2 Kings 4: 8 - 36- the sixth sermon on the life of Elisha
Below is the outline of the sermon, I preached on 17 March 2012 at West Ewell Evangelical Church, Surrey:
Introduction
Elisha moved on from miracle of the sufficiency of the widow’s oil
Now he is in Shunam – 5 miles from Jezreel (which had been the city of Ahab and Jezebel) and 20 miles from Carmel (where Elijah had the confrontation with the prophets of Baal)
1. Things look good
Sometimes, things can often seem beyond our wildest dreams.
Childlessness in the ancient world was a matter of deep regret and social reproach. Jacob’s wife Rachel cried out: ‘Give me children, or I’ll die!’ (Genesis 30:1)
What do we judge people by today? Children, marriage (‘wouldn’t he/she be an ideal spouse?’), financial status, position – even within the church , we can find the pressures of not conforming to the ‘ideal’
The pressure was on for children, so she asked Elisha for this solution.
It demonstrates:
a. God cares for his children
b. God is involved in all that we do
c. Faith is required regardless of social standing or financial position
In verse 16, she said: ‘Don’t mislead your servant, O man of God!’ It is hard to take in the truth of the promise, to think that hopes are raised to be dashed.
We should be seeking God for what He has laid on our hearts.
We can so often misquote Psalm 37: 4 (‘Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.’) – we have remember that we need to be walking so close to God in order to know His heart.
But she struck out in faith: Hebrews 11: 6 – ‘without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.’
2. Tragedy strikes
When things look good, tragedy can strike.
The illness that struck the boy was less likely to be sunstroke as rare among children in the Plain of Esdraelon – it has been suggested that it was cerebral malaria, cerebral haemorrhage or meningitis.
Although we do not believe in the health, wealth and prosperity ‘gospel’ in theory, sometimes we act as though we do in practice. How often do we act as though God owes us?
We can get so wrapped up in what God has given us – such as family, finance, health, position, gifts, talents – that we forget the Giver and take them for granted.
1 Timothy 6: 17 – ‘Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.’
There are the ambitions of youth that have diminished, the promises of God that seem to be unfulfilled, the anticipation of marriage that receded before the tides of tiredness and everyday life, the wanting to be with your spouse that ended at ‘until death do us part.’
In verse 27, Elisha showed empathy – the distress that the woman felt, he felt also even though he was not aware of the circumstances .
There are times of failure and frustration – times when we feel that God has withdrawn His hand. It could be broken friendships, promises not fulfilled, dreams shattered.
Our hope is that when our hopes are dashed and our ambitions are shattered, Jesus is our balm.
3. Turn to God
We have looked at how good things are given and then sometimes tragedy occurs
In verse 21, there was no preparation for the burial but the woman anticipated the resurrection. She laid him on Elisha’ bed – an act of faith since only one previous instance in the Bible of someone being raised to life when Elijah and the widow of Zarephath’s son (1 Kings 17: 17 – 24).
The woman had lost her son, but not her faith.
Neither the widow nor Elisha had read James 5: 15 – ‘the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well – but they knew its truth.
In verse 26, the words are literally ‘all is well’ – she knew that in the midst of tragedy, God was there.
We can see in verses 32 – 33 that the key is earnest prayer before God.
when we see the full situation from God’s perspective – either here or in heaven – we will understand that God was in control all of the time.
It is when disappointment, disability, disease, debt, despair and doubt that come knocking on your door that the only way is to press close to God.
David in Psalm 116 wrote verse 3 ‘The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came over me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.’ It was followed by verse 4 – ‘Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, save me”.’ The response was in verse 7 – ‘Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.’
If we were the Philippian Christians, we would have anticipated Paul coming back to us in long-term ministry – but he was to be beheaded in Rome.
God is good all the time – our circumstances cannot shake the Rock; if we cannot trust Him for our salvation, we cannot trust Him at all for the two are constant. But the fact is that we can trust Him for our salvation so we can trust Him in all circumstances.
In Psalm 4: 1, ‘You have relieved me in my distress,’ could be read ‘by or in my distress, you have enlarged me’ that is ‘be or grow wide, large.’ We can experience spiritual growth, the enlargement of our heart and faith through the testing times.
A poster stated: ‘Hope is real because God can be trusted’
Conclusion
1.
The amazing thing is that God can identify with us.
God is the ultimate source of compassion – Henri Nouwen; ‘Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion with the condition of being human.’
Isaiah 63: 9 – ‘In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.’
Plan B is God’s Plan A – just look at the betrayal that led to crucifixion, which meant our salvation.
We will always carry the scars on earth; but when we reach heaven, told that only Jesus – the Lamb of God – will show the wounds so we will be reminded of the sacrifice made to make us whole (Revelation 5: 6)
There will never be moments of human greatness – we are not told that the boy became notable and she did not have any more children– but there will be times when God touches our lives and heals those situations that ooze
All of us want significance – do something great, be influential, have a road named after us, invent, make so much money, live in a good area, drive the latest car. But as child of God, He wants us to be faithful in things people might not notice, have a spirit of contentment in Him, have faith that whatever happens everything is alright because God is control.
