Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 4

The woman needed to depend on God alone

2 Kings 4:29-30

Rulers often carried a staff, a long stick, to show their authority (Numbers 17:2). However, Elisha’s staff was a stick to support him as he walked. It was the kind of stick on which a person leans (18:21).

There are different opinions about why Elisha sent his stick ahead of him. However, a likely answer is that Elisha needed to make the woman’s faith stronger. Faith is active belief and trust in God. So, the woman needed to depend on God alone, and not on Elisha.

Already, the woman was starting to show faith in God. She came to Elisha for prayer because of his strong faith in God. She had spoken to Elisha about God’s promises to her.

However, she was also depending on other things, too. She was depending on the power that she supposed Elisha to have. She was also depending on how soon Elisha could come to pray for her son. It was these things that Elisha had to turn into faith in God.

So, Elisha proposed an answer where there would be the least possible delay. His servant Gehazi could run to Shunem, where the boy’s body was. He also proposed the kind of answer that showed how weak he himself was. His staff should be a sign of his power – but in fact, it only showed his physical weakness.

Of course, the woman saw that a stick would not cause her son to live again. Gehazi’s speed as a runner was not the answer that she needed. Now she depended on God alone as she urged Elisha to come back and to pray for the boy.

Next part: Gehazi's bad report (2 Kings 4:31)

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