Elisha’s Ministry: "Christian – How Is Your Little Upper Chamber Furnished?” Part 2 Of 2 Series

ELISHA’S MINISTRY: “CHRISTIAN – HOW IS YOUR LITTLE UPPER CHAMBER FURNISHED?” Part 2 of 2

SERIES – MESSAGES ON ELISHA – HIS LIFE AND MINISTRY Number 9

This next message which is Part 2 continues the account of Elisha in his circuit and focuses on Shunem. There he used to stay with a childless couple and they were led by God to make a small room for Elisha each time he passed by there. Last time we looked at the background to all this, and now in Part 2 we will look closely at the furniture that was placed there for Elisha. Firstly we will repeat the relevant passage from 2Kings.

2Kings 4:8 Now there came a day when Elisha passed over to Shunem where there was a prominent woman, and she persuaded him to eat food, and so it was, as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat food. 2Kings 4:9 She said to her husband, “Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God passing by us continually. 2Kings 4:10 Please, let us make a little walled upper chamber and let us set a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand, and it shall be, when he comes to us, that he can turn in there.”

2Kings 4:11 One day he came there and turned in to the upper chamber and rested. 2Kings 4:12 Then he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite,” and when he had called her, she stood before him. 2Kings 4:13 He said to him, “Say now to her, Behold, you have been careful for us with all this care. What can I do for you? Would you be spoken for to the king or to the captain of the army?” and she answered, “I live among my own people,”

2Kings 4:14 so he said, “What then is to be done for her?” and Gehazi answered, “Truly she has no son and her husband is old.” 2Kings 4:15 He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the doorway. 2Kings 4:16 Then he said, “At this season next year you shall embrace a son,” and she said, “No, my lord, O man of God, do not lie to your maidservant.” 2Kings 4:17 The woman conceived and bore a son at that season the next year, as Elisha had said to her

I want to share what I find most constructive in this story, and that is the furnishings – a BED for rest; a TABLE and CHAIR for work, preparation, and contemplation; and a LAMPSTAND for light. This was simple furnishing, but is all a worker of God needs. Let us see if we can gain the instruction.

THE BED: The first mention of a bed in scripture is in Genesis 47 when Jacob was resting his last on a bed in Egypt. The bed is the place of rest, a refuge for Elisha from the draining aspects of daily spiritual welfare and from the tiresome journey through the heat of the day. We all need that bed in times when the journey is hard. To repose in the Lord is so sweet and necessary. Too many Christian workers have been burnt out through the neglect of the bed of God’s provision. We can’t serve everyone and the Lord teaches that – look at this verse - Mark 6 v 31 He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going and they did not even have time to eat.). When we consider our blessed Lord, He drew apart at times and separated Himself from the ministry to spend time with the Father in a closeness. In fact, for Jesus, he did not have a place to call His own - Luke 9:58 and Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Foxes had their beds, birds had their beds; Jesus had none. Elsisha had his simple room, a place of provision from Jehovah.

A bed is a place for rest, withdrawal and refreshment, and without doubt, the prophet needed all that. The Shumanite’s provision was the provision of the Lord. In Psalm 4, David says to meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. He means it to be a place of quiet retreat in the Lord’s presence. A bed is not always the place of delights. In Psalm 6 David says he is weary with his sighing, and every night his bed swims with tears, even to the extent of melting his couch. Just in that quiet time by oneself, the sadness of life can overtake the person. Also in the Psalms, in 36 actually, David describes a wicked man this way – “He plans wickedness upon his bed. He sets himself on a path that is not good. He does not despise evil.”. That applies to the wicked, but David also sets out the position of the righteous in these two verses - Psa. 63 v 6 When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Psa. 149 v 5 Let the godly ones exult in glory. Let them sing for joy on their beds. I wonder what the bed meant for Elisha. There was much on his mind, and he possibly knew both joy and sorrow, and inspiration and contemplation, as he went to sleep in that small chamber. Now we can’t leave the matter without looking at one other aspect, a position that would have been foreign to Elisha, but not to a number of us. What could that possibly be? These verses from Proverbs will explain - Prov. 26 v 14 As the door turns on its hinges so does the sluggard on his bed. Prov. 26:15 The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. He is weary of bringing it to his mouth again. May we not be numbered among the sluggards.