2 Kings 8:1-6 has a short little story about Elisha, a woman and her son. Elisha tells the woman to arise and depart with her household and sojourn wherever she can because there will be a famine for seven years. The woman obeys Elisha and goes to the land of the Philistines for seven years. When the seven years were up, she returned to the land and appealed to the king to get her house and land back. The woman appeared with her son before the king. When the king asked the woman about her son being restored to life, she told him. So, the king restored all that was hers with the produce of the land for the period she was not in it.
In this story we see Elisha as God (his name means “my God is salvation”), the woman as Israel, and her son as Jesus.
Before this story, Elisha had resurrected the woman’s son just as Jesus was resurrected, or restored to life. After Jesus was resurrected, Israel was scattered all over the world due to persecution and famine. Israel sojourned wherever it could.
The famine represents the time that Israel would be without the nourishment of bread, or the scriptures. This would last seven years, or a complete period of time, however long that would be. But, at the end of the seven years, the woman returns to her land, which I believe symbolizes repentance.
The woman appears before the king, or Israel appears before God, having repented, and asks for its land back. But, Israel didn’t appear before the king alone. Her son, Jesus, was with her. When the king asked Israel about her son, Jesus, being restored to life, she confessed it as true. Based on her confession that God is her salvation and that he restored Jesus to life, Israel gets her land back. And, not just her land, but all that it produced while she was not in it.
Certainly, we have seen some of this story unfold in history, but not all of it. The time has not been completed yet.