The Death of the Shunammite Woman's Son

Introduction: The Intrusion of Dark Providence

0:04 Will you please follow in your own Bibles as I read from 2 Kings chapter 4, 2 Kings chapter 4, and I shall begin the reading with verse 8 and conclude with the first half of verse 25, 2 Kings chapter 4, beginning with verse 8, 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 a holy man of God that passeth by us continually. Let us make, I pray thee, a little chamber on the wall, and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a seat. And a candlestick. And it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in hither.

1:13 And it fell on a day that he came hither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there. And he said unto Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunemite. And when he had called her, she stood before him. And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care.

1:34 What is to be done for thee? Would it be so? Would it be so? Would it be so?

1:37 Would it thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among my own people. And he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no son, and her husband is old.

1:56 And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood at the door. And he said, At this season, when the time cometh round, thou shalt be called. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thy handmaid.

2:17 And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season, when the time came round, as Elisha had said unto her. And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father, to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said, And he said to his servant, Carry him to his mother.

2:42 And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out. And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the servants, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again. And he said, Wherefore?

3:10 Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day? It is neither new moon, nor Sabbath. And she said, It shall be well.

3:19 Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward. Slacken me not the riding, except I bid thee. So she went, and came to the man of God, to Mount Carmel.

3:36 As we return this evening to this section in the life and ministry of the prophet Elisha, I would simply remind you of the great lesson which I have sought to underscore again and again as constituting the main burden of this particular chapter in the life and ministry of the prophet Elisha. And the lesson is this. Against the backdrop of the coming judgment of God upon apostate Israel, God is manifesting his tender care and his fatherly concern for that remnant in Israel that had not bowed the knee to Baal. And so the flavor of this fourth chapter of 2 Kings is one that is predominant with the intimacy of God's dealings with his people, God's concern for the little people and for individuals. But because there was this greater issue. It was also at stake.

4:45 The very form in which God manifest his fatherly concern and care for his own is constantly asserting the livingness and the power of Jehovah against the backdrop of the deadness and the nothingness of Baal. Baal was supposedly the God of productivity, the God of material blessing, and in this chapter the miracles are calculated. Not only to supply the temporal needs of the remnant of the true people of God in a time of spiritual barrenness, but they are calculated to manifest again and again the great issue that came into sharp focus upon Mount Carmel under the ministry of Elijah that Jehovah, he is the God. We've seen this emphasis in God's provision for that preacher's widow. And then in this section bounded by verses 8 and 17, the wonderful way in which the Lord causes a day of great gladness and blessing to come to this great woman of Shunem who showed kindness to the man of God. Well, this evening we focus our attention upon verses 18 to 25 in which we have what

6:10 I have entitled the intrusion. Of a dark and a difficult providence in the life of the great woman of Shunem. If the first incident in the history of this woman and the prophet's dealings with her is the picture of the dawning of a day of sunshine and gladness, well, certainly this second incident is the record of the dawning of a dark day of great heaviness and of great sadness. And as we attempt to think through the passage and to extract from it the word of the Lord to our own hearts, consider with me, first of all, the facts of the narrative under three basic divisions. First of all, the time of this dark providence, and then we will look at the particulars of this dark providence, and then the great woman's immediate response to this dark providence, and having gathered our facts, we will then consider the message of this portion of the word of God in a three-fold warning, and then in its underscoring of a vital lesson of the Christian life and of the Christian's experience.

The Time of Dark Providence: A Period of Zenith Happiness

7:31 First of all, then, the facts of the narrative, and it's interesting that the passage begins with directing our attention to the time in which this dark providence broke into the life of this woman at Shunem. We read in verse 18, And when the child was grown. Now, precisely how much had the child grown? Verse 17 leaves us with the record of an infant that is born to the woman at the appointed time indicated by the prophet.

8:09 And this description, when the child was grown, is rather indefinite. But it does clearly indicate that the child had grown beyond the stage where he was still a nursing child and what we would call a toddler. He was obviously old enough to be entrusted with making his way out into his father's field, unattended by his mother, and yet at the same time not sufficiently grown, as to make it impossible or to necessitate another Samson to carry him in from the field. And also you'll remember, he was small enough to sit upon his mother's lap, would be a more literal translation, after he is stricken with what was probably a form of sunstroke, if we have any desire to interpret the nature of his sickness, small enough to sit upon her knees, and still light enough and small enough, in frame, to be carried by this woman up a flight of stairs and laid in the prophet's chamber. So in all likelihood, he was somewhere in those years between infancy and toddlerhood and pre-teens, probably seven, eight, nine, ten years of age. And the time of this dark providence in the light of that is very significant.

9:37 The mother had seen the child, through the unusual dangers of early infancy.

9:45 The child had gotten into some kind of a schedule that many of you young mothers know is such a welcome period. You wonder if you'll ever have a solid night of sleep. And when the children are in that state to where they are dependent upon mother for nourishment, and when they are susceptible to all of the little childhood diseases, there's a sense in which our children often become an irksome, burden to us. In our happier moments when they're cooing and behaving themselves, they're a great delight.

10:17 But the sheer weariness can often make them an irksome burden. Well, when they come through that stage and then enter the difficult teenage years when they don't know who they are and the parents don't know what they are and are trying to struggle through this together, there are the peculiar trials that attend that period of life. Well, this lad, this lad was somewhere in that period when our children generally bring us the greatest measure of joy and cause the least amount of burden. That period when, from the selfish standpoint, it's ideal to be a parent.

10:56 They're old enough to tie their own shoes, go to the bathroom at the right time in the right places, come to the meals, wash their hands, have a decent night's sleep, and all of those things that can so complicate the care of a little boy, are behind them, and yet they haven't entered that period when they're trying to assert their emerging manhood or womanhood and they don't know who they are and they're sure that their parents don't know anything about life and all of the rest and you have the peculiar difficulties of the teenage years. This passage tells us that the time of this dark providence was, with respect to the age of the child, the time when the son of the priest, the previous providence of God, was at its zenith upon this household. When the happiness of the presence of this child of promise had reached its point of greatest measure in this household in Shunan. But not only was the time of this dark providence one of unusual blessing and happiness in terms of the age of the child, but secondly, in terms of the season of the year. It is obvious that it is harvest time.

12:13 The father has obviously gotten up quite early and gone to the field with his servants because by the time the son goes out to the field and even is afflicted with his illness and comes back home, it's still a considerable time before noon. For we read in verse 20 that the servant brought him to his mother and he sat on her knees until noon and then died. And of course in Israel harvest time was a time of great joy and of great delight. The Bible speaks of God filling the hearts of His people with gladness as in the time of grain and of the new wine.

12:53 And so not only in terms of the general age and development of the son was this a period of intense happiness and delight in that household, but in terms of the season of the year. It was also in that sense a cloudless sky. God had brought the early and the latter rains. In spite of the apostasy in Israel He had not brought the kind of judgment which He often brought in terms of a blight upon their crops.

13:23 For you see there in Canaan they were dependent upon the rain of heaven for the growing of their crops unlike the situation in Egypt where they had an irrigation system and whether they honored God or not they could by the sheer dint of human effort secure a good crop. Well, the Holy Spirit is careful to underscore for us that this was a peculiar time of unusual bliss and happiness in the household of the great woman at Shunem. In other words, it was a season in which metaphorically speaking they were living under a cloudless sky and providence was shining with nothing but clear beams of bright and warming sun. The sun of favorable providence is shown and was manifested in the laughter and companionship not only of the sun with her mother but the little boy who could go out into the fields with his father and with the servants rejoice in the goodness of God in the provision of a full harvest. Then consider in the second place as we just try to get the facts as they are here in the scripture the particulars of this dark providence. Having examined what the scripture tells us about the time

The Particulars of Dark Providence: Sudden Death

14:47 now the particulars of the providence. As now so then a harvest waits for no one and obviously as we've already suggested the father with his servants his ray has risen early and gone out into the field to reap the harvest and after the sun awakes probably a bit later and has his breakfast his mother perhaps packs him a little lunch kisses him on the forehead taps him on the back and wishes him well as he goes off to spend the day with his dad and the servants in the fields. And one can just picture this mother this great woman of Shunem this woman of faith this woman who knew and walked with God as she sees her little son trotting off in the direction of father and of the servants that her heart is lifted up with praise to God when she reflects upon the many years in which she did not have that joy in which her husband would go to the field and she never could think with joy of a son coming to attend him in his labors. But this morning she has that great joy her heart filled with gratitude to God that there is a harvest to be reaped that though her husband is rather aged he is yet healthy and strong enough to be there giving oversight to the servants and then as it were the capstone of her joy

16:17 is the presence of that little boy who goes out to join the father. Well in a short while almost out of nowhere a dark cloud only the size of a man's hand begins to form in this entire picture and the little boy comes running to his dad and says my head, my head and he complains of an intense headache but because the harvest must be reaped and I think it's wrong to read in parental indifference or carelessness there was nothing to indicate a serious malady at this point the father immediately says to one of the servants verse 19 carry him to his mother assured that the mother would be there at her appointed place and that there with all the concern of a mother's heart and all the wisdom of a competent mother she would care for his needs then we read in verse 20 that the servant takes him brings him to his mother and he sits upon her knees or as the New International Version says he sat upon her lap till noon and then died. Now we must always be careful in reading historical portions not to read things in that aren't there and so we cannot draw out a picture of a lad who becomes increasingly fevered with sunstroke we don't know if he had sunstroke

17:45 being that early in the morning he may not have had sunstroke we don't know that during these hours if there were hours or just a half an hour that he sat upon the mother's lap until noon whether there was a gradual declining whether he seemed to be getting better whether he just fell asleep as she sat in the favorite rocking chair and then suddenly just a tremor and then the cessation of life all of those details are passed over all we know is this that while holding that child of promise in her lap she felt him breathe his last and the consciousness the horrible shock and reality that death had occurred in her very arms was suddenly upon that dear woman while this young lad is upon her lap then at noon he dies that dark cloud that began the size of a man's hand with a headache in the field of the reapers now has become a cloud that absolutely obscures all of that sunny bright providence that was smiling upon that household just a few hours before when in the joy of harvest time with a son bringing the greatest delight

19:11 he could bring to his parents that cloudless day is now a day shrouded in darkness blackness and heaviness death with its silent ominous all powerful hand reaches down and smashes away the life of that precious son well so much for what the narrative tells us of the time of the dark providence the particulars of the dark providence now consider what the text tells us concerning the great woman's initial reaction to this dark providence beginning with verse 21 there is no indication in this section of stoicism on the one hand or of unbridled panic or unrestrained emotion or the other it is one of the most beautiful statements of a Christian's response to unexpected calamity to be found anywhere in the word of God the first thing she does is to take the corpse of her son and to carry him upstairs to the chamber made for the man of God and there to lay him on the bed of the man of God quietly to shut the door behind her and go out the next thing she does

The Great Woman's Immediate Response: Calm Faith and Urgent Action

20:39 is to summon her husband either directly or most likely through one of the servants and she says in verse 22 send me I pray thee one of the servants and one of the asses that I may run to the man of God and come again she makes a respectful request of her husband she doesn't take off saying the crisis warrants my living as though I had no life no husband to whom I was answerable she doesn't tell a servant to saddle an ass and while he saddles an ass write a note saying to her husband sorry a crisis has arisen I'll see you in a day or two no no she recognizes that there is no conflict in the will of God and even though this tremendous crisis is upon her she is still obligated to the responsibilities of the marriage vows and of the marriage relationship and so respectfully she looks to her husband as her head and she requests of him the means to make this trip to the man of God obviously a reference to Elisha now his response is one of surprise so he says in verse 23 wherefore wilt thou go to him today it is neither new moon nor sabbath now why did he ask such a question well for the simple reason

22:06 that in Leviticus 23 and verse 3 and in Numbers 28 and verse 11 it is clear that God had appointed the weekly sabbaths and the special convocations at the new moon as times of peculiar religious significance and this passage indicates along with Amos 8 and verse 5 that during this period in Israel's history that that godly remnant would come together where there was a man of God to teach them the word of God on the special day of God and you see had this been a new moon or a sabbath and she had said to her husband please may I have one of the asses saddled to make a trip to the man of God there would have been no question but his question arises from the fact that it is not the normal time that she goes with others to sit at the feet of the man of God and to hear the word of God now notice how tactful her response is she simply responds by saying shalom, peace, it shall be well now she is not being deceptive she is not being cheeky with her husband she is simply speaking in that wonderful spirit of Solomonic wisdom in which she sets his mind at rest and because he has won

23:35 she has won the confidence and the trust of her husband even though she gives him no explicit response to his question his heart safely trusts in her all she needs to do is to buttress her respectful request with a promise all shall be well and she is able to leave with his blessing well once she leaves notice then here is where it is evident that she was no stoic that beneath that calm and rational and judicious handling of the situation there is a sense of earnestness and urgency then she saddled an ass and said to her servant drive and go forward slacken me not the riding except I bid thee in other words don't think of sparing me the rigors of a hard and a fast journey until I say slow up let's make this eighteen to twelve twenty mile journey to Mount Carmel as fast as we can and she says let me be the regulator of the speedometer you go as fast as we can go unless I indicate that it is too rigorous verse twenty five so she went and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel well here then is the record of the great woman's initial reaction

Practical Warnings from the Narrative

25:03 to this dark prophetess now having ascertained the facts of the narrative what in this narrative is the word of God to us and as we come to consider the lessons of this narrative let me remind you that the doctrines and the precepts of the word of God are wonderfully illustrated by the historical and the narrative portions of scripture and as we read in first Corinthians ten these things are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come and I would suggest that the lessons of this narrative are basically two first of all there are some practical warnings contained in the narrative and then there is a vivid illustration of a fundamental principle of the Christian life first of all the practical warnings perhaps someone says oh there we go negativism again warnings may I say my friend if you have any reservation about the warnings of the word of God you have a distorted understanding of the function of scripture when David is celebrating the blessedness of the word of God in Psalm nineteen one of the aspects of its blessedness

26:31 is celebrated in this language in verse eleven moreover when David says I will keep them is thy servant warned and in the keeping of them there is great reward were you ever irritated when the state highway commission thought enough of your well being to put up a yellow sign warning you that an unexpected and dangerous curve was just ahead in the road did you ever see anyone get out and stomp it and beat on it and say insulting things to it why you laugh you say ridiculous there is something suspect in the Christian experience of one who the moment they hear the word warning sets up defense mechanisms there is something suspect in the person who says I want no negative preaching God in love and kindness knowing our potential for sin and knowing the dangers that beset the pilgrim on his way to the celestial city has given us in precept and in narrative gracious warnings for our own preservation first of all consider

27:56 the warning that comes particularly to young people and to children the scriptures tell us boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth no doubt this lad was old enough to have seen death intrude into the little village of Shunem no doubt he had heard mother and father speak of the death of loved ones and relatives but to this lad old enough to know what death was and yet not old enough to feel as it were those very powerful forerunners of death that come with advancing age I'm sure like most young people and children death was something yes it's there it's real but it's out there and it's a long while before it will touch me if you had asked the little fellow when he woke up that morning and rubbed the sleepy dust out of his eyes son what's going to happen today he may have told us about his anticipation of going out to the field with his father and coming home with his friends but I'm confident whatever he expected on that day

29:24 he did not expect that before the day was over he'd be a corpse lying in a chamber on the top of his house you see the same bible that tells us boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth is the bible that records for us the death of a young lad and notice a young lad of great privilege this was a young lad who was the fruit of divine promise he was no doubt the fruit of the prayers of his godly mother and perhaps his godly though less vigorously godly father he was a son of great privilege he had lived and had contact with the great man of God the name of Elisha was a household word to him and the faith of this mother which is so obvious a vigorous and a powerful and a continually nourished faith as we saw from verse 23 was something to which he could not or of which he could not be ignorant or to which he could not be indifferent and yet as he takes out that morning and has but a little headache that begins until it becomes an intense headache little does he know that he's only hours from death now what do you say to that you children

30:52 how can you in the face of this record of the unexpectedness of the death of this lad dare to continue on in a course of careless insensitivity to the possibility of your own sudden and unexpected death now am I trying to scare you with reading into the bible a gory detailed death bed scene I deliberately avoided giving any details that are not given by the word of God but this is what the word of God says when the child was grown he sat on her knees and he died and you dear young people know the word of God well enough to know that the scripture says it's appointed unto men once to die and after this cometh judgment doesn't it cause you any fear when in my earnest concern for you dear young people perhaps I've appeared even angry as I've pleaded with you from this pulpit and I have pled with God in speaking directly to you tonight that he would help me in my very countenance

32:21 and the tone of my voice to concern to help me to convey that I speak out of the deepest tearful concern of heart no fear that you may die you who live day after day and week after week unconverted and uncleansed in the presence of the knowledge of the God of your mother and father and have no fear no trembling no sense of awe of what it would mean to have your soul wrenched from your body and to make its flights to that world from which there is no return forever we've had the heartbreak of having to bury some wee little infants and that's been a heartbreaking thing and even speaking of it I feel the pangs of sympathy with some of you who sit before me tonight but oh how gracious God has been that we've not had the funeral of a seven or an eight year old or an early or a mid teenager but how long how long

33:50 how long in mercy sparing us that grief I say it's a warning to you children and you young people to seek the Lord while he may be found remember now your creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come when thou shalt have no pleasure in them but it's also a warning to parents it's a two fold warning to us as parents parents don't assume that your children will live out their seventy years don't act as though you have a full lifetime in which to influence them for you do not know the time of your own appointed death let alone theirs do you pray for them with the earnestness born of the conviction that any given morning in which you pat them on the head and kiss them on the cheek and send them out to school and make a coffin for them before night falls do we as parents live in that sense that we do not know what a day may bring forth for our children do we plead for their salvation in the light of that uncertainty do we live

35:20 before them with such consistency as to convince them of the worth of the soul or do they only hear it from the pulpit all preachers talk by the pattern of life they see in your home do you have regular family worship do you manifest in the priorities of the ordering of the home that seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness is of supreme importance oh dear parents don't take for granted the span of time allotted to influence your children for the kingdom of Christ and for the truth of the gospel but then it's not only a warning with respect to the necessity of our nurturing them in earnest but don't become idolatrously attached to your children when God says in the first commandment thou shalt have no gods before me he means even the children that he gives to us think of this child this special child the child of prayer this miracle and yet taken away almost in an instant of time and there's not a shred of evidence that there was any panic any cynicism

36:47 any skepticism any murmuring against God this great woman as much as she held that child with all the tentacles of a mother's love when it came to her relationship to God she held him with an open hand and it's a warning to us as parents there are instances tragically recorded in the annals of the Christian church of people who have ultimately turned away from the Christian faith because God dared to touch a child that had become a knife but there is not only a warning to young people and children and a warning to parents but there is a warning to all believers in general in this passage and that warning is to be surprised when dark providences become the backdrop for the open display of the power and faithfulness of God the God of the bright sunny incident of verses 8 to 17 the God who brought this babe into the arms of this woman an unexpected blessing from the living God the God who brought that cloudless sky the God who shrouded

38:14 that same sky with dark for as surely as the cloudless sky of the birth of that sun was a manifestation of the faithfulness and power of Jehovah it would be against the backdrop of that inky black dark providence that the same Jehovah would display His all mightiness the child of God we need to be warned and the warning is this don't become so comfortable with your smiling and cloudless providences that you feel somehow this will go on forever enjoy them but remember that the teaching of the word of God is that it is in the midst of the dark providences that we learn the faithfulness of God and God manifest His power and His grace to His people but then I suggest in the second place that the lessons are not only these practical warnings but the vivid illustration of a fundamental principle of the Christian life the principle is this

The Principle: Dark Providence Reveals the Soul's Condition

39:42 the crisis of a dark and strange providence creates nothing the condition of the soul existing when the providence comes let me repeat it a dark and strange providence creates nothing it only reveals the true condition of the soul when the providence came you see we are introduced to this woman in verse 8 in this language it fell upon a day that Elisha passed to Shunem where was a great woman well her greatness is suggested in some small measure by the kindness shown to the man of God by the sensitivity to his needs that suggests that a little prophet's chamber be built for him her greatness is seen in some of the earlier elements of the narrative but her true greatness does not break through in the midst of the shining providence her faith her stability her walk with God all of these sterling qualities of virtue they await the backdrop of the dark day

41:12 not the clear shining day and so she becomes an example of this great principle that the dark providences that God brings into our lives create nothing they simply reveal the true condition of the soul that perhaps was undiscovered to ourselves and to others until the dark providence came and this could be demonstrated all the way from Abraham when God gave him that command to slay Isaac why? he says that I might prove to know whether or not you truly love me and are truly merciful But as a promise for the world through and beyond through to the word into the New Testament hope and power any action but a real life rarely fail to fulfill every wish such composure? Where did she get this ability to keep her cool, as it were, in the midst

Four Factors Enabling Her Response: Past Experience and Knowledge

42:37 of this tragic, sudden, numbing, stunning providence of God? May I suggest that there are four things given to us right in the passage, and I'll only touch on them briefly, each one. First of all, she was able to face this crisis as she faced it because, number one, her past experiences of the love, faithfulness, and power of God.

43:07 When she held the lifeless form of that sun in her arms, she did not suddenly cauterize all of the banks, all of the nerve endings that would draw from the banks of memory what she had known of God's past faithfulness, His past faithfulness. His past love and His power. As she holds the lifeless corpse in her arms, she still remembers, the only reason I have a corpse is because God is God in my name. I had no son until Jehovah said, through His representative, at this season, next year, thou shalt embrace a son. And if he is Jehovah, the great I am, not the great I was, but the great I shall be. But if he is Jehovah, who changes not, she's able to reason from her past experience of the love, the faithfulness, and power of God, and know that though God's providences toward her has changed, nothing has changed in God's being or in God's heart. And oh, happy is the Christian who begins to learn that lesson, that no matter what job, job, job, job, job, job, job, job, job, job, job, job, job, job, job, job, job, job, job,

44:32 shocking, unexpected providences burst upon him to stop and say, though everything in my physical and temporal circumstances has gone topsy-turvy, nothing in God's character is changed, nothing in His heart is changed. And we reflect upon His past manifestations of love, His faithfulness, and His power, and His love. And we receive strength so that we resist the temptation to push the panic button, to think evil thoughts of God and blasphemous cogitations of mind and of heart. But then there was a second thing that enabled her to react as she did, and it was this. Her knowledge of God's dealings with His people in the past. You'll remember that there was a very parallel incident, and her own activity, with the corpse of her son, seems to reflect that acquaintance with what happened under the previous man of God. You'll remember that incident in the life of Elijah, the man of God, recorded in 1 Kings in chapter 17, and here there was a widow who lost her son.

45:59 And in that situation, we read in 1 Kings chapter 17 and verse 19, And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the chamber where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord. And you'll remember that God brought the soul of that lad back to him again.

46:26 No doubt this woman is one who did not bow the knee to Baal, and as every pious Israelite had fed her soul upon the cross. This was when she passed away from the Word of God. And though it was not yet recorded as we now have it, it was there in the oral transmission of the mighty deeds and works of God. And remember, she had had many and frequent visits with Elijah.

46:55 And I am confident that one of the things that formed the topic of conversation on many of his visits was, Tell me about thy master Elijah. And these details of God's past mercies are evident. And I am very sure that this would have been more of a literal video or put into a video of His wonderful intervention have been the means of strengthening her own faith as she had a knowledge of God's past dealings with His people. And oh, dear children of God, this is why feeding upon the Scriptures is so essential.

47:24 This is why it's so vital that we meditate upon the Scriptures and attend upon the proclamation so that we may have our minds and hearts furnished with the record of God's past dealings with His people in their crises of dark providences so that when our dark providence comes we will be able to reflect upon that which God did for the deliverance and consolation of His people in similar straits. But then thirdly, and perhaps this is the most vital,

Four Factors Enabling Her Response: Present Nurturing and Duty

48:00 she was able to react as she did in this dark providence because of the present nurturing of her life of faith in the appointed means of grace while everything was going well. You remember the question of her husband when she says, get me a servant, saddle me an ass, I must go to the man of God? He says, it's neither new moon nor Sabbath day, why? And it's obvious, as I already suggested, that part of the pattern of that household is the saddling of an ass on every new moon and every Sabbath that this great woman of Shunem might go to the man of God with the other true Israel within Israel and there to be instructed in the knowledge of God and to gather in concert with the others who had not bowed the knee to Baal and to be strengthened in those means ordinary, unglamorous, but God-appointed means of grace. For the nurturing of her faith,

49:12 many a Christian falls in a crisis because he has cheated in faithfulness to the appointed means of grace when the sun of providence has been shining in a cloudless sky and we grow spiritually careless and presumptuous. But then when the dark cloud comes, we seem to lose our bearings and all of a sudden, we want to call, we call upon someone to help us and yet there's a strangeness both at the throne of grace which we've not frequented and also almost an embarrassment to share our need with the people of God because we haven't been found in their midst sharing the needs of others when our sky was cloudless.

50:06 The person who never comes to prayer meeting, not because he's hindered by providential circumstances, but has no felt need, to come and bear the burdens of others is a little bit embarrassed when his dark cloud comes to show up at prayer meeting and share his need. Isn't he? Isn't he? Isn't he?

50:32 Well, you see, this dear woman had no reservation about running to God's representative in Israel in the time of her crisis because she had saddled her ass and gone to Him every new moon and Sabbath. And she was confident, that she would find access to His concern for she told her husband, I shall go to the man of God in return. And she laid that son in the upper room not preparing him for a burial but preparing him for a resurrection. She went in the confidence that the man of God would indeed be used of God to raise her son from the dead.

51:15 And there's a little comment in Hebrews in that list of the heroes of faith and it says, Women, received their children from the dead. And the only two that we have recorded was that widow under the ministry of Elijah and this woman under the ministry of Elisha. You see, it was her present nurturing of the life of faith in ordinary, happy, smiling days of providence that stood her in good stead when the crisis came.

51:53 And that's why I urge, I urge upon you as the people of God, don't despise and treat lightly the ordinary means of grace. The regular assembly of God's people where you pick up a tidbit here and a little tidbit there and you pick up an experience shared here and a trial born by a child of God there and something in the prayer that sinks a little nugget of truth deep in the recesses of the heart and the cumulative effect of all of that information and the interaction with God, His people, His Word, the prayers of His saints, the gathering to the Lord's table is. You may think you're making no progress in grace and knowledge, just a bit here and a bit there and a bit here, but then a crisis comes and lo and behold, the Spirit of God quickens to your present remembrance all that you've been storing up bit by bit and piece by piece in the ordinary means of grace. And I've lived, long enough as a Christian and as a pastor to see this happen time after time. And the great differences I've observed in the way members of Trinity Church respond to crises is almost, almost invariably not a matter of native constitutional temperament, but it's a matter of whether or not they have learned what it is

53:19 to nurture the life of faith by the consistent attendance upon the appointed means of grace. But then there is a fourth factor that contributed to the way in which she responded and it is this. It was her present commitment to the path of her God-given duty. You see, the person who enters a dark and strange providence with a clear conscience is the person who can flee to the throne of grace with both hands.

53:56 The person who can flee to the throne of grace with both hands. The person who can flee to the throne of grace with both hands. The person who can flee to the throne of grace with both hands. This matter of her relationship to her husband.

54:04 We had occasion to comment on it in our previous exposition. When she became convinced that Elisha was indeed a holy man of God, she did not go out, though she was a great woman, and in all likelihood that refers to her wealth. She did not go out and hire a carpenter or a general contractor, tell him to get to work and then inform her husband. No, no.

54:27 So she immediately goes to her husband and makes the request of him, even though it was her idea. And here again, though she seems to be the one of great spiritual vigor and strength, her advanced spirituality does not negate her obligations as a wife. And her true spirituality is seen that though she seems to be a woman of much greater parts, both in terms of spirituality and general stature, she never demeans her husband or overrides his God-given place. And so the text says that she requests of her husband that she may have a servant and an ass, and that she may be given leave to make her way to the man of God. And this was obviously a pattern so that it didn't turn into a fuss, it didn't turn into an altercation. And there you go. There you go, wanting to have your own way again.

55:27 All she needed to do was to answer his query with the words, It shall be well. The heart of her husband safely trusted in her.

The Link Between Obedience and Boldness in Prayer

55:40 And if you and I would know what it is to respond as this woman did in the midst of the crises that are sure to come to us, it is our determination by the grace of God to walk in the light of our present God-given duties. So that when the crisis comes in the language of John, we may have boldness in the knowledge that when we ask, we receive the things we ask because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. Now bring together the emphasis of this morning with tonight. The emphasis that we've made week after week in the doctrine of justification, that when we are in hand with the problem of legal obligations, when we are in hand with the problem of guilt, when we are in hand with God as judge and sin as making us liable to punishment and damnation, we must constantly and ever look totally outside of ourselves to the righteousness of another.

56:55 My friend, when it comes to the matter of how is it that we learn to have familiarity, with the greater than Elisha, so that we may go not to the man of God Elisha, but to the man at the right hand of the Almighty and come boldly to the throne of grace, you have not only to do with the mediation of Christ, you have scripturally to do with the state and condition of your own conscience in the light of your own walk before God. And anyone who says...

57:31 that all you need is the knowledge and experience of what we've emphasized in the morning is perverted the word of the living God, if ye abide in me. And my words abide in you. Ask what ye will. For as John says, we have confidence that what we ask we receive of Him, not only because we are accepted in the Beloved, but because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

58:08 What commandments? In this context, the commandment, wives, be subject to your husbands in everything.

58:17 Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Some of you have little boldness at the throne of grace in a crisis because there's too much carelessness with the precepts of God in your day-by-day experience. Oh, but you see, say, being concerned about my walk in my state brings me into bondage, does it? Only if you've got a controversy.

58:45 But if you have no controversy with God, it brings no bondage. For the discovery of disobedience just drives you afresh to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. And with that fresh kiss of forgiveness upon your cheek, Christ is more precious. And the wheels of obedience turn more vigorously.

Conclusion: Are You Prepared for Crisis?

59:05 And the desire to please Him, is intensified. I say this passage contains a beautiful illustration of one of the most vital principles of the Christian life, namely,

59:20 our reaction to a strange and dark providence simply reveals state and the condition of the soul.

59:33 If tomorrow's cloudless day should become in a few hours a day such as it became for the great woman of Sheol, a day filled with dark, ominous clouds, would you be able to react as she did because of the remembrance of God's past faithfulness, because you've stored up in your mind the knowledge of His past, excuse me, with His people, because you are presently nurturing the life of faith in the appointed means of grace and presently walking in the path of duty.

60:14 If you're going to be like me today, if you're going to be like me today, it would not be embarrassing, I would love, from a pastoral standpoint to illustrate this from people sitting right before me tonight who have exemplified the very spirit of this woman in the midst of strange and dark providences. But I know it would be embarrassing to them and love would not then put them in that embarrassing situation. But I say with grief there are others of you who've been a cause of heaviness as we've seen you go through your crises because it's been evident that you simply were not prepared to face such a crisis. There was indifference to the word of God or there was a strangeness of acquaintance with that word, more familiarity with your favorite TV program, more familiarity with the newspaper, more familiarity with many other things. There has been shock. Godliness in the appointed means of grace, a Sunday here, a Sunday somewhere else, coming a Lord's Day morning, skipping a Lord's Day night. That'll take its toll on you, my friend.

61:24 And when the crisis comes, how you wish you had been there gleaning that which God would have stored up in your mind against the day of trial. And then what of you who have no saving relationship to the living God? What are you going to do? Well, when life's crises come bursting upon you, what are you going to do? When these dark providences come crashing into your life? Oh, my friend, what a terrible thing to face life with all of its trials, and have no recourse beyond yourself. One of the great privileges of being a Christian is to have a throne of grace and to have at the right hand of God almighty one whom he has God and has kept in his mind and who is the only one who is with you and who can do more. He has the whole body of Christ. God almighty is the one who's

62:15 our cause, and in whose name and by whose merit we may approach to the living God in the language of Hebrews, to find grace to help us in our time of need. Oh, if you don't know this God that the Shunammite woman knew, I plead with you to seek Him and come to know Him as you receive His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus. And if God has pinched some living nerves in some of you who are His children, don't be resentful. The warnings are there for your good.

62:57 The admonitions are there for your profit. The entreaties are there, not for anything we may gain, but that we may rejoice with you in seeing the faithfulness of God to you in the midst of your own. Our Father, what thanks can we render to you that you have left us a record of your dealings with your people through the ages?

63:38 And we thank you that in this portion we not only read of your faithfulness to sustain the life of your own in this dark period of the history of redemption, but that you have stored up lessons for those of us upon whom the end of the world has come. We pray that these lessons may be written upon the fleshy tables of our hearts, and that we may be given grace to walk in the light of them. Hear our prayer and seal your word to the prophet of every listener gathered in this place. We ask through our Lord Jesus Christ.

64:15 Amen.