When we’ve been dealt a very hard blow, and the bottom seems to have dropped out of our lives, what is our response? Do we have faith that God will hear our prayers, or do we just give up? In our Old Testament reading today from the Lectionary of the Book of Common Prayer for this week, we read of a woman who was a believer in Yahweh, of the help that she gave the prophet, a man of God, and of an event that she went through that would have tried the faith of the best of us, yet she did not waver or lose her trust in the Lord God, nor in His servant. Let’s see what lessons the Lord might want to teach us from this Scripture.
This Bible passage tells of an account from the life of the prophet Elisha, who was the successor of the great prophet Elijah. Throughout the year, Elisha would journey across the country, preaching and teaching the people the Word of God, and urging them to abandon their false idols and return to Yahweh. Whenever Elisha was by the village of Shunem, a woman there would invite him to her home and provide a nice, home-cooked meal for him. Her and her husband even decided to add a room to their house so Elisha would have a place to rest and sleep (vs. 8-10). She had the gift of hospitality, and did what she could to help and encourage the traveling preacher. Because of her faithfulness and kindness to the man of God, the Lord would bring her a great blessing. God never forgets our acts of kindness to others, particularly to those who are doing His work.
This woman from Shunem had no children, and in that time in history, to be childless was to be thought of as shamed and unloved by God. Yet because of her care for God’s prophet, He would bless her abundantly. Elisha told her that she would have a son, and though she had gone years with no child, she did bear a son, just as God had promised her (vs. 11-17). Her greatest trial was yet to come, though.
When the child was several years old, possibly a pre-teen or early teen, he went out to help his father and other farm-hands work in the field. While out in the sun he became sick, possibly from sunstroke. The boy was carried to his mother, where a while later he died (vs. 18-20). The moment of testing had come. How would she face this? Her first response was to go and call for the man of God to come. Notice that when she was questioned about why she was seeking the man of God, she didn’t fall to pieces, wringing her hands and crying hysterically. She spoke a word of faith, “It is well.” (vs. 23, 26). How could it be well when her son was lying dead at home? Again, the answer is in faith. The woman had faith. She knew that God didn’t give her a child after many years of barrenness to only take him away a few years later. And rather than just fall to pieces at his bedside, she did what God instructs us to do, call upon the religious leaders to come and pray (James 5:14). Pray, believing that God hears and answers.
When faced with a daunting situation, neither this woman, nor the prophet Elisha backed away and said, “Oh well. There’s nothing we can do now.” They stood on faith that God can raise the dead. Elisha’s mentor, Elijah had raised another young boy to life again after he had died (I Kings 17:17-24). They stepped out in faith, believing that Yahweh is not a weak and piddling god, like the idols the pagans worshipped. He is the one, true God, both a mighty and a loving God, who does all things well. They went back to the house, believing God would hear and answer them, and Yahweh answered their faith in Him (vs. 32-37).
When we are faced with a seemingly impossible situation, do we throw up our hands and give in, defeated and depressed? Or will we step out in faith like the Shunammite woman did? Will we have faith like Elisha did, following the leading that his mentor Elijah had taught him, trusting God to do the impossible? God calls us to trust in Him, no matter what happens - in the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story.
No comments:
Post a Comment