A Midsummer's Reflection Series

Tuesday, June 9, 2026

Meditation 9: 2 Kings 4:8-37

The Bedroom, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Arles, October 1888

The stories of the prophet Elisha include a lengthy account of hospitality and blessing. Every day, Elisha passed by a wealthy woman’s home. Without knowing anything about Elisha, she offered him, and in fact “urged” him to eat, some of her food, which she provided to him each day as he passed (4:8). She eventually recognized that he was holy, that he followed God. Because of this, this woman of means provided Elisha with a place to rest on his daily journeys; she gave him a furnished room, almost a little home of his own: “a small roof chamber with walls . . . a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp” (4:10).  

Elisha allowed himself to be the recipient of this woman’s hospitality. In response to her warm hospitality, God, through the prophet Elisha, granted this woman, who had been barren all her life, a son that she and her husband welcomed into their family. The son eventually died, but then Elisha raised her son back to life.

This is another moving account of how God blesses those who extend hospitality. It doesn’t mean that God will grant us children if we are desirous of children, nor that he will raise our loved ones from the dead to physical life. God can and does work miracles, but the blessings He imparts are not limited to these material gifts. God blesses us spiritually with His grace, as well.  

The blessings we receive through extending hospitality to others will far outweigh the costs of such hospitality. Another lesson from this passage is that those who have wealth, who have financial means, can be a blessing to others by being generous. 2 Kings 4 tells us that this woman was wealthy (4:8). She gave of her great wealth to live hospitality according to her means. Everyone is called to live hospitality, but each one according to their means. We might not be able to provide a room and a bed for a stranger, even a missionary doing God’s work. But we can offer what we have. We should look at the material possessions and money that we do have as ours for the good of others. We have to provide for ourselves and for our families, but we also must provide for others as our means permit.  

Lord, help us to see our possessions as gifts you give us to be used for the good of others. Help us learn to be generous, like the Shunamite woman who built a room for Elisha’s rest and who fed him on his daily journeys.

Dr. Jeffrey Morrow, Ph.D. is a professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and the Director of the St. Paul Studies Center at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He spent 15 years as a professor of theology at Seton Hall University’s Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. In his final year in that role, Dr. Morrow worked on the Preaching as Hospitality Formation Program, writing these reflections on Scripture through a lens of hospitality. 

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