The blessing brought into the Shunammite's household was entirely unsought. Welcome, indeed it was, but in striking contrast to the preceding case of the woman and the creditor. It is well when trouble leads us to God as the only resource in difficulty and trial. He does encourage us to make of Him our refuge and resource at such times. “Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify Me.” And in the New Testament we read also, “Be anxious for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God,” and this is accompanied by the assurance that “the peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
But there are some things for which we never should have prayed to God. The chiefest blessings “of Christianity are the unspeakable gift of God-His beloved Son, and the gift of the Spirit. Of the first of these we may say, it was the measure and the expression of the boundless love of God to a ruined world which, so far from feeling its need of and praying for such a gift, did its best to get rid of Him when He came into this scene. Significantly true “there was no room for them in the inn.” “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). And again, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9, 10).
In giving His Son to die for us God was gratifying His own heart of love, as also in the subsequent fulfillment of His promise of the gift of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. This was the answer to the prayer of the Lord Jesus in John 14: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever: [even] the spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him “not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you” (vers. 16, 17). This promise of the Father (not to the world, or to men in their sins, but to the Lord Jesus, who had already prayed for it), the Lord when risen and exalted on high, received, and so poured out the Spirit upon His disciples when waiting for the promise they were all together in one place (Acts 2:1).
The natural man has no taste for divine things, nor appreciation of God's greatest and best gift. But in the case of this Shunammite we find beyond a doubt that by His Spirit God had already been working in the heart of this woman, producing spiritual discernment, faith in God, and an appreciation of holiness, which bore its own blessed fruit. So, too, in a later day a Lydia, of the city of Thyatira, was chosen and prepared by the same Spirit for the reception of still greater honor and blessing, “whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought [us], saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come in to my house and abide. And she constrained us” (Acts 16:14, 15).
It was the Lord Himself who said, “He that receiveth you receiveth me,” and the reality of a divine work in the soul may be discerned in this way. May we not look upon the instance of the Gentile widow to whom Elijah was sent (1 Kings 17) as affording both a parallel and a contrast? With the woman of Sarepta it was at the end of the Lord's dealings with her and as Elijah's visit was drawing to a close, that she learned to regard him as a man of God who had the word of Jehovah. “By this I know that thou [art] a man of God, that the word of Jehovah in thy mouth [is] truth” (1 Kings 17:24); while with the Shunammite she has this knowledge at the commencement and acts upon it. If the natural man raises difficulties and gives not God credit for being as good as His word, and able to perform what He promises, the believer it is who believes God and receives the blessing. But there can be no security of blessing in any promise of God to fallen man as such. The wonderful communications of God's word are for faith to rest on, and await the accomplishment of what is foretold. Some may ask, But did not the Lord God in Eden, while judging the transgression make a promise to man concerning the birth of a Savior? Not at all. There was no “promise” made to man-disgraced, discredited and judged-but there was an announcement to the serpent in the hearing of Adam and Eve of coming judgment, that the seed of the woman (not, of the man) should bruise the serpent's head. No doubt this declaration, mysterious as it must have appeared to our first parents, was meant for faith to lay hold of and confide in until it pleased God to give added light by the further revelations of His purposes of blessing for man, and the discomfiture and final judgment of man's greatest enemy and God's.
The Shunammite woman, then, had already been the subject of divine workmanship. God had opened her heart to give heed to the things spoken by Elisha. She perceived that he who passed that way so frequently and was pleased to accept of her hospitality, was indeed “a holy man of God.” It was the only character which justly became one doing the work of God in Israel at that time. Kings and priests had corrupted themselves, and blessing could not come to any in Israel through such defiled channels. So in a later day when Judah had become corrupt, and God would yet in mercy linger over His guilty people, foretelling to them brighter days to dawn upon them, we see that Ezekiel, who was given by God these prophetic communications, although himself a priest, yet was he habitually addressed as son of man, as was also Daniel, of Judah's royal family, although less frequently.
If we turn to the apostle Paul we shall find that in both of his epistles to Timothy he speaks of the “man of God.” In the first, Timothy is so addressed. “But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called, and hast professed the good profession before many witnesses,” etc. (6:11, 12). And in his second epistle we read, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work” (3: 16, 17). A title without honor or authority of a worldly sort, it doubtless expresses the true character of such as God would use in His service in a day of declension and departure from the faith.
As to the particular manifestation of the power and goodness of God in this case, may we not see in it a personal type of the Lord Jesus Christ? We may note four such remarkable interventions of God in the history of the nation recorded in the Old Testament. Each one, doubtless, not without relation to the divine announcement in Genesis 3 already referred to. Each of a progressive character, too, i.e., in their typical significance, each being an advance upon its predecessor.
God in the exercise of His sovereign right made choice of Abram to be a witness for Himself, and to be the depository of promise. “Now Jehovah had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed..... And Jehovah appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land; and there builded he an altar unto Jehovah, who appeared unto him” (Genesis 12:1-3). This, however, was but general. It was not until he had refused the proffered gifts of the king of Sodom that God made a definite promise, which could only be fulfilled in his own family. “After these things the word of Jehovah came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I [am] thy shield, thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, 0 Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house [is] this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed; and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of Jehovah [came] unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in Jehovah, and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:1-6). But that which faith values is also used for disciplining the individual. It was so in Abram's case, as Genesis 15-21 abundantly illustrates. Moreover, it was not until twenty-five years had elapsed that God fulfilled His own promise. Each succeeding year must have seemed to make the promise still more unlikely of fulfillment, so that we can hardly wonder at Abram's laughter in chapter 17, nor of Sarah's in the chapter following. In the birth of Isaac, coupled with his surrender (in chapter 22.), we have by far the most striking type of Christ to be found in the Old Testament.
But when the children of promise had received the blessing because of God's faithfulness, and forfeited it because of their disobedience, God visited His people in sovereign mercy, and caused another barren woman to give birth to a deliverer. “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Jehovah; and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, who name [was] Manoah; and his wife was barren and bare not. And an angel of Jehovah appeared unto the woman and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not; but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. Now, therefore, beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean [thing]. For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines” (Judges 13:1-5). Here there was no discipline or trial of faith, as in Abram's case, but a beautiful type of the man whom God made strong for Himself, breaking the power of the enemy and delivering His people, although they did not deserve it and did not know Him when come. “And Manoah said unto the angel of Jehovah, I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee. And the angel of Jehovah said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread; and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto Jehovah. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of Jehovah. And Manoah said unto the angel of Jehovah, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass, we may do thee honor? And the angel of Jehovah said unto him, Why asketh thou thus after my name, seeing it is wonderful” (vers. 15-18).
Further, when the priestly family had corrupted themselves, and caused the Lord's people to abhor Jehovah's offerings, the faith of one (who in herself typified the godly remnant of Israel in the last days) finds approval and encouragement. Again the barren woman-Israel after the flesh-(see Isaiah 26:17-19) is made to be the joyful mother of children. On this occasion we see the spirit of prophecy awakened, the prayers of the godly are heard and answered, confidence in God sustained in expectation of what Jehovah would accomplish by His anointed king. “Jehovah killeth and maketh alive, he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. Jehovah maketh poor, and maketh rich; he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory; for the pillars of the earth are Jehovah's, and he hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of Jehovah shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall be thunder upon them. Jehovah shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his King, and exalt the horn of his Anointed” (1 Samuel 2:6-10). Lastly, in the case before us, things are even worse in the nation, but God knows how to reach the hearts of His people. First of all He gives the hearing ear and then the understanding heart, leading them to acknowledge that God is indeed visiting His people in unsolicited goodness.
[G. S. B.]
(To be continued)