The God who can give a future and a hope

Despite the affluence and comforts of our culture, many people live with a sense of hopelessness. Losing a job through redundancy or retirement may be infused with futility for some, if their sense of purpose was wrapped up in their work. The gradual deterioration of health or a sudden accident that limits one’s abilities to perform daily tasks or pursue a passion can make one feel that life has been robbed of its value. Singleness, strains in a marriage, or childlessness may all contribute to feeling unfulfilled and without a meaningful future. For the exiles in Babylon (the likely readers and hearers of Kings), there would have been a similar sense of futility. No doubt, many settled down to life in captivity and made the best of it, but their heart would have lived with despair, with a sense that God had abandoned them in their time of need.

Faithfulness first

The Shunammite woman in our reading, as we shall see, likewise lives with hidden despair despite her seemingly placid and content life. Unlike the widow who faces economic ruin if her sons become slaves to pay off debt (2 Kings 4:1), this woman seems less dependent on male support, either a husband’s or a son’s. She is prominent (2 Kings 4:8) and it will turn out later that she owns a house and land (2 Kings 8:3), highly unusual in that culture.[1] She takes the initiative to invite Elisha for meals whenever he is in the area (v.8) and goes out of her way to show him hospitality because he is a man of God (2 Kings 4:9-10). Having a separate guest room would allow privacy for this holy man away from the hustle and bustle of the household. Despite her childlessness that carried a social stigma, the woman is not bitter against God and shows faithfulness in supporting His servant, Elisha.[2]

A promise and what it means

Although hospitality requires no reimbursement since that would throw doubt on the host’s motivation, Elisha wants to honour the woman who went out of her way to serve him (2 Kings 4:13). Perhaps because Gehazi had more to do with the household, he is more aware of what is lacking in the woman’s life and suggests it to Elijah (2 Kings 4:14). It is at this point, when the prophet holds out the promise of a son that the locked-away despair of the woman bubbles to the surface (2 Kings 4:16). Her cry translates as, ‘Please don’t offer me false hope, I cannot bear to have it dashed!’. Interestingly, the writer links this woman’s plight to Sarah’s, as many commentators notice. Both women hear the news after an act of hospitality (Gen 18:1-8; 2 Kings 4:11), both stand in the doorway (Gen 18:10; 2 Kings 4:15), the promise in both announcements use the same unusual phrase in Hebrew (kha’et ḥayyah, ‘when the time revives’; NASB ‘at this time next year/next year’ –  Gen 18:10; 2 Kings 4:16), both women express some doubt about the promise (Gen 18:12; 2 Kings 4:16). This linkage points us to the reason why the son matters for the woman. It represents not economic necessity but a continuation of the family line and stands for life and a future.

A future and a hope

It reminds the exiles in Babylon that what looks like the end of the line for their people is not the end. There is ‘a future and a hope’ (Jer 29:11)![3] If God could make a nation out of a barren couple (Abraham and Sarah) living in a land other than where they came from, if He cared enough for a barren woman who served Him faithfully despite her seeming lack of a future, then God could give life to a dead people and cared enough to do so. It encourages modern-day Christians, too, that faithfulness to God matters even as we may live with heartache and locked-away despair. It does not mean that the Lord removes our every disappointment, but that God has a plan for us and a meaningful future. He sees our anguish and our pain. With the subtle allusion to Sarah’s story, we are reminded of God’s answer to Sarah’s doubts, ‘Is anything too difficult for the LORD?’ (Gen 18:14).

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[1] Women, as far as we know, did not inherit land or property. If they became widowed, their son(s) or the nearest male relative inherited with the responsibility to care for the woman. The one exception recorded are the daughters of Zelophahad, who were allowed to inherit because their father had no sons (Num 27:6-11). However, when women married, they went to live with their husband’s family. If the latter was of another tribe, the woman’s land would eventually enlarge the inheritance of her husband’s tribe. To prevent this, these women were required to marry within their own tribe (Num 36:6-7). Tikva Frymer-Kensky suggests that the Shunammite may well have been in the same situation. Her prominence and relative freedom to act as she saw fit suggests wealth and the land and house she reclaims after a famine are described as hers (2 Kings 8:3). Further, she is not identified by her father or her husband, but, unusually, by a place (Shunem, 2 Kings 4:8). Her explanation for wanting nothing because she lives among her own people (2 Kings 4:13) seems puzzling, unless her inheritance and living within her own tribe and kin gives her a level of autonomy and security not normally granted women. Reading the Women of the Bible: A New Interpretation of Their Stories (New York: Schocken Books, 2002), 64-73.

[2] Elisha describes her care of him as a kind of fear or awe at holiness (the Hebrew reads ‘you have been trembling with all this trembling’, 2 Kings 4:13), in other words, as a reverent response. Trembling is a common reaction to God’s presence (e.g. Exod 20:18-20) and is a positive description of the Shunammite. In later exilic usage, trembling at God’s Word (Isa 66:2, 5) becomes a descriptor of piety like being God-fearing.

[3] The context of Jeremiah’s encouraging prophecy is exactly this exilic context (Jer 29:7-11). He writes to the first waves of exiles to settle down to life in Babylon and accept their fate because their life there will not be a short stint. However, he promises that in a generation’s time (70 years is symbolic of a lifespan; Ps 90:10), the Lord will bring them back to their land.

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