#93. Relics of Little Value
“Then he said to Gehazi, “Get yourself ready, and take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. If you meet anyone, do not greet him; and if anyone greets you, do not answer him; but lay my staff on the face of the child.” And the mother of the child said, “As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose and followed her. Now Gehazi went on ahead of them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice nor hearing. Therefore he went back to meet him, and told him, saying, “The child was not awakened.”
II Kings 4:29-31 NKJV
In 2019, a procession went down the streets of NYC, led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Roman Catholic Church with the focus on a box that contained the “incorrupt” (undecomposed) heart of a French saint who had died more than 150 years earlier. It traveled through NYC so that it could be venerated by faithful Roman Catholics on its way to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The Black Nazarene is a life-sized crucifix that is the most famous relic of the Philippines. Most Roman Catholics in the Philippines believe that just by touching it one can be healed of diseases. An elaborate scheme has been established by Rome over the centuries to grant power, status, and indulgences in and through relics. Rome has even ordained official “Curators of the Relics” authorized to designate such items as relics for veneration. The highest prized relics are body parts of dead saints, with heads, hearts, brains, fingers, and ears taking high places in the lives of relic venerators. To give the practice the semblance of true Christianity, papists are told the relics have no power other than to bring people closer to God through their veneration.
The problems with this practice and the theology behind it are manifold and far outside the scope of a devotional. Suffice it to say throughout Scripture the Lord forbids His people from worshipping or approaching Him in or through images or any way not appointed in His Word so that to venerate an image is to rob God of the glory due to Him alone. The Pope and his priests, highly decorated in all manner of gold and ostentatious displays of papal wealth, have ordained and established the veneration and power of relics in opposition to God’s Word and sadly the followers of these men have followed suit (Acts 17:22-33).
What then of Elisha’s staff?
Elisha gave his staff to Gehazi to lay on the dead son of the Shunammite woman. This staff was no replication but the real thing. It didn’t pass thousands of years through mysterious circumstances to leave Gehazi with a mere splinter of wood claimed by some wise merchant of Jericho to be the staff of a famous prophet; it was the very staff of Elisha himself. Surely if there were ever a relic that had power it would be the staff of Elisha. But with the staff laid upon him the child did not awaken (vs. 31).
In an unusual comment for Matthew Henry he says of verse 29, “I know not what to make of this…” Why did Elisha send Gehazi with his staff? Was Elisha not remembering to seek the wisdom of the Lord? Was Elisha trusting in his own power instead of the Lord’s? Was Elisha doubting the reality of death in the Shunammite woman’s son? Scripture does not give us the answer to the question, “Why?” But it does reveal this: There is no power in created man or objects to raise the dead but in God alone.
Put no confidence in princes, prophets, wood, stone, undecomposed hearts, decomposed hearts, fingers, brains, splinters, crying statues, paintings, beads, necklaces, or anything else that may be offered, sold, or suggested to you – put your trust in the Lord!
Elisha’s staff did nothing for the woman or her son. Dear friend, if you are in the church of Rome or of Eastern, Greek, Russian, or any other “Orthodoxy” with a country’s name in front of it, may the Word of God enlight your mind and heart today with a truth that will never grow dim. All the hopes of the world are idols and foolishness but he who hopes in the Lord will never be ashamed.
If you are going through great trials today – fears, grief, uncertainty, illness, pain, whatever the case may be – and your hope is in the Lord, do not take your eyes off of Him! He will be your guide and Lord from this time forth and forevermore. One day, the faith you placed solely in Jesus Christ will be vindicated in the eyes of all the world, for the Lord Jesus Christ shall descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of the Lord, and all flesh shall see Him together when those who put their trust in the Lord are separated from those who put their trust in foolish objects, even if they are holding a splinter from the very cross itself. “Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God” (Psalm 146:5).
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