Each meeting covers one lesson. The passage, questions and notes are all on the lesson page, and group members can print their own copy.
Leaders need only this guide: first the flow that is the same every time, then the focus points and tips for each lesson.
A lesson takes about an hour. Meet weekly or every other week — whatever fits your group.
Each Meetingabout 55 min
Snacks and catching up
10 min
Read together
10 min
Discussion
25 min
This week
5 min
Close (prayer optional)
5 min
Opening: Start with last time’s ‘This week’: ‘Did you do it? How did it go?’ For the first lesson, ask everyone to say in one sentence why they want to read about this person. The leader goes first.
Read together: Take turns reading the passage, a few verses each. The leader reads the short notes between sections.
Discussion: You don’t need to discuss every question in ‘Think It Through.’ Pick one or two from each group, add this lesson’s focus points, and that is plenty.
This week: Read it together, and ask each person to decide on the one small thing they will do this week.
Close: You can pray using a verse from the lesson. If some aren’t used to praying aloud, a minute of silence together is fine too.
Focus 1 (vv. 1–2): The woman said, “Your servant my husband is dead”; Elisha asked, “what do you have in the house?” and she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.” Ask the group: reading these two verses, what do you see?
Focus 2 (questions 7–8): Ask each person to say what comes to mind as they read verse 7 and verse 2 — the leader does not draw the conclusion for the group, and the group does not need to agree.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone thinks of one hardship in which they have ‘nothing in the house, except a pot of oil’, prays about it every day this week, and tells someone they trust. Next time, anyone who wants to can share.
Leader tip: Some in the group may be in financial trouble, in debt, or recently widowed. Read this lesson as the passage gives it; don’t make it ‘however many containers you prepare, God will give that much’, and don’t make it ‘if your faith is big enough, your debts will be paid’; don’t turn verse 6, “Then the oil stopped flowing”, into ‘the oil stopped because faith ran out’. The passage does not record how Elisha did this, and does not explain why the door was ‘shut’; there is no need to fill this in for the passage. Elisha’s call and Elijah’s being taken up are in Elijah, Lessons 6 and 7, and are not opened up here; there is no need to explain the ‘double portion’, nor to count how many wonders Elisha did. Don’t press on questions 9 and 10; only those who want to share need to. If someone names a hardship they are facing, the group can pray for them together at the end of the meeting.
Focus 1 (vv. 26–30): “She answered, ‘It is well’”; the man of God said “her soul is troubled within her”; she said “I will not leave you”, and Elisha followed her. Ask the group: reading these verses, what do you see?
Focus 2 (questions 7–8): Ask each person to say what comes to mind as they read verse 27 and verse 33 — the leader does not draw the conclusion for the group, and the group does not need to agree.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone thinks of one thing about which they tell people ‘it is well’ though inside it is very bitter, and this week tells it to God just as it is. This does not need to be shared in the group.
Leader tip: There may be parents in the group who have lost a child. Read the child’s death in verse 20 once, as the passage gives it; don’t open it up, and don’t ask what the mother was thinking then — that is why ‘If I were there’ uses Gehazi and her husband, and does not ask anyone to imagine themselves as the mother. The child in this lesson came back to life; don’t make it ‘if you only believe, what you lost will come back’ — some in the group have lost what has not come back. Don’t make her “It is well” in verse 26 ‘a declaration of faith’, and there is no need to explain why she said it. Read “the LORD has hidden it from me” in verse 27 as it stands; there is no need to explain it. Why the staff did nothing in verse 31, and what Elisha did in verses 33–35, need no explanation; don’t make them a method. Verse 30 and 2 Kgs 2:2 use the same words; the Notes mention it once, and there is no need to open it up further. Don’t press on questions 9 and 10; only those who want to share need to.
Focus 1 (vv. 10–15): Elisha sent a messenger telling Naaman to wash; Naaman was angry; his servants spoke to him; he went “according to the saying of the man of God”, and came back saying “See now, I know.” Ask the group: reading these verses, what do you see?
Focus 2 (questions 7–8): Ask each person to say what comes to mind as they read verse 7 and verse 15 — the leader does not draw the conclusion for the group, and the group does not need to agree.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone writes down when, and through what, they began to know God. Next time, anyone who wants to can share.
Leader tip: There may be people in the group living with long illness. Naaman’s illness was healed; don’t make it ‘if you just do what God says, your illness is sure to get better’; and don’t make leprosy a mark of sin — Gehazi’s story (v. 27) is only quoted in the Notes; don’t make it ‘illness is punishment’. Whether the ‘leprosy’ of old is today’s leprosy is not discussed in this lesson. Why the washing was in the Jordan, and why seven times, need no explanation; don’t make them a method. The passage calls them only ‘the king of Syria’ and ‘the king of Israel’; there is no need to give them names. The little girl has only one sentence (v. 3); read just that, and don’t make it a story of ‘witnessing even in captivity’. Read the house of Rimmon in verse 18 as the passage gives it; don’t make it ‘compromise is allowed’ or ‘compromise is not allowed’, and there is no need to discuss what Elisha’s answer meant. ‘Pointing to Christ’ only sets the verses side by side. Don’t press on questions 9 and 10; only those who want to share need to.
Focus 1 (vv. 15–17): The servant saw an army with horses and chariots around the city; Elisha said “Don’t be afraid” and prayed for him; he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire. Ask the group: reading these verses, what do you see?
Focus 2 (questions 7–8): Ask each person to say what comes to mind as they read verse 17 and verse 22 — the leader does not draw the conclusion for the group, and the group does not need to agree.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone thinks of one thing that frightens them right now and, this week, tells it to God just as it is. This does not need to be shared in the group.
Leader tip: Some in the group may be afraid right now, and what they fear may not be over. Don’t make it ‘people who trust God will always see the horses and chariots of fire’ or ‘if you only pray, the siege will lift’; the servant saw, and the passage records it as it happened, with no promise that everyone will see in this way. Read the horses and chariots of fire in verse 17 as the passage gives them; there is no need to discuss what they were, and don’t link them to anything else as a type. The blindness and the opened eyes in verses 18–20, and what Elisha said to the soldiers in verse 19, are read as they stand; there is no need to explain them, and no need to discuss whether he told a lie. Read “Set bread and water before them” in verse 22 as it stands; don’t make it ‘you too must feed the people who hurt you’ — some in the group may have been hurt by others, and this lesson asks no one to do anything. The passage calls them only ‘the king of Syria’ and ‘the king of Israel’; there is no need to give them names. Verse 23 says the bands of Syria “stopped raiding the land of Israel”, and later the king of Syria besieged the city again (from 6:24); this lesson does not try to reconcile the two — if someone asks, say that it is in the Life. The Notes mention once that 13:14 and 2:12 use the same words; there is no need to open it up. Don’t press on questions 9 and 10; only those who want to share need to. Question 11 looks back; leave ten minutes for it.
Principles
The leader is not a teacher, but someone walking alongside everyone else.
Give everyone a chance to speak. If some talk a lot, you can gently say, ‘Let’s hear from those who haven’t spoken yet.’
Don’t rush to give answers. If there is silence, wait a few more seconds.
If you can’t answer a question, it’s fine to say, ‘I don’t know — let’s look into it together,’ and come back to it next time.
What is said in the group stays in the group.
At the start, the leader can share their own answer first. Keep it simple and honest.
In the lessons, words in double quotes with a reference are scripture. What the passage does not say, we can only guess; guessing is fine, as long as we say we are guessing.
Don’t press on painful things. If someone becomes upset, stay with them after the meeting; if needed, involve a pastor from their church or a professional counselor.