To Elijah had been committed messages of condemnation and judgment. His was the voice of fearless reproof. Elisha’s was a more peaceful mission—to strengthen the work Elijah had begun, to teach people the way of the Lord. Inspiration pictures him as coming into personal touch with the people, bringing healing and rejoicing.
(SS 127.1)
Elisha was of mild and kindly spirit, but that he could also be stern is shown when, on the way to Bethel, he was mocked by ungodly youth. These youth had heard of Elijah’s ascension and made this solemn event the subject of jeers, saying to Elisha, “Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.” 2 Kings 2:23. Under the inspiration of the Almighty the prophet pronounced a curse on them. The awful judgment that followed was of God. “There came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two” of them. Verse 24.
(SS 127.2)
Had Elisha allowed the mockery to pass unnoticed, he would have continued to be ridiculed by the rabble, and his mission in a time of national peril might have been defeated. This one instance of terrible severity was sufficient to command respect throughout his life. For fifty years he went from city to city, passing through crowds of rude, dissolute youth, but none mocked him as the prophet of the Most High.
(SS 127.3)
Even kindness should have its limits. The so-called tenderness, the coaxing and indulgence toward youth by parents and guardians is one of the worst evils which can come on them. In every family, firmness and positive requirements are essential.
(SS 127.4)
Every child should be taught to show true reverence for God. Never should His name be spoken lightly or thoughtlessly. Reverence should be shown for God’s representatives—ministers, teachers, and parents, who are called to act in His stead. In the respect shown them, God is honored.
(SS 128.1)
The kindly spirit that enabled Elisha to exert a powerful influence over many in Israel is revealed in the story of his friendly relations with a family at Shunem. In his journeyings to and fro, “one day Elisha went on to Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to eat some food. So whenever he passed that way, he would turn in there to eat food.” 2 Kings 4:8, RSV. The mistress of the house perceived that Elisha was a “holy man of God,” and she said to her husband, “Let us make a little chamber ... on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.” To this retreat Elisha often came. Nor was God unmindful of the woman’s kindness. Her home had been childless, and now the Lord rewarded her hospitality by the gift of a son.
(SS 128.2)
Years passed. The child was old enough to be out in the field with the reapers. One day he was stricken by the heat, “and he said unto his father, My head, my head.” A lad carried the child to his mother, “and when he had ... brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out.”
(SS 128.3)
In her distress, the woman determined to go to Elisha for help. Accompanied by her servant, she set forth immediately. “When the man of God saw her afar off, ... he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite: run now ... to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child?” But not till she reached Elisha did the stricken mother reveal the cause of her sorrow. Upon hearing of her loss, Elisha told Gehazi: “Take my staff in thine hand, and go ... and lay my staff upon the face of the child.”
(SS 128.4)
But the mother would not be satisfied till Elisha himself came with her. “I will not leave thee,” she declared. So “he arose, and followed her. And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awaked.”
(SS 129.1)
When they reached the house, Elisha went into the room where the dead child lay, “and shut the door upon the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. Then he went up and lay upon the child, putting his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm. Then he got up again, and walked once to and fro in the house, and went up, and stretched himself upon him; the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.” RSV. So was the faith of this woman rewarded. Christ, the great Life-giver, restored her son to her.
(SS 129.2)
In like manner will His faithful ones be rewarded when, at His coming, the grave is robbed of the victory it has claimed. Then will He restore to His servants the children that have been taken from them by death.
(SS 129.3)
Jesus comforts our sorrow for the dead with a message of infinite hope: “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, ... and have the keys of hell and of death.” Revelation 1:18. “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: then 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.
(SS 129.4)
In his ministry Elisha combined the work of healing with teaching. Throughout his long and effective labors, Elisha fostered the educational work of the schools of the prophets. His instruction to the earnest groups of young men were confirmed by the deep movings of the Holy Spirit.
(SS 130.1)
On one of his visits to the school at Gilgal he healed the poisoned pottage. “There was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.”
(SS 130.2)
At Gilgal, also, while the famine was still in the land, Elisha fed one hundred men with the present brought to him by “a man from Baalshalisha”—“twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk.” When the offering came, he said to his servant, “Give unto the people, that they may eat. And his servant said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord.”
(SS 130.3)
Again and again since that time, though not always in so marked and perceptible a manner, the Lord Jesus has worked to supply human need. If we had clearer spiritual discernment we would recognize more readily than we do God’s compassionate dealing with the children of men.
(SS 130.4)
In the days of Christ’s earthly ministry, when He performed a similar miracle in feeding the multitudes, the same unbelief was manifested as was shown by those associated with the prophet: “What, should I set this before an hundred men?” And when Jesus told His disciples to give the multitude to eat, they answered, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” Luke 9:13, RSV. What is that among so many?
(SS 131.1)
When the Lord gives a work to be done, let not men stop to inquire into the reasonableness of the command or the probable result of their efforts to obey. The supply in their hands may seem to fall short of the need to be filled, but in the hands of the Lord it will prove more than sufficient. The servant “set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord.”
(SS 131.2)
Let none waste time deploring the scantiness of their visible resources. Energy and trust in God will develop resources. The gift brought to Him with thanksgiving and prayer for His blessing, He will multiply as He multiplied the food given to the sons of the prophets and to the weary multitude.
(SS 131.3)