Scripture: 2 Kings 4: 8- 37; 8: 1-6
Sermon: Bending Towards the Kingdom
Preached: November 9, 2014
Rev. Mike Abma
Preamble
In October I preached on the prophet Elijah and King Ahab’s theft of Naboth’s vineyard.
This week we will continue the story somewhat with Elijah’s successor, Elisha.
When Elisha takes over from Elijah, he inherits of double portion of the Spirit.
This results in a gush of miracles,
* the greatest concentration of miracles in the Old Testament;
* Elisha performs 16 different miracles in the beginning of 2 Kings;
* a concentration of miracles not seen again until Jesus arrives.
Clearly the power of God is on the loose.
Let’s listen…2 Kings 4: 8-37
One day Elisha was passing through Shunem (not far from Nazareth), where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to have a meal. So whenever he passed that way, he would stop there for a meal. She said to her husband, ‘Look, I am sure that this man who regularly passes our way is a holy man of God. Let us make a small roof chamber with walls, and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so that he can stay there whenever he comes to us.’
One day when he came there, he went up to the chamber and lay down there. He said to his servant Gehazi, ‘Call the Shunammite woman.’ When he had called her, she stood before him. He said to him, ‘Say to her, Since you have taken all this trouble for us, what may be done for you? Would you have a word spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’
She answered, ‘I live among my own people.’
He said, ‘What then may be done for her?’
Gehazi answered, ‘Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.’
He said, ‘Call her.’ When he had called her, she stood at the door. He said, ‘At this season, in due time, you shall embrace a son.’
She replied, ‘No, my lord, O man of God; do not deceive your servant.’
The woman conceived and bore a son at that season, in due time, as Elisha had declared to her.
When the child was older, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. He complained to his father, ‘Oh, my head, my head!’ The father said to his servant, ‘Carry him to his mother.’ He carried him and brought him to his mother; the child sat on her lap until noon, and he died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, closed the door on him, and left.
Then she called to her husband, and said, ‘Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back again.’ He said, ‘Why go to him today? It is neither new moon nor sabbath.’ She said, ‘It will be all right.’ Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, ‘Urge the animal on; do not hold back for me unless I tell you.’ So she set out, and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi his servant, ‘Look, there is the Shunammite woman; run at once to meet her, and say to her, Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is the child all right?’ She answered, ‘It is all right.’ When she came to the man of God at the mountain, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi approached to push her away. But the man of God said, ‘Let her alone, for she is in bitter distress; the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me.’ Then she said, ‘Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, Do not mislead me?’
He said to Gehazi, ‘Gird up your loins, and take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, give no greeting, and if anyone greets you, do not answer; and lay my staff on the face of the child.’
Then the mother of the child said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave without you.’ So he rose up and followed her. Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. He came back to meet him and told him, ‘The child has not awakened.’
When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. So he went in and closed the door on the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. Then he got up on the bed and lay upon the child, putting his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and while he lay bent over him, the flesh of the child became warm. He got down, walked once to and fro in the room, then got up again and bent over him; the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, ‘Call the Shunammite woman.’ So he called her. When she came to him, he said, ‘Take your son.’ She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground; then she took her son and left.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
Perhaps you heard echoes of other Old Testament stories in this story.
A childless woman, familiar with disappointment,
not wanting to be disappointed yet again.
A message from God,
promising her the one thing money cannot buy – a child.
In many ways,
It is the story of Abraham and Sarah that echoes in this story.
Abraham generously entertaining visitors.
Sarah, standing at the entrance of the tent,
as the visitors tell Abraham that the two of them will have a baby –
And she laughs at what can only sound like a joke.
Now here is this woman from Shunem,
Generously entertaining this holy man of God,
Then standing in the door of Elisha’s room
Hearing the holy prophet say she will have a child —
And she can hardly believe what she hears:
“O no, man of God, do not deceive me,
Do not get my hopes too high.”
What did Sarah and this woman share?
They shared the fear that they would leave no one,
no heir,
to take over the inheritance.
But they are both blessed with a wonderful surprise – a child, a son, an hier.
In both stories,
The promised child, the promised future
is threatened.
Abraham is asked to sacrifice his son Isaac
and leaves for the mountain
with a servant and a donkey.
And in this story, the promised child suddenly falls ill and dies.
With him dies the promised future.
One thing you may have noticed in this story is that this Shunammite woman
Is a take-charge sort of person.
When her son dies,
She is the one who puts him on Elisha’s bed.
She is the one who gets a servant and a donkey
(much like Abraham with a servant and a donkey)
And heads to the mountain – Mt Carmel where Elisha hangs out.
She is the one who refuses to speak to Gehazi, the servant,
but insists on confronting Elisha face-to-face.
And when Elisha learns her son has died
and sends his servant Gehazi ahead to lay his staff on the boy
she insists that she would not leave Elisha
until Elisha went to her son as well.
What Elisha does is remarkably similar to what
Elijah does for the widow of Zarephath’s dead son in 1 Kings 17.
Elisha stretches out on the boy,
seemingly allowing his own life to flow into the body of the dead boy.
RESURRECTION STORY
This is a resurrection story — or should I say a restoration to life story.
There are not many of these in the Old Testament.
As I said, Elijah raises the widow of Zarephath’s son in 1 Kings 17.
Elisha raises this Shunammite woman’s son here.
Later a body thrown onto the grave of Elisha will cause that body to revive.
But as far as I can tell, these are the only 3 people raised to life in the Old Testament.
3 people are raised to life in the Gospels
The daughter of Jairus, the synagogue leader;
The son of the widow in Nain (happens to be next door to Shunem);
And the raising of Lazarus.
And then in the Book of Acts
Peter raises Dorcas or Tabitha back to life
And Paul raises Eutychus back to life.
As far as I can tell, these are all the cases of people dying and being restored to life
in the Old and the New Testaments.
But all of these people eventually died.
They were restored to life, but they eventually died.
These restorations to life are similar to Jesus’ resurrection,
They all point to it,
But they are not the same.
The resurrection of Jesus is unique,
It is one-of-a-kind,
It is the only time a person is not only restored to life,
But restored to a new life,
A new body no longer vulnerable to death,
A body that is still living right now as we speak.
Now this is what I would like you to understand:
The power that restored life in the Old Testament,
And the power that restored life in the New Testament
Is the same power — it is a power rooted in the resurrection power of Jesus
Christ.
The resurrection power of Jesus
Flows not only forward to Peter and Paul,
But it also flows backward to the prophets Elijah and Elisha.
This is the power that is on the loose in the book of Acts
with the mighty signs done by Peter and Paul.
This is the power that is given a preview here with the mighty acts done by the prophets Elijah and Elisha.
But this is not the end of the story for the Shunammite woman.
There is a second part to her story which I would like to read now.
PART TWO 2 Kings 8:1-6
Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, ‘Get up and go with your household, and settle wherever you can; for the Lord has called for a famine, and it will come on the land for seven years.’ 2So the woman got up and did according to the word of the man of God; she went with her household and settled in the land of the Philistines for seven years. 3At the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she set out to appeal to the king for her house and her land. 4Now the king was talking with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, ‘Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.’ 5While he was telling the king how Elisha had restored a dead person to life, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land. Gehazi said, ‘My lord king, here is the woman, and here is her son whom Elisha restored to life.’ 6When the king questioned the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying, ‘Restore all that was hers, together with all the revenue of the fields from the day that she left the land until now.’
DIFFERENT KIND OF DEATH
Here the Shunammite woman experiences a different kind of death.
In the first part,
Her future was threatened by a lack of an heir,
a lack of someone to inherit the family land.
In this second part of the story,
Her future is threatened by a lack of an inheritance —
Suddenly she is left with nothing to pass on.
The reason for this is a famine.
She leaves Shunem for 7 years to ride out the famine,
Probably as much caused by war as by weather,
And when she returns, her property has been taken over by others.
It is a surprise that she storms to the king for justice.
Earlier, when Elisha had asked if she needed anything from the king or the commander of the army, she curtly replied, “I live among my own people.”
In other words, why go to the king?
This was an era with a bankrupt monarchy.
Going to the king for justice was a fool’s errand.
The person on the throne was the son of Ahab – King Joram.
The Queen Mother Jezebel was still prowling around.
Why go to him?
In fact, the NIV Study Bible thinks that it so ludicrous that she would attempt to go to King Joram, that it speculates that this story must be from a later date, when the next King, King Jehu was on the throne.
I think the NIV Study Bible is missing the point.
The whole point of this story is how ludicrous,
how far-fetched,
it was for this woman to storm to the palace of this corrupt king
looking for justice.
But she does, right at the time Elisha’s servant Gehazi
is recalling how her son was miraculously restored to life.
And this corrupt king miraculously grants her justice,
restores her land.
Somehow,
even in this dark corrupt time,
things bend toward God’s kingdom.
What is the power at work here?
It is God’s resurrection power that is on the loose,
A power that even a corrupt king can recognize
And that even a corrupt king realizes he cannot stand against.
It is the same power at work in the New Testament, when
Paul stands before tribunes,
And before the governers Felix and Festus,
And before the king and queen, Agrippa and Bernice,
And presumably before the Emperor of Rome himself.
Paul stands there in the power of the resurrection,
Knowing that these are corrupt rulers
But also knowing that the power of the resurrection is so great
That even something as corrupt as the Roman Empire
Could be and would be bent in the direction of the kingdom.
TODAY
When I was in high school I remember writing a paper about China.
China was in the news back then.
Nixon’s ping-pong diplomacy was suddenly opening that country up a crack.
It had been sealed off for decades.
All we knew was its hostility to faith
and its oppression of freedoms.
China was a country we had high hopes for.
In 1921, it became the first foreign mission field of the Christian Reformed Church.
That all came to an end in 1949-1950.
Then there was silence. Closed doors. We feared the worst.
But the wonder of that country is that
In spite of a hostile government
In spite of having little to no outside support
In spite of everything against it,
Somehow the church there has steadily and miraculously grown.
Given up for dead, it is now a country that may very well have more Christians in it than any other country in the world.
Why?
Because of the resurrection power of God.
A similar story in Indonesia – that Philip and Sarinah Djung told us about a few weeks ago in Adult Ed.
In 1949-1950 the Dutch were kicked out, and Indonesia became a Muslim dominated country.
Many thought the church there was a goner –
Little political room to maneuver,
Few structures,
Few leaders….
And yet, somehow, miraculously,
The Christian Church is the fastest growing faith group in Indonesia today.
The resurrection power of God.
CONCLUSION
We live in a world in which it is easy to become disillusioned about the power structures of society:
Governments seem ineffective;
Militaries seem undisciplined;
All the structures seem set-up to keep
the powerful powerful,
and to keep the weak weak.
The theologian Walter Brueggemann calls those who hold formal power, office-holders. By all appearances, these office-holders run the world.
But below the surface,
there is a growing community of people,
a hodge-podge of people,
who confess
the forgiveness of sins
the resurrection of the body
and the life everlasting.
These people are what Brueggemann calls the “wind-carriers.”
They are the ones who not only are carried by the wind of the Spirit,
but who convey that wind to others.
In a world of office-holders and wind-carriers,
In a world of kings and widows demanding justice;
In a world of rulers, and apostles proclaiming the gospel;
In a world of officials, and communions of saints held together by the death
and resurrection of Christ,
in this seemingly lob-sided world,
it remains utterly amazing how
the power of the resurrection continues
to bend our planet, our often reluctant planet,
in the direction of the kingdom.
Amen
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