When the Storm Finds Your House

Scripture Invitation

As we gather in the sacred hush of this Wednesday night, with hearts heavy for our loved ones in Jamaica and questions swirling like the winds of Hurricane Melissa, I invite you to open your spirit to a story that rarely takes center stage, but tonight, the Holy Spirit has set it before us.

Let us turn to 2 Kings 4:8-37, where God meets a good woman in the eye of her own storm.

Bible Passage

2 Kings 4:8–37 CSB

One day Elisha went to Shunem. A prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to eat some food. So whenever he passed by, he stopped there to eat. Then she said to her husband, “I know that the one who often passes by here is a holy man of God, so let’s make a small, walled-in upper room and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp there for him. Whenever he comes, he can stay there.” One day he came there and stopped at the upstairs room to lie down. He ordered his attendant Gehazi, “Call this Shunammite woman.” So he called her and she stood before him. Then he said to Gehazi, “Say to her, ‘Look, you’ve gone to all this trouble for us. What can we do for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’ ” She answered, “I am living among my own people.” So he asked, “Then what should be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.” “Call her,” Elisha said. So Gehazi called her, and she stood in the doorway. Elisha said, “At this time next year you will have a son in your arms.” Then she said, “No, my lord. Man of God, do not lie to your servant.” The woman conceived and gave birth to a son at the same time the following year, as Elisha had promised her. The child grew and one day went out to his father and the harvesters. Suddenly he complained to his father, “My head! My head!” His father told his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” So he picked him up and took him to his mother. The child sat on her lap until noon and then died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut him in, and left. She summoned her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so I can hurry to the man of God and come back again.” But he said, “Why go to him today? It’s not a New Moon or a Sabbath.” She replied, “It’s all right.” Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Go fast; don’t slow the pace for me unless I tell you.” So she came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to his attendant Gehazi, “Look, there’s the Shunammite woman. Run out to meet her and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your son all right?’ ” And she answered, “It’s all right.” When she came up to the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone—she is in severe anguish, and the Lord has hidden it from me. He hasn’t told me.” Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not lie to me?’ ” So Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your mantle under your belt, take my staff with you, and go. If you meet anyone, don’t stop to greet him, and if a man greets you, don’t answer him. Then place my staff on the boy’s face.” The boy’s mother said to Elisha, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her. Gehazi went ahead of them and placed the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or sign of life, so he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy didn’t wake up.” When Elisha got to the house, he discovered the boy lying dead on his bed. So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. Then he went up and lay on the boy: he put mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand. While he bent down over him, the boy’s flesh became warm. Elisha got up, went into the house, and paced back and forth. Then he went up and bent down over him again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. Elisha called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” He called her and she came. Then Elisha said, “Pick up your son.” She came, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground; she picked up her son and left.

Song

“Does Jesus Care?” (SDA Hymnal #181)

Introduction

Saints, allow me to paint a picture:

In our text we find a woman

a woman of means,

a woman of faith,

a woman who did right by God and by people

a woman who built a room for the prophet

a woman who opened her home

a woman who sowed seeds of kindness.

And yet, despite how good she was, one day, the storm found her house.

Her miracle child, the answer to years of silent prayers, fell sick and died in her arms.

Can you see her?

A mother holding a lifeless promise!

A believer with more questions than answers!

She did everything right, but still, the unthinkable happened.

Have you ever felt what it’s like to do all you know to do—pray, serve, give, love—and still find yourself in the path of a hurricane?

When the storm doesn’t skip your address, when the floodwaters rise, when the phone call comes and the news is not good,.

What do you do when bad things happen to good people?

Tonight, as we continue to watch and wait for word from Jamaica, as we grieve and groan and wonder “Why, Lord?”, the Shunammite woman stands as our sister in the storm.

1. Goodness Does Not Guarantee Immunity

Now Let’s be real, church:

The Shunammite woman was good.

She was generous.

She was faithful.

But the storm still came to her house.

Her story shatters the myth that if you do right, nothing will go wrong.

The Bible tells us in Matthew Chapter 5, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust”

Brothers and sisters, faith is not a force field.

Righteousness is not a hurricane shelter.

Sometimes, the storm finds your house—not because you did wrong, but because you live in a world that’s broken, groaning, and waiting for redemption (Romans 8:22).

Have you ever asked, “Lord, what did I do to deserve this?”

Sometimes, the answer is: nothing.

Sometimes, suffering is not about punishment, but about participation in the world’s pain—and in God’s plan to heal it.

2. Faith Is Not Denial—It’s Honest Lament and Relentless Pursuit

Notice what the Shunammite woman does:

She doesn’t pretend.

She doesn’t bury her pain.

She lays her son on the prophet’s bed and goes straight to the man of God.

When asked, “Is it well?” she says, “It is well”

Not because she’s fine, but because she’s holding on to hope in the face of heartbreak.

Faith is not the absence of tears; it’s the courage to bring your tears to God.

The psalmist said, “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Psalm 126:5).

She clings to Elisha’s feet.

She refuses to let go.

She says, “I will not leave you.”

Church, sometimes faith is not a shout—it’s a grip.

It’s holding on to God when everything else is slipping away.

3. God’s Silence Is Not God’s Absence

In verse 27, the Bible tells us that even Elisha says, “The Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why,” showing us that sometimes even God’s faithful servants experience confusion and unanswered questions in the face of tragedy.

But God is still at work behind the scenes.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, when prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling, when the news is silent, when the heavens feel closed—remember, God’s silence is not God’s absence.

The Shunammite woman’s story reminds us:

God is present in the pain, even when we can’t perceive Him.

4. Restoration May Not Look Like We Expect—But God Is Still Able

Then the bible tells us that Elisha stretches himself over the boy.

He prays.

He waits.

He tries again.

And then—life returns.

Not instantly,

not predictably,

but miraculously.

Church, restoration is not always a rewind, but it is always a resurrection.

God may not undo every loss, but He can bring new life out of dead places.

The boy sneezes seven times—completeness, wholeness, a sign that God’s work is finished.

The Shunammite woman receives her son back, not because she understood the why, but because she refused to let go of the Who.

Application

So what do we do, church, when the storm finds our house?

We need to Bring our pain to God.

Don’t hide your tears, He welcomes them.

We need to Lament honestly. 

Even when you don’t understand, refuse to let go of God’s promises.

We need to Hold on relentlessly. 

Trust that He is working, even when you can’t see it.

We need to Look for God’s presence in the silence. 

Believe that God can bring life out of loss, healing out of heartbreak, and purpose out of pain.

Ask yourself tonight,

Where do you need to bring your brokenness to God?

Who in your life needs you to be their Elisha—to pray, to persist, to believe for resurrection?

Closing

Let me close with this, church:

When the storm finds your house,

When the winds howl and the waters rise,

When the news from Jamaica breaks your heart and the questions outnumber the answers—

Remember the Shunammite woman.

She teaches us that faith is not a guarantee against suffering, But a grip that holds on to God in the storm.

Though the storm can rage and destroy we need to be able to declare that, “It is well!”

Not because everything is fixed,

But because God is still faithful.

He is the God who restores, the God who resurrects, the God who walks with us through the valley and brings us out on the other side.

So tonight, I declare:

The storm may have found your house, But it did not find you alone.

God is with you,

God is for you,

And God is able to restore what the storm tried to steal.

Through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus.

Through it all, I’ve learned to trust in God.

Through it all, I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.