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Context No. 2903 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 4:14-19: in context

14He said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old.” 15He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the door. 16He said, “At this season next year, you will embrace a son.” She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.” 17The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her. 18When the child was grown, one day he went out to his father to the reapers. 19He said to his father, “My head! My head!” He said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

Elisha wants to repay the Shunammite woman who kept giving him hospitality, and Gehazi points out she has no son and her husband is old. So Elisha calls her and promises, at this season next year you will hold a son in your arms. She can hardly bear to hope: do not lie to your servant, man of God. But she conceives and bears a son. Then, years later, the grown boy cries out in the field, my head, my head, and is carried home to his mother.

The passage sits on the edge between joy and coming grief. The son is pure grace, a barren woman's long-held longing answered beyond hope, and she almost cannot let herself believe it. And then the very gift is threatened; the child God gave falls suddenly ill. The story will not let us settle into easy sentiment. The God who gives good gifts sometimes allows them to be endangered, and faith has to hold on through both the giving and the threat.

Can I receive God's good gifts with open hands, trusting him even when the very thing he gave seems threatened?

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