Sometimes we need a whopping dose of hope to go with our faith if we are going to believe God for big things. In our passage and lesson, yesterday, we read about how the Shunammite woman was barren and unable to have a child, so Elisha spoke a promise from God for her and she soon became pregnant. This woman struggled to receive that blessing, because she saw no way for it to be fulfilled. Yet, is anything too difficult for God?
The Shunammite woman did indeed get pregnant and have a child. God revealed himself to her as the God of the impossible. Her understanding of God’s power and promise never left her; the Truth remained with her. She was blessed by the Lord and she knew it.
Our passage continues today with the need for even greater faith. This child suddenly becomes gravely ill—perhaps a brain aneurism—while out in the field with his father. Even though the child is taken back to the house for the mother’s care, he dies.
Therefore, this woman of faith can only think of one thing to do; she must go find Elisha. So, she places the child’s lifeless body on Elisha’s bed, neglects to tell her husband about the death, and travels to Mount Carmel to find Elisha, but instead first sees his servant Gehazi. She neglects to tell Gehazi of the child’s death and presses on to find Elisha. When see encounters the man of God she faces her grief, finds comfort and the confidence to believe in another miracle.
While our faith will have to endure many challenges, we must remain persistent in our understanding of the Truth: there is no greater power than God and our hope must be in him. If you are in a battle of faith that presses your endurance, please do not give up hope in God. He alone writes your life story; he wrote it with love in mind. Talk to the Lord and you will gain the persistent strength you need. As we celebrate our Declaration of Independence, please remain faithful and “dependent” upon God.
2 Kings 4:18-31 NLT
18 One day when her child was older, he went out to help his father, who was working with the harvesters. 19 Suddenly he cried out, “My head hurts! My head hurts!”
His father said to one of the servants, “Carry him home to his mother.”
20 So the servant took him home, and his mother held him on her lap. But around noontime he died. 21 She carried him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and left him there. 22 She sent a message to her husband: “Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the man of God and come right back.”
23 “Why go today?” he asked. “It is neither a new moon festival nor a Sabbath.”
But she said, “It will be all right.”
24 So she saddled the donkey and said to the servant, “Hurry! Don’t slow down unless I tell you to.”
25 As she approached the man of God at Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her in the distance. He said to Gehazi, “Look, the woman from Shunem is coming. 26 Run out to meet her and ask her, ‘Is everything all right with you, your husband, and your child?’”
“Yes,” the woman told Gehazi, “everything is fine.”
27 But when she came to the man of God at the mountain, she fell to the ground before him and caught hold of his feet. Gehazi began to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone. She is deeply troubled, but the Lord has not told me what it is.”
28 Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? And didn’t I say, ‘Don’t deceive me and get my hopes up’?”
29 Then Elisha said to Gehazi, “Get ready to travel; take my staff and go! Don’t talk to anyone along the way. Go quickly and lay the staff on the child’s face.”
30 But the boy’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I won’t go home unless you go with me.” So Elisha returned with her.
31 Gehazi hurried on ahead and laid the staff on the child’s face, but nothing happened. There was no sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and told him, “The child is still dead.”
32 When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there on the prophet’s bed. 33 He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the Lord. 34 Then he lay down on the child’s body, placing his mouth on the child’s mouth, his eyes on the child’s eyes, and his hands on the child’s hands. And as he stretched out on him, the child’s body began to grow warm again! 35 Elisha got up, walked back and forth across the room once, and then stretched himself out again on the child. This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!
Prayer: Lord, you move the mountains in our lives and help us press on in faith to believe in better days to come. Thank you for being our Hope and Helper; to look for miracles and to come boldly before your throne of grace to ask for what we need, as well as share the deepest desires of our hearts. It is safe to be vulnerable and real with you. Help us to stay strong Lord and remember your power is so great it cannot be measured. In Jesus’ name. Amen.