Luke 22 and 2 Kings 4
“And He sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat. And they said unto Him, Where wilt Thou that we prepare? And He said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in. And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the passover with My disciples? And he shall show you a large upper room furnished: there make ready. And they went, and found as He had said unto them: and they made ready the passover. And when the hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him” (Luke 22:8-14).
“And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither. And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there” (2 Kings 4:8-11).
The “Guest Chamber” of Luke 22
We would like to consider two very remarkable rooms mentioned in these scriptures. Though separated in time by more than 900 years, they bear striking moral similarities to each other and contain principles and instructions which are of the greatest interest to believers who would gather together to answer the Lord’s blessed request: “This do in remembrance of Me.”
The “guest chamber” mentioned in Luke 22 is the place to which our blessed Lord Jesus directed the disciples: that place where He would eat that last passover supper with them and institute His remembrance feast. The other room was also prepared as a “guest chamber” with a view of providing a place of rest for the man of God as he passed through the city of Shunem.
The principles connected with the room in Luke 22 are presented to us as a view of God’s thoughts concerning the place where He would have His children gather, giving public expression to the body of Christ and remembering the death of His beloved Son. The principles connected with the room in 2 Kings are in view of man’s failure to maintain the testimony that God desires. They serve as a special encouragement to individual faith regardless of the collective condition of the church of God. In this way we believe that Luke 22 morally answers to 1 Timothy a time when all was in order. Second Kings 4 would answer morally to 2 Timothy where the individual goes on for God’s glory in the midst of great outward religious confusion.
In Luke, then, we first have the reason for the institution of the Lord’s supper: “go and prepare... that we may eat.” How touching that the blessed Lord Jesus desires to eat with His own! In Matthew (and Mark) the disciples ask: “Where wilt Thou that we prepare for Thee to eat the passover?” But He lovingly corrects them, making plain that He will eat in fellowship with His loved ones. Let us never forget what it means to the heart of our blessed Lord Jesus to see those of His own sitting with Him to partake of the Lord’s supper.
Next are instructions as to how that place may be found: submission to the Lord’s will “where wilt Thou,” and following the Spirit by faith—“there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water: follow him.” Oh, how vital is submission to the mind of God as revealed to faith in His Word!
After this we learn that since the “goodman of the house” (the Spirit of God) already has a “guest chamber” ready, man’s efforts at providing a place are both unnecessary and unacceptable. The “guest chamber” that He provides has three beautiful features connected with it. It is “large,” that is, there is room enough in it to accommodate every child of God. It is the desire of our Lord that all His redeemed gather there to remember Him in His death.
It is also an “upper room,” morally separated from the level of the world, and it is divinely “furnished” with everything suitable to the blessed presence of the Lord Jesus.
There was only one thing for the disciples to do when they came to that room and it is, we say reverently, that which the Lord cannot do. They were to “make ready the passover.” For us “making ready” ought to be a matter of daily exercise of communion and worship. Let us not go to the “upper room” to meet Him with “unready” hearts that have nothing to offer Him!
The appointed hour came; the Lord Jesus sat down with His own in the guest room, and we hear those blessed words uttered: “with desire I have desired to eat this passover with you.” Beloved brethren, should we need any other motive than this to be found gathered in His blessed presence?
The Guest Room of 2 Kings 4
This “guest room” was prepared during a time of great confusion and ruin among the people of God. Ten tribes of Israel no longer identified themselves with God’s true gathering center in Jerusalem, having forsaken it to worship the two golden calves at Dan and Bethel. But in the midst of such sad failure there were hearts found still true to Jehovah.
Thus we are introduced to a “great” (“wealthy,” JND) woman of Shunem. Though surrounded by spiritual deadness and idolatry, her heart was burning with real love for the God of Israel. It was her heart’s affection which caused her to constrain Elisha, the man of God, to eat bread in her house. In Luke 22 it is the Lord Jesus whose heart desired the company of His own. But in a day of outward ruin, it becomes the privilege of the great woman to express such a desire. Then, with the affections of her heart right, she was able to discern who it was that passed by her home.
Next we see in this woman that most lovely moral virtue of submission to her husband. Though her heart greatly desired to have fellowship with the man of God, she did nothing until “she said to her husband... let us make.” Her submissive spirit thus brings him into fellowship with her desire.
Submission also gives her a wonderful understanding of that which would be suitable to the presence of the man of God in such a day as she lived. In Luke it was a “large” room, but here she desires to build “a little chamber.” Today, when the Christian profession strives to be great, let us remember that the presence of the Lord is morally suited to a “little room” not as being sectarian, but in view of the “day of small things.”
However, this room, like that of Luke 22, will also be found in separation from the world. It’s position was “on the wall.” The testimony to the Lord Jesus in the midst, whether in the bright days of Pentecost or later, when Paul preached in the “upper room,” is always to be found in separation from the world.
This room was furnished with four things beautifully suited in principle to the presence of the man of God. First, there was a bed: a place where the man of God could find his rest. Is it not a comfort to the heart to realize that today the Lord Jesus finds His rest even in the “twos and threes” gathered alone to His worthy name?
The room also contained a table where fellowship with the man of God might be enjoyed and his authority owned. It is good to remember that though today is a time of great failure in Christianity, the supreme authority of the Lord has not changed nor has the preciousness of fellowship with Himself.
A chair and a candlestick completed the simple furnishings of the room in Shunem. In Pergamos, (Rev. 2:12-17) where Christ’s authority should have been owned, Satan had gained entrance and the wicked doctrines of Balaam and the Nicolaitans were taught there. But what a comfort it is to realize that in all the doctrinal error that abounds today, there can still be a “little room” which contains a “candlestick” and a “chair” for the Lord Jesus, that, by His Spirit, His mind and His truth may be made known to His own.
The result in the day of the Shunammite in preparing this little room was that when the man of God passed by, he found a place morally suited in every way to his presence. He entered there and finding his rest he “lay there.”
How precious to realize that in such a day as we live in, believers, like the Shunammite of old, may still experience the joy of the presence of the “man of God” our blessed Lord Jesus Christ with us in the “little chamber.”
And finally, does not the “guest chamber” suggest to our hearts that there will not always be opportunity for His own to “make ready” and to “prepare” in order to remember Him? It is only “till He come.” We expect Him to come for His beloved bride at any moment. As a beloved brother used to say, “In glory it will be too late to add a P.S. to our lives.” Let us not allow failure, spiritual indifference or anything else to keep us from answering the request of our precious Saviour—in the “guest chamber” now while there is opportunity! “This do ye... in remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:25).
Ed.