“Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites would invade the land in the spring of the year. As they were burying a man, behold, they saw a marauding band; and they cast the man into the grave of Elisha. And when the man touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood up on his feet” (2 Kings 13:20-21).
The purpose of this passage is to kindle our hope in the future resurrection. For if a dead person is raised from the dead by touching the bones of a dead prophet like Moses (Elisha), how much more will the entire nation of dead men’s bones be raised to new life when they finally “lay hold” of the living Messiah (see Ezek 37:1-6, 24-25)?
And since our Messiah Yeshua is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25-26), the very first moment we put our faith in Him, God raised us up from spiritual death to a brand-new life (Rom 6:4). And though we still groan in the weakness of our mortality, when Yeshua comes again, we will finally put on our immortal, eternal, and completely redeemed bodies. Come, Lord Yeshua, please come quickly!
“For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it” (Rom 8:22-25).
