of Elisha would have reminded the people of the earlier famine. Here was a judgment from God! Did it make a difference? It would seem not.

Transcription

1 2 Kings 8:1-6 Dear children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, and guests, this morning we return to the sermon series on the prophet Elisha. Elisha boys and girls, do you still remember what his name means? El-i- Sha. El = God. Add i and it becomes My God. And Sha is a shortened form of save or salvation. Elisha: My God Saves or My God is Salvation. Elisha was the prophet who was to proclaim both the judgment and salvation of God, with a special emphasis on how God is faithful to those who serve Him properly. Salvation, that s what this morning s passage would also be about. But at first read I found it rather puzzling and off and on have been thinking since the last Elisha sermon where it fits into the Elisha accounts. Superficially it just seems to be a nice story, telling us a little more about the Shunammite woman whose son was raised from the dead. One recent commentary indeed sees it as such and no more. But surely there is more to this account than just a nice story for our information to wrap up a loose end. The questions to ask of any Scripture passage are: what is this telling us about God? About Christ? About ourselves, about sin and salvation and service? In short, what is the Gospel of this passage? Upon reflection and study I ve learned, this passage speaks very directly of God s character as being both just and merciful. In the midst of God s judgment upon some there s the sparkle of God s salvation for others. And then there s the question for a third: will it be judgment or salvation? We hear the Good News of God, summarized with this main message: God s dealings with His people display justice and mercy. We will consider (1) Judgment on the people; (2) Salvation for the Shunammite; and (3) The test for the king. 1) Judgment on the people The nation Israel had divided into two almost a hundred years prior to the events of our text. Both Judah and Israel were God s people. Judah was ruled by kings from the house of David. Jerusalem was the capital city, and in Jerusalem was the temple of God. Jehoshaphat was king at the time of our text, and he, though he had shortcomings, was a godly king who did his best to make sure the people of Judah lived as God s people should. Things were very different in Israel. Under Israel s first king, Jeroboam, the Israelites had turned their backs on the temple in Jerusalem and begun to worship God through idols set up at the southern and northern borders of the kingdom, in Bethel and Dan. That was sin against the second commandment. Under king Ahab things took a turn for the worse. For Ahab married Jezebel, the daughter of a Phoenician king, and she introduced Baal worship into Israel. That was sin against the first commandment. The people of Israel had fallen into the sin of worshiping both Yahweh and Baal. God had the prophet Elijah address this wickedness in deed and word. First there was a famine of three and a half years. Then there was the contest on Mount Carmel: does Baal control the lightning and the rain or does Yahweh God? Yahweh God does, of course, because Baal isn t even real, doesn t exist. The people had confessed Yahweh, He is God. Still, not the whole nation repented of its sin. In Israel the fight between the one true God and the many false gods continued. Many of the people would not be convinced of the need to worship Yahweh God truly and properly. And so God decreed another famine. This time, one that would last seven years. That s twice as long as the one during the days of Elijah and Ahab. Twice as long. A punishment twice as harsh. Was God being overly harsh? No. For God had warned the people through Moses many centuries earlier: If God s people become faithless, God will turn the sky to bronze and the earth into iron (Deut 28:23), and there would be famine in the land. The people had been warned. And they d had experience. The days of Elijah and Ahab were not that long ago. Ahab had died but Queen Jezebel was still alive. The famine during the days

2 of Elisha would have reminded the people of the earlier famine. Here was a judgment from God! Did it make a difference? It would seem not. For what s the situation when the seven years of famine are over? It turns out that the rightful owner of a piece of property no longer has access to it. We find here a repeat of the sin committed by King Ahab. Remember how Ahab, through the devices of Queen Jezebel, had claimed for himself the land of his neighbour Naboth. During the time of our text Joram is king. Joram was a direct son of Ahab. During Joram s reign it happens again. The land that rightfully belongs to the Shunammite has become the property of another. Some Bible scholars even figure that Joram himself was the one who had taken the land. Scripture doesn t actually say. And to me it seems unlikely: would Joram appoint an official to investigate the matter if the crown itself had taken possession of the land? It seems more like a case of the people having seen how Ahab acted and deciding it was fine for them to do the same. The sin being committed in Israel is compounded by the fact that the Shunammite is so defenceless that her only recourse is to appeal to the king. Now, when you read between the lines of our passage there are two things to note. (1) Where s the husband of the Shunammite woman? He would be the owner of the land, so he should be the one appealing to the king. The course of events can only imply that he was no longer alive. (2) That is confirmed by the second noteworthy thing: the Shunammite s son has come along. The original Hebrew of Gehazi s words literally means Behold, her son. For the Shunammite woman s claim to the land to be legitimate there had to be a child of her husband. If there wasn t, the land would revert back to her husband s broader family. If her husband had still been alive there would have been no need for her to present her son to the king. Reading between the lines we learn: the Shunammite is a widow. So the situation is as follows. After seven years of famine, after seven years of judgment, of punishment from God, Israelite society is still okay with oppressing the widow. Seven years of judgment of God has not changed the heart of Israel. They continue in their wickedness. Clearly Israel is ripe for further judgment. And God will be just in punishing Israel even more terribly for her sins. Even more terribly : the pending punishment of God is the subject matter of the next account in 2 Kings 8(:7-15). Judgment upon Israel: it could be averted by a righteous, godly king. A king like King Jehoshaphat in Judah. He wasn t perfect. His biggest mistake was to set up an alliance with King Ahab. King Joram s sister, Athaliah, became the wife of Jehoshaphat s son Jehoram. But King Jehoshaphat did seek the Lord and did combat the evil of Baal and Asherah worship. And so Judah was spared judgment. King Joram in Israel could do the same. The famine pointed out to him the reality of God s justice. The injustice being done to the Shunammite widow would have confronted him with the wickedness of God s people. Would king Joram now prove to be a man after God s own heart? Brothers and sisters, when we look at Israel, in a sense we are looking at ourselves. We too know from experience how God is a just God. We have seen His judgments come over the earth, come over Israel repeatedly until its exile, come over Judah, come over the Christ of God, come over Israel as a nation covenanted to God. We see how obstinate people who have known God but turned their backs on Him can be. Just look at our own Canadian society today: we fail to protect human life when it begins and now human life at its end is also under threat. We sing God keep our land, glorious and free but is that indeed what God should do, given how we as nation conduct ourselves? Or consider those who claim to be God s church, who call themselves Christian. How much of Christianity is not a veneer of religion to cover a life of sin? How much of it is not worship of man, of man s ideas and preferences, in practice rather than of God? It isn t only Canadian society that makes allowance for sexual practices which Scripture says are driven by dishonorable passions and are contrary to nature ; even churches figure they can justify it! Let us be on guard, beloved. Let us be on guard. God is not beyond judging His people. He was just in judging Israel. You can t mess with God. Dear people, if your lives need changing to receive God s approval, make the changes. Worship Him in truth, not superficially and in a doubleminded way, as Israel did. Do not oppress

3 the needy as Israel did, but care for them. 2) God is just. But He is also merciful. That is displayed for us beautifully in the salvation of the Shunammite. Let us consider this in the second place. Famine was coming and Elisha knew it. Of course Elisha knew it, he was the man of God and God does not hide His plans from His prophets. It would have happened one day as Elisha was on the road and again, as usual, spending the night at the Shunammite s house that he told her of the coming famine. He also has a piece of advice for her. She should leave Shunam and sojourn elsewhere for seven years. At the end of seven years the famine will be over and she s good to return. We can t tell from our passage whether the advice Elisha gave was actually good advice, was advice approved by God. It seems everybody thinks so, simply because Elisha speaks these words. But that s not sufficient. When we paid attention to 2Kings 3 we also ran into this problem: is what Elisha advises divine command? It is noteworthy that Elisha does not tell the woman where she should go. Or say This is what the Lord says. The fact that Elisha suggests she go and sojourn elsewhere indicates that the famine would have been a local famine. Yes, it lasted seven years. But the geography of the region makes that quite possible. It s like our BC interior: one valley is desert-like and the valley a few miles over is lush and green. The main valley of Israel was the valley of Jezreel. This valley is separated from the Mediterranean Sea by Mount Carmel, and so rain can naturally bounce over it. The same rain, just ten miles south of Mount Carmel, would water the land of the Philistines. Moreover, the major trade route running from Egypt to Syria and beyond ran through the land of the Philistines. Egypt did not depend on the Mediterranean climate for its water, but on the monsoons that came of the Indian Ocean and fill the Nile. It was the region s breadbasket. The land of the Philistines is a good place to be for food. Moreover, during most of the seven years of our text, the land of the Philistines was actually under the rule of King Jehoshaphat (2Chronicles 17:11). So it would also have been a safe place for her to sojourn. When you add it all up, the Shunammite again proves to be a resourceful lady who is faithful to God. She believes Elisha when he says there will be seven years of famine. She leaves house and land behind and is prepared to live as a sojourner, as a stranger with few rights, in another place. She trusts that God will provide. And when the seven years are over, she returns to Israel. She is confident that she can continue her life there. By the way, by the time the seven years are over King Jehoshaphat had died. His son, Jehoram, was now king. He was not God-fearing like his father, he actually murdered all his brothers to establish his own throne. It is under King Joram that the Philistines rebelled against Judah. There could have been more at play in the Shunammite s return to Israel than just: the seven years are over. It could also have been the fact that the Philistines were turning against the Israelites. Moreover, while we cannot tell whether she went to the land of the Philistines as a widow, we can say with certainty that she returned as a widow. No doubt she felt there would be more security in life among God s own people who were served by a prophet like Elisha. She returns home but finds out she has no home. The land that belong to her and her son is not returned to her. Not even the home that was hers, with its little room on the roof for Elisha. Desperate for salvation the Shunammite turns to the king. It s noteworthy that she goes to the king, not the prophet. It s proper, because it is the king that was to provide for justice in the land. We sang of that with Psalm 72. And it had been the practice of King Jehoshaphat in Judah, and also the land of the Philistines. It made perfect sense for the Shunammite to seeks justice at the king s court. Moreover, even though some of her own people were troubling her, it is likely that she continued to feel secure in Israel. When Elisha had wanted to thank her for the room he had asked: See, you have taken all this trouble for us; what is to be done for you? Would you have a word

4 spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army? To that she had responded: I dwell among my own people. (2Kings 4) Back then, at least seven years ago, she had no need for the prophet to speak on her behalf to the king. Not now either. She goes herself, with her son. Again, there s something written between the lines we need to note. The famine lasted seven years. The Shunammite was gone for seven years. What was to happen after seven years in Israel? Every seventh year was called a Sabbath year. According to the law of Moses, in the seventh year all property was to be restored to its original God-appointed author. We don t know whether the Shunammite just left her property and some squatter claimed it or whether she rented out her house and fields to some farmer. Either way, God s law clearly stated that in the seventh year the land was to be restored to her. From God s perspective she has every right to the house and the fields. And not only the house and the fields. Also whatever profit could have been reasonably expected from her property. (Deuteronomy 15). Hence it makes perfect sense for God to bless her appeal with success. Her appeal is heard by the king. The king appoints an official to look at her situation. The end result is that she receives her house and fields, and also whatever income she could have expected from her property. That last bit is remarkable in this sense: there had been seven years of famine, so the fields would have underperformed. Yet even the little profit those who had stolen her fields received from the property was taken from them. For them, an extra curse upon their wickedness. And for the Shunammite, an extra blessing upon her loyalty to God and her faith in God s provision. God blesses the Shunammite with salvation. She is well provided for during the seven years of famine, regardless of whether Elisha s advice was proper or not. And she continues to be provided for even though a widow without land. God guides the heart of the king in such a way that things work out well for her and her son. This goes to show, beloved, that even when God punishes His people for their wickedness, He has an eye for those who are loyal to Him and have faith in Him. God is dependable. So, even as we may experience the judgment of God come over us, we should not be afraid to stand for what is right and appeal for true justice. The Shunammite illustrates for us God s mercy: He will always care for His own. Be loyal to God, beloved, and experience how God s mercy will also surround you. 3) God s justice is revealed with respect to Israel, God s mercy with respect to the Shunammite. There s yet one more key player in our text. The king, King Joram. For him all of this is a test. We pay attention, in the third place, to this test for the king. As the Shunammite is making her way to the palace, King Joram is talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. This immediately raises the question: when was this. Many assume that as Gehazi is in the king s presence, he cannot have been leprous. But while it s true that lepers were often not treated kindly, it s not true that lepers were always outcasts. Even the lepers that were by the gate when Samaria was besieged considered it an option to enter the city (2Kings 7:3). And Naaman functioned quite normally even though he was a leper; he even went to see King Joram (2Kings 5:6). So it s not a given that Gehazi was not a leper when he spoke with King Joram. He may have been. He might not have been. What we can tell from our text is that King Joram wanted to know more about the things that Elisha had done and that Gehazi was very eager to tell of them. Gehazi had been an eyewitness to many of the great things that Elisha had done. Of course, strictly speaking it s the great things which God had done through Elisha. But that didn t seem to be on the radar of either King Joram or Gehazi. We know from the Naaman account that Gehazi liked to be important; he thought Elisha a fool for turning down the rich gifts he could have received. And King Joram, well King Joram is kind of stuck in a hard place. His mother Jezebel figures he should worship Baal. But he s an Israelite king, and thus owes allegiance to King Yahweh. He also knows how things work in the Kingdom of Judah. King Jehoshaphat is an ally of Joram, they d even been to war together and he d seen how Jehoshaphat operates. The reforms of Jehoshaphat would also

5 have been known in Israel. All up, King Joram of Israel was confronted with a choice. And it would seem that King Joram was primarily an opportunist. He has Gehazi come to tell him about the great things Elisha had done. There s a political motive: King Joram is wondering whether it would be wise to throw in his lot with Elisha. One of the stories Gehazi tells is bizarre beyond words. He tells of a boy who had died and come to life. Gehazi himself was hugely involved in that. Remember, Gehazi had first tried to raise the boy to life with the staff of Elisha. Gehazi could have been honoured if he had somehow had a hand in the resurrection of the boy. But he had not. Still, Gehazi could bask in the glory of Elisha, and so would have told the story well. And then, as he has just told it, there s the Shunammite with her son. Gehazi can imagine the king thinking Yea right, Gehazi, raise someone from the dead? But then, the evidence is presented to the king, by God Himself. Not just the woman. Also her son. The very son who was raised from the dead. The king makes his enquiries. And, given that he acts upon the appeal of the Shunammite, we may conclude he was convinced. It was beginning to make sense to him to throw in his lot with Elisha and Elisha s God, and to abandon the Baals of his mother. He does what a true king under Yahweh would do. He follows the Mosaic Law even to the detail of restoring to the widow the profits of her land. King Joram acted like the king of Psalm 72. But was he truly such a king? We observe outward conformance on King Joram s part. What he does looks right. But are his motivations right? His actions change, but is his heart changed? Again, we need to pay close attention, now not just to our passage but to the context. And then we learn, Joram remains an opportunist. When we read on in 2Kings 8 we discover that God continues with His judgment, not just over the nation of Israel, but also over the house of Ahab. For the truth is that rather than the king of Israel beginning to be more like the king of Judah, it is the king of Judah that begins to be more like the king of Israel. The actions of King Joram in our text are not properly motivated. He wants to look right, he wants to choose the side of the most powerful. But at bottom King Joram is in it for himself. King Joram wants to use God. King Joram does not want to serve God. King Joram wants to use Elisha to consolidate his power. His actions might be right, but his motivations are all wrong. Right actions mean nothing if the heart is not right! Our passage at bottom tells of a test for King Joram. He was presented with a situation of judgment and of salvation. He could see, experience, how God is both just and merciful. He even becomes an instrument of God s mercy! God thus makes clear to us that the judgment He passed on the house of Ahab was not arbitrary or capricious. King Joram had the opportunity to do what is right, not just in appearances, but in motivation. He did not. As a king he failed. And as the history continues we see how his failure becomes a threat to the house of David, indeed, to the Royal line that was to lead to the Messiah, to the true King, Jesus Christ. God s dealings with His people display justice and mercy. Justice with respect to Israel. God increases the level of punishment from 3.5 years of famine to 7 years. But social injustice lives on. Israel is becoming ripe for war and eventually exile. Mercy with respect to those who serve God. The Shunammite continues to live nobly and by God s rules. And miracles of miracles, even though the king s heart is not in the right place, God grants her salvation. God s justice and mercy, King Joram is confronted with both. God tests him. By appearances things look good. But because of what follows we know it was just a surface appearance. A thin veneer of godliness over a heart of selfishness. King Joram was an opportunist. Doesn t it show, beloved, how God needs to send a true king, a true Redeemer? The king of Psalm 72, Joram looked a little like him. But it wasn t him. For Joram did not like the sun endure. Thank God for

6 giving us in Jesus Christ a true King. His Kingdom is forever. And dear people, learn the lessons from this passage. This passage tells you who God is: both just and merciful. This passage tells you of the need for Christ as a true King. This passage also tells you of sin, salvation, and service. How God dealt with the Israelite nation warns us that false worship and oppression of the needy will meet with God s judgment. So turn away from it. How God dealt with the Shunammite assures us that those who walk in God s ways will indeed experience blessing. And through King Joram God makes clear, it s not just about outward conformity, but about inward dedication. King Joram went through the motions, but he could not keep Israel from backsliding, he could not keep himself from backsliding, and, as we learn from what follows, he even begins to drag down the king of Judah with him. Don t be fooled, brothers and sisters, service to God needs to well up from the heart. Thus, go with God. Devote yourself to God in how you relate to Him and others. Appeal for justice and mercy to the true King, Jesus the Christ. And serve God with your whole being. Not just the outside, but your whole you, soul, heart, mind, and strength. Amen.