2 Kings 4:30-36: a reflection

30The child’s mother said, “As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose, and followed her. 31Gehazi went ahead of them, and laid the staff on the child’s face; but there was no voice and no hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, “The child has not awakened.” 32When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and lying on his bed. 33He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to the LORD. 34He went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him; and the child’s flesh grew warm. 35Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth, then went up and stretched himself out on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 36He called Gehazi, and said, “Call this Shunammite!” So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, “Take up your son.”

The Shunammite woman's son has died, and she will not give up. As the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you, she tells Elisha, clinging to him with a fierce, refusing-to-let-go faith. Elisha had first sent his servant Gehazi ahead with his staff, to lay it on the child's face, but there was no voice, no response. The staff, applied at a distance by a servant, did nothing.

Notice the contrast when Elisha himself comes. He does not use the staff from afar. He goes in, shuts the door, and prays. Then he lies on the child, his mouth to the child's mouth, his eyes to his eyes, his hands to his hands, stretching himself over the boy, close and personal, until the flesh grows warm, and prays again, and the child sneezes and opens his eyes. Life comes not through a technique applied at arm's length, but through personal presence and prayer.

There is something here about how we help others in their deepest needs. The impersonal method, the quick fix handed off from a distance, the staff laid on and left, often does not reach. What reaches is presence and prayer, drawing close, giving yourself, laboring in intercession over the person rather than dispatching a solution from afar. And there is the mother's part too: her refusal to let go. When someone you love is in a place of death, do not settle for the staff at a distance. Draw close, pray, give yourself, and do not give up.

Lord, when I would help others from a comfortable distance, teach me the way of Elisha: personal presence, drawing close, laboring in prayer over the ones in need. And give me the Shunammite's refusal to give up. Bring your life where there has been death, and help me not to settle for the staff at arm's length.