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.”
A story is given of a Shunammite woman and her husband of old age, who hosted the Prophet Elisha whenever he was passing through the town. Not much is revealed of the woman, but we know according to the scripture that it was revealed unto her that Elisha was a man of God and that she and her husband had no children and He was an old man. As Elisha was at their house with his servant, he sought to do something meaningful to this generous family. They had transformed the room which was intended to be for their child, if God had blessed them, into a guest room for him and his servant. He asked her if there was anything he could intercede for on her behalf and she said there was nothing because her heart was home with her people. Elisha decides to find out through his servant what they possibly lacked at the house and his servant said that they had no children. Elisha then told the woman that by the same time the following year she would hold a son in her arms. It happened as the man of God had prophesied and as a young boy, the begotten son died of a headache as mentioned in scripture. All through the story, we see that the woman closed the door where her boy lay dead and when asked what was wrong she said ‘It is well’. We do not expect a mother that just lost a son she got as a miracle to say that ‘it is well’ when this son dies, and this reveals something deeper about the heart of the woman in the story. Her heart was so consecrated and understanding of the heart of The Father, our God, that she knew He does not give gifts to then take them back. She refused to conceive in her heart that her son was dead and she went rather to the one whom the Spirit came upon for answers.
The Case For What We Believe
Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.
The Hebrew word for house is bayith and in the Jewish culture, the same word connotes an expression to describe the place of one’s heart. This means that the place of our hearts is built in vain if it is not built by the Lord Himself. This will manifest as proof in the physical realm by producing all that takes root in our hearts as a result of who built it in the first place. For example, if you conceive in your heart that you are not qualified for a certain position at a job because those that went before you do not look like you, you will not even dare to position yourself for that job because you have already conceived it in your heart that you cannot get it. The shunammite woman did not conceive in her heart that her son was dead because she had seen her first miracle that had otherwise been impossible, that of conceiving the son in the first place, come to pass. Therefore in her heart, it was revealed unto her that it was possible for the same God that opened her womb to keep alive her miracle baby boy. That is why for her, it is well because she did not imagine one second he could be dead. In Paul tells us that we believe with our hearts first then we are justified by this belief in our hearts. In other words what you believe with your heart, is made right because the heart has that power. It also means, you have to be careful which power is at work in the heart, because as the psalmist puts it, if the Lord is not the one that builds the house (the heart) the builders labor in vain. This is how you can find people who are smart, have gone to school, have the right connections who never attain wealth and on the other hand, you meet other people who have done none of the above but one business strike has worked perfectly and they are made rich for the rest of their lives.
The Race Is For The Called
For many are called, but few are chosen.
What does it mean when Jesus says many are called, but few are chosen? The Lord is pointing us to the reality that as many have heard the Gospel and have interpreted it in one way or another in their lives, those are ones who are called because it is an open invitation to every man that will hear it. The Lord chose disciples to walk with him while He was in the body and before He ascended back to His throne, He charged his friends to make disciples. The invitation therefore, is for everyone that accepts the call and is willing to pay the price of following in the footsteps of Jesus and become part of the chosen. Like the Shunammite woman, the reverence and intimacy she had with God made her know that Elisha was a man of God. Before this encounter, she had always treated the man with hospitality and kindness and this gesture caused the blessing to settle in her house. What you do in response to the Word you have received is what sets you apart as chosen among the called.
The Promise For The Called
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Now that we have seen what it means to be called, we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose. The word for know in Hebrew is yada, and it has a deeper meaning than the mere ‘know’ we are familiar with in the English vocabulary. It connotes perceiving, learning, understanding, willing, performing, and experiencing. Thus biblically, knowing God is not to get into theology school or being learned in all the material written about God but to enter into dutiful obedience and belief that He is who He says He is and does what He says He will. This is why you will meet people that know the Bible inside out but still fail to make the Word alive and working in their lives because their knowledge is simply an intellectual information of a principle unexplainable while for other men they pray with results because they know God. They have apprehended and experienced the reality of God, they have exercised themselves into the matters of actualizing the Word in their life.
And she said to her husband, “Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us regularly.
The Shunammite woman then ‘knew’ who Elisha was, not because someone told her or Elisha introduced himself but because she had perceived it and then believed it in her heart. This is the authority by which Paul stands in writing the 28th verse of Romans saying ‘and we know that all things work together for the good of those that loved him, and are called according to his purpose’.
You are certainly called, but are you ‘chosen’ and do you ‘know’ ?
If you have never given your life to Jesus Christ, and you feel that this is the perfect time, pray this prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I thank you because you died for my sins and you were raised for my glory. Today, I receive you as my Lord and Savior. I am born again. Amen.”
