The Shunammite Woman/ Shunem

Her character: Generous and hospitable, she was a wealthy and capable woman who showed great kindness to one of Yah God’s prophets.
Her sorrow: To lose the son that had been promised her.
Her joy: To experience just how deep Yah God’s faithfulness goes.
Key Scriptures: 2 Kings 4:8-37; 8:1-6

Her Story

Just a few miles north of Jezreel, where Jezebel’s story had drawn to its grim conclusion, lived a wealthy Shunem Israelite woman whose sharp eye kept track of travelers from Nazareth to Jerusalem. One of the more colorful characters who frequented the road outside her house was Elisha, the prophet who succeeded Elijah.

One day the Shunammite woman invited Elisha to linger for a meal. Afterward, she said to her husband, “Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed, a table, a stool and a candlestick for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”

Moved by her kindness, Elisha inquired, through his servant, Geichazi, whether he could use his influence with Israel’s king on her behalf. But the woman wasn’t looking for favors at court, so Elisha pressed his servant, saying, “What, then, can be done for her?”  Geichazi his servant merely pointed out the obvious: the woman and her aging husband were childless, without an heir to carry on the family name. So Elisha summoned the woman and made an incredible promise: “About this time next year you will hold a son in your arms.”  “No, my lord,” she objected. “Don’t mislead your servant, O Man of Yah God!”

Yet, a year later, just as Elisha had foretold, the woman held a squalling infant in her arms, laughing as she told others the story of Yah God’s surprising gift. Unlike so many of her female forebears—Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Tamar, Hannah—the Shunammite woman seemed content without children.

One morning, a few years later, a servant entered the house with the little boy in his arms, explaining that the child had complained of a headache while visiting his father in the fields. Perhaps he had lingered too long in the sun.  The boy’s face was flushed, his forehead hot as his mother caressed it, hushing him with soothing sounds and songs. But despite murmured words of reassurance, she felt her own fear spreading. The tighter she held him, the more his spirit seemed to retreat. His breathing was labored, his eyes listless. At about noon he died.

Without a word, she carried his small body to the prophet’s room, laying it tenderly on Elisha’s bed. Closing the door, she summoned a servant and left immediately for Mount Carmel, where she hoped to find Elisha.  Spotting her in the distance, the prophet wondered aloud what could prompt her to make the twenty-five-mile journey north. “Run to meet her,” he urged Geichazi his servant, “and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’ ”

But the woman merely brushed Geichazi aside with polite words and rushed straight to Elisha, exclaiming: “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I tell you, Didn’t I say not to deceive me?”  Immediately the prophet instructed Geichazi: “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.”

The woman, however, wasn’t about to settle for a stand-in. So the prophet hurried to Shunem just behind Geichazi, who had gone on ahead to carry out his master’s orders. When Elisha arrived, he found the boy lying quiet and cold on his bed. Elisha closed the door behind him. Praying, he stretched his body across the boy’s so that hands, mouth, and eyes touched. As he lay there, he could feel the chilled body warming beneath him. Then he went down, walked around in the house awhile, went back up and stretched himself out on the child again. The child sneezed seven times, then opened his eyes.  The prophet called for the woman, she entered, fell at his feet and prostrated herself on the floor. Then she picked up her son and went out.

The Shunammite woman may, in fact, have heard the story of how Elijah had raised the son of the widow of Zarephath in similar circumstances. If so, that miracle would certainly have fueled her hope, giving her the courage to seek her own miracle rather than collapse under so great a weight of grief. Now, as she saw for herself the irrefutable sign of Yah God’s loving-kindness,Yah God had been true to his word, fulfilling his promise to her and then preserving it in the face of impossible circumstances.

Her Promise

The Shunammite woman knew there was hope even in the most devastating of circumstances. She had been promised a son when she was barren, and now she tenaciously held on to that promise even though her little son lay dead on Elisha’s bed. “It’s all right,” she said to her husband, knowing full well that their boy was gone. The God who had given her the promise wasn’t gone. She knew he wouldn’t forsake her.

“It’s all right.” Can you express that sentiment even when your world is crashing in on you? Perhaps not. Remember, however, that even in the most agonizing of circumstances, even when you feel abandoned, even when tragedy strikes— Yah God is there. Trust his WORD and gain assurance from the Shunammite woman who, in the midst of appalling circumstances, could say, “It’s all right.”