BIBLE BASIS: Lesson Scripture: II Kings 4:8-17
BIBLE TRUTH: God blesses the Shunammite woman.
LESSON AIM: That you will see the blessed relationship between the woman and Elisha.
Timeline: Today’s lesson takes place at about 800 B.C. You will find this history in our timeline below in the “Divided Kingdom” era
Prelude to the lesson
Elisha was the apprentice and successor of Elijah. He too ministered in Israel (the Northern Kingdom). When Elijah was about to be taken by God, other prophets were aware of the coming event. Elisha refused to let Elijah go on his last journey alone. On that journey Elijah asked his follower what he might do for him. Elisha quickly responded. “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit” Elisha was asking to succeed Elijah as leading prophet in the land. Interestingly, the Bible also reports twice as many miracles of Elisha as Elijah (14 compared to 7). They are: (1) separating the Jordan waters, 2:14; (2) healing spring waters, 2:21; (3) cursing jeering young men, 2:24; (4) filling ditches with water and winning a battle, 3:15-26; (5) multiplying a widows oil, 4:1-7; (6) promising a pregnancy, 4:14-17; (7) raising a Shunammite’s son from the dead, 4:32-37; (8) making poison harmless, 4:38-41; (9) multiplying loaves, 4:42-44; (10) healing Naaman the leper, 5:1-19; cursing Gehazi with leprosy, 5:19-27; (11) making an axhead float, 6:1-6; (12) blinding and trapping an Aramean army, 6:8-23; (13) showing his servant an angel army, 6:15-17; (14) and predicting an excess of food for besieged Samaria, 6:24-7:20.
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Hospitality is one of the marks of a righteous person (see Job 31:32). As christian people we are are to be “given to hospitality” (Romans 12:13) and offer “hospitality one to another without grudging” (I Peter 4:9). In our lesson a well-to-do woman, who lived in Shunem, welcomed Elisha whenever he passed by. She even had a room built for his exclusive use. Elisha wanted to show his appreciation. But the woman had no apparent needs. Then the prophet discovered one real need: the woman had no children, and her husband was old. Elisha promised her that she would have a child – and she did. This is where our study of the lesson ends, but the story of the lesson contiunes and we find that the boy grows and while in the fields he complains of a headache and later dies in his mothers lap. The Shunammite woman shows great faith and determination when she sets out to find the prophet Elisha. First she tells her husband everything is well, she tells the servant to lead quickly as she rides the donkey and spare not her comfort unless she says so. When she sees Gehazi (Elisha’s aide) she tells him everything is well, but she hurrys to Elisha, grabs his feet, (when Gehazi sees this he came to push her away) but Elisha tells Gehazi leave her alone because something is wrong and she is in bitter distress,but the Lord has hidden it from me. Elisha shows us a great example of concern even when proper protocall is not followed. When the woman exclaimed ”Did I ask for a son, Didn’t I say not to raise my hopes”, Elisha knew it was concerning her son that he had promised in a prophecy. Elisha tells Gehazi to buckle up and run, greet no man and if any greets you say nothing, but take my staff and lay it on the boy’s face. As he went, the woman tells Elisha as sure as the Lord lives I will not leave you. So Elisha follows her back to the her house. Gehazi goes on ahead of them and does as the man of God requests but there was no sound or response. Gehazi goes to meet Elisha and tells him the boy has not awakened. When Elisha gets there he sees the boy lying dead on the couch that the woman provided for Elisha’s comfort, he walks in, closing the door on the woman and Gehazi and prays to the Lord. He gets on the bed and lays on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, and hands to hands. When he stretches out on the boy his body grew warm. Elisha paces back and forth in the room and then once more stretches out on the boys body, and the boy sneezes seven times and opens his eyes. Elisha summons the woman through Gehazi and she came. Elisha says to her “take your son,” she comes in falls at his feet and bows to the ground, takes her son and went out. What faith unwavering faith the woman shows. For many of us death is the final blow, but even at death the woman believed that if she could get the man of God here, a change would come with him. This is not the last we here of the Shunammite woman. Continue to read of the miracles performed by Elisha and see the awsome power of God.
By Trustee Richard Barnes
