Adult Lesson Plan

OPENING

A curious feature of Elisha’s ministry is scale. One moment he is involved in national security and enemy troop movements. The next he is helping someone recover a borrowed ax head. Scripture gives us both without apology. Heaven is present in famine and in carpentry, in royal courts and in kitchens. That detail alone can reshape a room full of adults who have spent the week answering emails, paying bills, worrying about children, and trying to pray with a tired mind.

You might open with this question: Which miracle in these chapters feels most “important”? Most classes will instinctively choose the raising of the dead or the heavenly chariots. Then ask a second question: Why does the Lord preserve the story of a floating ax head right beside those larger wonders (2 Kings 6:4–7)? That question gets people leaning forward because it suggests that God’s attention may be wider, kinder, and more personal than we often assume.

SCRIPTURE EXPLORATION

Begin with 2 Kings 5, because Naaman gives the class a human heart to work with. He is powerful, respected, and desperate. The chapter introduces him with a painful contrast: “he was a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper” (2 Kings 5:1). Status cannot cure what afflicts him. Relief enters the story through a captive Israelite girl, one of the least powerful people in the chapter. She says, in effect, there is a prophet in Israel who can help.

Read Naaman’s turning point in verses 13–14.

And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. (2 Kings 5:13–14)

Naaman almost misses healing because the command is too plain. Adults understand that temptation. We often prefer the dramatic solution, the complex plan, the impressive spiritual labor. A good discussion question here is: Why do simple commandments sometimes offend our pride more than difficult ones? You could connect this to Alma’s teaching that “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6).

Then move to 2 Kings 6:15–17. This scene shifts from humility to sight.

And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. (2 Kings 6:15–17)

Elisha does not deny the danger. The Arameans are there. Faith is not pretending the threat is imaginary. Faith is seeing that the threat is not the whole picture. This connects well with Doctrine and Covenants 38:7: “mine eyes are upon you. I am in your midst and ye cannot see me” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:7). Ask the class: What changes in a person’s life when they stop asking only, “What is against me?” and start asking, “Whom has God placed with me?”

Finish the exploration in 2 Kings 7:1–2, 16. Samaria is starving under siege. Elisha prophesies abundance within a day, and an officer mocks him.

Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. (2 Kings 7:1–2)

And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord. (2 Kings 7:16)

The phrase “according to the word of the Lord” matters. That refrain runs through Elisha’s ministry. The Lord speaks, then acts. Ask: What kinds of prophetic promises sound difficult to believe in our own day, not because they are unclear, but because they ask us to trust beyond what we can measure?

DOCTRINAL DISCUSSION

One doctrine running through these chapters is that miracles are not random displays of power. They reveal the character of God. The Come, Follow Me introduction says that Elisha’s miracles “do testify of Christ. They are powerful manifestations of the Lord’s life-giving, nourishing, and healing power.” That language helps a class see Elisha as more than an ancient wonder-worker. His ministry points to Jesus Christ, who heals, feeds, restores, and rescues. The feeding of a hundred with twenty loaves in 2 Kings 4:42–44 naturally echoes the Savior’s feeding miracles in John 6:1–13. The raising of the Shunammite’s son invites comparison with Luke 7:11–16. Adults often need help seeing that Old Testament narrative is Christ-centered even when the name of Jesus is not on every page.

A second doctrine is that the Lord’s way often tests humility before it grants deliverance. Naaman wanted spectacle. He received instruction. President L. Whitney Clayton taught, “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it” (Apr. 2017, Clayton, “Whatsoever He Saith unto You, Do It”). That fits Naaman exactly. His healing begins when he stops negotiating with prophetic counsel. A class can wrestle with this in honest ways. What commandments or prophetic invitations feel too ordinary to carry divine power? Why do we sometimes trust dramatic interventions more than daily obedience? Those are adult questions because adult discipleship is built less on occasional spiritual fireworks and more on repeated submission.

A third doctrine is that fear narrows vision, while faith enlarges it. President Henry B. Eyring said, “Like that servant of Elisha, there are more with you than those you can see opposed to you. Some who are with you will be invisible to your mortal eyes” (Oct. 2008, Eyring, “O Ye That Embark”). Elder Ronald A. Rasband added, “The Lord is with us, mindful of us and blessing us in ways only He can do” (Oct. 2018, Rasband, “Be Not Troubled”). Those statements do not promise a life without siege or strain. Samaria still endured famine. Dothan still woke to enemy horses. The promise is that God’s presence exceeds what fear can count. Ask the class: Where do you see adults in the Church feeling “outnumbered” right now? How does this story speak to anxiety, loneliness, or family burdens without offering shallow comfort?

President Russell M. Nelson urged us to “seek and expect miracles” (Apr. 2022, Nelson, “The Power of Spiritual Momentum”). That counsel fits these chapters well, especially because Elisha’s miracles range from public deliverance to household mercy. Another good question is: Which is harder for us to believe, that God can part a river, or that He cares about a widow’s debt and a borrowed tool?

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

For adults, these chapters land close to home. Naaman speaks to the person who wants healing but resists the form it takes. Sometimes the Lord’s answer arrives through a plain practice: pray every day, forgive that person, return to the sacrament table with real intent, listen to the prophet, keep going. The Jordan River may feel underwhelming. It still becomes the place of cleansing.

The servant at Dothan speaks to the parent carrying a family alone, the single adult who feels forgotten, the disciple trying to stay faithful in a skeptical workplace, the person with private anxiety that flares at 3:00 a.m. Elisha’s prayer is a useful one for this week: “Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see” (2 Kings 6:17). A teacher might invite class members to ask that question in personal terms: Lord, open my eyes to the help already around me.

The famine in Samaria speaks to people whose circumstances feel stuck. Some adults sit in a long season of emotional or financial pressure and can hardly imagine abundance again. Elisha’s prophecy does not erase the reality of hunger, but it does insist that the Lord can change conditions faster than we think. That is not a promise on our timetable. It is a reminder that despair is a poor prophet.

CLOSING TESTIMONY & INVITATION

These chapters keep returning to one sentence from the lesson title: “There is a prophet in Israel.” The Lord was not absent in Elisha’s day, and He is not absent now. He still heals in His way, feeds in scarcity, opens eyes in fear, and fulfills His word. I trust that. I trust the Savior these miracles foreshadow, because His power is life-giving, nourishing, and healing.

You might leave the class with one question to carry home: Where in my life am I asking for a grand answer when the Lord has already given a simple one? And one invitation: pray this week for opened eyes. Ask to see one quiet miracle, one unseen help, or one small act of obedience that carries more grace than it first appears.