“Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land.” – 2 Kings 8:5

The time came for the Lord to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah and Elisha set out from Gilgal, and on the way, Elijah said to Elisha “Now stay here, the Lord has ordered me to go to Bethel”. But Elisha swore by the living God that he was not going to leave him, so they both went to Bethel.

Once they got to Bethel, a group of prophets asked Elisha if he knew that Elijah was about to transition from the earthly to the heavenly, and Elisha told them that he knew, but would rather not talk about it. More than once Elijah tried to persuade Elisha not to follow him to other places, but Elisha was determined to go wherever Elijah went.

It was when they got to the River Jordan, followed by the group of 50 prophets, that Elijah was taken up by a chariot of fire and threw his mantle to Elisha. In his grief, he struck the waters of the River Jordan with Elijah’s cloak twice and the waters divided and he went over to the other side.

From there on, the miracles of the prophet Elisha are filled with intrigue; he cleanses the water in Jericho so that it was good for drinking and commanded water where there was none. Then a widow of a number of a group of prophets went to Elisha and said, “Sir, my husband has died, he was a God-fearing man, but now a man he owed money to has come to take away my two sons as slaves in payment for my husband’s debt.”

Elisha asked what she had in her house and she said nothing at all, except a small jar of olive oil. Elisha told her to go to her neighbors and borrow as many empty jars as she could and then she and her two sons should go into the house, shut the door and begin pouring the oil into the empty bottles. Every empty bottle was filled with oil. Elisha told her to sell the oil, pay off her debts and keep the rest of the money to live on.

One day, Elisha went to Shunem where a rich woman lived. She invited him to a meal, and every time he went to Shunem, he would have his meals at her house. One day she told her husband that she perceived that Elisha was a prophet and asked her husband to build a small room on the roof and furnish it so that whenever he came to town, he would have a place to stay.

When he visited Shunem again, he told his servant Gehazi to go and call the woman, and when she came, he asked her what he could do to show his gratitude for her kindness. Maybe, he said, ‘she would like me to go to the king or the army commander and put in a good word for her’; but she declined and told Elisha that she lacked nothing and was happy among her people.

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