Take your Bibles tonight and go to the Old Testament book of Second Kings. We're going to look at chapter four tonight and we're going to look at this one long narrative from verses eight down to verse thirty seven, which is one story that I hope will be an encouragement to you tonight and bless your faith, increase your faith. Verse eight of Second Kings four, and it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunam, where was a great woman, and she constrained him to eat bread, and so it was that as often as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. We have probably already heard of the story behind the hymn, It Is Well With My Soul. That's one of our favorite hymns, is it not? We love to sing that. And we've probably heard the story many times of how that hymn came about. Horatio Spafford was a Chicago attorney, and in 1871, he lost everything through the Chicago fire. He thought it was probably a good idea to get his family on a vacation, so he sent his wife and four daughters ahead on a boat to England. He planned to catch up after he took care of some important business. And that boat on the way over with his wife and children collided and 200 people lost their lives, including his four precious daughters. And his wife sent him a message from England which said, saved alone, what shall I do? And Spafford got on a boat to go be with his wife. And on the way over, the captain reminded him of where the spot was where the tragedy had taken place. And he went to the deck and looked over the sides of the ship. And that's when he got inspiration for the song that we love to sing, when peace like a river attends us my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. These are incredible words of faith. And they have encouraged us many times when we have sung them. I sometimes wonder when I hear that story or when I sing the hymn, if maybe Horatio Spafford got his inspiration somewhat from the story that we're gonna look at here tonight. And the reason I say that is because twice in our narrative, we're gonna see the words, it is well. We see it in verse 23, where she says, it shall be well. And then we see it in verse number 26, where again, she says, it is well. Now she says this after she hears the news that her only son had died. In fact, more than hears the news, her son dies in her arms. And yet later she will say these words, it's well, it is well. And so this story here demonstrates the power of a mother's hope and the faith of a mother that can change the destiny of a child. And so I want us to look at this story tonight. The purpose of this whole narrative, just to remind you, is to demonstrate again that Elisha is God's prophet who speaks the word of God. He was writing to a people that doubted the veracity and power of God's word. And so that's why we see that theme emphasized again and again in these narratives. Also, just to show the foolishness of kings and the emptiness of worshiping a false god, this story, again, reemphasizes that because there's no false god that can do what God's gonna do here in this story. Although Baal was the god of life and fertility and supposedly could bring life out of death, he was capable of doing none of those things. Only the true and the living God could do that. And so this story teaches that all of our hope should be in God. All of our hope should be in Him. Here is an apostate nation that is worshiping a false God and yet there's this one woman and she's gonna stand out because her faith is a genuine faith. And when she loses her son, she hopes against all hope that God could restore her son and give her son back to her. You may be in a situation tonight where you're praying for a child or a grandchild. Spiritually, they're dead and they need a spiritual resurrection. And maybe everything in your life seems to indicate that there's no hope, yet there's something inside of you that refuses to let go. Well, this story will encourage you, I believe. And what I want you to see in this story, it's a long narrative. Again, we go from verses eight down to verse 37. So I just want you to see it in three scenes, or we could say three acts, you could say. Scene number one, I call this faith revealed, a son is given. Look at verse number eight. The story opens by introducing to us the Shunammite woman that Elisha meets on his travels in verse eight. And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunam where was a great woman and she constrained him to eat bread. And so Elisha would pass through this little town of Shunam. Probably often his hometown was in a place called Abel Mihollah. You need to remember that for a test if I ever give you one on it. And then he would go to Mount Carmel, which was about 50 miles away. In between that 50-mile journey, right at about the 25-mile mark was the little town of Shunem. And so this was the perfect place for Elisha to stop. He made this trip frequently to Mount Carmel because Mount Carmel was a sacred place because we know what happened there, right? You know what happened with Elijah and the prophets of Baal. And so we have every reason to believe that because of that event, this became a sacred spot. Some scholars believe there was even a school of prophets there. And so Elisha would go often there to Mount Carmel, perhaps to go minister to go meet with the prophets in the school of the prophets, or to go and just seek the Lord's face. And on the way there, this woman would notice, and the Bible says she constrained him to eat bread. Notice it introduces her to us by saying she was a great woman. The Hebrew word here is gadol. This is a word that can speak of a person who has status in society. Sometimes it's referring to the person's wealth. I think that's the idea here. I think really it's both. Here's a woman of status, and she's a woman who has wealth. She's rich. Some translations translate this, a well-to-do woman, or a rich lady, or a woman of influence. And so, in the previous story, we saw Elijah help a poor woman, but now we're gonna see him help a rich woman. And we see that God has compassion on both rich and poor. His grace is for all. We see that she's also a generous woman because, again in verse 8, it says that she constrained him to eat bread. That is, she insisted that he come there to her home and share a meal with her and her husband. The word for bread is just one word that means all of the food. It stands for all the food. She wanted him to eat a meal. And this became a regular thing, evidently, because it says here, and so it was that as often as he passed by, he turned into her to eat bread. And so this became a regular thing. She was a very generous woman. And now we see the extent of her generosity in verse 9. And she said unto her husband, Behold, now I perceive that this is a holy man of God, which passes by us continually. I perceive that is the Hebrew verb, which really means I am sure. She says to her husband, I've been thinking about this, and I am sure that this man is a holy man of God. This is a term that's used to speak about a prophet. He's a man of God, but she knows that he's a special servant of the Lord, a servant of God. And so she has this idea. She wants to take care of him. And she says in verse 10, let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall and let us set up for him there a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick. And it shall be that when he cometh to us that he shall turn in thither. I can't prove it, but I think that this is the first prophet's chamber ever. This is where we get our concept, right? The prophet's chamber. She feels the desire to take care of him. And again, remember that in those days, it was the responsibility of God's people to care for the needs of God's servants. We saw in the previous story where a widow woman, she wasn't taken care of by her neighbor. She was the wife of a prophet, and no one saw fit to help her in her time of need, which shows the spiritual condition of this apostate nation. But here's a woman who stands out because she sees that he's a man of God, and she wants to take care of him. And by doing this, she's demonstrating her faith. Faith is not demonstrated in what you say, it's demonstrated by what you do, right? Your actions. James tells us that. You can't tell me that you're saved by what you say, it's really you prove to me that you're saved by what you do. And so her action to demonstrate her genuine faith, she was obeying the word of God and taking care of this prophet in the time of need. She honored God by honoring God's prophet. And by doing so, she is an example to us of taking care of missions and missionaries. This is something that we see constantly in scripture. It is the responsibility of God's people to help and be generous to those who labor full-time in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And let me just say that, you know, when we have missionaries come in and speak for us, often it's on Wednesday night, and we've had many missionaries leave here just shocked with your generosity of, you know, this is, of course, Wednesday night is not your largest crowd, and yet it seems like that despite that, they're always amazed at the generosity of God's people. And you do well to do that. You've blessed many missionaries. So we see here is a great woman. She's a generous woman, but also she's a grateful woman. Another sign of her real faith is the way in which she is rewarded. So look at verse 11, and it fell on a day that he came there and he turned into the chamber and he lay there. That is, Elisha came to his normal prophet's chamber and he's laying there and he has a thought. In verse 12, he said unto Gehazi, his servant, call this Shunammite, And when he had called her, she stood before him. And verse 13, and she said unto him, say now unto her, or he said unto him, excuse me, say now unto her, behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care. What is to be done for thee? What is thou that be spoken for to the king or to the captain of the host? And so here's Elisha. He's laying on his comfortable bed there in the prophet's chamber. And he says, you know, we need to do something good for this woman. We need to do something tangible for her because of her generosity. And this is a lesson to us that whenever you're generous and you do well, God will always reward you for that. We're going to see that here. The Bible says he that receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophets reward But here Elijah wants to do something tangible and she's a wealthy woman. I mean, it's hard enough to buy for women Let alone, you know a wealthy woman, right? Okay, ease up ladies. I'm just kidding. All right, but here's a here's a rich a rich woman and he's like What can I give her? What can be done for her? And so he calls in his servant. Actually, it's kind of unique here. He's speaking to his servant, to her through his servant, we could say, what can I give you? What is there that I can provide for you? And what shall be done? And he offers several things there in verse 13. What is that be spoken to, to the king or to the captain of hosts? What did he mean by this? Well, One possible meaning is that Elijah may have been suggesting that he could ask the king and his military commander to lower the taxes for the woman's family. One commentator thinks that that was perhaps what he was offering there. Can I get you a tax break? Can I get you political favors? And her response, again, reveals to me the quality of her faith. In verse 13, the latter phrase she says, and she answered, I dwell among my own people. What did she mean by that? This means that she was content. This woman was indicating that she really had need of nothing. All of her needs were taken care of by the relatives that surrounded her. We could say it like this, with all of my relatives nearby, I have everything that I need. No thank you, I live among my own people, and I am perfectly content. I really need nothing. So she was content with what she had, but more importantly, she was content with what she didn't have. she had learned that godliness with contentment was great gain. And so this woman was rich really in more than one way. She was grateful for what she already had. She was very thankful to the Lord. And so she wasn't doing what she was doing for any reward. She wasn't being generous so that she could, you know, in any way profit from it. She was doing it as unto the Lord and she was content. She needed nothing more. But this didn't satisfy Elijah, so in verse 14, he asked the servant the same question, and he said, what then is there to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, verily, she hath no child, and her husband is old. So here, Gehazi has an idea. He saw something. He saw that this woman had no children, no son. which indicates that she was unable to bear children. Her husband was a man of old age at this time. And so she probably carried this around as a secret burden. You know, infertility for a woman back in that day was a burden. It's a burden for a woman at any time, but especially in this society, in this culture, this was the only thing that she did not have that she really wanted. and that was a son. And her problem was not simply that she wanted to experience the joy of motherhood, but it was also that when her husband died, again, he was a man of old age, there would be no one to look after her, no son to care for her in her old age. And since she was prosperous, there would be no one to pass along the property and the inheritance to anyone in her family. She needed an heir to do that. So notice in verse 15, this was it as far as Elijah was concerned, and he said, call her. And when he had called her, she stood at the door and he said, about this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, nay, my Lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thy handmaid. Her response demonstrates that her faith needed to be strengthened here because, you know, here her faith seems to waver some. Don't tell me any lies. Don't get my hopes built up. Now, in verse 15, remember, here's Elijah, and he's speaking the word of the Lord. Remember, that's one of the themes in the books of Kings, the reliability of the word of God. When God says something, it's going to happen. You can bank on it. But here, she's skeptical. And her faith wavers. Nay, my Lord, don't lie to me. Don't tease me like that, Elisha. Don't toy with my emotions. Don't get my hopes up. Elisha's promise touched a desire so deep that this Shunammite woman refused to entertain it. It was a desire that was, one writer said, it was too precious for disappointment. She wanted a son so badly that she could not bear to have her hopes built up and then dashed. And so again, here we see this woman is somewhat skeptical of God's goodness. And really in this part of the story, there's a gentle rebuke for all of us who would doubt that God wants to do good things in our lives. And we need to understand that God is good. And you know what? God wants to do good things in our lives. He wants to do things that make us happy. Some people live in this suspicion that for some reason God is out to get them. There's something bad that's gonna happen. God has it lined up for me somewhere in the future. And they have this image of God. But friend, again, God is good. And it's his nature to be good. And therefore God always makes good on all of his promises. And again, when God says something, you can rest on it, God's word. will be fulfilled. And indeed it was fulfilled. Look at verse 17. And the woman conceived and bear a son at that season that Elijah had said unto her according to the time of life. Here is the fulfillment of God's promise. And this bears witness to God's mercy for ordinary people. This child was not born because he was going to be a part of God's plan of redemption in some special way. But simply to make this woman happy, God gave her a son. And you know what? God will do that for us. He'll do things for us just to make us happy. But then here's number two, second scene in the story. Faith revealed, a son is given. But here's number two, faith refined, a son is taken. Now our faith will be tested at times. How do we respond to heartbreaking trials? That reveals a lot about our faith. God in his wisdom ordained that we will go through seasons of testing to refine our faith. And remember, James reminds us this. We went through the book of James sometimes back, and remember what James says? Count it a joy when you fall into divers temptations. Not if, but when. You're going to get tested. It's not a question of if you're going to get tested. You will be tested. The question is when it comes, because it will come upon all of us. This Shunammite woman was about to enter into a major test. This would refine and strengthen her faith. So notice in verse 18. This is some time later. This is the transition here in verse 18. And when the child was grown, So the child now had been born and he had grown. This is not to mean that he was grown to a full mature man. We're gonna see that he was still a child, perhaps 10 years old. It fell on a day that he went out to his father, to the reapers. He's old enough to go out into the field with his father. And he's out in the field and he's working with his father and suddenly he cries out in pain. In verse 19, and he said unto his father, my head, my head, And he said to the lad, carry him to his mother. We don't know what happened. Some commentators suggest that maybe this was kind of a heat stroke. It was overexposure to the morning sun. That could be, there's no way to know for sure. But the father just tells one of the servants to take the boy to his mother. And he does that in verse 20. And when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat her on her knees till noon. and then died. This is a very sad thing here. She takes her son in verse 21 to the prophet's chamber, and she lays him on the bed. Can you imagine the sorrow that she's going through right now? She has him on her lap. She's embracing him in her arms, and she has him there perhaps maybe a few hours, and then he dies. She takes him to the prophet's chamber, She lays him on the bed. Maybe this is perhaps to keep him from being discovered by her husband. She doesn't take her son to his room or to their room. She takes him to the prophet's chamber and notice in verse 21, and she shuts the door. She went up, laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door upon him and went out. This is interesting what happens here next. She doesn't collapse and sorrow, she doesn't fall apart. She goes out into the field where her husband is working, it says in verse 21, she shut the door upon him and went out. Verse 22, and she called unto her husband and said, send me, I pray thee, one of the young men and one of the asses that I may run to the man of God and come again. The Hebrew word here which says called out suggests that she was some distance away when she spoke to her husband. Please send me one of the servants and let him get a donkey so that I can quickly take a trip. I wanna go see the man of God and I'll be back as soon as I can. That was interesting to the husband in verse 23. And he said, wherefore wilt thou go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath. You know, why are you going to church? It's not Sunday. You know, here the Jews, devoted Jews would travel to worship on these religious days on the Sabbath or the new moon days. And that was normally the time when people would get counsel from a prophet if they needed it. So he says to her, it's not one of those days. Why are you taking this trip? And the woman simply says, it shall be well, it shall be well. Why doesn't she tell her husband? Evidently, she doesn't tell him what happened, right? Why doesn't she tell him what happened? You know, this would have been the immediate response of a lot of people, to run to your spouse, to fall in their arms in sorrow, to find comfort, and there's nothing wrong with that. But she doesn't do any of that. She doesn't even tell her husband. Why? I think she doesn't tell him because I think that she doesn't accept the finality of what had happened here. She just doesn't accept it. No doubt she feared maybe her husband would order an instant burial if he found out. No one wants a corpse in a house during a hot harvest season. So she doesn't tell him. And why bother to tell him if there's something that God can do? She, in her faith, believes that God can do something, that God can bring life to her son, to restore her son. So instead of telling her husband, she simply puts him in a chamber, closes the door, and takes this journey to go and see the man of God, who happens to be at Mount Carmel. She wants to go see Elisha. She believes that since he's a prophet and speaks for God, God, through this prophet, can speak his word for her son. Again, we go back to one of the themes here, the power of God's word. When God's prophet gives the word of God, all God has to do is speak something, and what happens? It comes to pass. God, there's nothing impossible for God. She had faith in her heart that God could give her back her son, that God could resurrect her son. And she believed that God's word was powerful enough to do that. After all, it was the word of God that gave her her son to begin with. It was the word of God that said she would have a son, even though she could not bear children. God's word gave her a son out of her dead womb. So therefore God's word could raise a dead son from a tomb. And so I believe that she believed that. And maybe she had heard also how that Elijah, Elisha's mentor, had done this once. Remember, Elijah had resurrected a child. You know, something like that doesn't happen very often. That word had to spread about that. Maybe she had heard the stories about Elijah raising a boy from the dead. And she had faith to believe that if God had done it once, that God can do it again. And so here to me, she's demonstrating incredible faith. And in this, she's like Abraham. You know, Abraham was called the father of faith. I would really like to propose that we could call this Shunammite mother the mother of faith. Because really, you can compare her situation with Abraham. Remember, in Genesis 22, God came to Abraham and said, Abraham, take your son Isaac, go offer him for a burnt sacrifice. The Bible said God came and tested Abraham, take your son, go offer him as a burnt sacrifice. Abraham didn't hesitate, he didn't complain, he didn't tell anyone what he was gonna do, he didn't tell Sarah, What do you think Sarah would have said if he told her that? I'm going to go sacrifice Isaac today on the altar. I think she would have had a major problem with that. He didn't tell anyone anything. He simply went to Mount Moriah. No one could understand what he was doing. He simply believed that God could resurrect his son from the dead. After all, God had given him Isaac miraculously and God could raised him miraculously, and he simply went to Mount Moriah, believing that all would turn out well. In fact, it was when Isaac asked him that question, you remember the great statement that Abraham made, you know, God will provide. Jehovah-Jireh, God will provide. And so Abraham lays Isaac on the altar. You know the story. He raises a knife. He's ready to plunge the knife into the throat of his son, when there is a voice from the angel of the Lord that says, Abraham, don't, don't harm the lad. I know that you fear me. And really, Isaac didn't die. He was as good as dead, but he didn't die. One could argue that this woman's faith was just as strong as Abraham's, maybe even stronger. You say, why? Well, because her son did die. He did die. She held his lifeless body in her arms. She laid his lifeless corpse on the bed in the prophet's chamber. But she refused to accept that that was the final verdict. She refused to accept the situation. And so she did really what Abraham did. She took a long trip to a mountain. Abraham went to Mount Moriah. She'll go to Mount Carmel. She doesn't tell her husband. She just makes her way. She takes that trip in silence. And when her husband says, why are you taking this trip? This to me was her kind of Jehovah-Jeri moment when she says in verse 23, it shall be well. it shall be well. All is going to be well. Literally, the Hebrew word here is simply shalom. And this word is frequently used as a greeting when you're meeting someone. Sometimes it's used as a way of saying goodbye, but sometimes it's really involved with talking about the welfare of a situation. In the context here, it's taken to mean everything is going to be all right. Everything is gonna be all right. It'll be okay. Again, this was her Jehovah-Jeri moment. And just as Abraham made a journey and climbed Mount Moriah believing he would have his son, she makes the journey and climbs to Mount Carmel believing ultimately that God could return her son to her. Let me give you the third and final scene. We saw faith revealed, a son is given. Faith refined, a son is taken. But here's the final part of the story. Faith rewarded. a son is risen. Look in verse 24, she's making this journey. Then she saddled an ass and said to her servant, drive and go forward, slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee. That is to say, don't slow down, don't stop, don't worry about me, don't slow down for my account. She wanted to make this trip, it was 25 miles from her place of residence to Mount Carmel, and she wanted to get there as soon as she could. And as she gets close to Mount Carmel in verse 25, Elisha sees her. Look at verse 25. So she went and came unto the man of God to Mount Carmel. And it came to pass that when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi, his servant, behold yonder is that Shunammite. Run now, I pray thee, to meet her and say unto her, is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, it is well. It is well, same word there. Elijah sees her approaching, sends out Gehazi, hey, go check and find out if everything is all right. And he gives the greeting that Elijah says, is it well with your husband? Is it well with your child? And she comes straight to, I get the picture here that Gehazi is talking to her and she just kind of bypasses him. She goes straight to Elisha. Yeah, it's well. And she goes straight to Elisha and notice in verse 27, and when she came to the man of God, to the hill, she caught him by the feet. That is she just, this is an action of a person that's begging. She bows to the ground, she grabs his feet. This is an act of humility, of submission. Now Gehazi comes in verse 27 and tries to pull her away, tries to intervene. And Elisha rebukes him, no, leave her alone. In verse 27, let her alone for her soul was vexed within her. Elias, you could see that she was in great emotional distress. In fact, the word vexed is the same Hebrew word to be bitter used in the story of Naomi in the book of Ruth. And Elijah doesn't know why, because he says in verse 27, let her alone for her soul is vexed within her, and the Lord has hid it from me. He has not told me. Sometimes God would tell a prophet ahead of time of what's gonna happen. Sometimes God would reveal this special knowledge. In this case, God didn't reveal it ahead of time to Elijah. Elijah says, I'm not sure what the problem is. In verse 28, she begins to pour out her soul. And she said, did I desire a son of my Lord? Did I not say, do not deceive me? So she begins to pour herself out. She wants help from God and she seeking it through God's servant. Now, some commentators when I studied this, they say, well, really, this is not an act of faith. She's blaming Elijah for all of her troubles. They kind of say that, you know, she's filled with bitter recriminations. That's a quote from one commentator. And she really didn't ask for help. She's just there to blame Elijah, or excuse me, Elisha, for all of her troubles. And I would have to respectfully disagree with those commentators. I think she does have faith. Many times in prayer, we're so filled with sorrow and pain that it's hard to express our emotions. And I think that God in his mercy allows for human emotion when we pray, especially when we're so crushed. when we're so burdened. Remember what it tells us in the New Testament, that God hears our groanings, the Holy Spirit kind of takes our groanings. And I think there are times when in prayer, we're so filled with sorrow and pain, that all we can do is maybe groan, we can just talk about what has happened, the situation, because our soul is so vexed. And I think this is the case here. I mean, she's making that long journey. Are you trying to tell me she's simply making that so she can yell at Elisha? I don't think so. All of her actions to me demonstrate that she had hope, hope against hope, that God would do something. And so she didn't run to a bale, she didn't run to some religious shrine, she ran to God's servant because she knew that God's servant could do something. All of her hope was in God. All of her hope was in God. And so notice in verse 29, Elijah knows now what's wrong. Then he said to Gehazi, gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and go thy way. And if thou meet any man, salute him not, and if any salute thee, answer him not again, and lay my staff upon the face of the child. So here's Elijah's first response. He says to his servant, here, take my staff, run, go to the child, don't stop to talk to anyone, don't even answer a greeting, just go straight to the child, lay my staff on his head. Well, this wasn't good enough for the Shunammite woman. That's not what she wanted. In verse 30, and the mother of the child said, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. In other words, she refuses, in other words, the idea was here, here's my servant Gehazi, I've given him my staff, that's my official sign of prophetic authority. You go with him and he's gonna take care of this situation for you. No, that's not what I want. I want you, I'm not leaving unless you come with me. Again, this shows to me the object of her faith. Her faith is not in any object like a staff or in any person like Gehazi, or not even in a procedure or in any superstition. Her faith was in the power of God. And she knew that God's prophet, when he spoke God's word, God's prophet has that power, the power of God. This prophet represented the living God, the power of the living God. And so she said, I'm not going anywhere unless you're coming with me. And so she gets what she wants in verse 30. And he arose and he followed her. Now Gehazi went and ran on in verse 31. Gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was neither voice nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him and told him saying, the child is not awakened. And her suspicions were right. Gehazi couldn't do anything. He ran ahead, he basically lays the staff on the boy's head just like Elisha said, but nothing happens. One commentator said that Gehazi is playing Dr. Watson to Elisha's Sherlock Holmes. His ineffectiveness is kind of a contrast to Elisha's miraculous power. So he kind of serves as a foil here in this story. We're gonna later find out that Gehazi, his heart was filled with selfishness and greed. And God could not use this servant. Maybe that's the reason God could not use him. Because for God to use a servant of the Lord, he has to be a sanctified vessel. And when nothing happens, Elisha then comes, notice in verse 32. And when Elisha was coming to the house, behold, the child was dead and laid upon his bed. And he went in therefore and shut the door upon them twain and prayed unto the Lord. So here's another miracle that's gonna happen behind closed doors. Remember in the previous narrative about the widow woman, where he said to take the vessel of oil and fill up all the containers, shut the door, God would work this miracle behind a closed door. Here, God's going to do it again. This is not for public. This is not a show. God is not doing tricks for other people. Elisha goes in, he shuts the door. God works behind closed doors. And in verse 34, it says that he went up and he laid upon the child and put his mouth upon his mouth and his eyes upon his eyes and his hands upon his hands and he stretched himself upon the child and the flesh of the child waxed warm. So here's Elisha, he stretched out over the child. This is exactly what Elijah did. Maybe he's doing this because he saw Elijah do the same thing. Now, some liberal commentators will say, well, the child wasn't dead, this was mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. That's ridiculous. The Bible says several times that the child is dead. This was mouth-to-mouth resurrection. Again, in verse 34, verse 35, he stretches himself on the child after walking back and forth to and fro, and he went up and he stretched himself upon him, and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. Life came back into the boy. He was alive again from the dead. You say, why did he sneeze seven times? I don't know. I have no idea. I've searched high and low for an answer for that. If you find out, let me know. The Bible doesn't give us the details of that. I do like to think of it like this. To me, it's a beautiful illustration of irresistible grace. You say, how so? The breath is entering to his body when his respiratory system again is beginning to work. Perhaps his body is resisting, you know, that there's something inside of man that resists the work of God, what God is doing. There's a wrestling that's going on, perhaps there is a resisting, maybe death is trying to hold on to this boy. But let me tell you something, when God determines to do something, God will overcome all the resistance of man. When God singles out that he's gonna do something in someone's life, he does it. And so he comes back to life. And then I love the way this story ends. It's not really flashy. He just, in verse 36, and he called Gehazi and said, call this Shunammite. I mean, Elijah doesn't even tell her himself. I mean, if it were me, I'd be strutting out there into the living room. Look what happened. You know, he's a very humble man of God. He simply calls his servant. He says, call this woman. And when she was come, It says in... Verse 37, when she went in, fell at his feet, bowed herself to the ground, took up her son and went out. She comes in, she sees her son alive. Again, the Bible doesn't give us the emotion here, but you can imagine, right? How that she's feeling. She falls at Elisha's feet in gratitude. Her faith is rewarded. She has her son back. Her son lives. She got him back. Now the story doesn't end there, we don't have time to look at it, but later on in chapter eight, when Elisha announces the coming of a seven-year famine, he also advises this same woman to relocate. He tells her, go relocate. So she goes and she dwells with the Philistines. When she finally returns to claim her property, what she finds is Gehazi was speaking with the king and telling him about the resurrection, this whole story about the resurrection of her son. And when the king hears about this, he authorizes all the officials to return to her all of her property along with whatever income she may have lost during the absence. So think about that. The death of this boy was a blessing in disguise. God used it to take care of her later on. And so the test this mother went through worked out for her good. and it worked out for the good of her family. Now, let me just close this whole story by saying this. You know, the way I look at this story here is this story of resurrection is such a beautiful picture of salvation, because you know what salvation is? Salvation is a spiritual resurrection, isn't it? Only God's grace can impart life, whether it's to a barren womb or to a dead boy, only God's grace can impart spiritual life. Only God's grace can raise a dead sinner and give him real life. Salvation is a resurrection. Listen to what it says in Ephesians 2. And you have he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Do you realize that every one of you here tonight, if you're saved, if you're born again, you have experienced the resurrection power of God in your life. Do you understand that? Because we were dead sinners and God gave us life. God raised us from the deadness of our sins. And so to me, this is a beautiful picture of salvation. We can lay the staff of the gospel on a person's head, but only God can give life. Only God can bring salvation. And also let me just say this, you know, what do we want as parents and grandparents? What is the greatest desire of our heart? I'll tell you what mine is. I don't even have to think about it. The greatest desire of my heart is that all of my children and grandchildren know Jesus. I want them to be saved. I want them to be raised out of the deadness of this life, out of the deadness of their sins. God gives them to us. And you know what? The world and the devil tries to take them from us. And you know what, we want them restored back to us. We want their soul to be saved. We want them to have true faith in Jesus Christ. And we have to have the same earnest faith as this Shunammite woman. She had hope in God when it looked like there was no hope. She believed God to do the impossible, and God rewarded her faith. She believed so much that she said, it is well. It is well. I trust in God. My hope is in God. So if some of you are here and you're praying for your children or your grandchildren, and it doesn't seem like things are going well, don't be deterred. Don't stop hoping. Don't stop trusting in the power of God. to do something great. I know some of you know that I have a prodigal son and I'm praying, but I wanna tell you something, my dear friend. All of my hope is in the power of God. My hope is not in man. My hope is not in the Gehazi's of this world. My hope is in God. My hope is in the power of the Lord. And I encourage you to learn from this woman and trust God and say in your heart as you pray, it shall be well. It shall be well. Let's bow for prayer together. Father, we thank you for this story. So many of these wonderful stories encourage our heart. Teach us to continue to seek you, to put all of our faith in you. We believe, Lord, that you are a good God. that all that you do is good. You have been good, you are good, you will be good. Goodness is your nature. And you wanna do things, Lord, just to make us happy, just to give us joy, just like you wanted to do for this woman here, this Shunammite woman. We thank you for her example of faith, that even when, humanly speaking, it looked like it was too late for her son. He had already died. She refused to accept that. But she sought you through your servant, and she trusted you, Lord, to bring life out of death. Lord, give us that kind of determination, that kind of faith, that kind of persistence that refuses to accept the status quo, to accept things as they are, to pray in rebellion against the spirit of this world, the fallenness of this world, and to trust you, Lord, to do great and mighty things in our hearts and in the hearts of those that we love. Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. How many of you will say tonight, I, I just really need to take this to heart. There's someone that I'm praying for in my own life and I want God to work mightily. There's something I want God to do in my life. It looks from humanly speaking, like it's not going to happen, but I put all my hope and my trust in my faith in God. And tonight I just, I make my declaration of faith in God. How many say, preacher, would you pray for me tonight? I lift my hand to the Lord and I ask God to work in this specific situation in my life. Bring life. My hope is in the power of God. Father, thank you for, again, all that you do. Thank you for this reminder. Lord, may it speak to hearts tonight. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.