Hey ~ Where am I? What's that noise? What the . . . ?!!!

Elisha was old when he died. I suppose we could do the math, but he was anointed as a prophet sometime during the reign of Ahab, (? years), then there was Ahaziah    (2 years), then Joram (12 years), then Jehu (28 years), then Jehoahaz (17 years), then he died sometime during the reign of Jehoash. That makes 60+ year of ministry -- say he was 25 or 30 (could have been) when he was anointed by Elijah = 85 to 90+ years old when he died.

And my favorite favorite favorite OT story is the few short verses about what happened after he died. I KNOW! I do say "favorite" a lot with Elisha...but all the stories about him are really great and I really love them. His miracles are crazy and sometimes funny and wild and unexpected. He is saturately anointed.
But the best/craziest/funny/bizarre/wild/unexpected/you have got to be KIDDING me! story of them all!!!  is what happened after he died.  It is breath-taking, if you stop as you read it to think about what happened. It is short -- here is the whole thing:

2 Kings 13:20-21

 Elisha died and was buried.
Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man's body into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.

We are not told anything else ... like what happened to the poor guy who had been safely dead moments before, when the Moabite raiders came charging up to him.
Can you IMAGINE??




Comments

  1. Dennis G. CrumbMarch 24, 2011 at 1:15 PM

    Didn't the writer of Kings understand that for we moderns this would an extra extra extra ordinary event that we would have a million questions that needs to be asked and answered?

    ReplyDelete
  2. EddyMarch 24, 2011 at 9:19 PM

    What if it was a common story at the time - like a folk tale - or a even an event passed on as true that EVERYONE knew about - but no-one actually knew how/why/when or where it happened. So that the author just made passing reference to it, as they chuckled to themselves about the story... and moved on. What if his passing comment was a key - that as people read - it they went "NO WAY thats how ________ came back to life and then soiled himself in, duh, I mean I knew it had to be something and Elisha's bones makes perfect sense". It would be like someone making a passing comment about the Loch Ness Monster or BigFoot - that everyone would know about so a passing comment could tell more than an exploratory documentary.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Barb MeyerMarch 26, 2011 at 10:21 AM

    Guess we won't know till the wedding supper, eh?
    I just love the story -- such a satisfying ending to Elisha's story!!

    ReplyDelete

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