When 1+1=1

Introduction

From the title of this message, it is clear that this is an unusual formula. Yes, 1+1 = 1, not 2. Ordinarily, 1+1 equals 2, but there are many things in the word of God which are not ordinary, but extra-ordinary. When God parted the Red Sea for the people of Israel when they were being chased by Pharaoh and his army, it was not ordinary. When God reversed the ageing process in Sarah and she became pregnant at a very old age, it wasn’t ordinary. When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were rescued from the fiery furnace, it wasn’t ordinary. Our God is an extra-ordinary God, and His actions are extra-ordinary. That is why He is God.

The Bible in Genesis 2: 24 says ‘therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh (also Matthew 19:5, Mark 10:7). In other words, a man (1) and a woman (1) added together in marriage have become one, not two. Unfortunately, there are homes where one of the two parties has literally disappeared, where the wife or the husband – most of the time the wife – has been completely rendered voiceless by the domineering party who likes to be in charge of every single situation. In some others, all the man and his wife are able to do is reach is compromise, not conclusion, as one party steps back from the other in an attempt to avoid friction. Some other married couples are always arguing not agreeing, while in other homes, many wives compete with their husbands when they are meant to complete them. I remember a friend of mine here in the UK who went to buy a car when his wife bought a new car! He even got a mortgage when his wife bought a new house. Just to show who was in charge! Talk about competing!

Today I am bring the word of God to you in this message about the God-ordained marriage relationship between you and your husband, between you and your wife. Brethren, the devil is at work wrecking marriages and the church is not immune. The rate of divorces in the church is as high as those outside the church. But I am here to bring you a message of hope: if you commit your relationship to God, He is able to keep it, if you fearfully work on your marriage using the scriptures as your guide, with the help of the Holy Spirit, it shall be well with your home.

Let’s read from 2 Kings 4: 8-21:

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.

You have probably heard a preaching on this passage, you might have even read it many times. However, the passage is famous more for how God used Prophet Elisha to raise the son of the Shunamite couple from the dead than for the great relationship between the Shunamite couple, which is what I am focusing on today. If not for this great relationship between man and wife, the devil would have stolen their son from them.