TEXT: II Kings 8:1-6

SUBJECT: Elisha #14: The Shunem Woman

There once was a woman who lived in Shunem. She and her husband feared the Lord and loved His servant, Elisha. Whenever the man of God came by, they welcomed him into their home and took good care of him until he moved on to the next town.

The prophet appreciated what they did for him, and he wanted to do them a favor. Could he put in a good word for them with the king or the commander? ‘No thanks—they said—‘we’re happy with what we have’.

Elisha liked their contentment, but he didn’t care much for their answer. Love is generous and he’s going to give them something, whether they ask for it or not. But what should he give them? His servant has a good idea: How about a son? The woman has no children and her husband is old. ‘Bingo’ says the prophet. That’s what they’re going to get—a son.

He calls for the woman and tells her the good news: About this time next year, she and her husband will have a son. She thinks the man is making fun of her, but he’s not. And the prophecy comes true. After years of marriage and infertility, the couple have their baby boy!

They’re all as happy as they can be. Until the boy dies. His mother lays his body on the guest bed, calls for a servant, saddles a donkey, and sets out for the prophet’s home. When she gets there, she tells him what has happened to her son, and the man goes back with her.

Elisha enters the dreary room, kneels at the bedside and prays. He then lies down on the boy—mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand. Life comes back into the boy, but he’s still in a coma. The prophets paces the room for a few minutes, and drapes himself over the boy again. And this time, the boy wakes up, sneezes seven times, and is returned to his mother--alive and well.

If the story sounds familiar to you, it should, because I told it to you about six weeks ago! But I tell it again because this is the woman who is in today’s story, and the story on which our new story turns. If I’ve tangled up my words, I’ll try to comb them out as we go.

Now, for today’s story.

There once was a prophet in Israel whose name was Elisha. One day he came to his lady friend with some bad news: There’s going to be a famine in Israel and it’s going to be whopper! Seven years it will last, and if you and your family want to survive it, you’d better leave the country as soon as possible.

She believes the prophet, gathers up her son, their servants, and everything they can cart off, and travels down to Philistia where they stay for the whole time. When the famine ends, she heads home only to find: someone has taken her property and won’t get off it! She goes to Samaria to appeal her case to the king.

In the meantime, the king is entertaining a guest, a man called Gehazi, who is also Elisha’s servant. The king likes a good story, and nobody has more of them than Gehazi. He tells the king about the axe head that floated, about the widow’s oil, about the cleansing of the leper, about the poison stew made good, and the twenty biscuits that fed a hundred preachers!

The king is spellbound by the stories, but Gehazi’s got one more--and it tops them all! What happened? What happened? the king wants to know.

Well, there was this woman who a child. When the boy died, the mother came to Elisha, begging for help. He went back to her home, and—believe it or not—he raised the boy from the dead!

As he’s telling the story, a woman and her son walk in, and want to see the king about getting their property back. When Gehazi turns to see who’s interrupting his story, his eyes pop out—

This is the story whose big idea is not hard to find. Before we get to that however, some smaller points should be made.

The king’s part in the story offers a stern warning. In the words of Paul, here it is: Not the hearers of the Law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.

He wasn’t alone. Ezekiel the prophet had a regular meeting with the Elders of Israel. He preached at the meetings and had a warm reception. Everyone listened with rapt attention, they nodded their head, and said ‘amen’. When the sermon was over, the preacher was profusely thanked for his efforts and praised to the high heavens.

No preacher ever had a better congregation than Ezekiel. Except for one thing: they didn’t do a thing he said!

They listened to them the way you listen to music—for enjoyment, and not for repentance. If this was not bad enough, there was another Preacher who got a warm welcome, and nothing more.

The Preacher was our Lord Jesus Christ. There was a man in Israel who had heard of Him, but had never met Him. When he did, he was exceedingly glad; because he had desired for a long time to see Him.

The man was King Herod, one of the signers of His death warrant.

The Word of God was not given to be merely read or discussed, taught or preached. It was given to be obeyed. Until we are doers of the Word—and not hearers only—we are deceiving ourselves.

Let us, therefore, love doctrine with all of our hearts. And discipleship even more.

Elisha’s part in the story underlines his thoughtfulness and personal loyalty. The woman and her husband had helped him years before, and when she and her son now needed his help, he repaid her kindness. He wasn’t too busy to think about her, or too important.

Neglect, for the most part, is not a willful sin, but it’s a sin nonetheless. Our lives are busy and we forget to pray for our friends; they move away and we don’t stay in touch. Maybe we make new friends and overlook the old ones. This cannot be pleasing to the Lord because it violates the Golden Rule, for one thing, and is totally unChristlike and unGodlike.

Even on the cross, our Lord remembered His loved ones and did what He could to help them. With His death, His mother had no one to take care of her. Near death, He remembered her and committed her to John’s care.

As for God the Father? What if He forgot us? What if He forgot you? What if He only stayed in touch with you when you stayed in touch with Him? Where we would be if the Lord was no more loyal to us than we are to our friends?

When I think of the saddest verses in the Bible, it’s not long before II Timothy 4:16 comes to mind,

How many sinners had Paul won to Christ? How many Christians had he nourished in the Lord and mentored in ministry? He was everything to his people—mother, father, brother, friend, example, teacher, breadwinner. But when he needed someone, nobody was there for him. He stood before Caesar alone. With no one to vouch for his character.

The fact that he didn’t hold it against them makes their disloyalty even worse.

The Body of Christ will not grow in love until the members grow in loyalty to each other, until we commit ourselves to one another, even when it’s easier not to. That’s a lesson to learn from the life of Elisha.

The third main character is Elisha’s friend, the dear lady whose name we don’t know, other than ‘the Shunammite’. In her, we see

The blessing of obedience. She survived the famine because she obeyed the Word of God. When Elisha told her to leave Israel, she left, without hesitation, without quarrelling, and without making him answer all her questions. The measure of our obedience is not the whys and wherefores of His Word, but simply what He has said.

Apply this to yourself. Family life is always complicated. But what part of ‘love your wife’ is unclear to you? What part of ‘respect your husband’ needs explaining? What could be clearer than, ‘Obey your parents’ or ‘Do not provoke your children to wrath’? Of course they have to be applied with wisdom, and no two families will do them in exactly the same way. But, still, the commands are clear. To anyone who wants to obey them.

There’s one other man in the story, and that’s Gehazi. The man has a checkered past, to say the least. He started off as Elisha’s assistant, and may well have been the man he was grooming to take his place. But then, like Judas, he got too fond of money. After Elisha turned down Naaman’s rich gifts, Gehazi sneaked off to get them for himself. He got them, all right, but he got the man’s leprosy as well.

This means he was excluded from the community, and sure had no access to the king. But here he is the palace spinning tales for his Royal Highness.

Some think the story is out of order, and that’s possible, I suppose. But it seems more likely to me that Gehazi had repented of his sin and been healed. If this is true, then a useful lesson follows:

Our sins, when repented of, do not exclude us from the Lord’s service. Oh, a man may lose an office in the church because of some grave misdeed, but even he, when he repents, is still usable to God. I think of David and Peter who ruined themselves with sin. But were not ruined.

This means: The Lord can use you. Even if you’ve let Him down a million times. And, not only can He use you, but He wants to. Guilt has a job to do, but it’s only one job: To bring you to repentance. Many give it a second job: to paralyze you with fear and regret. This is the devil’s assignment, and not the Lord’s.

He said to Peter—and to you and me, too, I have prayed for you that your faith fail not, but when you are restored, strengthen the brethren.

As true and useful as these lessons are, they don’t capture the big idea of our story. For the story is not about Elisha or the king, Gehazi or the woman. The story is about God’s Love for saints and sinners.

The woman is the saint in our story. She feared the Lord and served His prophet. When she’s in need, the Lord remembers her. If she gives the prophet a cup of cold water in the Lord’s Name, she doesn’t lose her reward. She wasn’t loved by God because she was a saint, but the other way around: She was a saint because God loved her.

The king is the sinner in our story. He is Jehoram, the wicked son of Ahab and Jezebel, the wickedest couple who ever ruled a nation. The king was a stubborn sinner, sticking to his idols even as they betrayed them. And, though the Lord kept calling him by His Word and Providence, the king kept pushing Him away. The man was ripe for judgment.

But the Lord does not judge him! A bit later, He does, but for now, He keeps on pleading with him to repent. Hearing of the miracles Elisha performed in God’s name, should have brought him to faith, but it didn’t. And so the Lord showed Him His wonder-working power and grace! The boy was living proof that the Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God!

What can we say of God’s love? The Infinite, Eternal, and Unchanging Lord pleading with men to repent? If a snail crawled up your tomato vine, how much time would you spend pleading with it to turn from its evil ways and eat weeds only? I’d crush it as soon as I saw it.

Sinners are the snails munching away on God’s patience. But instead of stepping on us, He pleads with us to repent and promises rich mercy to everyone who does.

He’s not shaking His fist at sinners but opening His arms, so that they will see His love, and come to His love.

The love He showed the king of Israel takes a direct line to Mount Calvary, where He showed His love to the world by sacrificing His Son for our salvation. Herein is love, not that we loved Him, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, and not our sins only, but for the sins of the world.

The Love that came to a point at the cross, has fanned out. Wherever the Gospel is preached worldwide, the love of God calls sinners and offers pardon, renewal, and heaven to everyone who will take them by faith.

So why don’t you take them as the king of Israel did not? He didn’t, but you can. And you must. And you must do it now. For there’s no other time but now. Come to Love.