THE RESTORATION OF THE SHUNNAMITE WOMAN
BY
ABIMBOLA O. SALU
8” One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. 9 She said to her husband, "I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. 10 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."
11 One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. 12 He said to his servant Gehazi, "Call the Shunammite." So he called her, and she stood before him. 13 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 the commander of the army?’ "
She replied, "I have a home among my own people."
14 "What can be done for her?" Elisha asked.
Gehazi said, "Well, she has no son and her husband is old."
15 Then Elisha said, "Call her." So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. 16 "About this time next year," Elisha said, "you will hold a son in your arms."
"No, my lord," she objected. "Don’t mislead your servant, O man of God!"
17 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.
18 The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. 19 "My head! My head!" he said to his father.
His father told a servant, "Carry him to his mother." 20 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. 21 She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.
22 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."
23 "Why go to him today?" he asked. "It’s not the New Moon or the Sabbath."
"It’s all right," she said.
24 She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, "Lead on; don’t slow down for me unless I tell you." 25 So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, "Look! There’s the Shunammite! 26 Run to meet her and ask her, ’Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’ "
"Everything is all right," she said.
27 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 said, "Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me why."
28 "Did I ask you for a son, my lord?" she said. "Didn’t I tell you ’Don’t raise my hopes’?"
29 Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face."
30 But the child’s mother said, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So he got up and followed her.
31 Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy has not awakened."
32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. 33 He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD. 34 Then he got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy’s body grew warm. 35 Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
36 Elisha summoned Gehazi and said "Call the Shunammite." And he did. When she came, he said, "Take your son." 37 She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.”
2 Kings 4 verses 8-32
“ 1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, "Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the LORD has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years." 2 The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.
3 At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to the king to beg for her house and land. 4 The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, "Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done." 5 Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to beg the king for her house and land.
Gehazi said, "This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life." 6 The king asked the woman about it, and she told him.
Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, "Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now."”
2 Kings 8 verses 1 - 6
The shunnamite woman remains one of the few persons recorded in the Bible that was restored not once but twice in the blessings that she had lost. Her restoration was the result of her deep and abiding faith in God.
The shunammite woman was a wealthy woman who lived in Shunem, one of the towns where Prophet Elisha passed from time to time. She noticed that the man of God needed a place to stay anytime he passed through the town. She sought her husband’s permission to build a room in their house for the man of God so that he would be more comfortable anytime he passed through the place. Her husband granted her request and through this act of kindness, she received more than she ever thought she could have. She was not expecting to gain anything by her act of kindness but God rewarded her beyond her wildest dreams. He proved that he was an Ephesians 3 v. 20 God who is
“ Able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us”
Even though Elisha asked her if he could speak on to the King or other officials on her behalf, she declined . Since she lived amongst her own people and she was a wealthy woman, she did not need any favor from anyone. However, even though she had great riches, her husband was old and she was without a child. In those days, once a woman became a widow, the only person who can protect her rights is her son. Here was a woman, whose husband was old and she was about to become voiceless in society . Once her husband dies, there would be no-one else to redress any wrong done to her. However, her act of kindness to the man of God was rewarded and she received the blessings Jesus Christ stated in the book of Matthew 10 v. 11”
“Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.
When Elisha told the shunammite woman that she will conceive a child, she told him not to deceive her. She did not want her hopes raised only to be dashed to pieces. Another woman who disbelieved the promise of a child was Sarah , the wife of Abraham ( See Genesis 18 v. 1-15) However, as God said to Sarah in verse 14 “ Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
The shunammite woman did conceive and she had a son. How great must her joy have been! However, the devil was waiting to steal her joy. But in the face of great adversity and discouragement, she showed great faith and confidence in God. Instead of her to weep and howl , she kept the child on the bed of the man of God. She was confident that God who gave her this child will restore him back to life. Since Elisha gave her the promise that the child would be conceived, it was to him she ran when the child died. She asked her husband to give her a young man and a donkey so that she could run to the man of God . When her husband asked why she wanted to see the man of God when there was no new moon or Sabbath, she told him “it shall be well”. This demonstrates her great faith that no matter what happens, God is still in control. Even when Gehazi saw her and asked her about her husband and child, she told him, “It is well”. This further establish her total faith and confidence in God that what has been taken from her would be restored.
When she saw Elisha face to face, her emotions became too much for her . However, Elisha thought that by sending his staff with Gehazi , this will bring the child back to life and the woman will leave her alone . However, the shunammite woman refused to leave Elisha until he followed her.
When Elisha got to the woman’s house, the child was still dead as Gehazi had not been able to bring him back to life. However, Elisha did what he must have seen his master Elijah do when Elijah was faced with a similar situation. (See 1 Kings v. 21-22). Elisha lay upon the child, put his mouth, face and hands to the child’s and stretched himself on the child. However, that was not enough to bring the child back to life. He had to pray and again stretched himself on the child before the child was brought back to life. When the woman saw that her son was brought back to life, she bowed down to the ground worshipped the Lord. Her confidence and faith in God was richly rewarded.
Apart from the blessing of having a son brought back to life, the Shunammite woman went on to experience so many other blessings from GOD, just by her singular act of kindness to a man of God.
In 2 Kings 8 v. 1-6, Elisha warned the Shunammite woman that a famine would come upon the lands for 7 years. He advised her to leave the country because of the impending disaster. The bible did not record that her husband was present with her at that time. It may be that he was already dead. We do not know. However, because of the prior information that she had concerning the coming disaster, she traveled to the land of the Philistines to
live for seven years until the famine was over. On her return back to Shunem, she went back to cry to the king for the restoration of her house and her land. All these must have been taken from her when she was in the land of the Philistines. It must have been treated as abandoned property and taken over by others or it may have reverted back to the king himself. One thing we are sure of though. Her husband was dead because he did was not mentioned again and her son was too young to ask the king for the estate. However, to show the demonstration and power of God at work again in the life of this woman, the very time that she approached the king was the same time that Gehazi was recounting the story of how the shunammite’s son was restored back to life. This is not just mere coincidence but the power of God at work. The king asked her if the story recounted by Gehazi was true and she confirmed the story. He then asked on of his officials to "Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now."” What a great story! What a great restoration! And to answer the words of God that he uttered to Sarah “ nothing is too difficult for God to do “.
Her life also confirms the promise of God in Joel 2 v. 25 and 26 which says “
“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.
