Imagine if you had a loved one that suddenly became gravely ill. How would you respond? Would you immediately rush him or her to the emergency room? Would you search the internet for guidance? Would you call 911? Or would you contact a friend in the medical profession? It is hard to imagine that there was a time when none of these options were available. In fact, there was a time when your only option was to pray and hope.
The Shunammite women in 2 Kings 4 found herself in a situation similar to this. She was a woman who would have been left childless if the Lord had not intervened. But she was blessed with a son for her generosity to the prophet Elisha. She watched him grow and everything seemed to be wonderful. But one day everything changed for the worse. As 2 Kings 4:18-20 tells us, “The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. ‘My head! My head!’ he said to his father. His father told a servant, ‘Carry him to his mother.’ After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.”
Imagine how helpless this mother must have felt. There was no 911 to call. There was no internet to search for guidance. There was no hospital to take her son to. She could only care for her son to the best of her ability and pray.
The Shunammite woman lived a long time ago at around 840 BC. It would be another 400 years before Hippocrates, who is the father of modern medicine, would come on the scene. Hippocrates was really the first person to describe many diseases and their treatments in a scientific manner. He recorded his observations in more than 70 books. Before Hippocrates nothing like this was available to diagnose and treat sick people.
Even after Hippocrates it would take centuries before “physicians” would develop proper methods for treating the sick. Bloodletting, where they withdrew blood from a patient to prevent or cure illness and disease, was still practiced well into the 19th century. Imagine visiting the doctor with a fever and the doctor’s treatment is to cut you with knifes to make you bleed out the bad stuff. Doesn’t sound like much fun, does it? So you can imagine how much help was available for the Shunammite.
Many scholars believe that this woman’s son was suffering from heat stroke. This would make sense considering that it was the time of the harvest when temperatures were normally very hot. This also fits with the complaint of the boy having a headache which is a common symptom of heat stroke. Now I work on the safety team at my company and one of the things we learn and teach is how to recognize and treat heat stroke. Treatment is very simple. Apart from calling for an ambulance, you should move the person to an air-conditioned area or to shade. Remove unnecessary clothing and do what you can to cool off the patient whether by using ice packs or a fan. The hospital can administer fluids if necessary. If caught early, you have a very good chance of recovering.
The Shunammite did not have this knowledge or these options. Her son died right there in her arms. She was helpless to do anything. This would be the greatest test of her faith. She only had God to whom she could turn. And to God she would turn. She left the boy on a bed and immediately sought out the prophet that delivered to her God’s promise of a son.
It would have been a long journey for the woman to reach Elisha. Along the way she would have been overwhelmed with grief and questioning why God would allow this to happen. But her faith would remain strong that God could restore her son back to life through the prophet. She held on to the fact that this son was the result of a promise and a miracle.
She would reach Elisha and return back with him. In 2 Kings 4:32-37 we read, “Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. Elisha summoned Gehazi and said ‘Call the Shunammite.’ And he did. When she came, he said ‘Take your son.’ She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.”
There are some important takeaways here. First, the Shunammite, unlike us today, had no one to turn to except God for her son’s illness and death. But God rewarded her faith. In the same way God is with us even when it seems like no one else is or when there seems to be no hope. We should also be thankful that we live in a time when we do have the benefits of advanced medicine and knowledge.
Adam
