for us on the cross, he was made totally unclean for our sake. God made him, Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And then notice that Elisha lay on the child putting his mouth on his mouth. You see what's happening here? Elisha breathed new life into this boy. What a wonderful picture that is of what the Lord Jesus Christ does for us. He breathes new life into us by his Holy Spirit, and by a miracle of God's grace, the eternal life that is in him becomes ours.

And if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ today, this is what he has done for you. He has stretched himself out for you on the cross, taking on himself your sin and the death that it brings, and he has breathed new life into you.

Once you were, the Apostle says, dead in trespasses and sins, but now you have been made alive in the Lord Jesus Christ, and this life that he has breathed into you will never die. Even though you die, yet shall you live.

This whole story—a son promised, a son who died, a son who rose—it's all pointing to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And it's telling us what it will look like for us to follow and to serve him.

If you devote yourself to love and serve and obey and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be greatly blessed, you will endure great sorrow, you'll find that you are utterly dependent on God, and you will have the most glorious future.

Jesus said, "If anyone serves me, he must follow me." And you see, what he's saying is that if we follow Jesus, the pattern of our lives will reflect the pattern of his life. "If anyone serves me, he must follow me. You follow me, your life is going to be shaped in the same pattern as the life of Jesus." That's what's being said here.

So, as there was a cross for Jesus, if you follow him, so there will be a cross for you. There is no escaping this. There is a massive cost in bringing the gospel to the world. And Jesus says very clearly that if we would serve him, we must take up our share of that cost.

Take up your share of suffering, be ready to pay the price, whatever that may be for you, of doing God's will. As there was a cross for Jesus, so there will be a cross for you. And as there was a resurrection for Jesus, so there will be a resurrection for you.

And that is why Jesus says, "If anyone serves me, he must follow me. Follow me in carrying the cross. Follow me in rising from the dead. So that where I am, there my servant will be also."

Steve Hiller: A helpful reminder today of what kind of life to expect if we're going to follow Jesus. You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. Our message is called "God Will Comfort Us," it's part of a larger series from the book of 2 Kings called "In God We Trust." If you ever miss a broadcast in the series, come and listen online. Our website is OpenTheBible.org. Well Colin, it's Friday and the weekend's coming.

Colin Smith: Yeah, and I want to encourage you to get to church on Sunday. Find a church where the Bible is opened and where Jesus is the center of attention. And if you live in the Chicago area and you don't have a church home, I'd love for you to join us at The Orchard. There are six locations in the northwest suburbs. For more information, go to TheOrchard.church. That's TheOrchard.church.

Steve Hiller: Well, thank you, Colin, and thanks for listening. I'm Steve Hiller, and I hope you'll join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Pastor Colin Smith: Hi, this is Pastor Colin again, and I want you to know about "Watch Your Life." "Watch Your Life" is a six-session course that is geared for leaders but accessible to every believer.

The six sessions will show you how to grow in godliness, how to feed on Christ, how to pray in the Spirit, how to battle temptation, exercise faith, and discern God's will. There are questions at the end of each session, and you can use them on your own or you can discuss them with a friend. For more information, visit OpenTheBible.org/courses. That's OpenTheBible.org/courses.