And Elisha had spoken to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, Rise up and go, thou and thy household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn; for Jehovah has called for a famine, and it shall also come upon the land for seven years.
Elisha once raised this woman's son from the dead. Now he tells her to leave the land before famine strikes it — which raises two questions: who sends a famine, and why does the warning come to her?
The word "called" makes the famine an appointment, not an accident. It falls on a nation that had already forgotten both a terrible siege and the mercy that ended it.
The siege of Samaria with all its horrors, and the grace of God in all its fullness, were soon forgotten. Neither the misery they endured nor the mercy they received turned the nation to the Lord their God. Still, God does not abandon His people. He still acts on their behalf, even though it may be in the way of chastening because of their evil. So we find Elisha saying, "The Lord has called for a famine." The Lord reveals to the prophet not only that a famine is coming, but that He Himself sends it.
Commentators separate this famine from the shortage in the chapter before. That earlier one struck a single city while an enemy army surrounded it.
The previous chapter and this one mention two famines. The first, at Samaria, was local and partial; it was a judgment of God, but the enemy served Him as the instrument to produce it. The second, which now occupies us, was far more severe — a direct judgment of God reaching the whole land of Israel.
Elisha announces the disaster, but he is not its cause. His one recorded action here is to get a widow out of harm's way.
What was he going to do? Inflict a famine on the land? No. We do not hear that he prayed for it. But we do hear that he warned this Shunammite, so that the bitter results of the famine would not reach her. It was an intervention of grace, not an execution of judgment. She did as the man of God said. She went with her household and lived in the land of the Philistines for seven years. When the full time of famine had passed, she returned.
Kindness runs both ways in her story. She once made room in her home for a travelling prophet; now he brings her the one piece of news that can save her household.
If the Lord calls for a famine because of the low condition of the nation, He will also provide for the godly during the time of famine... This godly woman had cared for the prophet in good days. Now, in days of trouble, the prophet warns and instructs her.
The ESV's "had said" puts this warning before the events of the chapter just told. And her move was not simply a sensible reading of hard times.
This happened earlier than the events recorded in the previous chapter. Whenever it was, the Shunammite left the land of Israel by God's command, given through Elisha... Such was the Lord's care for this godly Shunammite that He sent her away beforehand. Is it not good to have to do with God? The emigration of this family was on an altogether different principle from that of Elimelech and Naomi (Ruth 1). Their move was just a matter of human convenience, and great sorrow was the result.
Elisha names no country for her to go to. He names only the land she must leave — Canaan, her own home.
"Rise up," says the prophet to the Shunammite, "and go, you and your household, and sojourn wherever you can." This woman's joy was to live among her own people. Now she must leave her goods and her inheritance behind. She must flee before the judgment about to fall, and take the first shelter she finds. A complete cycle, a week of years, was assigned to her as a time of refuge among strangers... She must sojourn where she could, the only condition being that it not be in Canaan.
Elisha tells her to take her household with her. Older translations read "you and your household," and several writers take that wording as a sign that her husband had died since chapter 4. The prophet would have spoken to a living husband instead.
During her husband's lifetime the prophet could never have said to her, "you and your household." She had lost her protector. She must leave goods that were once large, and these pass into the hands of strangers. Poor now, she leaves, and the Lord will feed her in whatever refuge she can reach.
Elisha gives the length of the famine in advance. That number is a comfort, not a threat.
God reveals to Elisha that if He chastens His people, He also sets a limit to the trial. The famine in Israel will come upon the land for seven years. It is no different today in the history of the Church, or of each believer. Of the church in Smyrna we read, "you will have tribulation," but it lasts only "ten days." So too, if one of God's people must pass through many trials, they will last only "for a season" (1 Peter 1:6).
Writers trace a progression in what this woman learns of God's grace.
The Shunammite woman is a picture of the godly remnant of Israel. She had learned the grace of God in giving new life (ch. 4:17), and further in resurrection power (ch. 4:32-37). Now she is to learn His grace in sustaining her in a time of famine and in restoring all her possessions... This reminds us of the seven-year tribulation that is coming, above all on Israel, though it will affect the whole world.
- Called. The famine is not chance or bad weather; the Lord calls for it, and He tells His prophet first.
- Warned. Elisha's part is not to bring the judgment but to get one household clear of it — grace moving ahead of trouble.
- Sent. She leaves by God's word, not by her own calculation, which is what separates her move from Elimelech's in Ruth 1.
- Measured. God names the seven years in advance. He sets a limit to the trials of His people, and that limit holds.
- Restored. What she gives up is not lost. God's grace restores all her possessions — a picture of Israel receiving back what was taken away.
And the woman rose up, and did according to the saying of the man of God, and went, she and her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.
Elisha warns the woman of Shunem, whose son he had raised from the dead, to leave home before a seven-year famine comes. She goes at once, and writers read her move as obedience to a word from God, not flight from hunger.
Her leaving began with a message, not with hunger. One writer sets her beside Elimelech and Naomi, another family who left the land:
The departure of the Shunammite from the land of Israel took place by divine command through Elisha. A time of trouble was approaching, and "the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7). Such was the Lord's care for the godly Shunammite that He sent her away beforehand. Is it not good to have to do with God? The emigration of this family was therefore on an altogether different principle from that of Elimelech and Naomi (Ruth 1). Their move was just a matter of human expediency, and great sorrow was the result. The true line for us all is shown in our Lord's words in Matthew 4:4, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."
Elisha announced the famine, but he did not cause it. He warned one woman, so her household would escape what the nation was about to feel.
What was he going to do? Inflict a famine on the land? No. We do not read that he prayed for it, but we do read that he warned this Shunammite, so that she would be preserved from the bitter consequences of the famine. It was a work of grace, not an execution of judgment.
She had helped the prophet when she had plenty. Now the help runs the other way.
We learn that if the Lord calls for a famine because of the low condition of the nation, He will also provide for the godly during the time of famine. So once more we see the grace of God to the Shunammite. This godly woman, who had cared for the prophet in days of prosperity, is now warned and instructed by the prophet in days of adversity.
Obedience meant walking away from everything she owned. One writer notes that her husband is no longer mentioned, and that the prophet includes her whole household.
We can be sure that by this time the Shunammite was a widow. While her husband was alive the prophet could never have said to her, "you and your household." She had lost her protector. She must leave her goods, once considerable, and strangers take them. Reduced to want, she goes off to be fed by the Lord in whatever refuge she can reach. But she takes with her the son whom the prophet had raised from the dead.
The verse names where she went but not why. One writer answers: she was not sent to a chosen place, only out of a condemned one.
This woman, whose joy was to live among her own people, must leave her goods and her inheritance and flee before a coming judgment. She had to accept the first shelter that offered itself. It was not for her to remain, like Abraham, in Canaan during the famine, nor, like Isaac, to make a short stay in Philistia... No, she must live wherever she could, the only condition being that it not be in Canaan.
The famine had a fixed length, and one writer takes that limit as a rule of how God deals with His own.
Notice that the trouble was limited — "seven years." He who sits on the throne will never let the reins of government be seized by the enemy. His controlling hand measures everything that must fall on His own, and the enemy is powerless to go beyond that measure. So the sufferings of the elect during the great tribulation are for 1260 days (Rev. 12:6), and Satan could not make it 1261 however much he wished.
One writer reads her whole story as a picture of something larger.
The Shunammite woman is a picture of the godly remnant of Israel. She had learned the grace of God in giving new life (ch. 4:17), and further in resurrection power (ch. 4:32-37). Now she is to learn His grace in sustaining her in a time of famine and in restoring all her possessions.
- Word first. She moved because God spoke, not because food ran out. That set her apart from Elimelech.
- Warning is grace. The warning was not judgment falling on her. It was mercy, reaching her before the famine came.
- Obedience costs. She left her goods and inheritance to strangers, and kept only her household and her risen son.
- Trials are measured. "Seven years" was a fixed limit; no enemy can stretch what God has measured for His own.
- Restoration follows. God gave back all her possessions — a picture, one writer says, of His grace to the godly remnant of Israel.
And it came to pass at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines; and she went forth to cry to the king for her house and for her land.
God had told this woman to leave home before a seven-year famine struck. The seven years are now over, and she returns to find her house and fields gone. She has no one to appeal to but the king of Israel.
The famine had an end from the start. Writers read the fixed seven years as a mercy in itself, and draw the same lesson for God's people now.
Further, God reveals to Elisha that if He chastens His people, He also sets a limit to the trial. The famine in Israel will come upon the land for seven years. It is no different today in the history of the Church, or in the lives of individual believers. Of the Church in Smyrna we read, "you will have tribulation," but it lasts only "ten days." So too, God's people may each need to pass through many trials. But those trials will last only "for a little while" (1 Peter 1:6).
Why did a woman who owned land have to beg? One writer explains why she stood alone, and what had become of her fields.
This woman of Shunem must have been a widow by the time Elisha spoke to her, for he told her to take her household. If her husband had been living, Elisha would have addressed him. She took her household and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years. At the end of that time she returned. The government had evidently taken over her property, so she went to appeal to the king for it.
Her plea to the king was a small one. One writer sets it against the life she had before the famine took her from it.
Her circumstances are changed from what they once were. This loved and honoured woman has apparently become a widow; her little child, the gift of God to this daughter of Sarah, has grown up. But the famine has separated them from their home and their fields in the land of Issachar. And she had once loved her mercies there. She "lived among her own people." She did not value the court or its patronage then. She does not seek it now either, except to have back the same simple life of her home among her own people.
One writer will not settle what was in Gehazi's heart. He is clear, though, about who stood behind the timing.
It may be, however, that grace was at work in Gehazi's heart. It may have turned his thoughts from the earthly riches he had gained to the spiritual blessings he had lost. Either way, he certainly becomes a witness before the king to the grace of God, seen in the "great things that Elisha had done." Moreover, the Lord uses Gehazi to restore house and lands to the Shunammite, just as He had used Elisha to warn her to leave them. While Gehazi is telling his memories of serving Elisha, the woman and her son — who had a part in the greatest of those great things — appear before the king. The Lord uses this strange coincidence to restore the Shunammite's possessions.
One writer reads her return as the shape of Israel's own story.
The full term of famine has passed over the land once favoured of God, but now given up to the miserable curse. And she has all restored to her, and the fruits of the field. She does not merely get her land back intact. Everything she should have had during those long seven years is given back too, for the Lord will repay with interest all that is due to Israel.
Her claim succeeded because of her son — a son once dead and now alive. That is what makes the picture point to Christ.
When the Shunammite came back from her seven years in exile, she asked the king to restore her house and land. She got it through her son: the story of how he was raised to life had greatly interested the king. So she is a picture of Israel, away from the land during the present dearth, but yet to possess all things again in virtue of the dead and risen Christ.
- Measured — The famine ran seven years, no longer. God sets a limit to the trial He sends, and here the limit runs out.
- Emptied — She comes home a widow, and the government now holds her house and field. Obeying God's word had cost her everything she could see.
- Simple — She asks for her own home among her own people, not a place at court. She had no use for royal patronage before, and none now.
- Timed — She reaches the king just as Gehazi tells her son's story. The Lord uses even Gehazi to hand back what Elisha had told her to leave.
- Restored — She gets the land back, plus every year's income she lost. Writers read this as Israel's future return: repaid with interest, and won through the risen Son.
And the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha has done.
A woman returns from seven years abroad to ask the king for her house and land back. At that very moment he is asking Elisha's old servant for stories about the prophet, and God is at work behind the small talk.
The king's request sounds promising. But interest in God's works is not the same as being right with God.
The day comes when Jehoram takes an interest in the miracles of Elisha. His conscience is in no way engaged. He had proven this beyond measure throughout his whole career. Yet one may be very far from God while still showing an interest in Him — in Him personally, and in His work. This is even a prominent feature of the last times. Never have people looked into miracles and into the Word of God more than in our days.
What he wanted was a pleasant hour, not a message.
He was not looking for divine instruction from this former servant of the Lord. He wanted entertainment. Many in Christendom today are the same. They would refuse a plain talk about the realities of eternity, but they have no objection to discussing preachers and what they do. Suppose Jehoram had asked for such talk from John the Baptist or from the apostle Paul. He would have heard words about "righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment" that would have made him shake in his shoes.
The storyteller is Gehazi, Elisha's former servant, now a leper.
The king is talking with Gehazi, who is identified as the servant of the man of God. His circumstances also appear to have changed. Years ago he had coveted "orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants." Now his possessions have carried him up the social ladder, until he has become the friend and companion of royalty. The king would gladly pass an hour hearing of the "great things" that Elisha had done. Gehazi keeps company with the great men of the world. Yet if he wants to speak of "great things," he has to think back to other days, when he walked with the lowly man of God. The "great things" that Elisha did are only a recollection with Gehazi.
Gehazi's report is accurate. Something else is missing, and part of Elisha's record he must leave untold.
Some people, like Gehazi, prefer the advantages the world offers them. Others may still accept them as teachers of the things of God. They speak the truth, but they have no power to apply it to people's consciences. Their own conscience is bad, so they cannot reach the consciences of others. There were, no doubt, subjects a Gehazi would avoid. How could he speak of Naaman's healing when he himself was covered with leprosy?
The stories get told. Writers press the question the king never asked.
The king had asked him to tell all the great things that Elisha had done, and Gehazi tells the story of the woman's son restored to life. No doubt the king was pleased to know that he had such a remarkable man as Elisha in his kingdom. It also fed Gehazi's self-importance. But had these miracles no voice from God? Was not the guilt of Samaria increased ten times over by them? Should the king not have seen that these gracious displays of God's power were all calls to repentance? Where heart and conscience are at work, the goodness of God does indeed lead to repentance.
The woman from Shunem walks in just as Gehazi tells the story of her son raised to life. That is not luck. And the two men God uses could hardly be more different.
He certainly becomes a witness before the king to the grace of God, seen in the "great things that Elisha had done." What is more, the Lord uses Gehazi to give the Shunammite back her house and land. Earlier He had used Elisha to warn her to leave them. But how differently He uses these two men. Elisha serves as a close friend of the Lord, one who shares His confidence. Gehazi serves as the friend and close companion of a wicked king... The Lord uses this strange-looking coincidence to give the Shunammite her possessions back.
Her restoration points beyond herself.
This woman had known the grace of God. In the same way, God will bring the godly remnant of Israel back to the inheritance of their Land, on the ground of grace. They will receive, in overflowing blessing, all that they lost during their exile from the Land of their fathers.
- Curiosity. The king asks for "great things," but his conscience stays untouched. A person can find God's works interesting and still be far from God.
- Entertainment. He wants stories about a preacher, not a word about righteousness and coming judgment. That taste is still common.
- Memory. Gehazi can speak of "great things" only as past days with the man of God. His leprosy keeps part of the story shut.
- Powerlessness. He tells the truth, yet his own bad conscience leaves him unable to reach anyone else's.
- Providence. God uses even the king's curiosity and a disgraced servant's chatter. He times the woman's arrival, and she gets back all she lost.
And it came to pass as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.
The seven-year famine is over. The woman of Shunem comes home to find her property gone, and she walks into the throne room just as the king hears her own story. Two questions press: who is telling it, and who arranged the timing?
One writer compares this moment to the happy coincidences readers will know from their own lives:
Gehazi and the king were talking of the Shunammite, as the Shunammite came up to the place where they were. And how often have we occasion to notice similar happy coincidences! … And faith will recognise the mercy of such signs. They clear the road and straighten the crooked paths that lead to some desired blessing, as in this case before us. And faith will not complain that it is not always so. For faith says "It is well," whether providence helps us or crosses us.
The same God who sent the woman away through Elisha now brings her back through a very different man:
Gehazi certainly becomes a witness before the king of the grace of God seen in the "great things that Elisha had done." The Lord uses Gehazi to restore house and lands to the Shunammite. Before, He had used Elisha to warn her to leave them. But how different the way these two men are used. Elisha is used as someone in the intimacy of a friend with the Lord, enjoying the Lord's confidence. Gehazi is used as the friend and companion of a wicked king. Elisha speaks as one who understands the mind of the Lord. Gehazi speaks as circumstances and coincidences dictate.
Gehazi once served Elisha; now he entertains royalty with what he used to see:
Years ago he had coveted "olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male servants and female servants." Now, through his possessions, he has climbed the social ladder until he has become the associate and companion of royalty. … Gehazi is in the company of the great men of the world, but if he wants to speak of "great things" he has to go back in thought to other days when he kept company with the lowly man of God. The "great things" that Elisha did are only a memory to Gehazi.
Commentators differ over how to read him here. One writer, who takes the kinder view, leaves the question open:
I am aware that this introduction of Gehazi may not be favourable to him, in the judgment of some. They may think it is a sign that he is still a man of the world, and covetous. After all, he is here at the court, and apparently trusted by the king. It may be so.
She asks for what was hers before she left the land:
This woman of Shunem must have been widowed by the time Elisha spoke to her, because he told her to take her household. If her husband had been living, Elisha would have addressed him. She took her household and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years. At the end of that time she returned. Her property had evidently been taken over by the government, so she went to appeal to the king for it.
The king hears how Elisha raised a dead child, and asks nothing of himself:
No doubt it pleased the king to know that he had such a remarkable man as Elisha in his kingdom. It also fed Gehazi's self-importance. But had these miracles no voice from God? Was not the guilt of Samaria increased tenfold by them? Should the king not have understood that these gracious displays of the power of God were so many calls to repentance? Where there is exercise of heart and conscience, the goodness of God does indeed lead to repentance.
The outcome reaches far past one widow's title deeds:
She does not merely re-enter her land intact; all that she should have had during the long seven years is given back too. For the Lord will repay with interest all that is due to Israel. And what will He not count as due, when He is pleased to take up the cause of His ancient people?
The story she walked in on shows how such restoration comes:
God has from the beginning shown us that He alone has the power and the will to restore to man all that he has lost, and more too. … Israel will get it all back through the Son raised from the dead, and now alive again.
- Resurrection. The story being told at the throne is a raising from the dead. Resurrection is the ground on which God gives back all that man has lost, and more too.
- Coincidence. Faith sees the woman's arrival mid-sentence as mercy clearing the road to the blessing. Faith also says "It is well" when providence crosses us instead of helping.
- Instrument. God gave this home back through a man at a wicked king's court, not through a prophet. Elisha spoke from the mind of the Lord; Gehazi spoke as circumstances dictated.
- Cost. Gehazi climbed high enough to keep company with royalty. The great things of God are now only a memory to him.
- Full return. She gets back her land and every harvest of the seven lost years. That is what God counts as owed when He takes up His people's cause.
And the king asked the woman, and she told him. And the king appointed a certain chamberlain, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the revenue of the land since the day that she left the country even until now.
The famine years are over. The woman from Shunem comes back to claim the property she left behind. She reaches the king at the very moment Gehazi is telling him her own story. The king questions her, believes her, and gives back more than she asked for. Two questions follow: who arranged that timing, and why did the man telling her story have nothing left but a memory?
The verse never mentions God. Yet commentators call the timing deliberate: the right man talking to the king, on the right subject, at the right moment.
Gehazi was telling the king about the miracle by which Elisha restored the son of the woman of Shunem to life. Just then the woman herself appeared. Gehazi told the king that this was the woman he had been speaking of. The king asked her about it, and she confirmed that the account was true. It was the Lord Who had ordered things this way. The effect on the king was such that he willingly commanded all the woman's property to be given back to her.
The same Lord had earlier used Elisha to warn her out of the land. Now He used a disgraced servant to bring her back. But the two men served in very different ways.
Whatever was going on in Gehazi's heart, he certainly becomes a witness before the king to the grace of God seen in the great things Elisha had done. The Lord uses Gehazi to restore house and lands to the Shunammite, as before He had used Elisha to warn her to leave them. But how different the way He uses these two men. He uses Elisha as a close friend, one who shares the Lord's confidence. He uses Gehazi as the close friend of a wicked king. Elisha speaks as a man who understands the mind of the Lord. Gehazi speaks as circumstances and coincidences dictate.
She asked for her house and her land. The king gives more: he counts every harvest the fields produced while she was away as hers too.
She does not simply get her land back untouched. Everything she should have had during those long seven years is given back as well. The Lord will repay with interest all that is owed to Israel. And what will He not count as owed, when He chooses to take up the cause of His ancient people?
Gehazi tells the story accurately. But he is describing wonders he no longer has any part in, to a court that listens for entertainment.
God struck him because his heart clung to earth, even while Jehovah's mighty and patient testimony stood in front of him. He is now a hanger-on in the king's court, telling of wonderful things he no longer had any part in. This poor world grows tired enough of itself to take some pleasure in hearing about anything that has reality and power. As long as it does not reach the conscience, people will listen for their amusement... But to rise in the world, and entertain the world with the mighty works of God, is to fall very deeply.
The verdict is just. The woman gets her property back, and her own words confirm the miracle. Yet the story stops there.
She fully confirms Gehazi's account. The king orders her land to be given back to her, along with all its income during the years she had been away. We appreciate his fairness, but oh, we would like to see more. Is this all the impact Elisha's deeds have on him?
The same gap shows up today:
Many people today have heard of the great things that Jesus has done... They may even know people to whom He has given life, eternal life, and marvel at their changed lives... But that's as far as their interest goes. They know about Christ, but they do not know Him!
Writers see the woman's homecoming as a small model of something much bigger.
The misery of man's poverty lies behind many an Old Testament story in one way or another. From the beginning God has shown us that He alone has the power and the will to give man back all he has lost — and more... Israel will get all back through the Son raised from the dead, and now alive again.
- Restored by design. Her arrival mid-sentence looks like chance. It was the Lord arranging events, so that the king gladly ordered her property back.
- Restored through anyone. God used Elisha, His friend, to send her away — and Gehazi, a king's hanger-on, to bring her back. Usefulness is not the same as intimacy.
- Restored with interest. She asked for house and land; she received the seven years of harvest as well, because God repays more than was lost.
- Restored, but not converted. The king acted fairly and stopped there. Hearing the great things done is not the same as being changed by them.
- Restored in preview. One woman got everything back in a day. It is a small picture of God giving His people back all they have lost, and more.