Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.” She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.

• 2 Kings 4:32-37

He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

• Mark 5:37-43

In comparing these two resurrection stories, not Jesus’ resurrection, but the bringing back of the life of a child, we see Elisha and Jesus.  Elisha and Jesus had reputations that preceded them.  They both performed miracles, but Elisha had not raised someone from the dead.  Jesus had only raised the son of a widow at Nain.  In each case, a parent went a long distance to summon the person who might be able to perform a miracle.  In each case there were those that may not have believed that the miracle could be done.  Both Elisha and Jesus cleared the room.

Note that if Luke’s Gospel is in chronological order the bringing back the son of the widow of Nain is in the chapter before the story of Jairus’ daughter.  News might not have reached Jairus.  His servants who ran to meet Jairus said that the daughter had died, and they should not trouble Jesus anymore.  And Jesus had to console Jairus.  So, Jairus did not expect to see his daughter alive again.

In contrast, the Shunammite woman left to find Elisha after her son had died.  Jairus left hoping Jesus could heal his daughter before she died.  In the case of Elisha, the narrative states that he closed the door and only the two of them were in the room.  This is a bit confusing because Gehazi was there to give the boy to the mother, but he could have been outside the door. But could the meaning of the two be Elisha and Gehazi?  In the case of Jesus, He only had Peter, James, and John with Him.  The naysayer in the first story was the husband that wondered what calling Elisha was all about.  The naysayers in the second case were the mourning people in the room who knew the child was dead when Jesus said the child was just asleep.  And Jesus simply spoke while Elisha laid upon the boy two different times.

First, Elisha was a prophet who had been given double the Spirit that was upon Elijah.  But the power was not his.  The power was that of God.  So, the was the same amount of power.  The physical act of laying on the boy and the pacing (while praying, I am sure) were due to having to call upon God’s power.  Jesus only had to speak, for the full power was within Him.  Clearing the room probably meant keeping Satan’s foothold out of the room.  There was disbelief there.  Also, the parents would be hysterical.

I think that the healing in each of these cases was done with few witnesses to reduce the request of bringing countless people back to life as the news spread.  Jesus told them not to talk about it, but also, it illustrates that when we pray or we do good deeds, we do not do them for our glory but for God’s glory.  Few witnesses allowed for some form of plausible deniability.  Doing the miracles in the open would bring attention to oneself in Elisha’s case.  Yes, both performed miracles in public.  In Jesus’ case, it was to show the proof that He was the One of whom the profits had said would come, but Elisha may have wanted to deflect the glory to God by clearing the room.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.