旧约 - 列王记下(2 Kings)第4章

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 little 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 afterward 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."
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 there.
He said to his servant Gehazi, "Call the Shunammite." So he called her, and she stood before him.
Elisha said to him, "Tell her, 'You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now 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."
"What can be done for her?" Elisha asked. Gehazi said, "Well, she has no son and her husband is old."
Then Elisha said, "Call her." So he called her, and she stood in the doorway.
"About this time next year," Elisha said, "you will hold a son in your arms." "No, my lord," she objected. "Don't mislead your servant, O man of God!"
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.
The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers.
"My head! My head!" he said to his father. His father told a servant, "Carry him to his mother."
After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy 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," she said.
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 he saw her in the distance, the man of God 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?'" "Everything is all right," she said.
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 tell you, 'Don't raise my hopes'?"
Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. 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 he 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 upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon 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 upon 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.
Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, "Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these men."
One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine. He gathered some of its gourds and filled the fold of his cloak. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.
The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, "O man of God, there is death in the pot!" And they could not eat it.
Elisha said, "Get some flour." He put it into the pot and said, "Serve it to the people to eat." And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. "Give it to the people to eat," Elisha said.
"How can I set this before a hundred men?" his servant asked. But Elisha answered, "Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the LORD says: 'They will eat and have some left over.'"
Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.
列王纪下第四章   第 4 章 

  王下 4 章 > 以利沙所施的神迹让我们看到神的慈爱与怜悯── 

  4 章 本章记载了神藉着以利沙所行的四个神迹:供应穷苦的寡妇所需之金钱( 4:1-7 );使孩子从死里复生( 4:32-37 );解食物之毒( 4:38-41 );以极少食物使一百人吃饱( 4:42-44 )。这些神迹显明神对忠心之人的慈爱与眷顾。 

  读旧约的时候,人多注意神对悖逆的人所施的严厉审判,而忽略了神对爱祂、事奉祂之人的慈爱关怀。看到神亲自供应忠于祂的人,我们就能不偏不倚地看待祂向不肯悔改的人所施的严厉审判。 

  王下 4:1> 在这个冷漠的社会里,我是怎样对待身边生活有困难的人的? 

  4:1 旧约圣经记载容许穷人、欠债者出卖自己或儿女为奴,以偿还债务。神吩咐富人债主,不要在人极端穷困的时候占他们的便宜(参申 15:1-18 中对这种习俗的解释)。这个妇人的债主,没有按照神律法的精神而行;以利沙的慈爱行为,显明了神要我们不但遵守律法,更要超乎律法去怜悯人。 

  王下 4:6> 在油源源不断地倒出和停止的背后,我看到了什么? 

  4:6 穷寡妇和儿子向邻居借来空器皿,将自己瓶中的油倒入每个空器皿之中。那油可能是橄榄油,可炒菜、点灯、或者作燃料之用。所倒的油在空器皿都装满以后就止住了;他们借来的空瓶有多少,就表明他们的信心有多大。神丰富的供应,是照他们信心的大小和顺服的程度而降下的;不要因为缺少信心与顺服,就怀疑神的赐福。祂能做的大事远超过我们所求所想的(参弗 3:20 )。 

  王下 4:9> 书念妇人能服事以利沙,在于她敏锐的心;今天我对神职人员的需要,是否也…… 

  4:9 书念妇人看出以利沙是一位神人,所以给他预备房子,随时款待。她这样做纯粹出于爱心,和看见先知有所需要,一点也不是出于自私。她的善良很快就得到报答,远超过她梦寐以求的。你对路人或过客,尤其是传扬教导神之道的人,有如此敏锐的感应吗?你能给他们提供什么帮助?应当寻找方法向他们多施援手。 

  从死里复活之人 

  书念的大户妇人 

  王下 4:32-36> 我有以利沙这种爱心吗?在我传福音时…… 

  4:32-36 以利沙的祷告以及他使孩子复生的方法,显示神亲自眷顾受创伤的。我们将神的信息传给别人,也必须真心真意地关怀他们,只有这样行,才能真正地传扬我们在天上的父神。 

  王下 4:40> 4:40 “致死的毒物”指有毒的食物。也许是混在可吃的野菜之中的有毒植物。──《灵修版圣经注释》