The Shunammite woman

Sermon notes from Sunday 31 March 2019

2 Kings 4 verses 8 - 17

I want us to turn our attention to this portion of scripture.  Not to the mighty prophet Elisha but rather to the Shunammite woman who did so much for Elisha.  Look at the characteristics she shows for us and apply these to ourselves.

The woman`s spiritual description.  In verse 8 she is described as a "great woman".  It is a title for this woman from the Holy Spirit himself.  Can the Holy Spirit say that of us today?  Remember how God came down to Abraham when he knew judgment was going to come on Sodom and Gomorrah?  He knew he couldn`t hide it from his best friend.  This woman makes acquaintance with Elisha.  He was on his monthly travelling routine.  She lived on the main highway route to Samaria, Bethel and Jericho.  Those are all the places where there were a group of prophets Elisha would visit.  Maybe this title was because of her wealth.  Greatness in the Bible usually referred to those with plenty of land, flocks and herds.  Perhaps this reference was to her generosity.  She saw the man of God passing by continually.  Maybe she had a great heart.  She made this man so welcome.  Maybe Elisha wasn`t the only one she served, maybe she had a great heart because she loved people.  That is the same characteristic we want to have as children of God.  A home where the door is open, where men and women can come and share in the hospitality offered.  This woman had that gift.  "She constrained him to eat bread."  Maybe Elisha was a reserved man.  Somehow he came back.  He didn`t come in the first or second time, he was reluctant to come in.  He knew nothing about her or her family.  She kept at it though and eventually he came in.  Lydia in Acts 16 "constrained Paul to come into her house."  In Luke 14 verse 23 the master of the house asked his servants to "go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in."  That does not mean dragging people in to hear God`s message but rather you keep going back and by persuasion and argument demonstrate what we have.  According to the Hebrew translation "a great woman" meant a pious woman.  She obviously had a great testimony.

Her spiritual discernment.  She was a great woman but she also had great spiritual discernment.  It is the gift of God.  She realised there was something different about Elisha.   She could see the spiritual state he was in.  What a quality.  She told her husband "I perceive".  This woman no doubt had spoken to this man, could see something different in him, that he was a man of God.  We need that spiritual discernment in our every day lives.  John said "try the spirits and see if they be of God for there be many false prophets that have gone out into the land." (1 John 4 verse 1)  We need to see the spiritual condition of others.  In Acts 18 we read of a certain Jew named Apollos who spoke in the synagogue one day.  Aquila and Priscilla realised as they listened to him that he knew only about the baptism of John.  They took him to one side and "expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly."  In this passage here was a woman with spiritual discernment.  Do we have that same spiritual discernment?  Are we on our knees asking God to help us know what to say to others?  It is only as people come under the sound of God`s word that the Holy Spirit grips hearts.  We should be doing all we can to bring people to hear God`s word.

Her spiritual development - verse 8 on each visit she constrained him.  She began with pleading to come into her home.  She never gave up though.  Here was a woman who kept on asking and inviting until he came in.  Now she is giving him nourishment.  She knows she could do more.  She asks her husband in verse 10 "let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall and let us set for him there a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick and it shall e when he cometh to us that he shall turn in hither."  This woman wanted to make every effort to do for the Lord, not content with what she has done so far.  Philippians 4 verse 11 "I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content."  Remember Paul wrote this while lying in a prison cell.  There is another side to this though - chapter 3 verses 13 and 14 "Brethren I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before.  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."  We need to also be discontent, to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.  Has there been a spiritual development, growth in our lives as Christians?  We need to be developing, growing.  There are times when we go through the mundane things of life but we need to ask the Lord "is there more that I can do?"  This woman was willing to share all that she could.  Are we willing to give all we have or sit back content with what we have?  Maybe God is asking us to do something for him?  Don`t be content to walk away.

Her spiritual desire - verse 13.  Elisha realised she had done so much for him.  His servant asks her what she wanted done for her.  Did she want a mention to the king?  What would that have done for her?  It would improve her social standing but she was content with what she had.  What I have done for you Elisha I have done for the Lord.  She had not done it for reward but for the Lord because he has been so good to me.  Colossians 3 verse 23 "whatsoever you do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men."  It was said of Hezekiah the king in the Old Testament "and in every work that he began in the service of the house of God and in the law and in the commandments to seek his God he did it with all his heart and prospered."