Have you ever been in a situation where things were taking forever? Like standing in a long line in a grocery store waiting for the cashier to get a price check on a customer’s unpriced item? Or waiting for your turn in the barber’s or stylist’s chair? Or waiting for a big income tax refund but you’ve made the mistake of paper filing and having to wait on IRS manual processing and the US mail system?

On a more serious note, not that those instances aren’t…ever lose your home and the system put in place to help simply gave you a number and told you to “do whatever” until they can get to you. Be it the loss of a home, a family member, a marriage, a job, you are told to ‘tread water’ until land appears.

The story I’m sharing is of a woman in the Bible who found herself in a “do whatever” situation. But after years of “doing” just “whatever” she could to put one day behind the next she found herself in a “worth the wait” windfall. What God did for her; He’s prepared to do for you.

Having it All

The woman of focus is the well-to-do Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4:8-36. She happily lived among her people, had servants and land. She kindly hosted the prophet Elisha each time he came through her town. Grateful for her provision, Elisha prayed for this woman to have child for her husband was aged and she was barren.

The Lord honored Elisha’s request and blessed her with a son but he dies a few short years later. Elisha being informed of her tragedy, prayed and the child was restored to life.

Now, years later…

Losing it All

Here we pick up the story of the Shunammite woman and her son in chapter 8 of 2 Kings.

2 Kings 8:1-2 NIV

¹Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.” 

²The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

Elisha is telling the woman to flee her land because there was going to be a famine for seven years. Her experience with the prophet leaves no question in her mind so she goes to live among the Philistines with her son.

From Comfort to Caution

The Shunammite woman went from comfort in the land of her nativity to guarded living in the land of her enemies. Sometimes God’s accommodations aren’t comfortable. Consider these.

• In order to escape King Saul, David had to feign madness by drooling all over himself in front of his enemies. There would be no glory in killing a fool, instead they pitied him and let him live among them (1 Samuel 21: 10-15).
• Elijah, after his glorious standoff with the prophets of Baal, finds himself fleeing from Jezebel and hiding in a cave (1 Kings 18:16-40; 19: 1-14).
• Paul’s journey to spread the gospel was on a ship doomed to be shipwrecked (Acts 27 and 28).

Sometimes even when you obey God, it may seem you take a loss. You find yourself in a place doing the best you can with what you have. If you could be somewhere else, doing something else you would.  But you are there in obedience to what the Lord laid on your heart to do.

In the land of the enemy, you see the heathen proper, flourishing in fact. Sometimes it may seem righteousness, i.e., doing the right thing according to the Word of God, is void of happiness. But listen up! Sometimes when doing right happiness escapes us. Then we have to emulate Paul when he said whatsoever situation he finds himself, he has learned to be content (Philippians 4: 11). Why? Because contentment is a product of faith and faith is the substance that moves the heart of God in our favor.

Two Minute Tantrum Allowed

When we buckle under the pressures of life we cry, “Lord Jesus! Is this how you show your love?”

We can understand why David and Bathsheba lost their child. We exclaim, “David was an adulterer and a murderer (2 Samuel 11)!

But me? I obeyed you and I still lost! The loss is not commensurate with my obedience! What’s up with this Lord!?”

“Okay.”

“Got it all out?”

“Take a few deep breaths.”

As we mature in Christ, we come to know we were not placed here as prima donnas or to have absolute protection from the ills of life. We were placed here to be witnesses. Witnesses of his power, his provision, his deliverance! And oh yeah, we partake in the fellowship of His suffering. (Fellowship with Christ is nurtured in suffering but that’s for another blog.) And we will do so if we are to reign with Him (2 Timothy 2:12) when all that we know comes to an end.

Appreciate where God has placed you in the famine but be willing to return where you belong when it is time even though it seems you have returned to a loss. Things have changed, neighbors are new and you seem to have lost your footing. You had favor in the marketplace before you left. The owner’s son has taken over doesn’t know you like that. Things are different.

Good news!  God will restore the years that the cankerworm has eaten. He’ll give you your freedom back, your house back, your land back, your joy back, your peace back. He’ll give it all back and then some!

Waiting the Seven

The number ‘seven’ in the Bible is associated with completion, perfection and rest. The seventh day of creation signifies completed perfection and a day set aside for rest. There are many more references to seven in the Bible and nature that convey the same. A few are:

• Seven Churches in the book of Revelation describes the churches lack of perfection
• Seven judgements, (seals, trumpets, Revelation 5, 6, 8) denote the completion of a period of time prior to judgement
• Seven continents make up earth’s land mass
• Seven colors in a rainbow; a covenant symbol between God and humankind
• Seven covenants God made with man: Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Levitical, Davidic and Messianic

But back to the seven years the Shunammite woman had to live in a foreign land. I want to focus not so much on the physical number of years she was estranged from her home but the perfect work God needed to do during that time of ‘seven’. While she rested from working the land during a famine God made her rest perfect and appointed someone else to keep it viable.

There was a good chance her husband had died since he was much older than she. If so, she was sent to a place of rest alone with her son. It was her choice to rest or freak out. I prefer to think the woman put her trust in Elisha’s directions and knew things would work out for her. She chose rest.

God’s Got Your Seven

As life deals your cards and it seems you are dealt a bad hand, know that God deals you a ‘seven’.  There’s a law enforcement series I watch and when a partner has the other’s back, they say “I got your six.” Man may have your “six” but God has your “seven”. And there are no failures, no misses when God’s got your “seven”.

Physically speaking, your ‘seven’ may be 7 years, 25 years, or 5 months. It doesn’t matter. God wants you to get to a place in Him where you are at peace in tumultuous situations knowing He is working everything out for your good (Romans 8:28). God is perfecting you while completing all the details concerned with turning things in your favor. He’s got your “seven”.

Elisha’s Testimony Recounted

2 Kings 8: 3-5 NIV

³ At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land. 

⁴The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.” 

⁵Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land.

Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” 

So here the woman returns to her home and someone else is living in her house and working her land. There were at least a couple of Jewish laws among the 613 Mitzvot (Commandments) that would have supported returning the land to the Shunammite woman. Mitzvot #532 (Deuteronomy 24:17) and #530 (Deuteronomy 24:13) speak to not taking collateral from a widow in debt and to return the collateral when it is needed.

As she approached the king to reclaim her possessions, Gehazi was there also.  At the king’s request, Gehazi was telling the king of Elisha’s exploits

• God fills empty vessels with oil to sell to pay off a widow’s debt (2 Kings 4: 1-7)
• Naaman healed of leprosy (2 Kings 5: 1-14)
• Makes axe head lost at bottom of river float to surface (2 Kings 6: 1-7)
• God protects Elisha and Gehazi from King of Syria and his army with an angelic host (2 Kings 6: 8-23)
• Barren Shunamite woman blessed with child who later dies and is raised back to life (2 Kings 4: 8-32)

As Gehazi was telling her story, the woman walked in. Seeing her, Gehazi points to her saying “This is the woman! The woman who was barren, whose son died and was restored to life!”

Abundantly Restored

2 Kings 8: 6 NIV

⁶The king asked the woman about it, and she told him.

Then the king assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”

The king was so moved by Elisha’s power with God he immediately commanded that this woman’s land and house be given back to her. And not only that. All the profit that was earned from her land from the time she left until now must be restored.

If you remember, Gehazi was stricken with leprosy when he concocted a story to retrieve the bounty that Elisha had refused from Naaman upon his healing from leprosy. Elisha being a prophet knew what he did and cursed him with leprosy  “forever” (2 Kings 5).  It was against the Mosaic Law for a leper to be within the confines of the city (Leviticus 13).

Since Gehazi was standing before the king, we can presume God even restored Gehazi! Elisha had cursed Gehazi “forever”. God redefined “forever” for Gehazi!  Even after faltering, he had purpose! He needed to stand before the king on the Shunammite woman’s behalf. He had to proclaim the works of God through Elisha.  Bottom-line, God is merciful. Sometimes the message is carried by the messy but it is none-the-less the message. God is merciful, He restores!

Don’t you know God can reverse the curse placed on your life? God is not bound by time nor the speech or will of men.

Worth the Wait

The Shunammite woman waited in obscurity but lost mothing! There was increase! She escaped the hardship that comes with famine. Her only responsibility was to maintain herself and her son and rest in her wait.

Summary Points

• Learn to trust God to the point if He says walk away, you walk away.
• There is a place of rest in your discomfort while you wait on the Lord. Find it.
• When you come out, go to the “King” and tell Him what you want.
• God is merciful to the just (the woman in her obedience) and the unjust. (Gehazi in his disobedience).
• If you are faithful, God is always working behind the scenes appointing people to do things for you and speak on your behalf.

Declaration of God’s Word Over You

Psalm 31:8, 23-24 NIV

⁸You have not given me into the hands of the enemy
    but have set my feet in a spacious place.

²³ Love the Lord, all his faithful people!
    The Lord preserves those who are true to him,
    but the proud he pays back in full.
²⁴Be strong and take heart,
    all you who hope in the Lord.

BECAUSE IT IS

WORTH THE WAIT