Shunammite Woman's Faith And Elisha's Response

Introduction: Jehovah's Care and the Shunammite's Crisis

0:05 I would encourage you to turn in your own Bibles to the portion which Mr. Stribling read in your hearing in 2 Kings chapter 4, 2 Kings and chapter 4.

0:22 In this fourth chapter of 2 Kings, the underlying theme, as you have been reminded on several occasions, is that of Jehovah's tender care and fatherly concern for his own people, those who have not bowed the knee to Baal, a concern that had peculiar significance against the backdrop of national apostasy and spiritual declension and of the gathering clouds of the judgment of God that would fall upon the nation of Israel and in particular upon the northern tribes. In our two previous studies in this most detailed account of Jehovah's fatherly concern for his own in this particular chapter, the dealings of God with this woman who is called a great woman of Shunem, we noted in our first study the wonderful provision of this son that God gave to this woman. It was unbelievable. It was unsought, it was unasked, but it came as the reward of grace to her for the kindness shown to the man of God.

1:39 And then last week we looked together at this intrusion of a very dark and foreboding providence as recorded in verses 18 through the first part of verse 25. Verse 17 ends with the cloudless sky of the woman holding in her arms a son whom she perhaps...

2:00 for all intents and purposes never expected to hold in her arms. And yet the scripture tells us that according to the word of God, through the man of God the son of promise was born. But what began as a cloudless day, sending him out to the field to join his father in the reapers, ended in that foreboding darkness of death as he dies upon her lap at noon. And then she takes the little lad, lad and places him upon the bed in the chamber built for the man of God, asks permission of her husband to have a servant and an ass, and to make her way to Mount Carmel, there to lay before the man of God the expressions of her desire and the indications of her faith. Now we begin the narrative in the middle of verse 25 this evening, and it came to pass when the man of God saw her afar off that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is the Shunammite. And as we think our way through this section of the Word of God, we'll use the pattern we normally use when studying any historical section. We will first of all consider the facts of the narrative so that the picture is very vividly etched in our minds.

The Facts of the Narrative: Elisha's Concern and the Woman's Earnestness

3:28 When we've gained a grasp upon the facts of the narrative, we will then consider the lessons or the message of the narrative to our own hearts. And for you kids, the word narrative is just a big word for story. So if you're taking notes, and some of the little ones do, you can just put down the facts of the story, because you're not quite sure how to spell narrative. But your moms and dads ought to know how to spell it.

3:52 If they don't, they can always look it up in the dictionary when they get home. First of all, then, the facts. The facts of this portion of the narrative. And the first thing that is recorded for us in verses 25 and 26 is the outgoing concern of the man of God, Elisha.

4:12 Apparently, he was not accustomed to have visitors on anything other than the new moon and on the Sabbath days, when according to verse 23, as we discovered last week, the people of God, those who have been in the world for a long time, have been in the world for a long time. If they had not bowed the knee to Baal, would come to the prophet of God for instruction and for mutual encouragement and, in all likelihood, for prayer and praise, to have what would be very much like our own Lord's Day services of worship and praise and ministry in the word of God. And so, seeing a donkey being driven by a servant and someone sitting upon the donkey, the scripture tells us that, when the man of God saw her afar off, he immediately recognized her and said to Gehazi, Behold, yonder is the Shunammite. And without any trace of irritation by this unexpected intrusion, there is immediately on the part of the man of God an outgoing concern with respect to this woman. Remember, he has spent many days in her home. He has known her.

5:27 He has seen her to be a true Israelite. He has observed her under the pressures of responsibility. He has seen her in her noble character and, therefore, he knows enough of her to know that she was no calamity Jane who was being brought his way on a donkey simply because a fuse blew back at the ranch. There must have been some good reason for her to be coming and obviously coming with such haste and such earnestness.

5:57 And so there is this immediate response of outgoing concern on the part of the man of God. And so he commands his servant in verse 26, Run, make haste. She is making haste to come with whatever is troubling her. You meet her with a manner of approach that indicates something of the outgoingness of the concern of my own heart.

6:22 Run, I pray thee, now to meet her. And say unto her, Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child?

6:33 And so the outgoing concern of the prophet is expressed even in the questions that he puts in the mouth of Gehazi. He wants to know something concerning the well-being of this great woman and of her family. And her response is recorded for us in the following verses and it is what I am calling the earnest response of the woman. To the concern expressed by the man of God.

7:00 The earnestness is first of all indicated by her verbal response and then by her physical response. Her verbal response is very brief. She simply says, Shalom. It is well.

7:13 In other words, when Gehazi came, she refused to engage in what we might call the normal, lengthy, oriental exchange of greetings. And she gave him the most brief. A brief expression of socially acceptable greeting and there she let it stop. Indicating in that way that there was a set determination on her part not to deal with the servant of the man of God, but to have dealings with the man of God himself.

7:49 And the earnestness then that is indicated in her brief but not impolite or curt verbal response. Then comes to very graphic expression in her physical response as recorded in verse 27. And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. The moment she came in close enough physical proximity, she prostrates herself before him as an indication of her true sense of honor and reverence for the man of God.

8:24 And then she clasps his feet. And then she clasps his feet. And then she clasps his feet. And then she clasps his feet.

8:26 And then she clasps his feet. And then she clasps his feet. As if to say, O man of God, I now have you as my captive and you must hear and you must respond to that concern which has brought me to you. And so the earnestness of her response, I say, is manifested both in her verbal response to the outgoing concern of Elisha and in her physical response.

Gehazi's Insensitivity and Elisha's Perception

8:52 Well, then there is recorded briefly the reaction of the servant of the man of God. The servant of God is the man of God. The servant of God is the man of God. The servant of God is the man of God.

8:59 The servant of God is the man of God. The servant of God is the man of God. The servant of God is the man of God. The servant of God is the man of God.

9:03 The servant of God is the man of God. The servant of God is the man of God. The servant of God is the man of God. The servant of God is the man of God.

9:07 The servant of God is the man of God. The servant of God is the man of God. The servant of God is the man of God. The servant of God is the man of God.

9:11 The servant of God is the man of God. The servant of God is the man of God. The servant of God is the man of God. A man who had great privileges, living, sleeping, eating, in the constant company of the man of God.

9:24 And though in the first encounter we had with him there seemed to be an element of sensitivity to the need of the woman, about the only positive thing in the whole record of this man is that initial record of his concern for the woman. And from this point onward, as the man's true character begins to come to light, it is obvious that he's a stranger to all of those things that make up a true man of God, and probably a stranger to even the elementary things that constitute a saving relationship to the living God. For you see, she was going beyond the bounds of social propriety. She was breaking the social rules. And all he knew was the rules. And when this woman broke the rules, he's immediately going to come as a defender of the man of God in the language as vigorous. He comes to thrust her away, utterly insensitive to her need, utterly insensitive to the significance of her brief greeting.

10:34 Then when he sees her going with haste into the presence of the man of God, falling before his feet, clasping his feet, all of this completely bypasses him. All he can see is she's breaking the rules, and she ought to be chastised for doing it. Well, then there follows the rebuke and the perception of the prophet Elisha. But the man of God said, Let her alone.

11:03 Back off, Gehazi. Leave her be. There she is, still clasping to the feet of the man of God. And then he says, He immediately indicates something of the perception of his own heart.

11:18 Let her alone, for her soul is vexed or bitter within her. And the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. He perceives from his knowledge of this woman's character, not being a scatterbrain, overly emotional calamity jane. He knows from her.

11:43 From her previous proven character, that there is some deep vexation of spirit, and yet he says, The Lord hath hid it from me, indicating, you see, that a prophet could not turn on the prophetic gifts at his own will. When God would give a prophet a knowledge of his mind and will, the prophet was in that sense totally receptive. But if God was not pleased to give the revelation of his will, the prophet did not have a button somewhere that he pushed, that would immediately introduce him to the secrets of the Lord. That's why you find again and again in scripture this language, The word of the Lord came unto thus, and unto this one, and unto thus, and thus a prophet.

12:27 There is that element of the absolute sovereignty of God, the sheer monergism of the prophetic impulse. And here the prophet says, I perceive as a man, Knowing the woman as I know her, And observing her present conduct and state of mind, It is obvious that this is deep bitterness or vexation of spirit, But it has been hidden from me, leave her alone, let her express the desire of her heart. And in that situation, the grief-stricken woman then asks but two questions. Then she said, verse 28, Did I desire a son of my Lord?

The Woman's Questions and Elisha's Directions

13:11 Did I not? Did I not say, do not deceive me? Her first question goes back to the initial situation in which the son was given. And she says, in essence, O man of God, did I ever come asking a son?

13:30 Did I manifest a selfish, grasping, covetous spirit in seeking of you the favor that you, in the name of God, would give promise that a son should be given? Did I manifest a selfish, grasping, covetous spirit in seeking of you the favor that you, in the name of God, would give promise that a son should be given? She reminds the man of God by this question, that the great thing that brought a son into her life was a matter of pure grace. It was not God granting her request and sending leanness to her soul.

13:59 It was an expression of the kindness and the favor of the Almighty. Then she reminds him of that question that she asked, that question of incredulity when he told her. that at this season when the time returns, she would cradle a son in her arms, and she said, oh, man of God, do not deceive me. She reminds him of that very incident, that when this promise came, it came as a matter of pure grace, and it came as something utterly unexpected from the hand of the living God.

14:34 And so immediately, the man of God perceives that two questions, focusing upon the miraculous gift and the gracious nature of the gift of that son, indicated that all of her vexation focused upon the condition of that son. And so immediately, without asking any further questions, he then gives directions to Gehazi in verse 29. Then he says, I said to Gehazi, gird up thy loins, tie up the loose ends of your garment, take my staff in thy hand and go thy way. If thou meet any man, salute him not, and if any salute thee, answer him not again, and lay my staff upon the face of the child. Gehazi, I perceive that the entire vexation of spirit focuses upon the present desperate state, of the son. Whether he knew at this juncture, by the revelation of God, or by deduction, that the son was actually dead, the text does not say. But this much the text does indicate, that there is a desperate situation in conjunction with that little lad.

15:54 And so he says to Gehazi, prepare for a quick and an uninterrupted journey. Forgo even social niceties. And that was considered quite an insult. In fact, he was sent to the place where the son was killed.

16:07 And so, he goes up there and says, I'm not going to give you a greeting. I'm going to give you a greeting. I'm going to give you a greeting. And he says, take my staff in your hand and lay it upon the face of the child.

16:25 And there is a strange thing in the narrative. The manner in which the woman responds to this. Instead of rejoicing and saying, well, hallelujah, as the servant says, I'm going to give you a greeting. He says, I'm going to give you a greeting.

The Woman's Unwavering Faith and Elisha's Capitulation

16:35 And he says, I'm going to give you a greeting. If the servant of God goes at the bidding of the man of God with the staff of God in his hand, then surely the need of my child will be met. But verse 30 records something entirely different. And the mother of the child said, As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.

16:58 It's very interesting. This language is exactly word for word language that we studied before. In the life of Elisha. Some of you remember?

17:11 In the second chapter, in which we have the record of the home going of Elijah. On three occasions, Elijah said to Elisha, verse 2, Tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me as far as Bethel. And Elisha said, As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And then we have, We have it again in verse 4.

17:39 And then we have it again, I believe, in verse 6. Now remember, this is the woman who had spent many hours with the man of God, Elisha, in her own home. And as we had reason to intimate last week, when the man of God was in the presence of this great woman of faith, they didn't talk just about the mundane. And no doubt this very sacred account of his home going formed the experience, the occasion of many conversations, until in her hour of need, she turns, as it were, the very language of the prophet, turns it around on him.

18:20 And says, in essence, O man of God, there was a time when your heart was set upon a peculiar blessing. You were determined that before your spiritual father would return into heaven, that you would have the blessing of the firstborn, the firstborn portion of the Spirit. And that determination was couched in the language that you repeated three times. As thy soul liveth, as Jehovah liveth, I will not leave thee.

18:51 And O man of God, the same Spirit manifested in that language that bound you to your master Elijah, now binds me to your feet. I'm convinced that you are God's representative in Israel, not Gehazi. I'm convinced that you know how to prevail with God, not Gehazi. And so she takes, as it were, a form of a vow.

19:17 And she says, as Jehovah liveth, as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. Well, what can a man of God do in the presence of a woman filled with such holy vehemence of active faith? Well, the text tells us, And he arose and followed.

19:40 Because he remembered that when his own soul was filled with the same tenacity of holy desire, there was no turning him aside. And here he capitulates to that same desire, now turned upon him by the woman in her desperate strait.

Gehazi's Failure and the Reign of Death

20:00 And then the text tells us that after this response of the woman, the response of the prophet is to go with her. And verse 31, And one gives the record then of the obedience of Gehazi. Gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff upon the face of the child, whether he went directly up to the rooftop chamber, whether he gathered the father and the servants, whether this was done in private or in the presence of the other members of the household. The text is utterly silent.

20:33 All we know is he did what he was told. He laid the staff upon the face of the child. But, there was neither voice nor hearing. There were no indications of the return of the vital signs of life, as we would say.

20:51 And so he comes down from the chamber and begins to make his way out to the man of God and to the woman, wherefore he returned to meet him and told him, saying, The child is not awakened. And so the section that began with the sky full of the dark, foreboding clouds of death,

21:17 this section ends. The clouds are still there. Death still reigns in the prophet's chamber. The heaviness of the pall of death still is mastered.

21:32 But, with one great factor now added, the man of God is on his way to the chambers of death. Well then, what is the message of this portion of the Word of God? Is it here again, as I've asked so often, simply to give us a little insight into some of the problems of ordinary people living in Israel at the time of the man of God, Elisha? No.

Lesson 1: Imitate the Graces of Elisha

22:06 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And this portion is rich in its practical doctrine and in its practical instruction in righteousness. And I want to draw out four dimensions or lines or avenues of the message or lessons of this narrative. And the first is this.

22:34 Consider in this portion that we've read and briefly expounded, consider and imitate the graces of Elijah as a man of God. Have you noticed? Have you noticed how many times in this section he is referred to by the title, the man of God? In fact, not once is he called by his proper name, Elisha.

22:58 He is called the man of God. The man who is not only authorized by God to speak in the name of God, but the man whose whole bearing and character reflects that God's hand is upon him. God's Spirit is within him. God's grace is operative in his life.

23:22 And it is right that we should take men for examples to imitate, for we read in James 5 and verse 10, take the prophets for an example. There is an explicit command. In that context, James is saying, take them as an example, particularly of suffering. But he can apply the specific, because of the general principle that men of God are set before us in the Word of God so that we may see godliness fleshed out in the real life circumstances of life.

23:59 And the virtues that we are to imitate are there in bold relief in real men, in the real world, in the midst of real problems. And then, of course, we are also commanded in Philippians 3, the apostle says in verse 17, Mark those who walk so as you have us as an example, and imitate them. And so I would exhort you this night to consider and to imitate the graces of Elijah as a man of God. You say, Pastor, what graces in particular?

24:36 Well, let me suggest three that stand out, as it were, or leap out from this very passage that we have considered. First of all, the grace. The grace of his accessibility. The grace of his accessibility.

24:54 There was no question in the woman's mind when she requested of her husband, a servant and an ass, to go to the man of God, to Mount Carmel, that she would be rebuffed.

25:07 There is certainty when she sets out on her journey. Furthermore, when she comes near and the servant of God comes with his questions, she just puts him aside. She puts him aside with the very limited social greeting, shalom, it is well, and she makes her way directly to the man of God, absolutely confident that he would be accessible in her time of need. Now, where in the world did she get that notion?

25:37 For remember, this was the woman who knew that as a man of God, he needed privacy. It was she who had said earlier in the narrative, I perceive that this is a holy man of God. Let me go to the man of God. Let us therefore build him a house upon the wall.

25:55 So she knew that a man of God could not waste his time in just a lot of empty social palaver. She knew that the taproots of his real life and ministry were to be found in secret prayer and reflection and meditation. Yet, in the hour of her crisis, she was utterly confident that he was not a selfish recluse. Yet, in the hour of her crisis, she was utterly confident that he was not a selfish recluse.

26:23 Yet, in the hour of her crisis, she was utterly confident that he was not a selfish recluse. But that he was an accessible man of God. And so the grace of accessibility had been demonstrated in Elisha's previous interaction with this woman, so that in the time of her need, she has no hesitation to do in her own language what she calls, I shall run to the man of God. And when she ran to him and came and actually had his ankles in her hand, she is not the least bit disappointed.

26:57 What a beautiful picture this is of the grace of accessibility. And then secondly, there is manifested in the prophet the grace of sensitivity.

27:11 All it took was a sight of her general bearing from a distance for him to know that she's here on an errand of no little concern. Gehazi, run and ask her. If all is well, then when she comes and falls before him and clasps his feet, before she ever opens her mouth, he reads in the countenance of that dear woman, he reads in her physical actions the true state of her soul and says, I perceive that this is bitterness of spirit. There was sensitivity.

27:51 Listen. All the signals that he...

27:54 He picked up and interpreted. Those same signals were going out to Gehazi. But either his antennae were pulled in or he'd blown a diode or a tube somewhere. He didn't get the signals.

28:13 All he... She's breaking the social rules.

28:17 Vaxation of spirit. A woman in need of the kind of response that the prophet was manifesting. Utterly insane. Insensitive.

28:28 But not so the man of God. He manifested the grace not only of accessibility but of sensitivity. And then thirdly, the grace of readiness to be responsive to her need according to his gifts and his God-given calling. Here was the grace of readiness to respond so that the moment it becomes evident through her two questions that there is some...

28:57 Deep tragedy connected with the Son. He sends Gehazi before him. Gird up your loins. And then when she says, I'm dead in earnest about receiving an answer from you, O man of God, as Jehovah liveth, as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.

29:16 Then no matter what grandiose concerns were upon his heart when she came, no matter what deep and perhaps legitimate burdens lay upon his... His spirit, with respect to care for the school of the prophets, or the schools of the prophets, with respect to reformation and instruction in Israel, here is one of the seven thousand who have not bowed the knee, and here the man of God stands ready to be her servant.

29:49 Now these graces, they were not in Elisha by nature.

29:56 Elisha by nature was as inaccessible, as insensitive, and as selfish. Uncentered and unready to respond to others' needs, as you and I are by nature.

30:09 Now where did these graces come from? They came from the Spirit of Christ that indwelt him. For these graces, of course, find their fullest expression in our own blessed Lord Jesus Christ. For when you read through the gospel record, what do you find?

30:28 You find an accessible Savior. People with all kinds of needs in all circumstances, and except for those times when he had to withdraw to pray, or he had to withdraw to preach in other towns to fulfill his Father's commission. If anything is stamped over the life of our Lord, it is the word accessibility.

30:56 And surely sensitivity again and again we read of our Lord. He perceived. He perceived. He perceived.

31:03 People were not just globs of muscle, and bone, and flesh, who were there to be recognized in some distant and insensitive way, as people's signals were going out, either signals of distress, or unbelief, or of bitterness, or of cynicism. Again and again our Lord was sensitive in those interactions with human beings, and certainly ready and responsive to human need. We read that passage in Mark, that convicts me every time I read it, where our Lord, it says, a great while into the evening is healing those who come and who are sick. And the next verse says, and a great while before day he went out into a secret place to pray. And rather than withdraw from people and give the impression that he was not ready to respond to their needs, he would cut off the legitimate hours for sleep, to hold communion with his Father, that when men were up and would be seeking him, he would be available and ready to respond to their needs. You see, these graces that are so beautiful in Elisha are beautiful because they are but a little reflection of the graces that predominate in our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.

32:32 And I would solemnly exhort you as the people of God to behold, and then to imitate by the process of spiritual imitation. That is, you see the grace, you pray that God would be pleased to work it in you by his Spirit, and then you set out to put, as it were, feet to your prayers by cultivating the very grace for which you've prayed. For Peter says, besides all this adding on your part, all diligence add to your faith, virtue, virtue into virtue, knowledge into knowledge, temperance into temperance, and then he lists these various virtues.

33:16 And so the first great lesson of the text is to set before us something of the graces of the man of God as a pattern for our imitation. And how often we make ourselves inaccessible by preoccupation with ourselves, with our families, I, me, and mine. You see, you reap what you sow. You reap what you sow.

33:41 You reap what you sow. You reap what you sow. You reap what you sow. You reap what you sow.

33:41 Here was a woman who in a time when there was no crisis was accessible, sensitive to the needs of the man of God, ready to help,

33:54 and she received him to her table. At her instigation, a room is built with a table and a bed and all these needs. You see, what she reaped, what she sowed, she reaped. She was not so irresponsibly wrapped up in herself, that she could not be accessible to the man of God in his time of need, insensitive to his need, unready to respond.

34:24 And again, from a pastoral standpoint, one sees this happen again and again and again. Selfish people, so wrapped up in their own families, in their own plans, and nothing will ever disturb those plans, their own pursuit of their own little world, but let it be, let crisis come, and oh, they want the pastor and the elders to be very accessible to them, and all the people of God to be accessible to their prayer requests and to their need.

34:58 They wonder sometimes why it's quite artificial. Well, this is why. They're reaping what they've sown.

35:06 May God grant that we will be willing to pay the price, and it is costly to be an accessible Christian, to be a sensitive Christian, to be a Christian who stands, who stands ready to help in terms of one's calling and one's God-given ability. It means that the cross, with its demand of self-denial, will meet you every single day.

35:32 The language of our flesh is, spare thyself. The language of our Lord is, deny thyself. Take up a cross and follow me.

Lesson 2: Imitate the Faith of the Shunammite Woman

35:45 Well, we hasten on now to the second great lesson of the passage, and it's this, and I couch it again, in the form of an admonition. Consider and imitate the faith of the Shunammite woman. Not only consider and imitate the graces of the man of God, but consider and imitate the faith of this Shunammite woman. Now, how is her faith manifested in the passage?

36:10 First of all, it was a faith that refused to despair in the face of a desperate situation. Her son is not, fevered. Her son is not in a coma. Her son is dead.

36:30 And in the face of that desperate situation, despair would have been understandable, and from the human standpoint, it would have been perfectly excusable.

36:43 But you see, despair is the most paralyzing of all spiritual dispositions.

36:51 You remember despair in the language of the disciples. They're in that ship, and it begins to fill, with water, and they cry out, Lord, wait, we perish! And he rebukes them and says, where is your faith? You see, despair and faith are never found in the same sinking boat at the same time.

37:11 Faith would say, yes, the boat is filling, but it cannot sink and destroy us, for it would destroy him who is the Lord of the winds and the waves, and that cannot be. As long as he's in this ship, no matter what we see and feel in our senses, tell us, there is no ground for despair. In the language of that little hymn or little chorus we used to sing in the Salvation Army, with Christ in the vessel, with Christ in the vessel, with Christ in the vessel, we'll shout at the, we'll laugh at the storm and shout hallelujah, and shout hallelujah, and shout hallelujah, and smile at the storm. Her faith was manifested in that she refused to despair in the face of the storm. And she refused to despair in the face of a desperate situation. She's left her dead son on the bed of the man of God. She's made that five or six hour journey there to Mount Carmel, and all the while, with each clop of the hoofs of that ass, no doubt the reminder, he is dead, he is dead, he is dead, he is dead, but it could not drive her to despair.

38:28 She's confident that as long as God is with her, as long as God lives, as long as the man of God is his representative in Israel, the God who gave life to her womb initially can give life to the fruit of that womb. And so we see her faith, first of all, in its refusal to despair in the face of a desperate situation. And then secondly, we see her faith in that it grew in strength and determination to have its object. She had laid herself, a son in the prophet's bed, as we said last week, not to prepare him for burial, but to prepare him for a resurrection.

39:09 Now her faith is expressed in the confidence that she'll be received by the man of God, and that confidence is what gave birth to her determination. And then that vow that as long as God lives and thy soul lives, I will not leave thee. What is that? But the determination of faith.

39:32 What is that? She had not gone under in despair, and as she was able to put away despair, her faith grew with each approach and step to the man of God until she had his ankles in her hands. When he says, Woman, come, let's go, one can only imagine how her heart must have leaped within her. It's only a matter of time until the answer will begin.

39:58 Surely one cannot help but think of incidents in the Gospels that have their parallel in this. You remember that Syrophoenician woman. She was determined her daughter would receive the virtue of the Son of God. She's first of all rebuffed by the disciples, and she breaks through that rebuff.

40:18 Then she lays a request before the Lord, and he insults her, calls her a Gentile dog. Then he says, I'm going to refuse your request. And she breaks through all of that until finally he says, Oh woman, great is thy faith. Your faith, your faith is conquered.

40:35 Your faith is triumphed. And oh, how we need this word in a very special way on the occasion of our gathering even tonight. Because it would be very easy for us to give way to despair in the face of some of God's strange dealings with us. We still continue to meet in this building.

40:58 There still is no bulldozer biting its steel teeth into a hunk of real estate. Out in Montville, most of you have anticipated the nature of our meeting to follow. As Pastor Fischer will come and speak to us concerning the matters that relate to him and to his future. There are in our own understanding of the life and ministry, or there is in our own understanding of some of the details of the life and ministry of the congregation, so many things that could press us to despair.

41:39 But my word to you as I preach to my own heart is consider and imitate the faith of this Shunammite woman. Why should I despair? Yes, my son is dead, but Jehovah lives. The son who is dead was the fruit of Jehovah's mighty power in miraculous manifestation.

42:03 And Jehovah has not died. Whatever problems we encounter as a church, just look around. When you think of three or four hundred people gathered from such a diversity of backgrounds with such perverse hearts by nature, brought together to submit to one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, dwelling together in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. If Jehovah can do that, we will never have grounds for despair. Whatever!

42:42 Our difficulties may be. As the people of God, we need to imitate the faith of this Shunammite woman and have our faith grow in strength and determination until it becomes what hers was, almost an impudence. She said, man of God, if you don't come and do something for my boy, you're going to have not a ball and chain around your ankles, but the hands of a Shunammite woman. She got hold of him and said, I will not let you go.

43:19 Remind you of another man that prevailed. Oh, Jacob, that's the Spirit wrestling with the angel of Jehovah. I will not let thee go unless thou bless me. That's faith in operation. Not only faith in the life of a believer, but listen, for some of you that are yet in your sins, that's how faith works. And coming to birth in those who are yet at this point strangers to grace, you'll not get saved until you're desperate to be saved. That's why God says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.

43:59 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord for he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Faith has that element of impudence. You say as a sinner, oh God, I deserve nothing from your hand. I make no claims based upon what I am or what I've done.

44:23 But you're the God who delights to show mercy. You're the God who has said, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and I'll not let you go until I know that that salvation is mine. Oh sinner friend, get serious with God. That's the evidence of faith coming to birth in your heart.

Lesson 3: The Inefficiency of Means Without God's Blessing

44:48 But then in the third place, consider not only the graces evident in the man of God and imitate them, the faith in the Shunammite woman and imitate it, but consider and remember the inefficiency of any means without the blessing of God. Consider and remember the inefficiency of any means without the blessing of God. Look at verse 31 once more. Gehazi passed on before them, laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was neither voice nor hearing. Now the commentators differ as to why Elisha directed Gehazi to go before him with his staff to lay it upon the child, and I'll not weary you with the various speculations. The job of an interpreter and an expositor is to wade through all of that and then give you what he is convinced is the mind of God, and that I will do as I read to you what Kyle in his commentary on this passage says, and I believe he's on target. Since it is inconceivable that the prophet should have adopted a wrong method, that is to say, should have sent Gehazi with the hope that

46:17 he would restore the dead boy to life, his only intention in sending the servant must have been to give the Shunammite and her family and possibly also to Gehazi himself a practical proof that the power to work miracles was not connected in any magical way with the person of the prophet or his staff, but that miracles as works of divine omnipotence could only be wrought through faith and prayer, and thereby to purify the faith of the godly from any mistaken ideas and to elevate them from the superstitious reliance upon his own person to true reliance upon the Lord God. And I believe the subsequent history affirms that position, for remember, the prophet did not walk into the room and simply speak to the dead boy and say as our Lord did, Lazarus come forth, boy come forth, but he had to stretch himself upon him and prevail in prayer and surely Gehazi who had seen the staff laid upon the boy in obedience to the word of the man of God, and at least if not Gehazi in his spiritual dullness, surely the Shunammite woman who by then knew that he had gone and done as he would said,

47:45 as he had been told, but there was no life, there was no resurrection, what great lesson would she learn? What great lesson would her husband learn? And then is the report of this miracle spread through Shunamm and then throughout Israel. What was the great lesson? It was this, the inefficiency of any means without the blessing of God. That if there is to be life, God must give it. And God is pleased generally to work in answer to the believing prayers of his people. And surely brethren, we desperately need the reminder of that lesson.

48:27 God has been pleased to put at our disposal means for the maintenance of physical health and well-being, doctors and medicine, and more and more insights into how to eat healthfully and nutritionally and all the rest. We've come to more sane views of birth, not looking upon it as some abnormal thing, but as a normal thing. And we have all of these means at our disposal, our Lamaze classes, and our books on natural childbirth and on organic gardening and all of the rest. But there's a great danger.

49:07 Most of the people who write on these subjects write from a humanistic standpoint, as though sin has never intruded in the human process. And some of you have been brainwashed into thinking like humanists. If I take my Shackley's vitamins, if I go to my natural childbirth classes, if I do all the right things in raising the right foods the right way and eat them with the proper ingredients and proportions, all will be well. The best of means without the blessing of God will come to naught.

49:48 And if some of you don't stop trusting in your means, God will make you a monument of that fact. Don't force Him to do it. And it's not only true in the practical matters of what we eat and health care in which we need to plead for the blessing of God upon the means, but how much more is it true in terms of spiritual realities. God has been pleased to bless us with those who teach us the word of God, who preach to us the word of God, with those who seek to lead us in biblical paths and seek to give responsible oversight and service as elders and deacons.

50:31 But my friends, these means without the blessing of the Spirit of God cannot automatically produce either the kind of order and harmony and blessing of this congregation which we so desperately need or the conversion of sinners unless God is pleased to bear His arm. And He is pleased to do that how? Not by waving the magical staff of somebody's preaching over a congregation, but by the poor pouring out of our souls in intercessory prayer. That's why your elders are alarmed whenever we begin to see any erosion in attendance and in the fervency of our public prayer meetings. It frightens us. Why? Not because we're keeping little records that we send to a denominational headquarters and we want to look like good boys.

Lesson 4: Our Greater Privileges in the New Covenant

51:31 No, no. It's because of this principle. The best of means without the blessing of God will come to naught. Be as powerless as Elisha's staff upon the cheek of that dead boy. So may God help us to consider and remember the inefficiency of any means without the blessings of God. And then finally, from this passage, let us consider and remember our greater privileges in the New Covenant. Think of this woman. In her desperation, what does she have to do?

52:08 Well, she has to first of all get permission from her husband, to get an ass, to be saddled in a servant, and to make a trip to the man of God who was God's representative in Israel and through whom, as it were, God mediated His will and His power. But oh, what a privilege to live in the New Covenant. When calamity strikes, when our hearts like the heart of this woman are near to bursting with the agony of God's strange providences, we do not need to saddle an ass and get a servant and go to Mount Carmel. The scripture says we can go to Mount Zion where sits King Jesus, mediator of the New Covenant in all of His accessibility, in all of His sensitivity to our need, in all of His responsiveness to our need. In the language of Hebrews 4.16 let us come boldly to the throne of God. Why? For we have

53:16 not in high priests who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who hath in all points been tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Or in the language of Hebrews 12, he are not come unto that mount that could not be touched and that mount that could be touched and that smoked and had fire and the rest, but the writer says, ye are come to Mount Zion and unto Jesus the mediator of a New Covenant. It's a wonderful thing to have not just your own personal Elisha, but to have the greater than Elisha as your own mediator. As the one who pleads your cause at the right hand of the Father and you can go to Him at any time, under any circumstances and in the language of the Psalmist pour out your hearts before Him at all times ye people. And to know that He will never be too busy to hear me. That He will never be insensitive to the deepest longings of my heart. In fact in the language of Romans 8 even what I cannot articulate with clarity the Spirit within frames those yearnings that are interpreted by God Himself and then made acceptable through the mediation of the Lord Jesus. And I am

54:42 certain to receive an answer. What a wonderful thing to call to the feet that were pierced on the cross for us. And to cling to them in the confidence that He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things. Oh my dear people do you appreciate the privileges of living under the new covenant?

55:10 Do you appreciate what it is to live this side of the coming of the Son of God the descent of the Spirit the full revelation of the mind of God in the word of God? Have you read this passage and said oh wouldn't it have been wonderful to live then when you had an Elisha? My friends are greater than Elisha is here and we are bidden to go to Him. And I trust that something of the great privilege that is ours will break in upon our hearts with freshness.

55:44 You who are not in Christ what a wonderful thing to tell that Christ is here. In the preaching of the word Christ is here. Christ is set before you. You need not go any distance whatsoever in the language of Romans 10.

56:00 The word of faith we preach Paul says is mighty in thy mouth and in thy heart if thou will confess with thy mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead thou will be saved for with the heart man believeth righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Oh that you would seek not Elisha but that one whom he faintly reflected in his character that one for whose coming he was as it were one of the forerunners by seeking to preserve some semblance of true religion in Israel until the promised seed should come and the great promise that that seed of the woman and the serpent would be fulfilled in our Lord Jesus. Oh my friend Christ is near in the preaching of the gospel embrace Him turn from your sins cling to Him by faith and say I will not let Him go until I know that He is mine and I am His. What then are the great lessons of this passage I suggest at least these four the passage sets before us a wonderful example of the graces of the man of God

Conclusion and Prayer

57:26 the faith of the great woman of Shunan a warning not to trust in the best of means and finally an underscoring of the great privileges that are ours to live under the new covenant may God write upon our hearts these practical lessons and may we profit each of us in our own let us pray Our Father we do thank You for the scriptures what thanks can we render to You that we have a book that is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway we thank You for this portion that we've read upon which we've meditated this night we thank You for a fresh sight of our Savior we thank You for a fresh reminder of our duties and responsibilities and privileges and we pray now that the Holy Spirit will make this word effectual in all of our hearts we pray Your blessing upon those who must leave may they leave if they are Yours with joy in the Holy Spirit if they are not Yours oh may some of the exhortations of this night fasten themselves upon their minds and consciences

58:55 and follow them to their homes follow them to their beds follow them into the night hours give them no rest until they seek mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ bless us as we remain for our congregational meeting grant that we may enter this time together as men and women of faith who do verily believe that You are a sovereign a wise and a gracious God in all of Your dealings hear then our prayer and receive our thanks for Your presence and blessing