LEGACY: To realize life is more than what I do in my lifetime. It’s what I leave behind so those who come after me can do greater things. I have a responsibility, to not just this generation, but also to future generations.

The story of the Shunammite woman is found in 2 Kings 4:8-36. Interestingly enough we are never told her name, but she leaves us an important legacy of hospitality and faith. Hospitality was a vital ministry during the life and time of the Shunammite woman. It could be a matter of life and death for people who traveled the wild Israeli countryside during the seventh century B.C.

Elisha was a quirky, bald headed prophet at the time and the Shunammite woman and her husband were wealthy and generous enough to provide him living quarters when he was in town. The Shunammite woman seemed to have everything life could offer; a loving husband and financial means to do well for themselves and Elisha. Yet there was one unspoken desire Elisha recognized–she was childless. From the text it doesn’t seem it was something she was concerned about. In fact, in a conversation with Elisha, she even downplays her longing, almost as if she is afraid to give into it. However, Elisha knew she deeply wanted and needed to be a mom. He was the kind of prophet who had the right connections, so to speak, and he was able to promise her a son. Her legacy of generous hospitality opened heaven’s blessings for her.

What joy she must have experienced at the birth of her son! Amazingly, it is not the end of the story. Later the child died of unknown causes. The Lord had given her a child, but then the Lord took the child away. Wow. Imagine for a moment, God answering your prayer with someone or something you have longed for and then taking it away. What was God doing? We can’t completely understand, but I believe one of things God might have been doing was dramatically challenging her to face her fears and learn to trust Him and His goodness. Surely losing a child is one of the greatest fears a mom can face. As soon as she realizes her son is gone she immediately runs to the town where Elisha was at the time, grabs him fiercely and says, “Did I ask for a son? Did I not say ‘do not get my hopes up?’ I will not leave you until you use your ‘connections’ to make things right.” (Paraphrased from 2 Kings 4:27-30). Elijah returns home with her and miraculously raises her child from the dead.

Not every earnest prayer is answered this quickly and dramatically. Most do not receive back their dead, but God promises to answer the desperate prayer of faith of any woman–no matter what her name may be. The legacy of this woman’s faith and determined prayer led to a resurrected life.

It is interesting to note this “no named” woman appears twice in the book of Kings. Four chapters later she again pops up as if God wants to use her life and legacy to underline an important lesson. By now her husband has left her a widow and famine has wracked the land. She has to leave the country. Just as God gave and took away and then restored her son; He does the same thing with her wealth. While she was gone the king of Israel took away her land. After the famine she has to approach the king and ask for it back. The king is not about to grant her request until someone recognizes her and tells the king about how her son died and came back to life. Because of this, the king appointed her case to an official saying, “Restore all that was hers from the day that she left.”

I believe God is underlining is His sovereign goodness to those who trust in Him. I think the legacy of her story speaks of what it is like to face her worst fears and “discover that God is sufficient to give, sovereign in taking away, and gracious to restore.”*

I like the fact that this woman is not given a name. She is a “nobody” on one hand, but in another way she can be anyone one of us. More importantly, God knows her name. Her experience of God at work in her life can be our experience if we choose. It all began for her when she took hold of the opportunity to offer the gift of hospitality.                                                                   
                               
*Quoted from Five Aspects of Woman by Barbara K. Mouser.