LESSONS – AND BLESSINGS – FROM SHUNEM

And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where there was a wealthy woman; and she urged him to eat some food...  – 2Ki 4:8

The Old Testament (OT) isn’t “big for nothing”; it’s BIG for a reason. A whopping 77% of the words in the Bible are to be found in the OT. It may seem like it’s nothing but a bunch of endless genealogies, obscure rituals, strange histories and even stranger prophecies; but every single detail therein is there for a reason.

Rom 15:4 tells us that “whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

Even the circumstances surrounding the lives of the characters were designed for them to be a lesson for us in the church age, (1Co 10:11).

One of such characters, from which we can learn a great deal, is that well-known woman from the city of Shunem.

A descendant of the tribe of Issachar who lived some 2,800 years ago, the “Shunamite Woman” has several lessons to teach us. Like hospitality (she singlehandedly volunteered to cater for Elisha the prophet), humility (she was a wealthy woman who could have snubbed the shabby-looking farmer-turned-prophet Elisha), virtuousness (even as a hostess, she maintained her boundaries with the prophet) and, yes, FAITH (she is the one who coined the now famous phrase: “It is Well”, even in the midst of a tragedy).

And those are just the bullet points in her life, her story holds so much more. The OT stories form a treasure trove of rich, relevant truths for us all. Read the story of ‘the Woman from Shunem’ again, (2Kings 4:8-37 and 8:1-6), and see what lessons – and blessings – hers has for you.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN