2 Kings 8:1-61Then spake Elisha unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for the Lord hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years. 2And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God: and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. 3And it came to pass at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land. 4And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done. 5And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. 6And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now. (2 Kings 8:1‑6)
Mr. Newton was a very punctual man. Nothing troubled him more than finding he was late for an appointment. One of his duties in London was to inspect a man-of-war, which rode at anchor in the Thames River. A little boat took him each day from the shore to the ship. One day the boatman was late. Five — ten — fifteen minutes passed away. At last Newton lost his temper. His love of punctuality made him angry with the man whose carelessness was making him late. But it was not long before he was shown that the delay was God’s providence, for before he reached the vessel, a spark fell into the powder magazine, resulting in a loud explosion, and the ship was blown into a thousand pieces.
Surely there was an unseen hand guiding and overseeing the movements of this servant of the Lord, for does not God order even tiny events to work out His will for His people’s good?
An instance of this is brought before us in 2 Kings 8. As we read the story, we come across one of whom we have heard before. It is the lady of Shunem — the kind and hospitable woman who lived in the beautiful house surrounded by gardens, who brought Elisha and Gehazi into her house, who planned the little room on the wall for the prophet, and who furnished it carefully with everything that might minister to his comfort. In return she received for her kindness to the prophet the welcome gift of a child and that child was restored to her after his sudden death.
She is a widow now, but her son is still with her. They are still dwelling at Samaria, when once more the prophet comes to see her and to occupy the little chamber on the wall. He has come to tell the Shunammite a secret, which has been made known to him by God. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him,” and Elisha was one who lived very near to God.
The secret is this: A famine of long duration is coming. For seven years the harvests shall fail and bread shall be scarce. Is the famine coming by chance? No, says Elisha, not by chance; “the Lord hath called for a famine.”
Let us grasp the comfort of these words. We can bear trouble better if we take it straight from His hands, the loving hands which blessed the little children and healed the sick, the very hands which were pierced by the nails. The Lord Himself has called the famine, the sickness, the bereavement or the sorrow. The Lord has called that affliction — that thorn in the flesh that is clouding our life. Let us look away from second causes to the source. “It is the Lord: let Him do what seemeth Him good.”
“Now,” says Elisha, “seeing the Lord has called a famine, and that famine will last seven years, Shunem will become a wilderness. Pack up all you will need and go into another land until the seven years are over.”
Does she believe him? How can she doubt him after the fulfillment of his wonderful promise about her child? At once she acts to carry out his advice. She gathers her possessions together, shuts up her house at Shunem, and goes with her son and her servants into a foreign land.
Where does she go? She goes to the fertile plain in the south of the country by the side of the Mediterranean where the Philistines dwelt. There Abraham went in time of famine; there too went Isaac. It was a land of cornfields, a land of plenty. There the lady of Shunem and her household spent the seven years of famine.
How fully the Shunammite is recompensed for her kindness to God’s servant, the prophet! She gave him a candle; God gave her the boy to be the light of her life. She gave him a table; God in the time of famine spread before her a table of plenty. She gave him a stool to sit on and a bed on which to rest; God gave her a quiet, safe resting-place in the time of trouble.
Even the cup of cold water given in His name shall not lose its reward. No kindness, however small, done for the Lord’s sake to the Lord’s people, shall be unnoticed. God sees all, remembers all and rewards all, and the measure of His payment is this: “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”
The seven years pass away, and the famine is over. Once more the thoughts of the lady of Shunem turn to her old home. She has no fear of returning, for the time mentioned by the prophet has expired. She is glad to leave the heathen land of the Philistines for the country given to the Lord’s people. No house by the blue Mediterranean can ever be to her what her home among her people has always been. So she with her son travels northwards toward her hometown.
But a bitter disappointment awaits them. Instead of finding their home empty, they discover that it is occupied, and the doors are closed against her and her son. Others have seized her property during her absence.
The poor lady of Shunem and her son walk through the village, desolate and distressed. What will she do? There is only one thing she can do and that is to apply to the king. But will the king listen to her? Years ago Elisha had asked her, “Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host?” She had not needed it then. She had said, “I dwell among mine own people.” But she needs it now.
Where is Elisha? If she knew, she would go to him, but he is evidently absent from the country. Her only hope is to go to the king herself and plead her own cause. Surely before she went to the king, she knelt down and put her cause in the Lord’s hands, asking Him to undertake for her.
Now let us see what happened. Along the road leading to Samaria comes the poor widowed Shunammite and her son. At the same moment we see two men standing together, talking. The two are the king of Israel and Gehazi, once the servant of Elisha.
What, Gehazi the leper? Can it be that the great King Jehoram will condescend to talk to a poor, loathsome leper? How can we account for so strange an interview?
It is possible that Gehazi was one of the four lepers who discovered the flight of the Syrians and that the king was anxious to talk to one of them and to hear more about the particulars of their strange discovery, for the flight of the Syrians seems to have taken place just at the close of the seven years’ famine and at the very time when the Shunammite and her son were on their way home. How natural, then, for Gehazi, in his conversation with the king, to mention his former connection with the wonder-working prophet, who had foretold the end, the marvelous end, of the siege!
Perhaps Gehazi is no longer a leper. Could it be that the affliction had brought him to God, that he had mourned for his sin and repented of his deceit and lying, and that he had been mercifully forgiven and restored? God is very pitiful and of tender mercy. “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” cried Jonah. But when the Ninevites turned to God, He did not overthrow them at that time.
Whatever the reason, we find Gehazi talking to King Jehoram. He has evidently told the king that he was once Elisha’s servant and knew all about Elisha’s works. And the king, seeing their deliverance from the Syrian, is much interested in the question of the prophet’s miraculous power. He would like to hear more about the man who knows what is going to happen before it happens.
“Tell me, I pray thee,” he says to Gehazi, “all the great things that Elisha hath done.”
So Gehazi begins his story. He would tell of the Jordan River being divided by the mantle of Elijah, of the spring at Jericho healed, of the widow’s oil multiplied, and of the pot of soup made wholesome. And then he passes on to the most wonderful miracle of all. He speaks of Shunem, the lovely village. He tells of the kind lady who lived there and of her promised child. Then he describes the sudden and touching death of that child, the sorrow of the mother, her appeal to his master, and then the miracle of miracles, the boy restored to life and given back to his mother. King Jehoram listens, wondering and amazed, as he hears of the great things God has done through Elisha.
But just as Gehazi is picturing the joy of the Shunammite when her child was raised to life again, he looks up and to his astonishment he sees her. Yes, there she is. He has not seen her for years, but he recognizes her in a moment. “My lord, O king,” he cries in amazement, “this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.”
At that very moment, when the king’s thoughts are fixed upon her and when the king’s interest is thoroughly aroused by her story, the Shunammite stands before him. She has come to tell him of her wrongs and to plead for his help. Had she come the week before or the day before or even an hour earlier, she might have pleaded in vain. But she arrived at the right moment. So touched by and interested in her history is King Jehoram that he is ready to do all she asks him. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord.”
The Shunammite pours out her sorrowful tale. At once the king calls an official and bids him see that she has her house and land restored to her. Not only so, but she is to be paid for whatever the fields have produced in her absence.
Very gladly, very thankfully, the Shunammite and her son return to their old home, to dwell once more among their own people.
See how wonderfully God had ordered the steps of that good woman. It was not by chance that on that particular day the king met Gehazi. It was not by chance that the conversation turned to Shunem. It was not by chance that she came up exactly at that moment. It was the hand of God.
The same Newton, who was so wonderfully saved from death by the delay of his boatman, said once, in a letter to a friend, that he could never doubt God’s hand in these little matters of daily life. One day he hesitated at a certain fork in the road, not certain which way he should go, seeing that both ways led to his destination. On that choice, though he knew it not, hung all his future life. In the street he chose, he met a certain person and that meeting altered all his plans for life.
Yes, our life is a chain, forged by the hand of God. The links of the chain are not all alike — some are large; others are very small — yet all the links are the work of the same Hand. The God who forges the greatest links forges also the most minute. Each tiny detail is arranged by the unerring hand of God.
Let us look up to Him quietly, humbly, thankfully, and bless Him that there is no such thing as chance. Let us, one by one, trust our individual future to our God. Let us say:
My future I can leave
Safe in Thy care;
I place it in Thy hand,
And leave it there.
It is so sweet to feel
My whole life long,
Thy loving plan for me
Cannot go wrong.
I know that Thou wilt choose
The best for me,
And I can be at rest,
And trust to Thee!