← All Chapters The Book of 2 Kings · Chapter 4

2 Kings 4: The God Who Provides

Through a widow's oil, a barren woman's son raised to life, poisoned stew made safe, and a hundred fed, the LORD shows his abundant care.

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2 Kings 4 (WEB)

1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”

2 Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me: what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your handmaid has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.”

3 Then he said, “Go, borrow containers from of all your neighbors, even empty containers. Don’t borrow just a few.

4 You shall go in, and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour out into all those containers; and you shall set aside that which is full.”

5 So she went from him, and shut the door on her and on her sons; they brought the containers to her, and she poured out.

6 When the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” He said to her, “There isn’t another container.” The oil stopped flowing.

7 Then she came and told the man of God. He said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”

8 It fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread.

9 She said to her husband, “See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, that passes by us continually.

10 Please let us make a little room on the wall. Let us set for him there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand. It shall be, when he comes to us, that he shall turn in there.”

11 One day he came there, and he turned into the room and lay there.

12 He said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite.” When he had called her, she stood before him.

13 He said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Behold, you have cared for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army?’” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”

14 He said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old.”

15 He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the door.

16 He said, “At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son.” She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your handmaid.”

17 The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her.

18 When the child was grown, one day he went out to his father to the reapers.

19 He said to his father, “My head! My head!” He said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

20 When he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died.

21 She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door on him, and went out.

22 She called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.”

23 He said, “Why would you want go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath.” She said, “It’s alright.”

24 Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, “Drive, and go forward! Don’t slow down for me, unless I ask you to.”

25 So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her afar off, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Behold, there is the Shunammite.

26 Please run now to meet her, and ask her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’” She answered, “It is well.”

27 When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, “Leave her alone; for her soul is troubled within her; and Yahweh has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”

28 Then she said, “Did I desire a son of my lord? Didn’t I say, Do not deceive me?”

29 Then he said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go your way. If you meet any man, don’t greet him; and if anyone greets you, don’t answer him again. Then lay my staff on the face of the child.”

30 The mother of the child said, “As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” He arose, and followed her.

31 Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, saying, “The child has not awakened.”

32 When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid on his bed.

33 He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh.

34 He 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 flesh of the child grew warm.

35 Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth; and went up, and stretched himself on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.

36 He called Gehazi, and said, “Call this Shunammite!” So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, “Take up your son.”

37 Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; and she took up her son, and went out.

38 Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, “Set on the great pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”

39 One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of stew; for they didn’t recognize them.

40 So they poured out for the men to eat. As they were eating some of the stew, they cried out, and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” They could not eat of it.

41 But he said, “Then bring meal.” He cast it into the pot; and he said, “Pour out for the people, that they may eat.” There was no harm in the pot.

42 A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.”

43 His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says Yahweh, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’”

44 So he set it before them, and they ate, and left some of it, according to Yahweh’s word.

Summary

This chapter overflows with the LORD's provision through Elisha. A prophet's widow, threatened with losing her sons to a creditor, owns only a pot of oil; Elisha tells her to borrow many empty containers and pour, and the oil keeps flowing until every vessel is full, enough to pay the debt and live. A prominent woman of Shunem makes a room for Elisha, and in return he promises that she, though her husband is old, will embrace a son; the child is born as promised. Years later the boy collapses with head pain and dies, and the grieving mother rides hard to Elisha, refusing to leave him. Elisha goes, shuts the door, prays, and stretches himself upon the child until the boy sneezes seven times and opens his eyes, restored to his mother's arms. At Gilgal, during a famine, poisoned wild gourds make the prophets cry, “There is death in the pot!”—and Elisha renders the stew harmless with meal. Finally, with only twenty barley loaves and fresh grain, Elisha feeds a hundred men, and by the word of the LORD there is food left over. Again and again, God meets his people's need with overflowing grace.

Main Characters

  • Elisha — The man of God through whom the LORD multiplies oil, gives and restores a son, purifies deadly stew, and feeds a hundred from little.
  • The widow — A prophet's destitute wife whose single pot of oil the LORD multiplies to fill every borrowed vessel and rescue her sons from slavery.
  • The Shunammite woman — A prominent, hospitable woman granted a son in her husband's old age, who runs to Elisha in faith when the boy dies and receives him back alive.
  • Gehazi — Elisha's servant who suggests the woman has no son, fails to revive the boy with the staff, and assists his master throughout.

Key Verse

2 Kings 4:43 (WEB)

His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says Yahweh, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’”

Lessons Learned

  • God begins with what little we already have in hand and multiplies it for our need.
  • The LORD sees the desperate and the grieving, and he draws near to those who come to him in faith.
  • Nothing is too dead or too poisoned for God; he brings life and safety where there was death.
  • God's provision is not stingy but generous, leaving some left over as a sign of his abundance.
  • God works through what we already have. Elisha asks, “what do you have in the house?” (2 Kings 4:2, WEB). God multiplies the little we surrender rather than demanding what we lack.
  • Faith presses through to God in grief. The Shunammite vows, “As Yahweh lives… I will not leave you” (2 Kings 4:30, WEB), refusing to give up. Persistent, believing prayer brings us into God's restoring presence.
  • God turns death into life. When they cry, “there is death in the pot!” (2 Kings 4:40, WEB), Elisha makes it wholesome, and the dead boy is raised. The LORD reverses what we cannot.
  • God's provision overflows. “They will eat, and will have some left over” (2 Kings 4:43, WEB). His supply is abundant, foreshadowing the greater feeding by the One who fed thousands.
  1. What does Elisha ask the widow to do, and what does the empty containers test about her faith?
  2. How does the Shunammite woman show faith in the way she responds to her son's death?
  3. What do the poisoned stew and the feeding of a hundred together reveal about God's care in famine?
  4. How do these miracles point forward to Jesus, who would also feed crowds with little?
  5. What “little” do you have that God might be inviting you to offer him, trusting him to provide?
  1. Elisha tells her to borrow as many empty vessels as she can, then pour. The number of containers she gathers measures her faith; the oil flows until the last jar is full. God's provision was limited only by the room she made to receive it.
  2. She lays the boy on the man of God's bed, says little to her husband, and rides hard to Elisha, refusing to leave him. Her tenacious faith brings the prophet back to the house, where God restores her son. Grief drives her toward God, not away.
  3. Both miracles occur in famine, when food is scarce and even what there is can be deadly. God makes the poisoned stew safe and stretches a meager meal to feed a hundred with leftovers. He cares for ordinary bodily needs as well as spiritual ones.
  4. Jesus, the greater prophet, would feed five thousand from five loaves and two fish, with baskets left over (John 6). Elisha's feeding of a hundred is a smaller foreshadowing of the abundance Christ brings, pointing to him as the true Bread of life.
  5. This is a gentle personal-application question. Invite members to name the small resource, ability, or opportunity in their “house,” and to consider offering it to God. Encourage them with the pattern: God multiplies what is surrendered to him.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), the King James Version (KJV), and the American Standard Version (ASV), all of which are in the public domain.