Lessons from the Shunammite Woman Part 2

I learned a lot from the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4 (see previous post), but then I discovered that she makes headlines again in 2 Kings 8. Here it is in NIV…

Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.” ² The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

³ At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to the king to beg for her house and land. ⁴ The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.” ⁵ Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to beg the king for her house and land.

Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” ⁶ The king asked the woman about it, and she told him.

Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”

I was so excited when I read this! That horrible experience that the Shunammite woman went through was more than just a heart check. God redeemed that tragic incident in her life and used it for her good—to bless her and her family abundantly at just the right time! I guess I knew that, but to see it played out in Scripture reminded me of God’s love and goodness and grace.

To the God of grace who redeems our broken dreams and is working in ways we can not even fathom, to Him be all the glory and honor and praise forever, Amen!

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Lessons from the Shunammite Woman Part 1

I recently read through 2 Kings for my Bible study. I was excited to revisit the story of the Shunammite woman that was first brought to my attention by Phil Vischer creator of Veggie Tales in his autobiography Me, Myself & Bob.

2 Kings 4:8-37 tells the story of a woman from the Biblical city of Shunem. We know that she was “well-to-do” with a knack for hospitality. Upon recognizing that Elisha was a “holy man of God,” she and her aged husband built a room on their roof for the prophet to stay whenever he came.

To thank the woman, Elisha announced that she would have a son. The woman objected, not because she didn’t want a child, but because she did not want to get her hopes up. She had given up this dream years ago.

Fast forward one year and, just as Elisha said, the woman was holding a newborn son in her arms. Her dream had come true. Now, fast forward a few more years… the child goes out to his father in the field and tells him that he has a headache. He is taken to his mother and ends up dying in her arms.

Was this some sort of cruel joke? Why would God allow her dream of having a child to come true and then snatch her dream away? This is the question Veggie Tales creator Phil Vischer was asking in Me, Myself & Bob. God had given him a big dream. He wanted to do big things for God through media. He aspired to be the Christian Walt Disney. It looked like he was on his way to achieving this dream. God was doing amazing things as Veggie Tales exploded in popularity. Then it all fell apart. Eventually, Phil Vischer lost everything. His company went bankrupt and all he had worked so hard for was gone. What was God doing?

We know that God does not look at what man looks at. God looks at the heart. Perhaps God was looking into the hearts of the Shunammite woman and Phil Vischer to determine who or what they loved the most—God or their dream? When we suffer the loss of a dream, we have the opportunity to declare our allegiance. Who or what matters most to us? Will we cling to our dreams or will we hold fast to our God?

So, how does the story end? As Phil Vischer suggests, sometimes God gives us our dream back and sometimes he doesn’t… and that’s okay. The Shunammite quickly heads out to find Elisha who returns to Shunem with the woman and does a miracle. The boy’s life is restored. As for Phil Vischer, Big Idea and Veggie Tales are gone, but he is currently creating for his new company Jellyfish Labs. Perhaps God is giving him new dreams. The lesson we can learn in all this is that God plus nothing is enough. There is no dream, no ministry, no achievement that can add to who God is in our lives. He is enough… He is everything!

As important as this lesson has been in my life, I am so excited about what God taught me a few chapters later through this same woman. I’ll post again soon with the amazing sequel of the Shunammite’s story!