Explaining and Solving the Unexpected

UV 967/10,000 Explaining and Solving the Unexpected He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the LORD. 2 Kings 4 v 33 The Shunamite hostess of Elisha the prophet had not asked for a child as a blessing knowing that she and her husband were too old for them to have a child. But the prophet Elisha wanted to show his gratitude for the trouble she took to care for him on his visits to Shunam. He prophesied that she would bear a son in a year. But one day when the child was accompanying his father to the fields, he suffered a headache and later died in his mother’s lap. The woman without even informing her husband that the child had died, set out to meet the prophet whom she believed could restore the child to her. She had the faith that the prophet, who could bless her with a child when she had no hope of bearing a child, could also restore the child when there seemed to be no hope of doing so. Elisha the prophet on seeing the Shunamite woman coming from afar could not figure out that she was in great distress. She did not even confide in Gehazi the servant of Elisha that she was in great distress as her son had died. She reached the man of God and taking hold of her feet, poured out her great grief. Elisha sent Gehazi ahead with his staff to lay upon the dead child. But the woman insisted on his coming and he too accompanied her back to her home. When he reached her home, he went in, shut the door and prayed to the Lord. The reason for the woman’s distress was kept from the prophet. He sought the reason from the Lord in the privacy of the room. The Lord directed him to do the unusual thing of lying down on the child’s dead body. When he did it a second time the child came back to life. The implication of this uni-verse is that when something unexpected and unexplained happens, we should not waste words or time but like the Shunamite woman and Elisha take it to the Lord in prayer and in private. Gehazi’s staff was not sufficient to cause the miracle. As the Shunamite woman believed-only the prophet’s prayer and coming to the scene could resolve the crisis in her life. The Lord who knows our sorrows, who hears our prayers and knows the answers, solutions and remedies will reveal what we are to do. We must take recourse or refuge in the Lord as soon as possible and as privately as possible. Elisha even kept the mother and his own servant out of the room as he conferred with the Lord. This uni-verse spoke to me when I suffered an unexplained sickness two days ago that the Lord healed rapidly as I prayed to Him in the privacy of my room. Prateep V Philip