Revival in a Tomb

I read a passage of scripture last night which reminds me when it seems all hope is lost, God is able to do the miraculous and unexpected.  The Bible is filled with instances where God's almighty power overruled the natural laws He established in the universe, and sometimes with almost comedic effect.  Elisha was a prophet filled with the Holy Spirit through whom God did many miracles, and there was a notable occasion after his death mentioned in 2 Kings 13:20-21:  "Then Elisha died, and they buried him. And the raiding bands from Moab invaded the land in the spring of the year. ²¹ So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders; and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet."

Burying a man according to the ancient Hebrew tradition did not involve burying the body in dirt but to lay the body in a tomb or crypt typically chiseled out of stone.  Whilst we are not provided the details about this man or the manner of his death, it was quite a hurried, unceremonious affair.  As these men were burying the deceased suddenly they saw a band of Moabite raiders and decided to dump the body in the tomb of Elisha!  If they did not hurry perhaps they too would be dead men!  Suddenly, much to their shock and amazement, when the body the dead man contacted the bones of Elisha he revived and stood up.  Before his death Elisha promised the king of Israel would have victory over the Syrians, and perhaps this incident urged him to renewed faith in God and His power to save.

What this passage does not teach us is there remains mystical, miraculous power in the deceased bodies of God's prophets.  We are not to reverence the tombs or bones of dead saints, attributing any goodness or glory to them.  The power to raise the dead was not in Elisha (whose body died of illness and decomposed) but in the God who he served.  By grace God brought life out of death when men had given up hope and were frightened.  God did what they least expected.  The paralytic brought to Jesus was healed because Jesus saw their faith and it was a sign to reveal His divine nature, but these men (and the revived man too!) were benefactors of God's grace and mercy they didn't count on.

Brothers and sisters, let us count on the goodness of God to do the miraculous when we least expect it!  The situations we have wept over and despaired can be overcome in an instant by the grace of God.  We may not live to see a dead person revived by touching the bones of a prophet, yet we could see something even more amazing:  the return of prodigals, revival in the church, repentance in the hearts of hardened sinners, and renewal of our relationship with the living God.   One person passing from death to life by receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ is worth a million physical resurrections without a change of heart.