The Stick Was Enough

What Happens If The Dream Dies?

As time went on, the son, the one that the Shunemite woman begged the Man of God not to Promise her, grew up. Readings outside of the Bible imply that the boy may have been about thirteen years old. Personally, I would probably guess a bit younger than that age, based on implications from this story in the Bible. However, no one actually knows. But the Bible does say that the young man was old enough to work in the fields with his father and the other field workers, harvesting crops. 

When suddenly the Promise gets sick! 

Has that ever happened to you? God made you a Promise. But in spite of your best efforts to the contrary, … just kidding of course …, actually I am not …, the Promise Manifested in God’s Timing. Then, as life is going along, all of a sudden “the best laid plans of mice and men” start to go awry.

Your son of Promise gets sick …  

Your business starts to lose money …

Your fish jumps high in the air and there is slack in the line …

Gobsmacked

You feel gobsmacked! You say, “what do I do now God?” You Promised me this! And only You could have Delivered the Desires of my heart, in this way! But it is not supposed to get sick. This fish is not supposed to get away! 

God You Promised … 

Even after I begged you not to get my hopes up again …

… as if that mattered to the God of ‘Yes and So Be It’ …

So, the son of the Shunemite woman got a terrible headache and screamed “my head hurts! my head hurts!”, while he was out in the fields helping his father. His father acted quickly and told one of the field hands to rush him home to his mother. The boy was given to his mother and he laid on his mother’s lap until noon. And then he died. Some say that he must have had a brain aneurism, but no one really knows for sure.

The boy was obviously young enough that the mother could carry him. So, she decided to carry him to the room that they kept for the Man of God, Elisha. She laid the dead child on the bed in Elisha’s room and left. 

She sent word back to her husband and told him to send her one of the servants with a donkey. She said that she was going to see the Holy Man of God, who lived in Mt. Carmel. She did not tell the husband that their son had died. 

So, her husband asked her why she was going to see Elisha on that day. He said that it was not Festival or Feast season. Nor was it Sabbath day. She simply replied that she needed to go, and that everything was ok. To the Shunemite woman’s credit, she did not seem to be in a panicked state. 

Although her Dream had just died in her arms …

She tells the servant to saddle the donkey and ride as fast as he could, taking her to the home of the Man of God. She told him not to slow down unless she asked. They took off in the direction of Elisha’s home in Mt. Carmel. 

As they approached Elisha’s home, he saw them coming down the road. He recognized her immediately, even from a distance. He told Gehazi to rush out to her and ask her if everything was ok with her, her husband, and her son.

Elisha, like the hubby, knew that this was not a typical day that this devout woman would likely choose to visit the home of the Man of God. He must have mused within himself, whether or not something was wrong. However, God did not reveal to him what the true nature and purpose of her visit entailed. 

She told Gehazi that “all is well.” I too, usually say that when I want to ‘push people off’ in a vailed attempt to keep what is actually bothering me, bottled up inside. She rode on to confront the Man of God, face to face. When she arrived, she dismounted the donkey, rushed over to the Man of God, and grabbed ahold of his feet!

In The Absence Of Additional Information … Wait Until You Get Some …

God still had not yet revealed what was now, so obviously wrong with the Shunemite woman, to Elisha. God definitely did not reveal it to Gehazi! He moved in swiftly to remove her from holding the feet of the Prophet Elisha. Elisha told Gehazi to “leave her alone. She is obviously in distress, but God has not yet revealed to me what is hurting or bothering her (2 Kings 4:27).” 

That previous passage is one of my favorite and most useful verses in the Bible. God Shows and Desires to Show us a great many things. He can use Dreams, Visions, the Bible, or He can Speak directly to us, Spirit to spirit. Some things that God Tells us are intended for us to keep to ourselves. And some are intended for us to share with others.

However, there are times, even for those of us who can sense via Revelation and Empathy, the hurts and distressed state that others are experiencing. These are emotional as well as psychological pains and sufferings that God chooses via the same aforementioned Sovereignty, not to show us relative to another person or even clearly reveal to us as they occur within our own lives. 

What are we supposed to do during such times? We are supposed to wait until we Receive Further Instruction. If God does not ‘Say’ … then do not ‘make something up!’ Wait for God to show you what is wrong AND what (if anything) you are supposed to do about it!

That is exactly what Elisha did. He just waited for God to reveal why this Shunemite woman had fallen to the ground and grabbed ahold of his feet! A woman who was at his home on a strange day … doing a strange thing … A woman who was obviously in great distress and emotional pain.

But Elisha did not know why …

Elisha was in the dark …

The Shunemite woman began to speak and told him, as my grandmother would say when she was disciplining me “didn’t I tell you not to …!” The Shunemite told Elisha, “didn’t I tell you not to get my hopes up! didn’t I ask you not to play with my emotions, SMOKIE?!?”

She didn’t have to say another word …

She never mentioned her son …

Elisha knew exactly what was wrong …

God (finally) told him …

Then he acted …

Elisha told Gehazi to get ready to travel! Gather what you need to head for Shunem. Take my Staff with you to her home. Lay it on the boy’s face when you reach him. Elisha obviously knew that the boy had died. AND that the Shunemite woman had laid the boy on the bed, in his room, at her home. Such that, he told Gehazi exactly what to do with his Staff when he reached the boy.

I always say … “The Stick Was Enough!” 

This means that if the Shunemite woman had Trusted God, had Faith in God, Believing that when God makes you a Promise, that Promise is not going to die. Especially not while that Promise is still in its developmental stage (Mark 11:22). The God who sends you to the Promised Land, intends for you to live your life, as well as the lives of generations to come, in the land of milk and honey (Exodus 3:17).

It does not matter what it looks like! It does not matter if it appears to the naked eye, that your Promise just died. We Walk by Faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). So, if your fish jumps high in the air … know that it is not SUPPOSED to get off of the hook! Especially when you have only reeled that baby half way in! 

That is your fish! 

God Promised!

… So, as I said … 

“The Stick Was Enough!”

Or at least, in this case, it should have been … that is if the Shunemite woman would have let it be enough. Alas, she did not. She said to Elisha “as surely as the Lord Lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you, nor will I get up off of this ground, nor let your feet go, unless YOU personally, oh Holy Man of God, come with me to my home in Shunem!”