Elisha Raises the Boy From the Dead

¹⁸ The boy grew up, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. ¹⁹ Then he said to his father, “My head! My head!”

His father said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰ So he picked him up and carried him to his mother, and the boy sat on her lap until noon. Then he died.

²¹ Then she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God. She shut the door behind her and went out. ²² Then she called to her husband and said, “Send one of the servants to me with one of the donkeys, so that I can run to the man of God and come back.”

²³ He said, “Why are you going to him today? It’s not the new moon, and it’s not the Sabbath.”

But she said, “It’s all right.”

²⁴ Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead the way. Don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.”

²⁵ So she went 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! That’s the woman from Shunem! ²⁶ Now run to meet her and say, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your son all right?’”

She answered, “We’re all right.”

²⁷ Then she came to the man of God at the mountain, and she grasped his feet. Gehazi stepped forward to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is in distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me. He has not told me.”

²⁸ Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t give me false hope’?”

²⁹ Then Elisha said to Gehazi, “Hike up your garments for travel,^[a] and take my staff in your hand and go! If you meet someone, do not greet him, and if someone greets you, do not answer. Put my staff on the boy’s face.”

³⁰ But the boy’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her. ³¹ Gehazi went ahead of them and put the staff on the boy’s face. But there was no sound, and there was no response. So he went back to Elisha and told him, “The boy did not wake up.”

³² When Elisha came to the house, there the boy was—dead, lying on his bed. ³³ So he went in and he shut the door behind the two of them. Then he prayed to the Lord. ³⁴ He got up and lay down on top of the boy. He put his mouth to the boy’s mouth, his eyes to the boy’s eyes, his palms to the boy’s palms. Then he bent down over him, and the boy’s flesh became warm. ³⁵ He went back into the house and paced back and forth. Then he went up and bent down over him, and the boy sneezed seven times. Then the boy opened his eyes.

³⁶ Then Elisha called Gehazi and said, “Call the woman of Shunem!” So he called her, and she came in. He said, “Pick up your son.” ³⁷ So she came in and fell at Elisha’s feet and bowed down to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.

¹⁷ When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

¹⁸ Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. ¹⁹ Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother.

²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, while Mary was sitting in the house.

²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

²⁴ Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the Last Day.”

²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies. ²⁶ And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish.^[a] Do you believe this?”

²⁷ “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I believe^[b] that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

³⁸ Jesus was deeply moved again as he came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹ “Take away the stone,” he said.

Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, because it has been four days.”

⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they took away the stone.

Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³ After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

⁴⁴ The man who had died came out with his feet and his hands bound with strips of linen and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus told them, “Loose him and let him go.”

The Plot

⁴⁵ Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did believed in him.

¹¹ And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit, who is dwelling in you.

¹² So then, brothers, we do not owe it to the sinful flesh to live in harmony with it. ¹³ For if you live in harmony with the sinful flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the actions of the body, you will live.

The Spirit Assures Us We Are Children of God

¹⁴ Indeed, those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive a spirit of slavery so that you are afraid again, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom^[a] we call out, “Abba, Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself joins our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children.

¹⁷ Now if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.

Suffering Leads Us to Look Ahead to Heaven

¹⁸ For I conclude that our sufferings at the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ In fact, creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed.