2 Kings 4:1-44 - Exposition

TYPICAL MIRACLES WROUGHT BY ELISHA . General introduction . The miracles of this chapter are all of them miracles of mercy. The first and last consist in the multiplying of food, and thus belong to the same class as our Lord's feeding the four and the five thousands, and Elijah's increasing the meal and oil of the widow of Zarephath ( 1 Kings 17:10-16 ). It serves no useful purpose to ask how miracles of this class were wrought. The inspired writers have not told us; and our own thoughts upon the subject can at the best be mere unfounded conjectures. The rationalistic attempts which have been made to solve the mystery exhibit a weakness and feebleness that are absolutely puerile. The second miracle is the resuscitation of a dead person, and he-longs, consequently, to the very narrow class of such recoveries—of which in the Old Testament there are three only (see 1 Kings 17:17 , 1 Kings 17:23 ; here; and 2 Kings 13:21 ). The third miracle consists in rendering fit for man's use that which was previously unfit, not by human skill or science, but by miracle; and is analogous to the act of Moses whereby the waters of Marah ceased to be hitter ( Exodus 15:25 ), and to that other act of Elisha himself, whereby the waters of Jericho were healed ( 2 Kings 2:19-22 ). It is evidently the object of the writer or compiler of 2 Kings to collect in this place the principal, or at any rate the most noted, of the miraculous acts of the great prophet who succeeded Elijah, and so to preserve them from oblivion. This object, which he began to set before himself in 2 Kings 2:13 , continues to be pursued, and forms a link uniting the various narratives together, up to 2 Kings 8:6 .