Be Thankful at a Time Like This? 2 Kings 4:8-37

Be Thankful at a Time Like This?

INTRODUCTION: Thanksgiving

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1 AN UNBELIEVABLE, UNEXPECTED GIFT, vv. 8-17

READ vv. 8-17

Shunem is tucked into the hill country of Issachar, about 15 miles southwest of the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee on the edge of the lush Jezreel valley. It’s a town with a long history. The events in our text take place in the 9th century BC. This town was already mentioned in the 15th century, as one of the places conquered by the Egyptian Pharaoh of the day. It was mentioned again in the 10th century - once again conquered by another Pharaoh.

In a town of that age, there is undoubtedly established families and old money. Last week, we journeyed with a widowed woman who was living on nothing - no money, no food and no hope. In our passage this morning, we’re introduced to a woman who didn’t need anything - she has plenty. In fact, she wants to use her plenty to help God’s minister.

The prophet Elisha has a regular circuit in taking care of his responsibilities as the premier prophet of God in the nation and that circuit takes him through Shunem. On one particular trip - he crosses paths with the wealthy woman and she urges him to come for dinner. Well, Elisha must have made quite an impression on the woman because her house became a regular stop on his trips - he had a standing invitation for dinner. Every time he passed through town … dinner was served for him at this same house.

In fact, after one of his visits, the woman got to thinking about her next re-decorating plans for the house (and it seems that whether it’s the 9th Century BC or the 21st Century AD, some women are always thinking about the next ‘look’ for their house). Well this woman turns to her husband and says, “I have an idea. This holy man of God is always coming over. He eats dinner and then heads off on his way. We have that wasted space on our (flat) roof that we hardly ever use anyways … let’s make a suite up there for the prophet.” Roofs were the basement of the ancient near east - that’s where you would put … that’s where the kids would go when they played hide and seek .... and that’s where you would build your extra, mortgage helper suites.

“Let’s make a suite for the prophet, so he always has a place of his own when he passes through town.” Obviously this woman had as much pull with her husband as many of the ‘Designing Women’ have today … she gets her way and the suite is built.

This isn’t about pity for God’s poor prophet … it’s not about wanting the cache that comes from people seeing the most famous prophet in the country always choosing your house to visit.

2 Kings 4:13 “And he said to him, “Say now to her, ‘See, you have taken all this trouble for us; what is to be done for you? Would you have a word spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’ ” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.””

The Hebrew behind our English ‘taken all this trouble’ - literally translates as “you ‘trembled with fear’ for us”. In other words - this woman has a reverence for God that translates into a reverence for his faithful messenger.

On one of Elisha’s trips, as he rested in his home away from home, he looks around his well-furnished room and gets to thinking - “This woman has gone to so much trouble to take care of my needs - no strings attached. I want to do something for her - something to repay her generosity.”

Gehazi is Elisha’s servant - his right hand man - and Gehazi is there. Elisha tells him to summon the woman. She comes to the doorway and Gehazi speaks for his boss, in v. 13, “… See, you have taken all this trouble for us; what is to be done for you? Would you have a word spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?”

“I have connections at the highest levels in this nation - I can put in a good word for you with the king himself … I can arrange some personal protection from the army. What would you like?”

She responds, at the end of v. 13, “She answered, ‘I dwell among my own people.’” In other words - “I have everything I need - I don’t need any tax breaks or political favors. Thanks for the offer, but I’m content with my life, just the way it is.” What a great attitude to life - It’s Biblical. Paul says so in 1 Timothy 6:6: “Godliness with contentment is great gain.”

But that sure makes it hard for a prophet to do her a favour. What do you give to the woman who has everything? This is a hard woman to buy a gift for. Elisha scratches his head and asks Gehazi if he has any ideas.

Gehazi says, ‘well, there is ONE thing she doesn’t have - 2 Kings 4:14, “And he said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.””

“The one thing she doesn’t have is the one thing she CAN never have now - not at this point in life. The woman has no son and she’s not going to get one with her husband at the age he is.”

This is more than just not having a baby to cuddle. No son also means that when her husband dies, there will be no one to look after her, no son to care for her in her old age. “That’s a perfect idea!”, thinks Elisha. They call the woman back to the room and the prophet announces the promise:

2 Kings 4:16, “And he said, “At this season, about this time next year, you shall embrace a son.” And she said, “No, my lord, O man of God; do not lie to your servant.””

Elisha promises a son - waits for her to dissolve into tears of joy or jump up and down and scream in happiness. But she does neither. She says, “Don’t lie to me. Don’t tease me. I’ve come to accept my lot in life - that there will be no children for me. I’ve come to terms with the painful reality .... so please, don’t go now, getting my hopes up for the impossible now.”

You’ve been there.

“Don’t get my hopes up! This life is birth, struggle and death. I’ve come to accept the cold hard truths of reality - and I don’t need to hear any ‘fairy tales’ to get my hopes up that there is anything more than this.”

Well, there’s a hint here that this is no fairy tale. There’s a phrase in v. 16, Elisha tells the skeptical woman, “… about this time next year, you shall embrace a son.” “About this time next year ....”. Does that sound familiar to you at all? That phrase shows up once and only once besides here in the Old Testament. If you know your way around your Old Testament, you may remember God’s visit to Sarah in Genesis 18. He promises a son to that barren woman. Not only could she not have children because of a lack of ability, but by the time she heard that promise, she was pushing 90 years of age. “That part of my body doesn’t even work anymore!” Add to that a husband that’s 10 years OLDER and there’s just no way.

Oh but God always keeps his promises. No matter how impossible they may seem. And the next year, Isaace was born to Sarah and Abraham. Isaac - ‘Laughter’. So verse 16 is supposed to be a ‘flashback’ for us.

And it’s also supposed to remind us of the other impossible births in the Bible: Rachel who gave birth to Joseph; Manoah’s wife, who gave birth to Samson; Hannah who gave birth to Samuel. Every single one of them a pregnancy that shouldn’t have happened - but every one of them happened - because God promised. And God always … Always keeps His word.

Sure enough. Verse 17 tells us that, “the woman conceived, and she bore a son about that time the following spring, AS ELISHA HAD SAID TO HER.”

The woman who didn’t dare to DREAM … is embracing the impossible child. Beccause God made a promise. And God always keeps His word.

One thing that makes this birth stand apart from the other gifts of babies to the other OT women - something that you need to know: Is that in the case of all the other women who blessed in this way - their sons all played important roles in the nation - as judges as carriers of the promise to God’s people through another generation … all of them had a job to do for God’s People.

Not this baby. This baby was a gift to a woman of faith. Not because he was going to be useful to the nation, not because he was going to make an impact on the world that would last through history … This baby was given to THIS woman … just because God loves like that. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father.

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2 WHEN THE GIFT ONLY BRINGS MORE PAIN, vv. 18-31

READ vv. 18-25

v. 18 fast forwards the story a few years. The baby has grown up enough to make a solo trip from the house out into the farm fields, where dad is working on the harvest. Harvest time means hot sun. We don’t know exactly WHAT impacted the boys’ health. All we know is that, as he’s walking side by side with dad, the boy has an overpowering pain in his head. He cries out, in v. 19, “Oh my head, my head!”

Dad wastes not a second - he’s too old and weak to be able to carry his boy - but he immediately sends a servant to carry the boy to his mom.

Mom embraces her son - this unexpected gift who has become her delight. She holds him on her lap, clinging to her preecious child … worried sick. And the end of v. 20 tells us, ‘… at noon, he died.”

And we wonder, ‘What in the world is going on here?’ This lady wasn’t asking for any favours … she was content with her life, just as it was - even if there had been a child-sized hole in her heart. She was okay with that. It was God’s messenger who brought her to the place where she would even dare to hope.

She is given the miraculous gift and his life is over in 3 short verrses. Did you notice that? Verses 18-20 - the baby is bory, he grows, he suffers, he dies. That’s it.

The fairy-tale story has a horror-film ending: the son of this faithful, generous woman, still young enough for her to hold on her lap, dies in her arms. WHAT KIND OF GOD IS THIS?! Do you find yourself wondering that? … Just a little?

Well, what does the woman do? How does she respond? I find it interesting that sometimes the Bible’s narrators let us into what a person is thinking in a story. Not here. All we can do here is to watch the woman’s actions, hear her words and try to understand what’s going on inside.

The first thing the woman does, in v. 21, is to carry the boy up to Elisha’s room, lays his lifeless body on the man of God’s bed and shuts the door behind her, as she leaves.

Then v. 22 she calls for her husband - “… Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back again.”

Wait a minute! Your son just died and you don’t tell your husband - you just ask for a car and driver to take you on a quick trip?! For that matter, her husband doesn’t ask about him -even though he just sent him home in a health crisis, in the arms of one of his workers. All the husband wants to know is why the woman is taking a trip to church today?

Notice the woman’s answer at the end of v. 23: “All is well.” Literally, “Shalom” .... “Peace”.

Is that true? Is that really the way she feels? Is that how you feel when life’s tragedies crush your heart?

The woman gets on the donkey and heads for Elisha’s home at Mt. Carmel 15 miles away.

Elisha, sitting outside, sees the figure of a woman coming in hot on the back of the donkey (well, as hot as a donkey can run). He scratches his head. “What brings her out this way?”

READ vv. 25b-28.

Gehazi runs to greet her - asks how everything is and the woman answers him the same way she answered her husband: v. 26, “All is well.” Then she brushes past him - Elisha is the one she came to see. He’s the one who gave the promise in the first place.

She reaches the prophet, falls to the ground in front of him, clutches his feet and no doubt douses them with her tears.

All is definitely NOT WELL with her.

Well a respectable woman, crying on the ground and clinging to the prophet’s feet - that’s just not dignified - it’s not becoming. Gehazi tries to pull her away … but Elisha pushes back.

“Can’t you see, she’s in bitter distress? Leave her alone!” (verse 27).

Crumpled in the dirt, a fountain of tears flowing, with quivering voice she chokes out her complaint:

Verse 28, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me?”

“I never asked for a son … in fact, I said ‘Don’t play tricks with my emotions … But you’ve gone and given me a taste of what I didn’t even know I was missing .... I’ve experienced the joy of a giggling baby - the contentment of my own child looking up with absolute trust and love as he nurses .... I’ve tasted a love I never knew - only to have it torn away, leaving me broken.

Alfred Lord Tennyson famously wrote: ‘It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.”

Well, this woman would beg to differ. This gift gone has left her with deeper pain than she could ever know.

Elisha’s own heart breaks at her pain. He sends Gehazi on ahead back to the woman’s home.

READ vv. 29-31

Gehazi goes ahead but the woman will not leave Elisha. See the faith on display - even through the pain.

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3 THE GOD WHO’S FAITHFULNESS KNOWS NO END, vv. 32-37

Gehazi has done his best - even used his master’s own staff. But it all seems to be to no avail.

READ vv. 32-34.

Elisha steps into the eerily quiet room. There, lying on his bed, is the corpse. The boy is clearly dead. But God’s prophet will not accept the situation as final. So, he closes the door, leaving only he and the child inside.

Don’t miss the first thing he does: “He prayed to the LORD”. There’s no bag of magic tricks here - just God’s man, begging His Lord to act and rescue.

Then, in v. 34, Elisha climbs on the child - putting his own body, like a mirror image, on top of the child’s body. Verse 34, “…putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands.”

Well that’s just weird! What in the world is going on here?!

First of all, this is an act of faith. According to the OT Law, in Numbers 19:11-13, anyone who touches a dead body becomes contaminated by that body and is ceremonially unclean - you can’t go to worship, can’t get too close to others. That’s because the uncleanness of death’s decay is seen as stronger than the purity of life. So, Elisha is counting on God to reverse the normal course of nature and bring a life-giving power that overcomes death’s decay.

There’s something else that Elisha’s doing here, stretching his body out over the boy’s body. He’s also identifying himself with the dead, as if to say, ‘Let this child’s lifeless body be like my living body - eyes, mouth hands - make him alive.”

The end of v. 34: “the flesh of the child became warm.” But he’s still dead. READ v. 35. Elisha gets up, paces through the house and .... there are signs of life .... but still it isn’t enough. There’s a grieving mother on the other side of that bedroom door and a warm but still lifeless body isn’t going to be enough to rellieve her pain.

Elisha climbs back onto the child. And … God … finally … answers prayer. The child sneezes.

Oh, a sneeze never sounded so GOOD! Then another sneeze; and another … seven sneezes and then, finally - the end of v. 35 - “the child opened his eyes.”

READ vv. 36-37

See the woman who has been through every extreme of emotion - from heartbreak, to grief, to hope, to despair … now to overwhelming JOY! She falls to the ground at Elisha’s feet overcome with thanks for life restored. Then she gets up, picks up her son and walks out of the prophet’s room with wholeness restored.

So, how do we understand this woman’s actions after the death of her boy?

I hope you see a tenacious faith - that goes through the greatest heartbreak but doesn’t stop clinging to the God who seemed to hurt her.

She will not accept that brokenness and death will have the last word.

So, what’s the purpose of this event? I mean, every one of us here who knows what it is to have a heart broken by grief - as you laid to rest the one that you loved - we all know that God doesn’t always answer our prayers for physical healing. So, what’s the purpose of THIS child, brought back to life.

I’ll tell you what it is - It is God’s reminder to His heartbroken children in every age that DEATH WILL NOT HAVE THE LAST WORD.

It points forward to Jesus resurrection that was still to come. In Elisha’s day - God’s Son was not going to take on our humanity and step onto the stage of history for another 800 years. But in our passage, it’s almost as if God is so excited to show His power that conquerst death - that He just couldn’t help Himself. He longed to give His sorrowful people a sneak peak at what was coming.

The very way that Elisha … climbs on top of the boy … it’s a foreshadowing of how Jesus Christ saved His people. You know what Jesus did: He climbed onto that Roman cross and surrendered His body for us: Stretched out on the execution device - enduring the judgment of a holy God - Jesus was stretching Himself out over you, Christian.

If you belong to Jesus Christ - have put your trust in His finished work - then you are saved.

When God was pouring out His holy anger at a rebellious human race .... Jesus Christ was covering you … taking that judgment on himself for the wrongs that you have done. The flip side of that is that His perfect righteousness becomes mine.

It’s the greatest exchange in the history of the universe: On the cross, the Son of God … reaches out and touches me at my very point of need: My sin becomes His and His perfect righteousness becomes MINE .... Do you see what that means, friend? It means if you are a Christian - when God looks at you, He doesn’t see your filth … He sees His son’s radiant glory.

And the fact that Jesus Christ rose, physically from the grave - as a historical event - check it out for yourself .... the fact that Jesus CONQUERED the grave - that means that He defeated death - for Himself AND for every Christian.

Until you come to God through Jesus Christ, by trusting in His finished work - then you are just a religious person. You are in charge of your life - all right. The pressure is all on you.

You may be saying: “I can’t worship a God who allows children to die!” That’s fine.

You may be saying, “I won’t worship a God who would let people suffer the loss of their loved ones.” That’s fine. You can dismiss God. But does that really help? Does it stop the dying? Does it stop the pain? Does it give you any assurance that

The Bible points us to a God who yes, allows suffering and heartache … but promises that He will work it out for our good. And more than that … Biblical Christianity points us to a God who doesn’t hide from our suffering in the safety of heaven.

.... He takes on our humanity in the person of His Son .... and comes on a rescue mission to save us, by His own suffering and, by His conquering of the grave - He guarantees that your tears and your death are not the end of the story.

There is no other faith that even offers such hope.

He who did not spare HIs own Son, but ..... How will He not also, together with Him, graciously give us all things?!

Do you see what that means for you, Christian?

One of our favorite hymns around here - probably my personal favorite, is the one written by Horatio Spafford - “It is Well”. If you don’t know the story behind that hymn, let me tell you about it, briefly. Horatio Spafford was a Chicago lawyer and successful businessman who used his money to serve the Lord. He was a strong supporter of the evangelist D.L. Moody. But tragedy struck his life.

Spafford’s fortune evaporated in the wake of the great Chicago Fire of 1871. Having invested heavily in real estate along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, he lost everything overnight. In a saga reminiscent of Job, his son died a short time before his financial disaster. But the worst was yet to come. “Desiring a rest for his wife and four daughters as well as wishing to join and assist Moody and [his musician Ira] Sankey in one of their campaigns in Great Britain, Spafford planned a European trip for his family in 1873. In November of that year, due to unexpected last-minute business developments, he had to remain in Chicago, but sent his wife and four daughters on ahead as scheduled on the S.S. Ville du Havre. He expected to follow in a few days. “On November 22 the ship was struck by the Lochearn, an English vessel, and sank in twelve minutes. Several days later the survivors were finally landed at Cardiff, Wales, and Mrs. Spafford cabled her husband, ‘Saved alone.’”

Spafford left immediately to join his wife. As the ship he was on approached the area of the ocean thought to be where the ship carrying his daughters had sunk, the man in mourning sat down and wrote the words of that favorite hymn:

“When peace like a river attendeth my way; when sorrows like sea billows roll … whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say … “IT IS WELL (there are the words of the Shunamite woman) … IT IS WELL, with my soul.”

It didn’t even occur to me till this week that this must be the text. What did he do? He turned to the Bible when realizing all four of his children were dead. How could he possibly deal with it? How could he possibly deal with it?

Here he sees the Shunammite woman saying … “Is it well with your child?” “No, it’s not well with my child. My child is dead, but still I can say: ‘It is well’. It will be all right. I believe in God. I understand God. I know I have a deep conviction foundationally whatever happens. God is in his heaven. God is good. There is resurrection. There is hope.”