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The Shunammite woman and her son in 1 Kings 17:10-24, tells about the powerful faith of a poor woman. This sermon also includes instructions for growing your own spiritual life and reminds that God can speak to anybody in any way He chooses. it is one of the finest quality sermon audios available on the internet today.
Today I will be speaking about the shunammite woman found in 1 Kings 17. The Bible tells us the story of the woman who had only one son. He was struck with leprocy, which compelled her to leave her son where there is a prophet named Elisha. The woman immediately ran away and begged for help from Elisha showing that God can do nothing for her if there is a separation between them. Elisha told the woman not to fear and that he would heal the boy yet she initially didn’t believe him. Fortunately, she stayed and did not turn back as God opens our eyes to see situations from his perspective we can experience his mercy.
A good sermon about the shunammite woman
This is a story about the Shunammite woman. The Shunammite woman was a person who lived in the town of Shunem, which is located in the land of Israel. The Shunammite woman had a husband, whose name was Elisha. Elisha was a prophet, and he lived in the town of Gilgal.
One day, Elisha’s wife fell ill and died. He was very sad about this because he loved his wife very much. After his wife died, Elisha went to live with some other prophets who were living in the town of Gilgal at this time. These prophets asked him if he would like them to pray for him so that God might heal his wife from her illness and bring her back to life again; but Elisha said that it was too late for that because his wife had already died. However, they insisted on doing this anyway; so they prayed for her and she came back to life again!
After this happened, the prophet Elijah appeared before King Ahab and told him that there would be three years of famine coming soon (1 Kings 17:1-6). So Ahab told Jezebel about what Elijah had said;
Shunammite Woman
The Bible tells the story of the Shunammite woman, a widow who lived in the town of Shunem. She was married to a man named Elisha and had one son. The Bible says that her husband died, leaving her alone with her son.
One day while she was sitting on her roof, she saw Elisha coming towards her house. He asked if he could stay there for a little while, and she said yes. While he was staying there, Elisha asked if he could have some food from her house because he had nothing to eat. She gave him some food and water from her own table and said that there was no need for him to pay for it because it would be considered an act of kindness between them (2 Kings 4:8).
After this happened, Elisha went away from Shunem again and went back home to Samaria where he lived. But the next time he came back to Shunem, Elisha brought his servant Gehazi with him so that they could visit with this woman again (2 Kings 4:10). There was an important reason why Elisha brought his servant along with him when visiting
In the book of 2 Kings, chapter 4, we are introduced to a woman named the Shunammite. She is described as being “very beautiful” and having “the perfect figure.” The Bible tells us that her husband died and she was left alone with two children.
Her name means “dwelling place of God.” This is significant because it shows that she lived in a place where God lived. She had a special relationship with God and He loved her very much.
prayer points from the shunammite woman
The Shunammite woman was not alone for long. One day a prophet came to her house and asked her if he could stay there for a while. She welcomed him into her home and soon became like his mother. He stayed there for three years during which time she took care of him and cared for him as if he were her own son.
This story shows us that we should never judge someone by their appearance or by what they do for a living because no one knows what might happen tomorrow!
The Shunammite Woman
The story of the Shunammite woman is a story full of life and hope, but also one with some heart-wrenching sadness. The woman herself is a quiet and humble character who has had to face many challenges in her life. Her husband has died, leaving her alone to raise their children and run their home without him. Her son eventually dies from illness, leaving her without an heir and she struggles to find a way to provide for herself and her daughter-in-law.
But even through all this hardship and sorrow, the Shunammite woman remains faithful to God. She does not complain about what she does not have; instead, she finds joy in her life as it is—and that faithfulness to God leads her into even greater blessings than she could have imagined.
In the book of 2 Kings, we read the story of a woman named Shunammite who had been married to a man named Elisha. This woman’s husband had died, and she was left alone with her children. One day, Elisha passed through Shunammite’s area on his way to Samaria.
When he saw her, he asked his servant if there was anything for him to do for her. She told him about how she had no one to help her with her house or her crops. He told her that he would stay with her and do whatever she needed done. He stayed there for two years and helped with everything from making food to planting crops.
Shunammite was so grateful for all that Elisha did for her that when he left, she cried out loud and said: “I have never seen such kindness as this.” (2 Kings 4:9)
lessons from shunammite woman
There was a time, long ago when the creator spoke with His children through prophets. This was before the Jesus Christ was born. The creator spoke to prophets who in turn spoke His mind to the people. The prophets had to be clean, sanctified and purified to carry out their priesthood duties. One of such prophets who existed at that time was Elisha. Elisha was one who was recognized throughout Israel for he obeyed God and God in turn used him to perform many miracles. Elisha would go around, carrying out tasks the creator put in his hands. One of the places he visited often was Shunam.
1. The Shunammite woman was hospitable
A woman and her good old husband lived in Shunam. They had everything any human being craved apart from that which the creator had withheld from them. A son. There were many women in Shunam but only this woman noticed how hungry and tired the man of God was every time he journeyed through her village. She invited the prophet and his servant in and soon enough, it becomes a custom for him to stop and eat in her home. With the blessing of her husband, after putting the resources needed together, she put up a little apartment for the prophet to stay anytime he passed by.
It’s easy these days to quickly attack men of God and tag them as thieves or beggars because we somehow believe they are out to exploit us. While some of the acclaimed men of God ain’t exactly chosen by God, if we make use of the spirit of discernment provided to us by the Holy Spirit, we would know the truth. Do you respect the men of God in your life? How often do you go out of your way to help and provide assistance as they so need? Do you listen to God when He gives specific instructions as to how you should impact the next person?
2. She was hopeful and content
One day, Elisha asked the Shunammite woman what she wanted. (Nothing is free even in Freetown right?). She told him she didn’t need anything. She was okay with what her family provided her with and although she someday hoped for a son, she wasn’t going to put her life on hold, grumble and complain about what she didn’t have but instead continually use what she had currently to bless others. Gehazi, Elisha’s servant told Elisha she didn’t have a son. When Elisha told her she’d have a son, she begged him not to test her. She didn’t want to raise expectations only to have them dashed. Elisha needed her to trust God and when she did, the promise of a son came to pass.
We might not always have everything we want. But we can be rest assured God has plans for us and at just the right time, when He knows we would be able to handle and take care of the blessing, He would bless us with exactly what we need.
3. Wisdom is profitable to direct
The days go by and soon enough, it’s been years since the promised child became a reality. The family has progressed and there has been growth. Then one day, after a brief headache, the promised child dies. The Shunammite woman could have caused a scene but she didn’t. She laid the child on the prophets bed and refused to tell anyone her son was dead – not even her husband. He was old and the news might have killed him too. Instead, she went straight to he who had promised her the son and wouldn’t follow Gehazi when the prophet suggest that Gehazi should go with her instead and use his staff to touch the boy. She reminded the prophet that she had been content without a son but since God had blessed her with him, she wasn’t going to give up on his soul so easily. She needed to fight for the blessing to live and that’s exactly what she did. Elisha followed her home, prayed for the boy and in no time, the boy was up and running. What if she had given up too easily? What if she hadn’t believed that he who promised had the power and ability to keep his promise to the very end?
What life has God promised you that now looks dead? Don’t loose hope. Remind Him what He told you; His words are yeah and amen and nothing He says goes back to Him without coming to pass.
4. Remain Obedient even when things are rosy.
The boy came back to life and everyone went back to their daily routines but a great famine that would shake Israel was coming and the prophet had to tell his host about it. Without questioning the prophet, the Shunammite woman leaves her home and all she knows together with her little family to settle in a place where they can be kept safe and fed for seven years, the number of years the famine lasted. The famine came just as the prophet had warned and because of her obedience, her family was spared from destruction.
It is not everything God asks us to do that “makes sense” in that moment. Sometimes, we understand it better by and by. Other times, we never get to understand it in this side of eternity but our obedience is important even when everything otherwise seems to be going alright.
5. The Shunammite woman was versatile
After the famine, the Shunammite woman and her little family returned to their home and land to find it occupied by strangers. This woman pays a visit to the king and because of her past hospitality which she finds Gehazi talking to the king about, she is favoured and everything her husband and her had previously worked on was returned to her. She was hospitable, hard working, a home maker, a home keeper and her politeness, beyond what she had previously done, again saved her family from destruction.
What can people say about you when you’re not in the room? Can your good deeds speak for you so much so that you find favour in the sight of men? Today, there are many opportunities to apply the lessons from the life of the Shunammite woman. All you need do is look around you and grab those opportunities. Some opportunities come only one, just like the saying goes. Grace is for made sufficient to for you to practice all you learnt and ultimately help you to live a transformed life. For further reading, you can find the story of the Shunammite woman in 2nd Kings 4:8-37 and 2nd Kings 8:1-6.
characteristics of the shunammite woman
Empathic Embracing Hospitality
II Kingschapter 4, where we find her story, is also the haftarah portion which corresponds to parshat Vayera — which tells of the miraculous birth of Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac as well as the binding of Isaac. There are at least three clear parallels: hospitality, a prophecy to a barren woman that she will bear a son, and the near-death experience of that son.
In parshat Vayera, Abraham welcomed road-weary strangers into his tent, with keen attention to their needs (bathing, resting, food). Likewise, the Shunamite woman, standing in her doorway, noticed that the prophet Elisha came to Shunem regularly as he traveled around the land teaching and caring for the people. Wisely, she recognized both his great acts and his needs, and said to her husband: “I am sure it is a holy man of God who comes here regularly. Let us make a small enclosed upper chamber and place a bed, a table, a chair, and a lampstand there for him, so that he can stop there whenever he comes to us.” In both cases, Abraham and the Shunamite woman focused on empathy to determine the needs of their visitors.
Spiritual Growth through a Healing Embrace
The Shunamite woman also was modest, undemanding, and seemingly self-aware. By contrast, Elisha was a busy and emotionally inaccessible man of God. In the wake of the death of his mentor Elijah, Elisha’s detachment was so great that his quick temper resulted in the tragic death of 42 children who were teasing him.
Elisha summons bears to attack children who tease him.
The detached Elisha was thoughtful enough to reward the Shunamite woman for her hospitality, but didn’t do it personally. Instead, he sent his servant, Gehazi, to offer money and protection, which she politely turned down — asking nothing in return for her generosity.
Still looking to reward their hostess, Gehazi and Elisha made another plan — completely without her input. Gehazi pointed out to Elisha that their hostess was barren, and the prophet decided to reward her with the miracle of a child (again echoing the story in Vayera with Abraham and Sarah). A key difference is that unlike the other barren women in the Bible (Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, Samson’s mother, and Michal), the Shunamite woman had not been praying for a child, nor did her life seem to be incomplete without one. It was Elisha’s idea for her to become a mother, not hers. He delivered this prophecy to her: “At this season next year you will be embracing a son.”
The woman indeed became a mother and then we read of her child wandering in the heat of the day without water, becoming dehydrated, then sick, and ultimately dying. It seems that more supervision would have prevented his death—the lack of it is surprising in a woman we know to be attentive and empathetic. What’s going on? Perhaps the Shunamite woman could not allow herself to be totally emotionally involved with an unexpected and un-asked for child conceived as a result of a prophecy in her later years? (Contrast that to Sarah, the original helicopter mom.)
But despite her detachment, when tragedy struck, the Shunamite woman clicked into Mama Bear mode. Leaving her dead child laid out on Elisha’s bed in her home, she mounted a donkey, headed to find Elisha, and demanded that he personally attend the child.
Despite the longtime connection between Elisha and the Shunamite woman, the prophet was still so emotionally detached that at first he sent only Gehazi to attend to the child. But the Shunamite woman knew she needed more than Elisha’s servant — she needed the prophet himself.
Because of her deep empathy for Elisha, the Shunamite woman knew precisely what words to use to shake him from his detachment: “As the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you,” she cried. This utterance was a precise echo of the impassioned words with which Elisha himself had implored his beloved mentor, Elijah, not to die. And they worked — Elisha and the woman now rushed to the bedside of the child.
Elisha raises the Shunamite woman’s son.
At the Shunamite woman’s house, Elisha immediately entered the upstairs room — his own generously provided room, and bent over the dead child on the bed — his own carefully prepared bed. And then, he lay on top of the boy, hands to hands, eyes to eyes, mouth to mouth, and breathed into the child the breath of life — the embrace of life, as he had prophesied (“At this season next year you will be embracing a son.”)
Imagine that! Elisha, who had cursed 42 children with death by bear-mauling just because they had taunted him for being bald, was now stirred to absolute heart-to-heart empathy. This scene was one of giving his own life force to embrace and resuscitate that child. Reviving the child also revived Elisha to empathy and attachment. And the incident revived the Shunamite woman, too, to bond with her son: “And the woman bent down, and picked up her child, and embraced him.”
May we all be inspired by the healing power of radical empathy.
