Elisha's Miracles: The Widow's Oil & The Shunammite Woman

The ministry of Prophet Elisha was marked by extraordinary miracles of compassion, provision, and restoration. Unlike the fiery judgment that often characterized Elijah's era, Elisha moved among the common people—healing polluted waters, feeding poor prophetic communities, rescuing debt-ridden widows, and raising dead sons back to life.

1. The Poor Widow and the Multiplying Oil

Elisha lay upon the child, putting his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes, until the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves."

Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?"

"Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a small jar of olive oil."

Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side."

She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another one." But he replied, "There is not a jar left." Then the oil stopped flowing.

She went and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left."

2. The Hospitality of the Great Woman of Shunem

One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat.

She said to her husband, "I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. Let's make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us."

One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down. He told his servant Gehazi, "Call the Shunammite."

When she stood before him, Elisha asked, "What can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?" She replied, "I have a home among my own people."

Gehazi said, "She has no son, and her husband is old."

Then Elisha said, "About this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms."

"No, my lord!" she objected. "Please, man of God, don't mislead your servant!" But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

3. Tragedy in the Harvest Field

The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. "My head! My head!" he cried out to his father.

His father told a servant, "Carry him to his mother." The servant took him and brought him to his mother; the child sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out. She called her husband and said, "Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return."

"Why go to him today?" he asked. "It's not the New Moon or the Sabbath."

"It's all right (Shalom)," she said.

4. Unshakable Faith and Intercession

She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, "Lead on; don't slow down for me unless I tell you." So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.

When the man of God saw her from a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, "Look! There's the Shunammite! Run to meet her and ask her, 'Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?'"

She answered: "Everything is all right."

When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why."

"Did I ask you for a son, my lord?" she said. "Didn't I say, 'Don't raise my hopes'?"

5. Resurrection: The Child Lives Again

Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. Lay my staff on the boy's face." But the child's mother said, "As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So Elisha got up and followed her.

Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy has not awakened."

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 himself out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!

Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, "Call the Shunammite." When she came in, 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.

Reflections on the Story:

• Faith Expects Abundance: The widow's oil stopped pouring only when there were no more empty vessels left. Our capacity to receive from God is measured by our faith.
• Hospitable Heart Blessed: The Shunammite woman served God's prophet without asking for reward, yet received a miraculous son and his resurrection.
• The Declaration of "It Is Well": In the midst of heartbreaking grief, the Shunammite confessed "Shalom" (It is well), trusting God beyond visible circumstances.