God’s mercy in our weakness
2 Kings 8:1-6
During my gap year in Israel, I started having toothache one Friday that got progressively worse. I spent the night tossing and turning as much from the pain as from the worry over paying for treatment (my insurance would only cover expenses retrospectively). In the emergency department of the hospital next morning, I was told that it would cost a couple of hundred dollars just to get a diagnosis. Asking for a dentist recommendation instead, I was pointed to an Arab one in Haifa who was open on Saturdays (and walking distance from the hostel where I worked). This dentist agreed to help and was even willing to submit his claim directly to my insurer, so I did not have to worry about payment. As it happened, he had trained for dentistry in Transylvania (in Romania), which had a largely Hungarian population (it had been part of Hungary before WWI). When he discovered that I was Hungarian, he even used a few Hungarian words to put me at ease. He certainly did a conscientious job on my two teeth that needed root canal treatment, and I still remember his generosity (and God’s help) with gratitude.
Suffering through no fault of one’s own
In 2 Kings 6:1-7, a personal incident of God’s care (the floating axe) introduced a longer narrative focusing on the national level (2 Kings 6:8-33; 7:1-20). Now our reading of an individual’s difficulty is a segue to greater international changes affecting Israel (2 Kings 8:7-15). Once again, the story relates the need of a faithful Israelite and God’s care for her. The woman is the Shunammite whose son Elisha brought back to life (2 Kings 8:1 cf. 2 Kings 4:18-37). Earlier she faithfully supported God’s servant without expecting anything in return (2 Kings 4:8-10, 13). Now, Elisha gives her advance warning of the famine (2 Kings 8:1). The unspoken background to this is the apostasy of God’s people. The Lord brings famine on them to awaken them to the truth: the Lord is the true source of life, not Baal. The faithful few are caught up in the discipline of the many, but this small vignette again highlights that God looks after His own.
God in our circumstances: He looks after His own
This does not mean that God’s faithful people escape all pain and suffering. Here, the Shunammite, who earlier lived safely ‘among her own people’ (2 Kings 4:13), is uprooted, staying in exile in foreign land to survive (2 Kings 8:2). Her husband is not mentioned and may be dead, given that he was already old before their son was conceived (2 Kings 4:14). Although the details are opaque, the long absence means that she lost access to her land (either the crown or a relative took it over), so that she went from wealth to being destitute. Yet it so happens that the king is hearing from Gehazi about the various things Elisha has done – and what a coincidence – Gehazi is just recounting the story of the Shunammite’s son when the woman walks in (2 Kings 8:4-5)! The king is immediately sympathetic to her cause and, in a surprising turn of events, orders not only the return of her land but that the value of the produce for the last seven years be given to her as well (v.6)!
His all-surpassing mercy
No doubt this story would have resonated with the faithful exiles who reflected on their history. They, like the Shunammite, lost their land even though they served God among other Israelites, who did not. The Lord, however, shows them that He can restore what has been lost and even add to it in generous compensation, above and beyond what could be expected. Our lives today are also intertwined with those of others and God does not make us exempt from loss and pain caused by the sins of others. Some of those situations may not be resolved in this life only in the next, whether an accident that affects one’s healthy functioning, an emotional trauma that lingers, financial loss or the like. God allows suffering and difficulties to reach us, but His grace continues to operate in those hard realities.[1] Even in our weakness, He meets us with His all-surpassing mercy.
[1] While our passage does not address here the situations where our own sin lands us in trouble, the overall message of Scripture is that repentance – an acknowledgement of the wrong done and a turning away from it – opens the way to the Lord.
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