CLEAN – podcast 22 (Reanimated by Elisha’s Bones)

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/clean-podcast-22-reanimated-by-elishas-bones/" target="_blank"><strong>website.</strong></a></p><p><strong>Introduction</strong></p><ul><li>The first two reanimations we covered were both of boys with older parents.</li><li>Today's spans a mere two verses!</li><li>No sense of disappointment, at least none that we read about. The burial could have been of an old man, full of years. Or maybe that of a youth. The passage just doesn’t say.</li><li>Elisha, who brought about the second reanimation in the Bible, is long dead – yet plays a crucial role in the unexpected and radical reversal of what would otherwise have been a routine burial.</li><li>In fact, the miracle almost feels like it shouldn’t be in the Bible – like a legend.</li></ul><p><strong>Scripture: 2 Kings 13:20-21</strong></p><ul><li>No time to put the body in the family grave site. To save time, they decided to double up. Dump the load and run.</li><li>The corpse comes into contact with Elisha’s bones.<ul><li>Elisha hadn’t been buried in a coffin. They used burial clothes (as in John 11). It may have been in his family burial chamber. Whatever the case, the body had decomposed. Which means…</li><li>You would think the burial was to take place some time after Elisha’s burial, at a minimum a number of years.</li><li>Yet, we need not press the literal sense of "bones," as though a long time had elapsed since Elisha's death. The old prophet of Bethel (1 Kings 13:31), referring to his own death and burial, requested "Lay my bones beside his bones." (He certainly wasn't asking to delay his burial until the soft parts of his body had all disappeared.)</li></ul></li><li>The corpse is reanimated!</li><li>We don’t need to seek a novel explanation, or make the account any more sensational than it is already.<ul><li>The man wasn't coming to attention in the presence of Elisha, or reporting for duty as the Moabite skirmishes or the Syrian War dragged on.</li><li>And it’s d