What is the story of Elisha and the Shunammite woman?

A great woman at Shunem bestowed hospitality on Elisha, and provided a chamber for his use whenever he passed that way. For this she was rewarded with a son; but when grown old enough to go into the fields he died. The woman laid him on Elisha's bed, and hastened to inform him of what had happened, but piously added 'It is well.' Elisha returned with the woman, and the child was raised to life and restored to his mother. Thus was manifested the power of God over death and a broken heart was bound up.

We have seen in the multiplying of the widow's oil the grace of God coming into circumstances where there was great failure and need in Israel. Now in this section the woman of Shunem is a beautiful example of the fact that there was still in Israel a remnant characterised by genuine faith. When Elisha came to Shunem this notable woman invited him to a meal in her home (v.8), so that her hospitality encouraged him to stop there whenever he passed that way.

But if the prophet of Abel-Meholah, like an apostle of later days, be destitute of silver and gold; and if the Shunammite cares not for what Elisha's temporary favour with the king might have procured her, he has interest at another court, and she refuses not what the prophet promises on behalf of that "God who quickeneth the dead, and calleth things which be not as though they were." She is childless, and her husband is old; but the prophet assures her that at the set time she shall embrace a son. The promise thus given, God fulfils; and a child, direct from His hand, crowns the faith which had already produced such lovely fruits. What that child must have been to the Shunammite. With what inexpressible tenderness must she have nursed him in infancy, and watched the unfolding of his faculties, as from infancy he passed to boyhood, and from that to youth. The mother only that loves the Lord, and nurses and brings up her offspring for Him, can form the least idea, and even hers must be but faint, of what that mother's feelings were; the deep throbbings of her heart, as she looks onward to the future in connection with the prospects of her child; and the calm but deeper joy which must have often pervaded and filled her heart, while encouraged by the occasion and circumstances of his birth, she trusted in God that that future was charged with blessing. But she had to learn the lesson already referred to, as the great moral of the history; and well will it be for us, if God's record of His dealings with her should be used of Him to aid us in learning that lesson too.

Elisha, however, has other resources to draw upon than the kings and captains of this world. He is in touch with higher powers and heavenly courts. He can draw upon the mighty power of God "who quickens the dead." Blessing from this heavenly source the woman will not refuse, though, at the moment, what Elisha proposes, seems almost beyond her faith. However, in due time, she learns like the wife of Abraham, in a day that was past, and the wife of Zacharias, in a day yet to come, that God can quicken the dead, and that what He has promised He is able to perform. So it comes to pass; in due season, she embraces a son.

There is, however, another and a deeper lesson she has to learn. Through experience, trying indeed to the flesh, she will discover that the life-giving God is also the God of resurrection. Had not Abraham to learn this lesson on Mount Moriah? And have we not also to learn that God is not only the Quickener who gives life, He is also the God of resurrection that can give back life when death has shown its power? To learn this lesson, Abraham, in his day, had to bind Isaac to the altar on Mount Moriah, and the woman must face the death of her beloved child. So it came to pass when the child was grown, there came a day when he was stricken down in the field and was carried to the mother to die in her arms.

"So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite! Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, [Is it] well with thee? well with thy husband? well with the child? And she answered, Well. And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet; but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her; and Jehovah hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. Then she said, Did I desire a son of my Lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me? Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way; if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, As Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose and followed her" (2 Kings 4:25-30). It is evident that the deep exercises of her heart found no expression in her outward demeanour. Faith and spiritual discernment had drawn her to the prophet, and to no one else would she make known her sorrow. It would have been waste of time. Her behaviour under this deep trial was beautiful. Like another, she could say, "Surely I have behaved and quieted myself like a weaned child." This is the first manifested result of having to do with God. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:6-7). The trial may not yet be removed, but the heart is satisfied, and it is only a question of waiting His time. "Thou wilt keep [him in] perfect peace, [whose] mind is stayed [on thee], because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in Jehovah for ever: for in Jehovah is everlasting strength" (Isa. 26:3-4). Faith gets the victory and blesses God for it, but the soul thus blessed does not spread before others the secret exercises of the heart. These are before God in the sanctuary.

"It is well" might suffice for first her husband and then Gehazi. But to the man of God she reveals the depth of her sorrow, yet in such a way as made it evident that she had grown wonderfully since the promise had been given. She reminds him that she had not desired the son now lying dead in the prophet's room. Was not this equivalent to setting up a claim upon the living God that He should give her back her son in resurrection? Faith is bold and God delights in encouraging and satisfying the faith which honours Him. The unbelieving and the unspiritual are left far behind here and faith gains its end. Even Elisha finds himself at fault, although his ignorance of what had actually happened was used in the wisdom of God to complete the test that so she might be shut up to God Himself. Her knowledge of the ways of God, learnt under Elisha's ministry, forbade her expecting any good results from the prophet's staff in the hands of his servant. This was to be classed with the "new moons and sabbaths" her husband spoke of, and which, through human interference with divine institutions, had been deprived of their value. In point of fact there was nothing real in Israel now. The emblem of power in the hands of a hireling could accomplish nothing. She was not to be put off with such. A very definite need was pressing upon her heart which God alone could meet. Her strong faith did not prevent her from feeling deeply the weight of the trial. Words and actions alike gave expression to it. Did I desire a son of my lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me?" Her faith was indeed sorely tried, but the end was near. The divine Husbandman was purging this promising branch and pruning the tender plant with infinite skill and patience. Only what is of God will stand such searching tests. The dross is consumed, the gold abides. Human workmanship is destroyed, for "the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is."

What a scene ensues! There had been enough already to make even Elisha feel. that it was no ordinary case, and that through it God was dealing with him as well as with the Shunammite. That it should have been hid entirely from him, that Gehazi's journey with the staff (undertaken at, the prophet's instance), should have proved entirely unavailing, was enough to awaken the enquiry in the soul of the prophet whether God would teach him, too, that the power was not in Him, but in God Himself. But even if Elisha had to learn this lesson more deeply than he had as yet learned, it was not that his faith in God might be shaken or weakened, but tried and strengthened. Tried it was, but not shaken. "When Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed." The mother's faith had placed the dead body there. "He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord." The prophet, a dead corpse, and the living God, the Quickener of the dead! "And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child." So completely does he identify himself with the one for whom he intercedes; it is as though he would tell God that if the child were not restored to life he could only lie there with him in death. What faith! what holy boldness! Nor is it left without encouragement. "The flesh of the child waxed warm." There were some signs of returning vitality to strengthen the prophet's faith and encourage him to persevere. "Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him." What is all this the witness of, but of that agony of prayer, that energy of faith, of which - alas! in our day and in our poor souls - we know so little? But "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." "The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes." Prayer was heard; faith was crowned. God showed Himself once more to be in very truth the God of resurrection. And when the mother came in to the prophet into the chamber he said, "Take up thy son. Then she went in, and fell at his feet. [her heart too full to utter a single word], and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out."

Elisha prophesied that there would be a seven years' famine, and he told the Shunammite woman to sojourn where she could during the time. She dwelt among the Philistines seven years, and on her return she cried to the king for the restoration of her house and land. God so ordered it that just at that time Gehazi was relating to the king the great things that Elisha had done. He recognised the woman as the one whose son Elisha had raised, and the king ordered the restoration of her property.

This woman of Shunem must have been widowed 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, but her property had evidently been appropriated by the government, so that she went to appeal to the king for her property.

However, as Gehazi was telling the king about the miracle by which Elisha restored the son of the woman of Shunem to life, the woman herself appeared. Gehazi then told the king that this was the woman of whom he spoke (v.5). Of course the king asked the woman about it and she confirmed the truth of that incident. It was the Lord Who had ordered things in this way, thus having such effect upon the king that he willingly commanded that all the woman's property should be restored to her as well as all the proceeds of the land for the seven years she had been absent.

1908 98 11. By the word of prophecy God kept alive in the hearts of His people the hope of Messiah's coming. His mercy was indeed the only resource. They had corrupted themselves in the very blessings they had received from God, and the hope of the faithful. lay in the salvation to be brought in by the Eternal Blesser of His people, to whom all prophecy pointed. It was not indeed that the child promised and given to this daughter of Sarah was himself a type of the Messiah long promised to Israel, but his remarkable birth, death and restoration to life, taken in connection with the mother's subsequent loss of, and reinstatement in, house and land (2 Kings 8:1-6), form a chain of circumstances full of interest, and, at least, suggestive of Israel's future restoration to their inheritance, when they shall in deep repentance and genuine faith appropriate the Christ whom they rejected and crucified. "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of [his] government and peace [there shall be] no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth, even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this" (Isa. 9:7). This will be the divine way of re-establishing His people in the inheritance from which, by reason of sin, they have 1 long been exiled. Here, if not a personal type of Christ we surely have a very instructive one of Israel, "of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came" — the mother widowed and exiled amongst the Gentiles, awakened by God's Spirit to a sense of her proper relationship to Him whom she once despised 'and rejected. In her case there was no expression of unbelief, only the very natural difficulty she experienced in understanding how the promise of the man of God could be realised. "Nay, my lord, man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid" (1 Kings 4:16), just gave expression to this difficulty. It was not unbelief, although very near it.