What does shutting the door upon represent (2 Kings 4:4, 21, 33)?
Whenever a miracle in this chapter was about to occur, that Elisha was performing, the recipients of the miracle would have the door shut upon them. Take for instance the woman and her sons, in 2 Kings 4:4. Elisha told her when she comes that “thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons.” In addition, when the Shunamite woman put her son in Elisha’s room, she “shut the door upon him” (2 Kings 4:21). And then when Elisha came into the room to heal the boy he “shut the door upon them,” (2 Kings 4:33).
Shutting the door on someone encloses them in the situation, context or environment. So before any of these people could receive their miracles they had to find themselves trapped in the situation; with nowhere else to go. All of these situations could not be solved by anyone else but God. Thus, by trapping them in the situation they would be propelled to exercise faith in the Almighty One. For the Shunamite woman and her son had to have had faith in God before, so that Elisha could “shut the door upon them twain”, (2 Kings 4:33). The confining just forced them to exercise it in their situations, it was the test for the testimony. In essence, shutting the door upon means or represents enclosing a person(s) in their situation as to push them to exercise faith and receive their blessing.
We, however, must keep in mind that they were not forced to exercise faith. Rather the shutting of the door gave them the opportunity to employ faith. God always gives us a choice. If they felt the situation was too intense they could have walked out the door, or even opened the door to ask for human help in problem only God could solve. Nonetheless, the shutting of the door allowed them to face their situation individually and then conquer it in Jesus Name!
Let us then, when trapped in hard situations, permit God take control and watch a blessing come to fruition.
-Holy Spirit Inspired
The Word Inpsired 