The Shunammite woman

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THE SHUNAMMITE

2 Kings 4:8

The poor widow so mercifully relieved and blessed, marks the social and spiritual condition of the humbler classes of Israelitish women. [2 Kings 4:1-7]. We are now about to consider a Jewish female in a much higher station.

In the town of Shunem [near Megiddo] dwelt one, designated in the Bible as a ‘great woman,’ meaning a woman of rank and consequence, to whose hospitable house the prophet Elisha ever turned when he passed through the town. It was not the custom of the prophets to enter the houses of the great and eat at their luxurious tables, preferring the humble meal and lowly roof as more accordant with their heavenly mission than the good things of earth. Not that they resembled the self-mortifying ascetics [penitents] of some Gentile creeds, and imagined that their merit in the sight of God was weighed according to the extent of their self-inflicted penances; but simply, that the mind might be kept clearer, the spirit poorer, and the body healthier, by moderation in all things. Their mission of love, too, was to all classes, and the poor could not have come to them with such confidence, as in the case of the widow, if their luxurious style of living placed them with the nobles of the land.

That to lodge and eat amid the wealthy was contrary to their usual habits, we learn from the forcible expression, ‘she constrained him to eat bread (bread in Hebrew comprising all sorts of food, [this] of course signifies regular meals). And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread;’ and in so doing, it is evident that he found the Shunammite one of ‘the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal nor kissed him,’ and accepted her hospitality in the same spirit of piety and kindly love with which it was proffered.

A regular visitor

Once he had been constrained, for the prophet might have feared that the wealth and luxury, which marked the abode, was impregnated with the same awful seeds of vice and impiety which desecrated the wealthy of the capital; but a second time he needed not constraint, for one interview sufficed to mark the spiritual elevation of his hosts, and that they were indeed those with whom a prophet of the Lord might enjoy the delights of social intercourse in innocence and peace.

An outside room

Not contented with proffering the mere hospitality of rest and food, we find the Shunammite saying to her husband, ‘Behold now, I know this is a holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make him a little chamber, I pray thee, in the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: an it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.’ And we know that her husband’s acquiescence was instantly obtained, and her plan accomplished; for the very next verse we read, ‘And it fell on a day that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber and slept there.’

Briefly as this is related, how beautifully it illustrates the character of woman – the eager desire to show kindness, and so to show it as best to harmonize with the feelings and habits of its object. The establishment was probably the highest and most influential in Shunem. The Shunammite was an independent mistress of her own household, possessed of power to ask whom, and do what she willed; she is the prime mover in the whole narration; and she it is to whom the reward is given, as the one from whose pure mind, and noble heart, the hospitable kindness originally came.

That she did not at first know Elisha as a prophet does but enhance the mild benevolence of her character. There was nothing in his appearance to mark superior rank, or superior endowments; nothing probably but a gentle courtesy of manners which marked him worthy of kindness and attention. That they would ever be returned, she could not for a moment suppose, for the stranger was evidently a wanderer, with no settled home or calling.

Kindness is its own reward

But true benevolence never thinks of further recompense than the act of showing kindness brings. It is wrong to suppose that benevolence is but synonymous with acts of charity to the poor and needy. It finds space for its encouragement in every social and domestic duty of life. Benevolence to equals appears almost a paradox; yet it is not: for were such more often proved, in the earnest search after one another’s social happiness, in acts of daily kindness, and ever-active fellow feeling, how much happier might this life be!

It was this rare and beautiful benevolence which the Shunammite so richly possessed, and which is still more forcibly displayed in building a chamber for the man of God, than in her first hospitality. A very few interviews probably convinced her that he was something beyond that which he appeared, and the prophet’s own lips might have told the rest, or at least have imparted that his mission was of God. The bustle and varied scenes of a large establishment were no fit home for one who, when not employed in the service of his fellow-creatures, passed his time in meditation and prayer. Even a chamber to himself within the house would not have permitted him the privacy he desired, besides causing him to diverge from the plan of moderation and retirement, demanded from him as a prophet and a reprover, by act as well as word, of the far-spreading vices of the time.

To remedy this, and silently tempt his sojourning a longer time with them than the mere acceptance of a meal, the Shunamite’s ready mind conceived the idea of erecting a chamber expressly for him, with an egress and ingress [door] of its own, and furnished with that kindly regard to all, which might make him look upon it as his own. Her plan was, of course, imparted to her husband, and how clearly does her simple expression, ‘Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee,’ evince the affectionate confidence, only found when husband and wife are equals; even though, by a succeeding verse, we are led to suppose that her husband was very much older than herself.

For love of God

The chamber was built and furnished; and greatly must Elisha have been surprised and affected by this proof of regard. We find him, in truth, making no remark: but how deeply he felt it we learn by his desiring his servant the following morning to ‘call the Shunammite;’ Call her? Why, had she not been in the chamber to give him welcome, and bid him look on all around him as his own? No. Her truly refined and feminine nature shrunk back from obtruding herself upon the prophet, and so compelling thanks and approbation. She wished him to feel the comfort of a retired and private home, but not that he owed her obligation; and so she kept aloof, demanding no more than her own heart gave, in the delightful thought that it was in her power to add to the comfort of a man of God.

And in this eager desire to reverence and serve the prophet, can we not read the love she bore to God? To mere earthly natures Elisha would have been nothing more than any other man, - except perhaps exciting the emotions of dislike and dread with which those persons are ever regarded, whose lives and even characters are the reprovers of our own: but to those who truly and earnestly seek to love God, His ministers are special objects of reverence and care, and such was the feeling of the Shunammite.

‘Behold! Thou has been careful for us with all this care,’ was the address of Gehazi, by his master’s command: ‘what is to be done for thee? Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people.’

Contentment

And what a volume of feeling is contained in these brief words! Not only a perfect contentment with her lot, but a meek and sorrowful reproach, that they could think she had shown this care in the hope of reward. Nothing can be more painful to a delicately feeling mind, than the idea of receiving return for aught of kindness; the heart flowing with its own warmth, with the peculiar pleasure of serving another, shrinks chilled into itself, feeling how completely it is misunderstood; how little its pure motives can be appreciated.

Some natures would have been indignant at the supposition that she could not do a kind deed without reward; but the character of the Shunammite permitted not the expression of the feeling. Her lip was closed, but her heart was full. Expostulation with Gehazi at the injustice of the motive attributed to her, or acceptance of the offer, were alike contrary to the retiring dignity of her character; and simply saying, ‘I dwell among mine own people,' she retreated hastily, as desirous the conference should be closed; but Elisha was not satisfied.

He himself, probably, did full justice to the pious motives which had actuated her; but he wished to make publicly manifest, that no action engaged in out of pure love of God and reverence to His ministers should pass without reward; and on hearing from Gehazi that her husband was old and she had no child, he again summoned her, and this time into his immediate presence.

It was, no doubt, with some little repugnance she obeyed; fearing that her sensitive feelings might again be wounded by a proffer of service which she had so fully resolved not to accept. And ‘when he had called her, she stood at the door’ – how impressively betraying her reluctance! She could not refuse to speak with her guest; but, with that mixture of humility and real dignity which the true-feeling woman knows so well how to blend, she waited his commands on the threshold of his apartment.

A promise

This time, however, no offer of reward chilled and saddened her. The prophet asked not, sought not, the expression of her wishes; but at once promised, ‘Thou shalt embrace a son’ – a child, a son!

Should she indeed possess that for which, as a woman of Israel in the olden time, she must so often have longed, though the wish was never uttered! And, in the fullness of her sudden joy, the promise seemed too precious for belief, ‘Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid!’

Still, even in that moment, we trace the same gentle self-possession which had characterized her answer to Gehazi. No burst of rapture, no triumph, as would have been had she looked to her hospitality to bring reward. No; while her whole heart must have so trembled with suddenly awakened hope and joy, that steady thought was impossible, she yet spoke calmly, seeking to strengthen her faith in the promise, by the recollection it was in truth a ‘man of God who spoke,’ even while she besought him not to deceive her – the very entreaty proving how earnestly and how long she had yearned for such a blessing.

Doubt of the power of the Eternal to bring the promise to pass, it is evident, never assailed her. Her words to the prophet sprung merely from a too sudden thought of joy, and the anticipation was fulfilled; for at the proper season, exactly in accordance with Elisha’s promise, she embraced a son.

Can we not picture the increase of domestic love and happiness which this infant treasure must have created in the Shunammite’s happy household? All we read of her marks her the very character to enjoy to the full the intense happiness of maternal love, in its highest and most spiritual sense – one whose years passed in deeds, not merely words; who would enshrine deeply in her own heart those pure emotions and high feelings from which the simplest action sprung, - one whose best resources had ever been independent of all outward excitement, and who, ‘dwelling among her own people,’ had not a thought nor ambition beyond.

Her home was the shrine which knew her best, and from which the mild light of kindness and benevolence emanated many roods [miles] around. To such a one, life, even when childless, could never have been sad; yet how many a lonely moment, a yearning thought unspoken, unaccompanied of, yet still her own, must have been filled with the irrepressible gush of tenderness called forth by her child. How inexpressibly sweet must have been the holy task of leading that infant heart to God, and in the very midst of national sin and misery training him for heaven! Can we not fancy her strong affections concentrating their force and intensity around her boy, and lifting up her whole soul in increased adoration to her God.

Time went by

Nine or ten years might have thus passed; and her love and care seemed blessed in the growth and improvements of her child. He was now old enough to leave his mother’s side, and sometimes accompany his father in his agricultural employments. We can imagine him in his innocent glee, running from field to field, and eagerly sharing every rural occupation. A sudden stroke, either from the burning heat of the sun or some other cause, arrested his boyish joys, and, clinging to his father, he could only utter, ‘My head! my head!’ Imagining it only a slight pain, which would soon pass, his father desired one of his men to carry him to his mother; ‘and when they had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon and died.

What a sudden and awful change! A few brief hours previous, the fond mother had parted with her darling in full health and glee, and he was brought back to her pale, suffering, powerless – only sufficiently sensible to cling to her neck and lay his burning head upon her bosom. And she sat still, calm – apparently unmoved – lest the faintest display of her uncontrollable agony should increase his suffering, or disturb him as he lay – that every aid possible to be obtained to alleviate the disease was sought, we cannot doubt; but the mother moved not, nor would she have her child removed, whilst life remained.

Entirely human

And when we read this, shall we say the narratives of the Bible enter not into the emotions of the present day; that the characters there represented are of a nature utterly distinct from ours? What mother, more especially of an only child, can read the brief record of ‘they brought him to his mother, and he sat on her knees and died,’ without sympathy; and as she pictures the sad scene in her fancy, without feeling that human nature, alike in sorrow or joy, is in all ages the same; and that, therefore, the Bible records do indeed concern her, for they speak of characters in all their strength and weakness, faults and virtues, like her own?

No sound of wailing, no murmur of complaint, escaped the mother’s lips, as the breath of life passed from that loved form, as those sweet eyes, still fixed on her, became dim and lustreless, and even the faint moan of infant suffering no longer met her ear.

Here, again, is woman brought before us in her highest and loveliest nature. A weak mind would have only felt, not acted; would have been so overwhelmed with agony, as to have been incapable of any thought but the affliction which had befallen her. Not so the Shunammite – sustained by that noble energy, that perfect self-control, which had characterized her whole life, this trial cannot disturb the beautiful harmony of her character.

Even to her husband she is silent as to their heavy affliction, and she evades his question; - whilst there is hope, - ay, and to her faithful heart there is hope even now, though the child is dead – she will not afflict her husband. The full tide of grief is laid up in her own breast, aside from herself. Till she has acted, she has no time to sit down and weep, though her throat is dry and her breath impeded. We read the unutterable agony in her movements, not her words – ‘she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive on, and go forward, slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee.’

What was to her the heat, the fatigue of this unusual journey? She had but one thought, the man of God. He alone who had promised her ‘a child from the Lord’ could have the power, by prayer, to restore him even from the dead. One recollection only mingles with the thought, Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. Had not her child been restored from the dead? and had not Elisha equal power with the gracious Lord? Without this thought, this faith, the mother must have sunk; for minds like hers ever prostrate the frame. Tears and complaints give relief: it is the heart which never breathes its grief that bows the body to the dust.

Elisha’s God

And not alone the power of Elisha was uppermost in her mind; she must have known, have perfectly realized the attributes of Elisha’s God, or the thought of the prophet would have been no comfort. She must have felt that God was love, had compassion and sympathy even for her individually, a woman, a mere speck in this creation, or how could she have believed that He would grant His prophet the power to relieve her? She knew, as all believing Israel did, that prophets were mere instruments in His Almighty hand, of themselves powerless, spiritless, as their less favoured brethren. And, therefore, that the Shunammite had a man of God through whom to seek, does not, in any way, prevent the example from bearing upon us. We have not Elisha, but we have still Elisha’s God.

The way was not very long; but oh, the interminable period it must have felt to that poor mother’s heart, till Mount Carmel was reached! And how could she know the holy man was there? for he was a wanderer through Judea. But the impulse leading in that direction was of the Lord; and even before her dim eyes discovered the prophet, he had recognised her afar off; and, surprised, bade Gehazi run to meet her, and ask if it were well with her, and her husband and the child – thus demonstrating how kindly and lovingly the human emotions were ever at work in the heart of the holy man.

Only Elisha

But to Gehazi she could give not reply, save as she had said before to her husband, ‘It is well;’ hers was no grief to speak to indifferent ears. None but Elisha could assist her, and her heart was too closely wrapt in its own anguish to open to any but to him. Yet what stern command must she have had over her woman’s nature to retain her calmness during this journey! Control never failed her, till she beheld the man of God, and sunk almost powerless at his feet. She had reached him, indeed; but the energy which had sustained her throughout seemed deserting her. She had no power to utter the entreaty with which her heart was filled. She could only clasp his knees, and gaze on his face in agony, till roused by the kindly gentleness with which the prophet reproved Gehazi for seeking to thrust her aside. ‘Let her alone,’ he said, ‘for her soul is vexed within her; and the Lord has hid it from me, and has not told me.’

Then she said, ‘Did I desire a son of my lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me?’ The mother could not say her boy was dead. Faith was strong within her that he would be saved; and how powerfully does the very form of her address to the prophet betray the depth, the intensity of her feelings: refusing, even to him, to give vent to the torrent of grief and lamentation, and even of reproach, which would have burst forth unrestrainedly from a weaker less superior mind.

The response

Elisha needed no further information; and promptly he desired Gehazi to take his staff, and neither loiter nor speak by the way till he had laid it on the face of the child. But this was not sufficient for the poor mother: ‘As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth,’ she implored, ‘I will not leave thee [Come with me].’ None could be to her as Elisha, and he rebuked her not, nor denied her; his heart was too full of kindly emotions, and he arose and followed her.

But not to Gehazi was such a miracle vouchsafed. His coming to meet his master with the information, ‘The child is not awake,’ probably first convinced Elisha the event was of the Lord, and that the necessary power would be granted him.

The restoring the dead was a greater miracle than he had yet performed; and as we find him saying, ‘The Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me,’ he perhaps at first supposed that the child was merely in a stupor resembling death, and the virtue of the prophetic staff would revive him. But Gehazi’s words proved to him that the child was really dead; and he quickened his steps, and hastened to his own chamber where the child lay, ‘and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord.’

The prayer of faith

Words how full of important meaning! In every other action of the prophet we find the prophetic spirit acting, as it were, instantaneously. The power intrusted to him for the good of the Eternal’s chosen, as for the punishment of the unrighteous and disobedient, had seemed ready at his word.

In this it was no consequence of his superhuman endowments, but simply the effect of prayer unto the Lord. He might foretell events, might multiply oil, render poison harmless; so feed a hundred men with twenty loaves and a few baskets of first-fruits, that they were not only satisfied, but left thereof; might bid iron swim, and know what the king said in his bedchamber, though hundreds of miles away; but life and death were laid up with the Lord, and only[1] prayer gave him power over the human frame.[2]

What a tumult of contending emotions must have oppressed the Shunammite during that awful interval. Let any anxious mother recall the time when the darling of her heart has been pronounced sick unto death, and there is no hope – death is fast approaching when, in the wild agony of her despair, she has refused belief in the skill of him who has thus spoken, and sent or flown for the first physician of the age, and led him to the chamber of her child, and left him there without the power of waiting for his decisive mandate, and then sunk prostrate in her own closet before her God, seeking to pray, but finding her words trembling, fearing, hoping, and only conscious that life and death are with the Lord, and, if He willed, the skill she had so wildly sought might save her darling still. Let any mother recall such periods of her life, and she may enter into the feelings of the Shunammite as she sat alone in that interval of suspense, for her husband, still out in his agricultural employment, knew not of the suffering at home, and she had now none to look to in her agony save her God.

The answer

Time passed; how long she knew not, save that she felt as if an age were passing over heart and head. Hush! Is it the prophet’s voice? The mother started from her prostrate prayer, her head flung back, her very breath ceasing. ‘Call this Shunammite’ seemed to have rung in her ears; but it might be only fancy, only the mocking torture of her bewildered brain. No! Gehazi is at her door – he calls her to his master, though he says not wherefore, and she dares not look upon his face to read his tidings there.

She stood within the prophet’s chamber, she glanced upon the bed, her boy lived, breathed, smiled, stretched out his arms to her once more, and the voice of the prophet spake, ‘Take up thy son.’ And she sought to obey; but the spirit which had sustained her in sorrow, in suspense, departed now, and she fell at his feet powerless, voiceless, conscious only that her child lived – that the prayer of Elisha, and the compassionate love of Elisha’s God, had given her back the dead.

And even when she recovered sufficiently to bow herself to the very ground, in silent acknowledgment of the power of Elisha, the mercy of her God, and, with her living child clasped to her bosom, retired from the chamber, leaving the man of God to the adoration and meditation which this great mercy called, still no word broke from that heart, so swelling in thankfulness and love that only tears might relieve it; and beautifully does this stillness continue to illustrate the character of this sweet and gentle woman, so controlled, so energetic in affliction; so calm, so still in joy; so full of deep, of intense feeling, sensibility, affection, yet so restrained within that, though all around her felt its blessed effects, alike in deed and word and manner, none knew its extent save her God.

The blessing

Blessed as must have been the little domestic circle of the Shunammite before, it must have been thrice blessed from the restoration of her child. What must have been the feelings of the husband and the father on his return, when told that, in so short a space, his treasured child had been snatched from him by death, and been restored? How must his heart have glowed in increased love and veneration for the gentle woman who, rather than expose him to the agony of such intelligence, had buried it all in her own breast, and sought the prophet alone and unsoothed, and through that energetic promptness had been a lowly instrument in the hands of the Lord for the restoration of her child!

Had she lingered in unavailing and probably complaining sorrow – had she permitted herself to fail in faith and prayer – she had not sought the prophet, nor would her child have been restored, for she would have been no fit receiver for such manifestation of Almighty love.

Years later

The character of the Shunammite was not one to change or waver. We find her, at a later period, displaying the same retiring gentleness, yet dignified self-possession and energetic will. Some years must have passed, and from there being no mention of the Shunammite’s husband in affairs which, had he been living, would have devolved upon him, not on her, we infer that she had become a widow, an inference confirmed by the previous statement, that ‘her husband was old.’

The years of famine

Elisha had never lost sight of her, but had probably continued to occupy the ‘little chamber,’ whenever he passed through Shunem. [One day] he advised a removal, which must have been both irksome and painful to one whose house had always been on one spot, and whose richest possessions consisted of the land, and flocks, and herds around it, which she could not carry away with her, nor for the safety of which provide. However, she had too much faith and trust to hesitate in obedience; and when the mandate of the prophet came, ‘Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for the Lord hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years,’ she unhesitatingly ‘arose, and did after the saying of the man of God: and she went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.’

A sojourn which would have been inexpressibly sad to such a true follower of Israel, had she not been cheered by the blessed thought of the Eternal’s continued care for her. What was she in His sight? and yet, even by His prophet, He had deigned to warn her of the evil about to ensue, and provide for her safety, by permission to sojourn wither soever [wherever] she would. In those seven years of exile, how much must have devolved on her to keep her son and her household faithful, and live as if they were still in their own land, and still guided by the counsels of the man of God. Can we not fancy the morning and evening prayer arising daily from that little circle of faithful hearts led by a woman’s voice, and the Sabbaths and the festivals marking that lowly home a sanctuary before the Lord?

Oh, if the heart be but true to its God, it matters little where its home is cast. The magnet points unfailingly to its answering star, wheresoever the vessel glides. In the tempest or calm, in cold or heat, it wavers not, or fails to guide aright; and so it is with the man whose heart, like the magnet to the pole, is fixed upon its God.

The return

At the end of the seven years, the Shunammite and her household returned to Judea; but her home and land had been seized during her absence, and apparent ruin and privation in consequence was her welcome home. Some would have been ready to accuse Elisha as the cause of this evil, as having advised her removal. Others, again would have demanded or at least depended on, the prophet’s influence with the king. The Shunammite felt and did neither. With calm self possession she went herself to make her complaint before the king, and demand her house and land.

A legal cause

This was no service in which Elisha’s spiritual ministry was needed. It was no favour for herself, no advancement for her boy. The heart which had once answered, ‘I dwell among mine own people,’ to offers of reward, had not changed. As a woman and a widow in Israel, her sole plea was the justice of her cause.

But though with true feminine delicacy she had shrunk from appealing to Elisha in this emergency, the Eternal had so ordered events, that the prophet was in fact the true cause of the king’s instant attention to her suit. It so chanced that the king was talking to Gehazi, and demanding a recital of the great things Elisha had done; and at the very time the young man was repeating the restoration of the dead child, the Shunammite herself appeared before the king, led into his presence by that very beloved child, now grown into manhood [probably about 17], of whom Gehazi spoke. ‘Behold, my lord, O king,’ he exclaimed, ‘this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.’

And when the king asked the woman, she told him.’ And so strong an impression did the narrative make, that without hesitation he appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, ‘Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field, since the day that she left the land, even until now.’

Gratefully must the Shunammite have recognised the hand of God in this instant judgment, from one whose character was noted for impotence and indecision – one whose very justice was ever likely to be sullied by caprice [impulse]; for though we are expressly told in Holy Writ that Jehoram’s character was not of the actively evil, as his father and his mother, Ahab and Jezebel, his whole history marks him one of those fainéants [timid ones], whose indolence and weakness wrought almost as much evil in Israel as wickedness itself.

An inheritance in Israel

The energy which had urged the prosecution of her suit was indeed rewarded. Not only were all her possessions restored, but their full value, during her seven years of absence. Through her exertions, her boy received his inheritance; and, from his non-interference, though he must have been quite of an age to assert his own right, what a powerful proof have we of the deep veneration in which the mothers of Israel were regarded by their sons.

We hear no more of the Shunammite; but we have become sufficiently intimate with her sweet character to picture her declining years, full of piety, of that calm and beautiful dignity, which, if woman’s in her youth, will never forsake her in her age. Full of love to God and man, of good deeds and blessed thoughts, it was for her, and for seven thousand such as her, who had not bowed the knee to Baal, that the Eternal, in His loving mercy, still restrained His avenging wrath.

Always the same

The peculiar charm of the Shunammite’s character is its unity, its harmonious blending of parts. In every position, adversity or prosperity, or that period of often greater trial than either – the uninterrupted routine of daily life – still we see her in the same calm and beautiful light, never turning aside from the beaten path of duty, never seeking more than the day may bring, and finding enough there, not only to occupy her, but to give her grace and favour in the sight of God.

But though never apparently disturbed, her calmness was not indifference. All that we read of her betrays an undercurrent of intense feeling, which while it caused her to suffer deeply, also endowed her with the purest susceptibility to joy. Feeling it was that inspired that constantly working energy which never permitted her to sit down and weep when she could act, or remain satisfied with the mere expression of kindness, when she could manifest it in deed: and of that intensity of feeling, piety was the spring.

No heart can rest indifferent when once awakened to a love of God, and, as must follow, a love of man. It was with no thought of reward she showed such warm hospitality to Elisha, yet from that one deed all her after-happiness sprung. He was the chosen servant of the Eternal; and a service done to him was an offering to his God.

An example

From first to last, the character of the Shunammite offers the beautiful lesson of example. Her good use of wealth and greatness – her moderation in all circumstances – her firmness in affliction – her absolute control of every emotion till her child was restored – her unselfish endurance of anxiety and anguish, rather than impart them to her husband – her calm, yet energetic prosecution of her son’s rights – all these are points which every young daughter of Israel may admire and imitate, even though her position in life be different.

We must exercise energy and self-control in little things, even in daily employments, or we shall never find them when most needed. We must set out in life with a conviction that we are destined for something worthier and nobler than the mere routine of frivolous employments and unmeaning recreations - that we are endowed with a heart and mind, for the proper use of which an account will be demanded; and sad will it be if we then feel that the impulses and usefulness of both have been neglected, and opportunities, alike of virtuous deeds and beneficial feeling, have long passed us by unused.

And as women of Israel, even more powerfully should the history of the Shunammite affect us; her elevated character – her domestic and social influence – nay, the very mention of her as a ‘great woman’ – the mention of her, instead of her husband or son, as the principally concerned in the whole narration – all convince us that, even in such an era of national anarchy and discord, the women of Israel were in the full enjoyment of all the liberty and privileges, spiritual and temporal, granted them in the law of God.

No difference

Her very piety, which obtained her such favour in the sight of God and of His prophet, is unspeakable comfort to us now. She had, indeed, the friendship and counsel of a prophet, which we cannot have; but her piety had life and influence at a period of much darker misery and sin, and rebellion and idolatry, than we have to encounter now. To retain purity and faithfulness, to walk firmly in the very midst of vast multitudes who so derided all true piety and adherence to the law of God as to endanger even personal safety, was a position of infinitely harder trial than is ours now.

The Shunammite’s being blessed with Elisha raises no barrier between us. What the prophets were to the faithful in the olden time, the Word of the Lord is now to us. We cannot too often dwell upon the truth, that the same gracious God who manifested Himself through prophets and miracles to our ancestors is ours still, and has granted us a record of His words and works, to give us strength, and hope, and comfort, till that glorious day when we shall be restored to our own land, and His almighty presence be again revealed.

The natural powers and endowments of the Shunammite were not superior to woman’s capabilities now; and, therefore, that she found such grace and favour in the sight of God, as for Him, in His infinite mercy, to restore her child from the dead, should encourage us to follow in the same holy and rejoicing path.

Events so marked as those in the Shunammite’s history may never be ours; but the piety of thought and deed is never passed unheeded by our god.

The Shunammite was one of the seven thousand who alone remained faithful amid countless millions.

Let each of Israel’s daughters determine to prove herself one of the faithful, which in every age is found, unseen, unrecognised, perhaps, by man, when mourning over apparent universal indifference, and falling away from the rock of righteousness; but known, recognised, ay, and upheld by God.

Let her not think that, as a woman, her prayers and deeds are unavailing, save perchance unto herself. No! As a woman of Israel, she is one of the supporters of a temple which will last for ever; nationally, as well as individually, she is bound to forward the holy cause; and she may rest assured that her piety and faithfulness, even as those of man, will hasten ‘the great and glorious day of the Lord.’

[1] This word's position has been changed for clarity of meaning.

[2] Author’s note:

As is further displayed very strikingly in 2 Kings 6:17, 18.