READINGS ON 2 KINGS (4) (SUMMARY)
[p. 369] READINGS ON 2 KINGS (4) (SUMMARY)
JT It is to be noticed that in verse 1 the woman is not called a Shunammite but “the woman whose son he [Elisha] had restored to life”. This whole matter of the restoration of this son to life is reintroduced in this chapter. Earlier, in chapter 4, it appears she stands in relation to this dispensation, the gospel, and life from among the dead, christianity really, but here the thought is dispensational, having reference to the restoration of Israel. She had been directed to go and sojourn where she could, “For Jehovah has called for a famine, and it shall also come upon the land for seven years” (verse 1). So she goes with her household to the land of the Philistines for seven years. Now she has come back.
Ques Was she right in going to cry to the king?
JT Oh, I think so. The king, however, is really the servant of the man of God, though the official position stands outwardly. Gehazi is telling the king about the great works of Elisha, and this particular case is brought to notice.
Ques What is the significance of the seven years?
JT It was a complete period of exile from her own place where she was well off.
Rem What is the idea of the restoration of “the fruits of the field”?
JT It is the thought of everything being preserved, if we apply it to Israel dispensationally. The ‘land’ is another matter from the ‘boy’! It is intelligible enough if thus applied, all comes back to them. The calling of the assembly is heavenly; the ‘land’ is connected with the recovery of Israel. The woman is right throughout. Jeremiah speaks about purchase, and refers to “that which was sealed ... and that which was open”; the latter is ours, the former would refer to a future day. The inheritance is held for Israel. Nothing is lost.
Ques Would the land of the Philistines be the general position?
JT It is just a suggestion of a foreign land. It was left open to her as to where she should go. The identification is plain enough. Gehazi says, “My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life”. The matter is kept before us, not simply the Shunammite and her son, but the son whom Elisha restored to life. It is a living state of things throughout. The Jewish remnant is preserved in the assembly in a peculiar way. It is this woman and this son; they continued alive all the time. It is the side of Israel as a remnant preserved according to the election of grace, the principle is the remnant is carried through. It is carefully stated that it is the same woman and the same son, hence it is Israel carried through, not lost sight of, but preserved under control. Wrath came upon the early Jews, but a remnant is living spiritually and reappears; the thread is there.
Rem It is taken up in Romans 11.
JT “And so all Israel shall be saved”; the remnant becomes the whole nation. Thus in Revelation, the whole nation is seen as secured livingly, and the subjective side is seen in following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
Rem Paul speaks of “our whole twelve tribes”.
JT James writes to them. It is very plain in Romans. Paul says there is a remnant, and “I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin”. He was a part of that remnant. That they become part of the organism of the assembly does not set aside this principle. When Jacob went down to Egypt it was under direction, and God met him [p. 371] and said in effect, Do not be afraid, Joseph will be there. It is Christ outside among the nations. The Lord never lost sight of Israel, “This is the woman, and this is her son”; they are under orders.
Rem You referred to Jeremiah buying a piece of land.
JT Here it is not the thought of buying, but the land that belonged to the woman, involving the year of jubilee. The assembly is a place of living things, everything is there; Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, had some link with Elisha, and now here is this woman. It is not an accidental matter that she is brought forward while this conversation was going on. The Jews talk of the wonders of the past; there is no present with them to talk about, or with the ‘Zionists’. When God begins to work, they will talk about the present. The woman and her son are living people. Paul refers to himself as an abortion, born early. He was an abortion in view of the recovery of Israel. All the grouping here is in view of ushering in the coming dispensation. Daniel’s seventy weeks would enter into this. Christianity is a parenthesis. The living remnant is in the assembly, but what is in the mind of God is the recovery of Israel, and He carries through during the present parenthesis all that is living. The earthly dealings of God are now in view. This woman represents Elisha’s ministry corresponding with Elijah. She and her son come in at this juncture when Gehazi is talking to the king, and that in figure is what is to happen presently in the East. There is a positive work of God linking on what the Lord was in the gospels with the present time.
Rem Three and a half years of Daniel’s week remain to be fulfilled.
JT It is likely to be three and a half years. It will be a critical time. Messiah the Prince came in in the sixty-ninth week, He continues for part of the [p. 372] seventieth. Messiah is the end of all spiritual dates, other things are details. One thinks of the dead state of things in the East. Turkey infidel for seventeen centuries, what it must have been to God, the testimony in that section submerged in that awful thing called Mohammedanism. Presently Gehazi appears in the status of a servant — and the king, and a living state of things comes into evidence in the woman and her son. The jubilee will bring all Israel back into their land, they will not have to buy it; it will be theirs.
Ques The revenue of the land since the woman left was to be restored to her.
JT Where was it? one might say. This chamberlain is to know, he is appointed to look after that. It opens up a lot of other things. We have to come back and look into Hebrews. It contains a lot that belongs to Israel. This woman is to locate her allotment.
Rem It is a responsibility to keep things.
JT Paul exhorts Timothy to “keep the entrusted deposit”. All the revealed thoughts of God are to be kept in our hearts and intelligence, hence the way the prophetic word was opened up at the revival. Israel is “beloved for the fathers’ sakes”. Every interest precious to Christ is precious to us.
Ques What is the significance of “restored to life”?
JT It would not be literal resurrection in its application. Israel is revived in life. You have a nation born in a day. The dry bones in Ezekiel come together, and life is imparted and the word comes. These bones are the whole house of Israel. The ‘son’ would represent the thing brought in, sonship. A dead body is not much use. God brings in the real thing at once. In Matthew 27 we read that many bodies of the saints fallen asleep arose; it is not that they were set up here again, it is just to [p. 373] bring out such a thing as that. The time has come for realities, not with Elisha but with the king. The king is listening. Then Elisha came to Damascus. He regulates the Jewish remnant during the period of famine, now he saves the gentile as well as the Jew.
All God’s operations had been from “the great sea”, the Mediterranean, from Abraham down, and what now? Abraham is the living thought, and Israel had come into this, power is now going to operate again in a national way. Life is to be among the Jews and sickness among the gentiles. Elijah was told to anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. He is a sort of antichrist, and the prophet is profoundly affected in his presence. It is a little like John in Revelation 10, the word was bitter. Terrible things were ahead. Elisha in principle anoints Hazael, and later Jehu is anointed, representing the Jew in the coming day, a ruthless kind of man; but ultimately Christ will come in and fight the battles of Israel. We have had, so to speak, the exit of Israel into the assembly, now there is the exit among the gentiles. Elisha is actually recognised as a man of God among the gentiles (verses 7, 8).
Rem Jacob went to Egypt.
JT Yes, he had reserves, but God appeared to him and said, “I am God, the God of thy father; fear not to go down to Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation”. The point is that every promise is yea and amen in Christ. Saints are ratifying that. God says, Do not be afraid to go down. The Jewish remnant have gone into the gentile world. This woman goes and comes back, and the point now is Elisha goes to the gentiles and anoints Hazael in principle. His weeping (verse 11) would suggest Christ weeping over Jerusalem, the true prophetic spirit, such as is seen in Lamentations. The Lord could say, “Days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies ... shall close thee around, and keep thee in [p. 374] on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children in thee”. It is all most solemn, what overtook Jerusalem in the government of God. So Hazael comes in, a terrible man! It would appear from verse 13 as if he did not mean to go as far as he did, but there is no remorse with him, nor does he say he will not do what Elisha states. Compare verse 15: that is the kind of man he was next day! If Satan gets a hold of you, he will carry you far beyond any calculation you ever had. He might have reasoned, Ben-hadad has started already, why not let him die? He is carried on, however, beyond what man ordinarily would do. We read of the man of sin; the son of perdition.
Ques What about the present from Damascus, the forty camels’ burden?
JT It is what will mark the gentiles — bringing gifts. The prophets speak much of that proof of the work of God among the nations, making much of Christ. Compare Psalm 72. All this contemplates what Daniel opens up in detail. Alexander’s kingdom is broken up into four parts, then the king of the north and the king of the south strive and strive, and one very bad man is there who takes away the daily sacrifice and operates with the beast of the west. He would seem to be a Jew; he will honour the god of forces, not the God of his fathers. This man will persecute Israel.