2 Kings 4:20-21, 25 (NIV) After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out. So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite!”

Elisha was a prophet who had been commissioned by the Prophet Elijah at God’s instruction to succeed him as God’s spokesman. After Elijah was taken by God in a whirlwind, Elisha began his ministry. There was a well-to-do woman from the town of Shunem who provided a meal for Elisha every time he was in town. One day, knowing that Elisha was a holy man, she convinced her husband to make a small room on the roof of their house so that Elisha could stay there whenever he was passing by. After a while, Elisha wanted to do something in return for her kindness. He asked her what he could do for her and after not knowing what to say, Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, told him that she did not have children and her husband was already old. So Elisha prophesied to her that in one year she would have a child and it happened just like Elisha said it would. The child grew and one day, he got sick and died. Instead of getting hysterical or even mourning, the Shunammite woman carried the dead boy to Elisha’s room on the roof and laid him on Elisha’s bed. Then she went out to find Elisha. Somehow, she knew that if she could find the man of God, she would have her son back from the dead. In essence, she laid her burden down once she laid her son on that bed and God honored her faith.

What an incredible picture of faith and of trusting God for a totally impossible situation. Anyone who would have witnessed what she did would have thought that she had lost her mind. But she had seen how the Lord worked through Elisha and she knew that God was with this prophet in an extraordinary way. Because of her faith, the Lord raised her son from the dead through his prophet, Elisha. This was such an extreme case that it makes a lot of what we get upset or anxious about sound trivial. But God doesn’t see things that way. If it is something that is troubling us, then it’s important to God. It’s also good to note that before God moved on her behalf, she had to lay the boy down and leave things to Him. Not having lived in the age of grace where the way has been opened so that we have access to God, the Shunammite woman had to go to the man of God for help as God’s representative. Today, you and I can go directly into God’s presence in prayer to make our requests and petitions known to Him. But in order to see God do wonders on our behalf, we have to do what the Shunammite woman did: we have to lay our burden down, pray with a sincere heart, and then leave the rest to Him. As we do that, we will learn what the Shunammite woman learned, which was that God is good, that He answers prayer, and that there’s nothing too hard for Him to do!

Pastor Joey Vazquez