2 Kings 4:29

Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand.

The power and weakness of faith contrasted in Elisha

There are no less than five instances wherein the prophet exemplifies the man of faith and the man of love witnessing to the faith of God by his grateful deeds.

I. The power of Elisha’s faith, and the success which attended it.

II. This weakness and this failure is to be seen at the very dawn of the trial now coming upon the prophet. “The Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me” (2 Kings 4:27), is the querulous expostulation of the now mortified prophet, even before the nature of the vexation had been ascertained. He is evidently greatly put out, not so much by the outward event itself, but at the circumstance of his friend being afflicted without his knowledge. How difficult it is to be honoured and lifted up, and yet to remain contented and humble! How many a follower of a great man upon earth is spoiled instead of improved by even just and moderate rewards of honour and confidence, and his previously gratified Lord has to take him down again! So it was with Elisha. He has a lesson to learn of dependent humility--and the Lord is going to teach it him. He follows up the hasty expression of his petulance and mortification by as hasty a proceeding, which, viewed in the most favourable light, is redolent of presumption and self-confidence: “Then he said to Gehazi, “Gird up thy loins and take my staff in thine hand;” etc. Here is no prayer no earnest seeking, no humble inquiry of the Lord, What must I do? but, in the spirit of one aiming to work “lying wonders” rather than healing benefits, he puts his own staff into the hands of his servant, anticipating that a miracle might be wrought and a child restored to life by the simple touch of the holy staff, without his own presence or effort. Let us now examine ourselves on this event in Elisha’s history.

1. On the power of faith and its success, as exemplified by the prophet.

What is the working of faith in us? Have we faith?

2. Mark the weakness of faith and its consequent failure in Elisha. This weakness, we have seen, consisted in a self-confidence approaching presumption. (G. L. Glyn.)