His mother immediately got her servants to prepare a donkey for her and she went looking for Elisha. But one day, when he had grown, he became sick and died. And sure enough, the next year, they had a son. Elisha prayed for them to have a child since they did not have one yet. He struck up a friendship with a man and a women who would feed him and let him stay at their house whenever he passed by. This allowed her to go sell the oil and make enough money to repay the debt.Įlisha Heals the Shunammite Woman's Son (2 Kings 4:8-37)Įlisha traveled a lot and passed by a town called Shunem frequently. Elisha told her to start filling them with olive oil, and the oil just kept flowing until all of the jars were full. Her neighbors were willing to help and brought her many jars. Then, Elisha told her to go and ask all her neighbors for as many empty oil jars as she could find. This would have been devastating to her in that time period to be completely on her own.Įlisha asked her what she had, and she replied that all she had was one jar of oil. And so this man was about to take her two sons as slaves to repay the debt. Her husband was in debt to someone when he died, and she didn't have enough money to pay off the debt now that we was gone. The wife of one of the prophets who had passed away came to Elisha needing help. And tell the children to be especially careful if their preacher has a bald head! But seriously, this teaches us that God cares about how we treat his prophets and leaders.Įlisha Multiplies the Widow's Oil (2 Kings 4:1-7) The lesson of this story is that you shouldn't make fun of God's prophets. They attacked 42 of the young fellows." (most translations say "she-bears") Then, in 2 Kings 2:24: "He turned around and looked at them. Soon after Elisha took over the ministry from Elijah, he was walking to Bethel and some kids started making fun of him and calling him "bald-head". Use your discretion if you want to teach this part of the story or not. This is one of those stories in the Bible that really captivates children - especially older children, and especially boys. The Attack of the She-Bears (2 Kings 2:23-25) You will most likely not find these in most storybook Bibles, although the Egermeier's Bible Story Book does contain most of them.
Feel free to include any or all of these stories as you teach the children - based on their age and developmental level. We will focus on 3 events in his ministry, but will list several more. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!" 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.This lesson focuses on Elisha's ministry as a prophet to Israel. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. 20 Then he cried out to the Lord, "Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, "Lord my God, let this boy's life return to him!" 22 The Lord heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived.
He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 18 She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?" 19 "Give me your son," Elijah replied. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill.