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Message: "It Is
Well!"
By Pastor Keith
Mozingo
Reading: II Kings 4:8-37 (NKJV)
Now it happened one day
that Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded
him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in
there to eat some food. And she said to her husband,
“Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God, who passes by
us regularly. Please, let us make a small upper room on the wall; and let us
put a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; so it will
be, whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there.”
And it happened one day that he came there, and he turned in to the
upper room and lay down there. Then he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call
this Shunammite woman.”
When he had called her, she
stood before him. And he said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Look, you
have been concerned for us with all this care. What can I do for you? Do you
want me to speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the
army?’”
She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”
So he said, “What then is to be done for her?” And Gehazi answered,
“Actually, she has no son, and her husband is old.” So he said,
“Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the doorway.
Then he said, “About this time next year you shall embrace a
son.” And she said, “No, my lord. Man of God, do not lie to your
maidservant!” But the woman conceived, and bore a son when the appointed
time had come, of which Elisha had told her. And the child grew.
Now it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the
reapers. And he said to his father, “My head, my head!” So he said to
a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” When he had taken him and
brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. And
she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him,
and went out.
Then she called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of
the young men and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come
back.” So he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the
New Moon nor the Sabbath.” And she said, “It is well.” Then she
saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, “Drive, and go forward; do not
slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.”
And so she departed, and went
to the man of God at Mount Carmel. So it was, when the man of God saw her afar
off, that he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, the Shunammite woman!
Please run now to meet her, and say to her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it
well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’” And she
answered, “It is well.”
Now when she came to the man
of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to push
her away. But the man of God said, “Let her alone; for her soul is in deep
distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me, and has not told me.” So she
said, “Did I ask a son of my lord? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive
me’?”
Then he said to Gehazi, “Get yourself ready, and
take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. If you meet anyone, do not
greet him; and if anyone greets you, do not answer him; but lay my staff on the
face of the child.” And the mother of the child said, “As the LORD
lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose and
followed her. Now Gehazi went on ahead of them, and laid the staff on the face
of the child; but there was neither voice nor hearing.
Therefore he went back to meet him, and told him, saying, “The
child has not awakened.” When Elisha came into the house, there was the
child, lying dead on his bed. 33 He went in therefore, shut the door behind the
two of them, and prayed to the LORD. And he went up and lay on the child, and
put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands;
and he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became
warm. He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and
stretched himself out on him; then the child sneezed seven times, and the child
opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite
woman.”
So he called her. And when she came in to him, he said, “Pick up
your son.” So she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground; then
she picked up her son and went out.
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