Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): Today on Hope from the Word we confront one of the most difficult situations any parent could ever face: the loss of a child. But even in the darkest of moments, God has not forgotten you.

Barney 517 said, during our lifetime we travel many roads. There are dirt roads and improved roads, bumpy roads and highways. It may sound silly, but there's a lot of truth to that. Have you ever found yourself on one of life's bumpy roads in such a dire circumstance that you thought even God couldn't help?

We've all faced serious problems like financial losses or illness, but rest assured there's nothing too big for God to handle. Today on Hope from the Word, Pastor Bill Luebkemann will share an excellent example of the benefit of relying on God and trusting His promises. Here's Bill Luebkemann with today's study in 2nd Kings chapter 4.

Bill Luebkemann: We're going to be in 2nd Kings chapter 4 tonight, so if you want to turn there. It's interesting that this actually seems like a fulfillment of something Jesus said even before He said it. Jesus said in Matthew 10:41, "Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward." It certainly seems like that's the case with this Shunammite woman.

One day Elisha—we're in 2nd Kings chapter 4 verse 8, which is where we left off from last week—went to Shunem. A well-to-do woman was there who urged him to stay for a meal. Whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. She said to her husband, "I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. Let's make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us."

Elisha was traveling past this town of Shunem, which is in the land of Issachar. It was apparently a place that he passed through quite often, as we're going to see as we go through this book. He passed that way frequently. One can only imagine that he was known in this town because, as a passerby, perhaps he stayed in the local inn there or with whoever he could stay with. It doesn't seem like he had any regular place to stay.

Perhaps it was a good spot to spend the night, sort of like when you're driving to Indiana and Pittsburgh might be a good place to stop and spend the night if you don't want to drive all the way through. This woman was there, and she was a well-to-do woman. Apparently, she and her husband had some kind of financial means, and she decided to invite him in for a meal. She urged him to stay. We see in verse 9 that she knew he was a man of God.

This guy was passing through the area, minding his own business. One can only imagine that Elisha was an unassuming guy. I don't think he was like the well-known televangelists today, traveling around in a motorcade with a fancy car, staying in a four-star hotel, or requiring a private airplane with the congregation he's visiting pre-paying him for a tank of gas. One can only assume that he was an unassuming guy, staying wherever there was to stay, and perhaps even reluctant to take these people up on this offer.

But they were well-to-do; they had the means to share. This woman observed that here was this man of God passing through town on God's business, and she wanted to offer some hospitality to him. It was a good thing that she did that. God liked that. You're going to see the Lord rewarded her for it. She went to her husband. This was not some affair that she was having with this guy. There was no hanky-panky going on here.

Some skeptics could say, "What's going on here?" But look, she didn't do this behind her husband's back. She went to her husband and said, "I know this guy's a holy man of God. I know who he is. He passes by this way." Maybe she knew some of the things he was doing. Maybe she knew who Elijah was and some of the things that Elijah had done before Elisha's time. They had had him in for a meal or two.

She said, "Look, we have the room, we have the money, we have a guest room here. We don't have any kids, as you're going to see as we continue through this story here. Let's set up a little space for him. Nothing fancy here." You see some people engaged in so-called ministries today who travel around and have to have fancy accommodations. This was nothing fancy. This was a bed so he could sleep at night, a table for him to put his stuff on, a chair for him to sit down, and a lamp or a candlestick so he could see what he was doing.

It was just the very simple necessities for a room that he could stay in. It was a place that he knew he could bed down in that was going to be clean. Some innkeeper in a dirty inn wasn't going to try to take advantage of him or steal his stuff. He wasn't going to have to worry about it. He's going to have a safe, clean, quiet place where he could do his work, do his reading, pray, study the scriptures, and seek the Lord. She proposed to her husband that they set up this little room for him to use whenever he came through the area.

In verse 11, it jumps ahead quite a bit. Obviously, her husband must have liked the idea. She set up the room. They told Elisha this. You can only imagine Elisha probably said, "No, you don't have to put yourself out for me." One can only imagine that she insisted. "No, we want to do this. We have the means. Don't deny us this ability to bless you in the Lord and to do this for you." It was nothing fancy, just simple, basic accommodations.

He accepted the offer, and he was staying there from time to time. After some period of time went by—who knows how long, maybe a year or a few months—he was using this room for accommodations as he passed through the area. One day, Elisha came, went up to his room, and lay down there. He said to his servant Gehazi, "Call the Shunammite." So he called her, and she stood before him. Elisha said to him, "Tell her, 'You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?'"

She replied, "I have a home among my own people." Some period of time went by, and Elisha was there one day thinking to himself—or maybe the Lord put this on his heart—that he would like to repay this woman. She's been nothing but generous. They didn't have these kinds of accommodations anywhere else they went. Maybe they looked forward to traveling down this road and passing through this town because they knew they could get a good night's rest, have a home-cooked meal, and have some fellowship with other people who believed in the Lord.

This may have been the high point of their journey as they were passing through the area. He got to thinking about how they could help her, repay the favor. He said to his servant to call her up there and ask her, "You've done all this for us, what can we do for you? Can we call in some favors for you? We know the king, we know the commander of the army. What do you need? Tell us what you need. Let us pull some strings, do you a favor, help you out in some way. We want to repay this favor that you've done for us with gratitude."

She replied that she had a home among her own people. In other words, she had everything she needed. She wasn't lacking anything. She had enough to share. She had some kind of estate. We see later on that her husband was out in the field. They had fields where they grew crops of some sort. They had a house big enough for a guest. She wasn't lacking anything. She was fulfilled, happy, and complete. She couldn't think of anything she wanted.

In spite of the fact that they're offering, she cannot think of anything that she wants. Elisha asked his servant what could be done for her. It's kind of like at Christmas time when you don't know what to get somebody. You ask them what they want for Christmas. My wife says, "What do you want for Christmas?" I don't know. "What do you want?" I don't know. We go back and forth. I have everything I need; I don't need anything else.

Actually, my wife always manages to come up with a list of what she wants, but I never manage to come up with anything that I want. So you ask other people, or the relatives call. "What should we get Bill for Christmas? What should we get the kids for Christmas?" That's what happens here. Elisha asked Gehazi, his servant, "What can we do for her? She doesn't know of anything. You think of something."

Gehazi said, "Well, she has no son, and her husband is old." Now here you can see the Lord working through him as well. He hit the nail on the head. Gehazi said she had no son and her husband was old. She was barren. In this day and age, it was really considered to be bad news to be barren. It was kind of stigmatized. We saw they were of some means, sufficient means to have a place to put them up for the night and to share their resources with them.

They had sufficient means to have their own fields where they were growing their own crops, but they had no son to pass their estate onto. When they died, who was going to inherit what they had there? They had some kind of estate worth something, but no one to leave it to. They're getting on in years. She's barren and carrying this stigma of not having any children. Gehazi hit the nail right on the head. Her chances of having a son now were waning, if not gone. It doesn't happen when you get to be this age.

Then Elisha said to call her. I guess she must have left, and they were having this conversation without her. Elisha said, "Call her." So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. Elisha said, "About this time next year, you're going to be holding a son in your arms." She objected, "No, my lord. Don't mislead your servant, oh man of God." But the woman became pregnant, and the next year, about that same time, she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

Elisha knew what they were going to do for her, and he must have sensed that this was what God wanted to do to bless her—give her a son. He prayed. He didn't just go out on a limb and do this himself; he had to know that this was what the Lord wanted. He tells her that this time next year, she's going to be holding a son in her arms. At first, she doesn't know if this is some kind of a cruel joke.

After all she had done for him—putting him in her house, feeding him meals—she wonders if he has to treat her this way by giving her this cruel joke and getting her hopes up high. She wonders if he is making fun of her or putting her down because she's barren. Everybody else makes fun of her. If she goes into the town or the village, the people there make fun of her or look at her funny. She's the one with no son. She hears this all the time. She wonders if she has to hear it from him also.

Nevertheless, he told her the truth, and some time goes by and she becomes pregnant. The next year, at about the same time, she has a son, just as Elisha had told her. The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. He said to his father, "My head, my head!" A number of years had gone by. He was old enough to get around, walk around, talk, communicate, and go out to the field to find his father.

He developed some kind of an illness. Some people have said it was sunstroke because it was too hot. I don't know how they get that from this meager amount of information, but a whole bunch of commentaries say this was clearly sunstroke. I think those people are dreaming. Who knows what it was? We don't know what it was, and I don't think it's really correct to hazard a guess. But what we do know is he was a little bit older, he was able to get around, and his head hurt.

Something was wrong with him. He went out to his father saying, "My head, my head!" His father told a servant to carry him to his mother. That's what every father does when a kid gets sick. "Bring him to his mother, let the mother take care of the kid. Give him some Tylenol. He'll be fine in the morning." After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out. She called her husband and said, "Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return." Her husband asked why she was going to him today, as it was not the New Moon or the Sabbath. She said it was all right. She saddled the donkey and told her servant to lead on and not slow down unless she told him to.

She set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. It was about a day's worth of a donkey ride, probably; at least a few hours. We see the father sending the child back to the mother and the mother tending to this child. The boy was sitting on her lap, and she was doing what she could. But whatever it was, the boy perished. He died. But she didn't make any effort to arrange to bury the boy.

I think you've got to see faith in action in the life of this woman. She didn't have a son until her old age. She knew this was a miracle child. Perhaps she knew that Elisha was going to be able to raise her child from the dead. Maybe she had heard about Elijah and what he did by raising a child from the dead. Maybe Elisha had told her what Elijah had done. Maybe she had heard about it, or maybe it was well-known in the area.

Maybe she just knew that if God gave her this child and promised her an heir, He's not going to take the child away. I'm not sure what she knew or what she thought, but it seems like she's not making any effort to bury the child. She doesn't call the mourner or ring up the funeral director. It doesn't even seem that she told her husband that the kid died. She put the child in the man of God's room, as if he's going to have some impact on the child.

Then she called to her husband and said she wanted to borrow one of the servants to go visit the man of God. She didn't tell him why. He asked why she was going today since it was not the New Moon or the Sabbath. The implication is that she went to visit the man of God from time to time on the Sabbath or on the New Moon, which were holidays. She did go to visit him from time to time, perhaps just for a social visit or to worship the Lord with him.

Perhaps he was officiating at some type of service, and she was attending. Not only does it not say that she didn't tell her husband, but I think it's implied here that she did not tell him because he asked her why she wanted to go when it was not one of the normal days for going. If she had said she wanted to go see the man of God because the kid died and she was hoping he could help, he would not have asked why she was going now.

I don't think she let on to her husband what was going on. Maybe she didn't think he had enough faith, or maybe she didn't think her faith was enough to have to comfort him as well as herself. Maybe she was just clinging to that bit of faith and thinking she had enough faith for herself and that was it. Maybe she didn't have enough faith to talk about it. Maybe she couldn't bring herself to say the words, "Honey, our son is dead." Just saying the words might have scared her to death.

She just said to her husband that it's all right. Her husband was apparently a trusting guy. He was trusting enough to let her invite this guy over for dinner and to let her set up a room where he could stay. He trusted his wife enough. He didn't need an explanation for what she was doing. He told her she could take a servant and the donkey and head off. And she did. She told the servant to lead on and not slow down unless she told him to.

She told him not to stop for any red lights, rest stops, or cross-streets. She said they weren't stopping for anyone else, not to pass Go or collect $200. They were going to keep on going. She set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. She headed there straight away without delay. When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, "Look, there's the Shunammite. Run to meet her and ask her if she is all right, if her husband is all right, and if her child is all right."

She said that everything was all right. He sent the servant out to meet her because he was surprised to see her. It wasn't the Sabbath or the New Moon. He didn't usually see her come by herself. He wondered what the problem was and if everybody was okay. She didn't want to tell the servant what the problem was; she wanted to deal with the boss man himself. She didn't want to communicate through the servant or have him repeat the problem to Elisha.

She lied and said everything was all right. Maybe she wasn't lying. Maybe everything was all right because she knew that the child was going to be resurrected. I think she was lying because you see she was really in bitter distress in the next few verses. I don't know how she could claim everything was all right. When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet.

Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God told him to leave her alone. He said she was in bitter distress, but the Lord had hidden it from him and had not told him why. When she finally got up to the mountain where Elisha was, Gehazi told Elisha she said everything was okay. But when she got up there, she grabbed hold of Elisha's feet. That annoyed Gehazi. He didn't like that. He's the protector of Elisha.

He went to push her away, sort of like the way the apostles and disciples were trying to push the little children away from Jesus. Elisha told him to leave her be because she was clearly in bitter distress, but the Lord had hidden it from him and had not told him why. He seemed surprised that the Lord had not revealed it to him. He was so used to hearing from God on so many things; the Lord revealed so much to him that he was surprised he hadn't heard what the problem was.

A lot of times nowadays, we're happy when we do hear from God. If God shows us something, we get all excited. We know it's God and we're excited to tell our friends. We think we know it was God because He showed us in the scriptures, and then we heard the same thing on the radio, at work, or at church. We're so excited because God must be telling us something. Here's a guy that hears from God all the time, and he's just amazed he didn't hear from God. He's surprised and can't believe it. He knew something was going on, but the Lord had hidden it from him and hadn't revealed it.

She said, "Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn't I tell you, 'Don't raise my hopes'?" She told him that this wasn't her idea. She asked why he gave her a son only to see him get taken away, why he let this happen, and why he was doing this to her. Maybe this was a faith-building exercise that God was allowing her to go through. Maybe she didn't know it at the time.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope from the Word. We're currently in a study of 2nd Kings. You can hear this message and more Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann by going to ccmarlton.org. Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet.

Or if you prefer to listen via podcast, you can find Hope from the Word wherever you find your podcasts. We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10 a.m. and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7.

To catch us online you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton or just go to our website for the link at ccmarlton.org. And if you'd take a moment to write to Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us.

We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives, and we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662. We'll continue our study in 2nd Kings next time on Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.