As Elijah is taken to heaven in a whirlwind, Elisha steps into his calling with a double portion of God's Spirit. In today's reading through 2 Kings 2–6, we witness miracle after miracle—but one of the most powerful stories begins with the quiet faith of a little servant girl.

Her simple testimony leads a mighty military commander to the God of Israel, reminding us that God has always been pursuing the nations and that He delights in using ordinary people—even children—to accomplish extraordinary purposes.

If you're a Christian mom praying for your children, navigating illness, or longing to raise kids with courageous faith, this episode offers biblical encouragement to trust God's sovereignty, whether He answers with immediate healing or with sustaining grace.

In This Episode

• Elijah's dramatic departure and Elisha receiving his prophetic mantle
• Why Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah's spirit
• The difficult passage about the bears and the youths at Bethel explained in its biblical context
• The widow's oil and God's compassionate provision for families in need
• The Shunammite woman's faith and God's power over death
• Naaman's healing from leprosy and the surprising role of a faithful little servant girl
• Gehazi's greed and the danger of pride in ministry
• How God has always welcomed the nations—not just Israel
• Encouragement for parents walking through chronic illness, unanswered prayers, and difficult seasons

Key Bible Passages

• 2 Kings 2–6
• Luke 4:27
• Genesis 12 (God's promise to bless all nations through Abraham)

What You'll Learn

• Why humility always precedes God's blessing.
• How God often works through children to accomplish His purposes.
• The difference between serving God for His glory versus serving for personal gain.
• Why God's greatest miracle isn't always physical healing—but spiritual transformation.
• How parents can encourage children to become bold witnesses for Christ wherever God places them.

A Word for Moms

The unnamed servant girl in Naaman's household had every reason to become bitter. She had been taken from her family and forced into a foreign land. Yet instead of responding with resentment, she pointed her captors to the God who saves.

What a beautiful picture of the kind of faith we long to cultivate in our children.

May we raise sons and daughters who point others to Christ—not only when life is easy, but especially when it isn't.

Whether you're praying for healing, parenting through hardship, or wondering how God could possibly use your family's story, this passage reminds us that God never wastes faithful obedience.

Join the Journey

The Dwelling Place is a daily Bible podcast from Entrusted Ministries, helping busy Christian moms read the entire Bible in one year while growing in biblical confidence, faithful parenting, and a deeper love for Jesus.

If this podcast has encouraged you, would you consider following the show, leaving a review, and sharing it with another mom who wants to know God's Word more deeply?

Because what moms dwell on shapes what families become.

Resources Mentioned

• Entrusted With a Child's Heart
• The Again Podcast

Commentaries Most Referenced: Moody Commentary, MacArthur Commentary, Spurgeon's Treasury of David

This is The Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.

2

I'm Stephanie Hickox, and as we look at

2 Kings chapters two through six, we'll

3

watch Elijah be taken up into heaven,

Elisha receive his mantle and perform

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subsequent miracles, and mainly we'll

focus on a miracle inspired by a child

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That continues to fulfill the Abrahamic

promise and reveals God's heart

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has always been for the nations.

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In chapter two, we have the familiar

story of Elijah being taken up to heaven.

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What I find most fascinating is

how many people knew this was the

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day the Lord would take Elijah.

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Before he departs, he says to

Elisha, " Ask what I shall do for

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you before I'm taken from you."

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And Elisha asks for a

double portion of his spirit

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and as they still went on and talked,

behold, chariots of fire and horses

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of fire separated the two of them, And

Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

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God has frequently worked through

Elijah using fire, So this seems

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perfectly appropriate for his departure.

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Elisha sees him depart

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And as Elijah's cloak falls down

off of him, Elisha grabs it.

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In confirmation that Elisha now

does have a double portion of God's

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Spirit, scripture records Elisha

doing twice as many miracles as

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scripture had recorded about Elijah.

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Elijah has seven,

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and Elisha has fourteen we're told about.

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And one of them happens

at the end of chapter two.

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He went up from there to Bethel, and

while he was going up on the way, some

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small boys came out of the city and jeered

at him, saying, " Go up, you baldhead!

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Go up, you baldhead!"

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And he turned around, and

when he saw them, he cursed

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them in the name of the Lord.

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And two she-bears came out of the

woods and tore forty-two of the boys.

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I've always been a little conflicted

about this passage, but it was

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helpful to read what Harry E.

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Shields said in The Moody Commentary.

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This event should not be misunderstood

as the harsh actions of an irritable

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old man, because there is more to

the story than first meets the eye.

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First, Bethel was still one of

the leading centers of idolatry

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in the northern kingdom.

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The designation young lads is best

understood from context to mean an

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insignificant, untrained young adult,

not a small child or a little boy.

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This group of young adult lads represented

the spiritual disregard that the citizens

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as a whole had forgotten his prophets.

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Second, the expression go up was an insult

that may have meant go away like Elijah.

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And perhaps this was an insult

to take his God away as well.

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Baldness was a sign of shame in their

culture, and this further reveals their

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irreverence for a prophet of the Lord.

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And I'm sure this incident inspired the

fear of the Lord in many of the other

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citizens In chapter three, we have

another case of Jehoshaphat being willing

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to team up with the king of Israel.

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But he does request that they inquire

of a prophet of the Lord first.

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Elisha is requested, and God says, " Hey,

king of Israel, there's no way I would

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be working on your behalf except that

I will be faithful to Jehoshaphat."

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God gives them victory over the

wicked nation of Moab, whose king

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even took his oldest son, the

heir to the throne, and sacrificed

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him when the battle went poorly.

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You can see why God wanted to

defeat these nations that were so

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consistently performing abominations.

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In chapter four, there's a widow that

comes to Elisha saying that her husband

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has passed away, and the creditors are

coming to take her children as slaves.

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Elisha explains a process by which God

miraculously provides oil for her to pay

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her debts and provide for her family.

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It clearly parallels Elijah's

miracle of the widow's oil next, we

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encounter a wealthy Shunammite woman

who convinces her husband to add

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on to their home so that they can

house this holy man of God, Elisha.

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I love this example in scripture that

women have long been up for a renovation.

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This woman has all she needs, but Elisha

wants to bless her for her hospitality.

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She says she's content, but she's old

and so is her husband, and she's barren.

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Elisha tells her in a

year she will have a son

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She doesn't deny to Elisha that she

would long to have a child, but she

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basically says to him, "Don't promise me

this unless you can really fulfill it."

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And in Sarah and Abraham fashion, the

Lord fulfills this promise the next

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year The child grows up, but one day

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He passes away.

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The Shunammite woman has a unique

approach as she seeks Elisha, telling

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him, " Why did you give me a son if you

were going to let this happen to him?"

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But again, paralleling the works

of Elijah, God uses Elisha to

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raise the child from the dead

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There are several other miracles that

Elisha does that are scattered throughout,

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whether it's helping the poor and in

need or doing things on a larger scale.

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But I'd like to focus on what

happens in chapter five with Naaman

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because there's an undeniable theme

here that requires we look at the

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juxtaposition of characters in this story

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Naaman, commander of the army of the

king of Syria, was a great man with his

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master and in high favor, because by

him the Lord had given victory to Syria.

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He was a mighty man of

valor, but he was a leper.

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Now the Syrians on one of their raids

had carried off a little girl from

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the land of Israel, and she worked

in the service of Naaman's wife.

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She said to her mistress, " Would

that my lord were with the

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prophet who is in Samaria!

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He would cure him of his leprosy."

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so Naaman went in and told his

lord, " Thus and so spoke the

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girl from the land of Israel."

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And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I

will send a letter to the king of Israel."

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So he went, taking with him ten talents

of silver, six thousand shekels of

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gold, and ten changes of clothing.

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And he brought the letter to the king

of Israel, which read, " When this

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letter reaches you, know that I have

sent to you Naaman my servant, that

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you may cure him of his leprosy."

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And when the king of Israel read

the letter, he tore his clothes and

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said, " Am I God, to kill and make

alive, that this man sends word to

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me to cure a man of his leprosy?

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Only consider, and see how he

is seeking a quarrel with me."

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But when Elisha, the man of God,

heard that the king of Israel had

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torn his clothes, he sent to the king,

saying, " Why have you torn your clothes?

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Let him come now to me, that he may

know that there is a prophet in Israel."

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So Naaman came with his horses

and chariots, and stood at

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the door of Elisha's house.

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And Elisha sent a messenger to him,

saying, " Go and wash in the Jordan

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seven times, and your flesh shall be

restored, and you shall be clean."

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But Naaman was angry and went away saying,

" Behold, I thought that he would surely

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come out to me, and stand and call upon

the name of the Lord his God, and wave his

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hand over the place and cure the leper.

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Are not Abana and Pharpar,

the rivers of Damascus, better

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than all the waters of Israel?

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Could I not wash in them and be clean?"

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So he turned and went away in a rage.

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But his servants came near and said

to him, " My father, it is a great

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word the prophet has spoken to you.

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Will you not do it?

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has he actually said to

you, 'Wash and be clean'?"

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So he went down and dipped himself

seven times in the Jordan, according

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to the word of the man of God, and his

flesh was restored like the flesh of a

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little child, and he was clean Then he

returned to the man of God, he and all his

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company, and he came and stood before him.

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And he said, " Behold, I know that there

is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.

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So accept now a present

from your servant."

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But he said, " As the Lord lives, before

whom I stand, I will receive none."

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And he urged him to

take it, but he refused.

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Then Naaman said, " If not,

please let there be given to your

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servant two mule loads of earth.

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For from now on, your servant

will not offer burnt offering or

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sacrifice to any God but the Lord.

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And then Naaman acknowledges that

even though he's going to have

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work obligations that his heart

will never bow before another god.

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And he asks the Lord to

give him grace in this

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As Naaman is going away healed, Gehazi,

Elisha's servant, says, " Oh, Elisha sent

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me to ask if you would give a payment.

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There's someone that we want to help."

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Naaman gives him two talents of

silver and two changes of clothing.

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Gehazi leaves and hides these in a

house before returning to Elisha.

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But God told Elisha exactly

what Gehazi was up to.

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He confronts him, " Where have you been?"

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Gehazi adds to his wrongdoing and

lies, elisha rebukes him for receiving

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the gift for something that the Lord

alone had done, and his consequence is

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to receive Naaman's leprosy that would

now be on him and his descendants Let's

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go back to the beginning of the story.

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The word and the theme that I

can't get over in this passage

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is the idea of a servant.

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Naaman is not from the nation of

Israel or the nation of Judah.

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He's from one of the enemies of

Israel, but the Lord had blessed

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him He was admired and powerful

and described as a man of valor.

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Valor is an exceptional or heroic

courage and bravery, especially in

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the face of great danger or in battle

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Naaman had great character and

the skin disease that he suffered

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from was not the leprosy that is

now diagnosed as Hansen's disease,

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because that would have prohibited

him from serving in the military.

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But what he was experiencing still was

dramatically impacting him And then

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we have the faith of a little girl

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that guides others to

the power of her God.

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It's amazing to me that even though she

has been captured and taken away from

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her family, she is still a source of

hope and truth to the one she serves.

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It tells me that Naaman and his

wife must have provided a loving

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home for her, that she wanted him

healed and wanted the best for him.

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We'll come back to her at the end, but

here's another example of the Lord using

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a child to accomplish His purposes.

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Naaman geared up with all of his

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coming from Syria to the

very door of Elisha's house.

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Instead of greeting him, Elisha sent

a messenger, directing him to go

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wash in the Jordan River seven times.

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The reason this is so insulting was that

there were two beautiful rivers in Syria

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Both were purified and clear, and one

even flew down from the Lebanon mountains

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watering orchards and gardens.

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But the Jordan River was pretty muddy.

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Naaman was confused and

angry by this request.

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He's insulted he came all this way bearing

extravagant gifts, and Elisha didn't

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even come out of his home to greet him.

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And it's his servants once again

that convince him to walk in faith

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This again tells me he was probably

a wonderful man that his servants

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keep advocating for his good.

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They convince him, "Don't be insulted.

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Follow through with what the prophet

said to you so you can be healed."

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A lot of people are pretty hard on Naaman

over his anger and his response to Elisha.

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But when I think back to times where

my kids have been dealing with medical

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issues or I have been, and how I

can carry stress as I go to a doctor

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appointment for them or pursue treatment

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I just so desperately want to get help

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And relief for them.

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And I think about how this skin disease

must have been impacting Naaman.

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I'm sure he was miserable.

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There was probably a lot of fear

that after all of this effort,

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it wasn't going to yield results.

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But thankfully, he listens to his

servants, and his flesh becomes

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like the flesh of a little child.

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Now he goes back to Elisha, not in

pride, but to thank him and give praise

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to the one true God, the God of Israel.

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He wants to provide a payment for his

healing, but Elisha says, "No, you've

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received a miracle from the Lord.

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There's no payment required."

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But don't miss that five times

in his short response of praise,

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he refers to himself as a servant

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In just a few verses, Naaman has gone

from being the elevated commander

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of an entire army to now recognizing

himself as a servant of the Lord.

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He has seen the mighty hand

of God and humbled himself

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Before he leaves Israel, he

requests some soil so he can go

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home and build an altar to God.

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But God wanted the sacrifices

to be limited to the temple.

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Naaman knows that some of his

duties will require accompanying

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the king of Syria to the temple

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But Gehazi, the servant of the Lord,

now manipulates the situation God

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allows Elisha to see right through to

his heart, and the man who should be a

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servant of the Lord, who has seen Elisha

do miracle after miracle, now tries

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to benefit from the work of the Lord.

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But God will not be tricked.

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Naaman humbled himself,

and God blessed him.

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But when Gehazi tried to provide

for his own good, God humbled him

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But let's think back to this sweet

little girl the story started with.

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We're clearly told that she had been

captured and now worked in an enemy land.

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And I can't help but notice

that one little girl's captivity

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brought another man's freedom.

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This child became a missionary for the

Lord, most likely being separated from

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her family to now serve in a pagan nation.

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But because of her pure-hearted and

sacrificial faith, she was able to

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testify to a high-ranking official

which probably produced a domino

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effect in the surrounding people

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And there is this reality in the Bible

that sometimes God allows the captivity

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of one to bring the freedom of another.

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If I were her, I would

say, " Okay, it seems I've really

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done a lot for your family.

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Can I go back to my country now?"

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But we don't know what happens

to her after this story.

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It makes me think of the times

where God hasn't healed physically.

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Will we still choose to worship

and point to the God that we know

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is able because we know what He

has already done for our souls?

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Though we are outwardly wasting away,

will we give praise to the God who

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is renewing us inside day by day?

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Do you know Jesus spoke of this

miracle in Luke four twenty-seven?

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There was a crowd in the synagogue in

Nazareth, and Jesus said, " And there

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were many lepers in Israel at the time

of the prophet Elisha, and none of them

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was cleansed but only Naaman the Syrian."

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The healing was available for all

of them, but it was a Gentile that

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sought healing and God answered.

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So let's go before Him now, believing

He can and trusting when He chooses

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not to Heavenly Father, we thank

you for your power and your purposes.

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We praise you that you are a God who

brings beauty from ashes and restoration

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and peace out of destruction and chaos.

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I know there are many who listen

that are struggling with physical

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ailments themselves and for their

children And we pray like this servant

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girl, knowing that you are able.

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I ask for physical healing for the

families represented Lord, help us

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to have faith and guide us in wisdom

that we would look to you and believe.

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We know you are honored by our faith,

even if it's as small as a mustard

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seed But we also acknowledge there

are times when your purposes do

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not include healing on this earth.

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Help us to be surrendered and to trust

in your goodness when the testimony

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isn't today and when you're working on

cleansing our hearts instead of our bodies

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In chapter six, Elisha opens the

eyes of his servant, and we pray you

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would open the eyes of our children

to your goodness and your salvation.

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Give them an understanding of who you are,

and we pray that they would be faithful,

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willing servants of the Most High God,

laying down their plans for their lives

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and choosing to seek you wholeheartedly.

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And as Elisha prayed for blindness to

overcome his enemies for a time, we pray

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you would protect our kids from seeing

things that would negatively impact them.

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Give them a hunger to pursue the

things that honor and glorify you

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Lord, we thank you for the

opportunity to be your servants and

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a witness to the watching world.

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Open our eyes to the opportunities

before us that you may

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receive all the glory, Jesus.

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It's in your name we pray.

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Amen.