Everything is not fine.
So much to be said here. It can be assumed from the text that no one except the woman knew about the boy’s death, and she put him in Elisha’s room so that others would not find him. We don’t know for sure, but that’s one conclusion that could be drawn.
The Shunammite woman races to Elisha and first encounters Gehazi, his servant, who asks if her family is all right. She says, “Everything is fine.” Um…ma’am? Why are you lying? Things are definitely not fine.
The Hebrew word used there is actually “Shalom,” which has a few meanings, but in this case it can be translated as the title of today’s blog: It Is Well.
Don’t get my hopes up – you don’t say that unless your hope has already been disappointed.
“Everything is fine,” said the Shunammite woman. Now, it’s not as though this woman had no emotional response to her son’s death. In fact, I think it’s quite the opposite. I think she was raging on the inside. But when she responded to Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, she gave a curt answer, almost dismissive. Because her issue wasn’t with Gehazi – she wanted to get to the man of God. Gehazi never promised her a son. He couldn’t help her; she wanted to get to the source of her promise: Elisha himself.
Don’t get my hopes up – you don’t say that unless your hope has already been disappointed. That response, coupled with the fact that she didn’t have it in her to ask for a child when Elisha first approached her, tells me that there’s a high likelihood this is a sensitive topic for her. Which makes it all the more devastating when the child dies.
Is she still glad she built the room? Are we still glad we made room for God when things don’t go our way?
So she gets to Elisha and basically says, “You made me this promise, and then the promise died prematurely, so now I’m not leaving you till you fix this.” More or less.
Makes me wonder if she’s still sure? Is she still glad she built the room?
They race back to the boy, and to make a long-ish story short, Elisha resurrects him. And the woman who first fell down at Elisha’s feet in desperation and grief now falls to his feet in gratitude and praise.
Back to our original question: How do you respond with that much faith in the face of that much heartache? How do you get to a place where you can face the death of your dream, your hope, your promise and say, “It is well?”
How do you get to a place where you can face the death of your dream, your hope, your promise and say, “It is well?”
You build a room.
You determine that you no longer just want the presence of God to visit, so you create space in your heart, in your life where He can stay. Because this kind of faith is not forged in a few meals shared. It is forged in the intimacy of a relationship with a God who is welcome in your heart and your home, where nothing is off limits and access is given.
The Shunammite woman prepared the place for the holy man of God, hoping that he would stay. What she didn’t know at the time was that this same room built in hopeful expectation would be the very room where her dead child would be laid. This room was a place of hope and a place of surrender.
Then, as we see in verse 33, it was a place of prayer. And finally in verse 37, it was a place of praise.
Everything is fine.
Shalom.
It is well.
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