Faithfulness Rewarded

June 22

2 Kings 7-8

Psalm 74:1-4

Proverbs 16:14-15

Acts 17

Faithfulness Rewarded

“Then the king asked the woman, and she recounted it to him.  So the king appointed for her a certain officer, saying, ‘Restore all that was hers and all the produce of the field from the day that she left the land even until now.”  2 Kings 8:6 LSB

We first read about the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4:8-17.  She was a prominent woman who lived in Shunem with her husband.  Whenever Elisha came to her town, she invited him to eat with her.  After he had visited with her several times, she went above and beyond and decided to make a room for him so that he would have somewhere to stay when he was in the area.  She fixed up a guest room just for him with a bed, table, chair and a lamp.  He travelled with an attendant, Gehazi.  He asked what he could do for her because she had been so generous to him but she told him that she didn’t need anything.  She was not providing for him expecting anything in return, she just wanted to bless him.  This is wonderful example of true generosity and hospitality.   Gehazi informed Elisha that she did not have any children and her husband was old.  Elisha told Gehazi to tell the woman that at this time next year she would have a son in her arms.  This seemed too good to be true to her, but just as Elisha promised, at the same time the next year she gave birth to a son. 

One day her son began to complain about his head hurting so his father sent him in from the field to his mother.  She held him on her lap until he died.  She laid him in his bed, shut the door and ran to find Elisha.  She didn’t tell anyone, even her husband, that her son had died.  When she got to Elisha she fell at his feet crying.  She explained the situation and he was deeply moved.    She believed that Elisha could help her because she believed in Elisha’s God.  He had given her a son and she trusted Him to take care of him.  Elisha gave Gehazi his staff and told him to run to the boy and place the staff on his face.  The woman told him that she was not going to leave until he came with her, and Elisha left what he was doing and followed her.  She believed that he alone could help the boy because he was the man of God.  Gehazi placed the staff on the boy’s face but he did not wake up.  When Elisha arrived at the house, he found him dead lying in his bed.  He stretched out on the boy, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand.  The boy’s flesh became warm.  He got up and paced around the house for a few minutes and then laid on him again.  This time the boy sneezed seven times and woke up.  Elisha gave the woman her son back. 

Sometime later, Elisha went to the Shunammite woman and warned her about the 7-year famine that was about to come on the land.  He instructed her to go to a foreign land and live wherever she could until the famine was over.  She immediately did what he told her.  After the seven years were over, she returned to the land and went to appeal to the king to get her land back.  Gehazi was speaking to the king and telling him about all of the things that Elisha had done and was telling him about raising the woman’s son to life when she came to appeal to the king.  The king asked her about Elisha and she told him everything he had done for her.  The king restored everything to her that she had left and the income from the land from the day she left until then.  God placed Gehazi there at exactly the right time so that the king would be receptive to her appeal.  God’s timing is always perfect.  This woman was bold in telling the king everything Elisha had done for her.  She is a wonderful example for us in telling anyone who will listen about God.  God rewarded her faithfulness, generosity and hospitality.  Even if it seems that no one notices our service, nothing we do escapes God’s sight.