Transcript
In your Bibles will you turn with me to the book of 2 Kings, chapter 4 and verse 17? 2 Kings chapter 4, verse 17.
And the woman conceived and bore a son when the appointed time had come, of which Elisha had told her. So 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 the donkey and said to her servant, ‘Drive and go forward. Do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.’ So she departed and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
And so it was, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to his servant Gehazi, ‘Look, there is the Shunammite. 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.’ And 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.’
And when Elisha came into the house, there was the child, lying dead on his bed. 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 the 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, bowed to the ground, then she picked up her son and went out.
There is a story that boggles the mind. In February of 1982 Mrs. Patricia McGraw of San Francisco, California, was walking across the parking lot of a store when she was struck by a hit-and-run driver. She was injured and taken to the hospital. And while she was in the hospital she heard about another traffic accident. She told the media, the doctors came in and they said they had something to tell me. They said there’s been a terrible accident. It’s your son.
That’s when Mrs. McGraw learned that her 18-year-old son Aaron had been riding in a car and the car had had an accident and Aaron had been killed instantly. And the driver of the car in which he was riding had been charged with drunk driving.
Now even that is not the end of the story. You see Mrs. McGraw had a 17-year-old daughter named Dawn who was a student at West Valley College. Six months after the accident, to her mother and to her brother, Dawn was struck by a hit-and-run driver in San Jose, California. She also was killed instantly. Police arrested a 23-year-old woman on suspicion of felony drunken driving, felony manslaughter, and felony hit-and-run.
An almost unbelievable series of tragedies with vehicles that were improperly driven, injuring a mother and killing a son and a daughter. At the end of 1982 nobody needed to tell Mrs. McGraw that life sometimes deals very heavy blows. And maybe I don’t need to tell you that this morning either. Certainly not after the events of the past September the 11th. Is there anybody in this country who does not realize now that on any given day we may say good night or we may say goodbye to a loved one for the very last time?
And the issue is, now do you realize that life may deal you a heavy blow? I presume that all of you understand that it might. The real question is, can you take the hit? And that is the question that I would like to discuss with you for a few minutes this morning from the word of God. And that question just happens to be also the title of my message to you today.
So I want to be sure that you have it. The title of my message this morning is this: Can You Take the Hit?
Now I suspect that everybody in the audience this morning would agree with me that the woman that we have been reading about in the word of God took a hit. She received a very, very heavy blow. Please remember that in the preceding verses, as we saw last time, this was a woman who was married to an older husband. They had apparently given up hope that they would ever have a son together. But this woman did not let that disappointment keep her from doing worthwhile things. And she became a hostess to the prophet Elisha.
She and her husband had a little room constructed against the wall of their house. They put a chair and a table and a lamp and a bed in there. And anytime he wanted to, Elisha could stop into that room and rest. And she had become a very gracious and generous hostess to him. You may recall that Elisha once wanted her to be repaid. And so he announces to her that she is going to have a son. And that was just too much for her to believe. And she replies to this announcement, “No, my lord, man of God, do not lie to your maidservant.”
But it wasn’t a lie. He was speaking the word of the Lord. And it came to pass. And within a year’s time the baby that Elisha had spoken of was born. This was the son that she had given up hope of ever having. And apparently several years passed and the child is growing. He’s old enough to run out to where he wants to go. Maybe he’s about six or seven or eight years old.
And one day the little boy goes out to his father who is supervising the reapers who are reaping in the harvest from his field. And father is out there with his father, no doubt under a blazing Middle-Eastern sun. All of a sudden the little boy cries, “My head, my head!” And the father gives instructions to a servant that the little boy should be carried to his mother. And I can picture the mother in a similar situation. She does her very best to care for him, to make him feel better. She places her little boy on her knees. And he sat on her knees until noon, and then he died.
Now I don’t pretend this morning to understand how it really feels for a parent to lose a child. But I have known parents who have done that, including my very own parents. And I know that it is one of the hardest blows that life can deliver to any of us. And that’s what had happened to this woman.
And we might expect her to jump up and to run out to her husband and say, “Husband, our boy just died. He’s dead.” But she doesn’t do that. Instead she picks up her little boy. She takes him into the room that they had prepared for Elisha. She lays him down on the bed where Elisha had often lain. And only then does she go out to her husband and request that they give her a donkey and a servant so she could go to the man of God and come back.
And he says, “Mrs. Why do you want to go to the man of God today? This is not the first of the month. This is not a new moon. This is not a Sabbath day. There’s no good reason for going to him today.” Why, we would expect the woman to say, “I’ve got to go. Our son just died.” But instead, note it well, the woman said, “It is well. It is well.”
So she gets the servant. She gets the donkey. She evidently knows that Elisha is out at Mount Carmel. And she tells the servant to go as fast as he can and not to slacken. And when there’s still a certain distance from Mount Carmel, Elisha sees her coming. And he turns to his servant Gehazi. He says, “Look, there is the Shunammite. Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’”
Gehazi does that. And surely now the woman will say, “My husband and I are all right, but my son has died. That’s why I’m coming for the man of God.” But instead she said, “It is well.”
Now I ask you, is this woman lying through her teeth? Her son is dead on Elisha’s bed back at home. How can it be well? And I submit to you that this woman has discovered a wonderful fact. Oh yes, when her son was first announced to her she could not believe that that would be true. She thought it was impossible. But the birth of her son proved one thing beyond all others: that with God nothing is impossible.
And even though her son has died, she apparently believes in the depths of her heart that the God who implanted life to her son in the womb could do it again. And he could be raised from the dead.
Now listen closely. There are two ways that you and I can take the hits of life. One of those ways is to say, “This is dreadful. I don’t know how I can manage to handle this. This is beyond my ability to bear.” Or we can receive it in faith. We can know that God is in control. And we can believe that He is able to do whatever needs to be done. And we can say, despite what has happened, “It is well.”
Mr. Charles Martin told me this story about my father. My father didn’t tell it. Mr. Martin told me. Mrs. Charles Martin lived just across the road from my parents out at Greenwood Hills in Fayetteville, Arkansas. They were good friends of my parents. And on the night that my brother died unexpectedly, suffering cardiac arrest as he was going up the elevator to his apartment in his high-rise apartment building in Alexandria, Virginia, the authorities down in Alexandria eventually got into the process of notifying next of kin.
And apparently they notified Mr. Martin first. But they very formally instructed Mr. Martin that he should not go across the road and inform Mr. Hodges of the death of his son until the paramedics arrived. You see, my father had some heart problems. And they were afraid that the shock of hearing about my brother David’s death might precipitate a heart incident. And he would need medical attention right on the spot.
And so Mr. Martin waited until the paramedics had arrived and went across the road and was present when they made the announcement to my father. Then Mr. Martin told me this. He told me what he said to my dad. These may not be his exact words, but they’re the general idea. He said to my father, “Zeke,” that’s what he called my dad, as many others did, “Zeke, you’re going to need your faith now.”
And I think I shall always remember the words that Mr. Martin reported my father saying on that occasion. Referring to his faith, my dad said, “If it doesn’t work now, it’s not much good, is it?” In other words my father was saying, if my faith doesn’t work in this hour of crisis, it’s not as weak, and it’s not as strong and vital as it ought to be. It’s a weak faith.
Listen to me, my friends. Every time you take a hit in life that is an opportunity to trust God, to believe in His sovereign and controlling power. It is an opportunity to grow in faith.
Well, she finally got to him, didn’t she? She finally got to him. And when she approached Elisha she falls at his feet and she grabs him by the feet. Gehazi doesn’t think that’s entirely appropriate. He tries to shove her away. But Elisha is a man of compassion, just as God, the God he served, was a God of compassion. And he says, “Let her alone, for her soul is in deep distress. And the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me.”
And now surely, surely, we should hear that this woman is going to say, “My son is dead.” But no, no, no, no. Listen to her words. According to the Scriptures this is all that we have coming out of her mouth here. She says to Elisha, “Did I ask a son of my lord? Did I not say to you, ‘Do not deceive me’?”
What do these words mean? Let me try to suggest their meaning by giving you a paraphrase. Will you allow that? Let me suggest that the woman means this. She is saying, this child was not the answer to our request. I never asked you to give me a child. And even when you told me I was going to have a child I didn’t believe it. And I said, “Do not deceive me.” This child is not the result of my request. This child is not the result of my faith. This child is something that God Himself determined to give me. For you, his prophet. In other words, this child is not my business. He’s God’s business.
May I repeat that? I think this woman is saying, this child is not my business. I didn’t ask for the child. I didn’t believe it would be born. This child is given by God. And therefore the care of this child is God’s business.
And even though there is no explicit request, my friends, the underlying burden is undoubtedly, God can take care of His business.
It wouldn’t have been easy for the woman to have said, “Man, I am a grieving mother. This little boy was the joy of my life. He was someone who made me happy.” But if she had talked like that she would have been making it her business instead of making it God’s business.
You know what’s wrong with us a lot of times when we take a hit from life? The first thing we think about is the way this affects me. This affects my family. This affects my security. This affects my happiness. And it’s the last thing we think of: what is God’s business here? What are God’s interests? What are God’s purposes? What are God’s plans?
Well, no sooner are these words spoken than the action begins. And Elisha says to Gehazi, “Take my staff. Go on ahead. Lay my staff on the face of the child.” And the woman, who is still the only one who really knows that the child is dead, refuses to leave Elisha. She instinctively realizes, I think, that this miracle must be done through the prophet who did the original miracle. And she says, “I’m not going to leave you.”
And so they go. Gehazi gets to the room, lays the staff on the face of the child. Nothing happens. And he comes back and reports, “The child is not awake.” So Elisha and the woman get to the house. And then Elisha goes into the room and shuts the door so that he and the child are the only ones in the room.
And the next thing we read is not the woman pounding on the door and saying, “Open the door. That’s my boy in there. I’ve got to see this miracle. Open the door.” I would like to be in there. What’s that you say? You don’t find that in the Bible? Nope. Nope. She doesn’t say anything.
You see, she was right in the first place. This is not her business. This is God’s business. This is home business. This is God’s business. And what goes on in that room is God’s business and God’s business only.
And the first thing that happens is that Elisha has a private conversation with God. He prays. And then there occurs one of the greatest miracles in the Old Testament. Elisha goes in and he lays down on the corpse of the little boy. He puts his mouth to the little boy’s mouth, his eyes over the little boy’s eyes, his hands where the little boy’s hands are. And miraculously some of the warm life force, Elisha’s life, flows into the little boy and his body becomes warm.
And now Elisha gets up and he walks back and forth in the house and he gets his circulation going and his body heated up. And then Elisha lies down again. And this time the little boy sneezes seven straight times as the breath of life begins to flow through that physical body again. And then the little boy opened his eyes.
And I think Elisha must have peeked out the door because he was alone in the room with the little boy and Gehazi was out there. And he said, “Go call the Shunammite woman.” And they call the Shunammite woman. And Elisha says, “Pick up your son.” And with overflowing gratitude she falls at his feet. And then she picks up her little boy and she walks away.
And she hasn’t heard a thing. She hasn’t seen a thing. But her faith is vindicated because God has taken care of His business with that little boy.
And dear Christian friends this morning, the way to take the blows of life is not to worry about how our affairs will work out, but to trust God to take care of His business, to work His will, and to glorify His name. And if we don’t see one thing happen before God completes His work, that’s perfectly all right because that’s God’s business.
One of my favorite stories refers to Dr. Charles Fuller. Some of you may know Dr. Charles Fuller was a radio preacher who had the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour. And on one occasion the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour was about to be broadcast out of a tin-roof tabernacle in Waterloo, Iowa. Dr. Fuller was standing up on the platform just about ready to start the broadcast in front of the audience in the tabernacle. And all of a sudden it began to rain very hard. And the noise on the tin roof of that tabernacle was so loud there was no way they could have recorded the broadcast.
So Dr. Charles Fuller, in the presence of the entire audience, prayed the following prayer. He said, “Lord, if you don’t stop the rain the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour will not go out over the air. For Jesus’ sake please stop the rain.”
Now I happen to be convinced that Dr. Fuller did not think that the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour was his work but God’s work. He didn’t think it was his business but God’s business. And he knew that within three minutes after that prayer was prayed the rain stopped completely. And they broadcast the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour without any interruption. And five minutes after the broadcast was over, my friends, it started to rain again. And it was a torrential downpour. But God had taken care of His business.
And you can take the hit. You can, if you are willing to trust God to work in His way and do His will.
Shall we pray? Gracious Father, the lessons of faith that are before us in this portion of your Word, help us to trust You to take care of Your business. We ask in Christ’s name, amen.