Seeking once again the Lord's
help as I speak to you this evening, I'd like to draw your attention
to the chapter that we read together, 2 Kings 4, and the text you'll
find in verse 26. Run now, I pray thee, to meet
her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? Is it well with
thy husband? Is it well with the child? And
she answered, It is well. I know this is a very well-known
portion of the scripture, how Elisha, the prophet, on his ministry
rounds, as he went about as a prophet of the Lord, giving the message
of the Lord, was provided for by this Shunammite woman and
her husband. As he goes around, the scripture
tells us that she perceived that he was a prophet and was stirred
to provide him with a place to stay and a table and provide
him with food. Obviously being a man of God
he is concerned for this lady. He wants to repay her somehow
and so he asks her, does she want to be recommended to the
king? Does she want to be recommended
to the soldiers? And she doesn't. She says, I
dwell among my own people. Gehazi. tells him that she doesn't
have any children and so Elisha calls her and tells her that in the process of time, nine
months, she would have a child and she doesn't believe. She
doesn't believe. She says, Nay, my lord, thou
man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid. And the woman conceived
and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her
according to the time of life. And it was a blessing to her
and to her husband who was old. And as the boy grew, probably
four to five years old, old enough to sit on the knee, old enough
to be carried, old enough to go out into the fields with his
father, and just going about, having a normal day in the fields,
collecting the harvest, tragedy strikes. The boy cries, my head,
my head. how things can come can't they
into our lives when everything seems to be going smoothly everything
seems to be going well and then suddenly just as a normal day
is continuing something happens, something unexpected which alters
the course of the day, alters the course of the week, maybe
even altering the course of our lives and it's an unexpected
event that takes place. Everything was just normal but
then suddenly everything changed. The boy is carried then to his
mother He stays there on her knees and then he passes away. She takes him up to the bed of
the Prophet, lays him on the bed, calls her husband, asks
leave of him. He allows her to go and she says,
I'm going to find the Prophet. And he questions her. How are
you going to find him? Where do you think you will find
him today? It is neither a new moon nor
a Sabbath. And she said, it shall be well. It shall be well. She believed that the God who
brought Elisha into her life, the God who heard the prayer
of Elisha and gave her a son, this same God would be able to
guide her to Elisha. And so she's able to say it shall
be well. The husband seems to see things
in a different perspective unable to work out how she's going to
find him. It's not like today is it where
we have tracking devices on people and we can locate them. If she went the wrong way she
could go days searching and then have to go the other way days
searching. not riding around in cars but
on the donkey. But she trusted in God that the
one who had helped her thus far would be able to help her again. And so she says to her husband,
it shall be well. And as she searches for the man
of God, he sees her coming to her, coming to him. So he sends
Gehazi. And he sends Gehazi with a message. Run now, I pray thee, to meet
her and say unto her, is it well with thee? Is it well with thy
husband? Is it well with the child? And
she answered, it is well. Now if we look at this, this
is something that you and I do all of the time. This is a greeting. He's sending Gehazi with a question. How are things? How is everybody
in the family? Is everybody well? How are you? How is your husband? How is the
child? It's a normal greeting that we would ask. And it's actually
a normal response. It's well. When somebody asks
us, good morning, how are you? How's your father, mother, brother?
We normally say, yeah, they're all right, thanks. And we don't
really go into specific details of everything that is going on
in our lives for the sake of boring the person. And so we
just give a broad answer. Yeah, it's OK. Everybody is doing
OK. Thank you very much. And we go
on our journey. And this seems to be how this
conversation is set up. She's not really interested in
speaking to Gehazi. She just wants to shun him, to
pass him by and get to the prophet. And so she says, it is well.
I don't really want to talk to you. I'm not going to give you
the complete detail of everything that is going on. I'm just going
to tell you everything is OK. And for her, you know, her prayers
had already began to be answered. Remember that she left her husband
and he says, where are you going? Where do you think you're going
to find the prophet today? You could go in all manner of
directions and you could be lost. But she says, it shall be well.
Her prayer had been, direct me, Lord, to the prophet. Help me
to find the man of God. And so she begins to see that
her prayers are being answered. She has taken the right road.
She's heading in the right direction. The Lord has sent her the right
way. And she comes now to meet with
the servant of the Prophet. But it's not the Prophet himself.
And so she doesn't want to give all of the details to him. She pushes past him as it were
and runs to the man of God himself and falls at his feet and unburdens
her heart. She says to him, did I desire
a son of my Lord? Did I not say and do not deceive
me? Here is going on from him. And so she pushed past the servant
and she came to the prophet. Isn't that what we all do? Sometimes we don't give everybody
all of the details. We know really that they can't
help us. We say it is well. We give a blanket statement. We're not too bad, thank you.
And we continue on. We want to push on to the prophet,
we want to push on to the throne of grace, to the great prophet
of the Lord Jesus Christ and then when we get to him we know
that he is a kind and compassionate, we know that he is our great
high priest and we know that he will hear We know that he
will incline his ear unto our cry. We know that he will look
down from heaven, his dwelling place, and pity us and have compassion
upon us. We know that he will hear us
in heaven, his dwelling place, and we're able to come to him
and unburden our hearts more fully and completely. We don't
tell him it's just okay. We don't tell him that, you know,
there's no worries. We come to him and we unburden
our hearts completely at the throne of grace knowing that
he is able to do far more than any man, any woman can do. But now I pray thee to meet her. and say unto her, is it well
with thee? Is it well with thy husband?
Is it well with the child? And she answered, it is well. And so in one way, she is giving
a blanket statement, covering everything, that everything is
okay. But do you think that Gehazi,
as he begins to hear what has gone on, he may begin to wonder,
Why did she tell me everything is okay? Why now am I hearing
that the child is dead? Why now do I have to run all
the way back with this stick and put it onto the face of the
child? Why did she tell me all is well? Maybe because she thought it
all was well. Not only could it just be a blanket
statement that everything is okay, but this woman could actually
have enough faith to believe that everything was okay. Because
the Lord had directed her thus far, the Lord had brought her
to the prophet, the Lord had heard her prayer, the Lord had
given her a token of encouragement by bringing her to the right
place that she was able to say, this God, who directed Elisha
into my life, this God who heard the prayer of Elisha the prophet,
this God who gave me this child, this God who brought me again
to Elisha, this God he is going to help me. And so she is able
to say in faith that it is well. It is not just a blanket statement
now, it is a statement of faith. It is well. It is well because
everything that the Lord does is well. And what a place that is to come
to. Remember last week we looked
at the Apostle Paul he says I count it all joy. that everything that he passed
through was a joyous event to him because he understood that
the Lord was working in his life conforming him and teaching him
and giving him spiritual lessons. And what a statement of faith
it is to be able to declare that it is well when naturally speaking
it was not well. The child had died. And to rest in the sovereign
will of God in our lives and to declare that even when everything
is falling apart to declare that it is well because God has done
it is a declaration of faith, a statement of our unshakable
faith in a sovereign God. This submission to the will of
God in great trial. So it's not just a blanket statement
of it's all okay. Get out the way, I want to get
to the prophet. But it could be a statement of
complete submission and trust to God. knowing that God is able
to is working all things for her good and knowing that he
is even able to raise up her son from the dead just like Abraham
who believed that God was able to raise his son from the dead
because he was the heir of the promise. And so her grounds for saying
that it is well was her unwavering faith in Almighty God. She hadn't been able to conceive but then she conceived. Now that same God had taken her
child but she remained steadfast in trusting in that God. In the life of a Christian this
is a hard thing to say. It is always well. If we truly believe that God
works all things for the good of his people then it's always well. If he's always working to further
their Christ-like image, if he's always working to make them shine
brighter, if he's always working to make them have more patience,
more endurance, then everything that he does in their life is
good. and everything that he does,
the response is, it is well. And the problem is, is that we, we always lose faith. We always
lose sight of the greatness of God and the loving kindness of
God and the plan of God and the purposes of God. And that is
when we become downcast I said this morning, that's when Satan
pulls it upside us and starts whispering in our ear, it's not
well. God's being unkind. And it's
then when we start listening to what he is saying, it is then
that we also lose faith. And the losing of the faith is
a bigger calamity than the actual thing that we are going through.
because our faith in God should enable us to go through all manner
of difficulty. So when we lose faith in Almighty
God it is a greater calamity than the calamity that we are
passing through. And this lady remained unwavering in her hardship because her faith
was unshakable in the midst of great sadness and great difficulty. He says it is well. In Luke chapter eight, verse 49, we have Jairus. He comes to the
Lord Jesus Christ. and his daughter is sick. And as he begins to talk to the
Lord Jesus another person comes in and almost distracts the Lord
Jesus from his errand to going to see this little girl. lady
with the issue of blood. She comes behind him and presses
through the crowd and touches the hem of the garment of the
Lord Jesus Christ and she is immediately healed. She had heard
about the Lord Jesus, she understood that he was the one who was able
to heal her and she presses through the crowd to gain that healing
but in doing so that act almost hinders and delays the Lord Jesus
Christ and while that is all going on these servants of Jairus
come and they tell him, thy daughter is dead, trouble not the master. Thy daughter is dead, trouble
not the master. But when Jesus heard it He answered
him saying, fear not, only believe and she shall be made whole. You see, the lady, the Shunammite
woman, had unwavering faith in Almighty God. She understood
that I need to get to the prophet. The prophet is the one who speaks
the word of God. The prophet is the man of God. And if I can get to him, He is
able to help me in my need, my great need that my child has
died. The God who gave life to this
child is the one who is able to raise this child again from
the dead. Jairus comes to the Lord Jesus
Christ, his child is sick. And as Christ is delayed, he
finds out that your daughter is dead. But Jesus says to him,
fear not. only believe and she shall be
made whole. He goes to the house and they
all wept and bewailed her but he said weep not she is not dead
but sleepeth and they laughed him to scorn knowing that she
was dead And he put them all out, and took her by the hand,
and called, saying, Maid, arise. And the spirit came again, and
she arose straightway. And he commanded to give her
meat. And the parents were astonished. But he charged them that they
should tell no man what was done. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
as this little girl, as he is brought to the bedside of the
little girl, is able to speak to this dead corpse and say,
little maid arise. Or in Luke it says, maid arise. And she gets up. The one who
gives life is God. The one who takes life is God.
And the one who can return life is God. Only believe, do not
fear, only believe. As Gehazi runs to lay this stick
upon the child, then followed by Elisha and the woman, Elisha
enters into the room and the child is dead. We know that this is a complete
impossibility. There is nobody on earth who
is able to raise somebody from the dead, especially someone
who has been dead for some time. Only God. And so he prays to
God. And he went up and laid upon
the child and put his mouth upon his mouth and his eyes upon his
eyes and his hands upon his hands, and he stretched himself upon
the child and the flesh of the child waxed warm. It continues
that the child sneezes seven times and he's made a life. It is well. What seemed to be
a complete impossibility, what had altered the course of her
life that was a normal day that had completely been turned upside
down, she seeks for the man of God. The man of God is able to
help her. and her son is raised again from
the dead and it is well. Jairus comes seeking the Lord
Jesus Christ and his day goes from bad to worse when his child
is sick and now the child dies but he's there at the greater
prophet the Lord Jesus Christ who raises his child from the
dead This day goes from bad to worse to rejoicing because of
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. It is well. Also this can be taken in a spiritual
sense. It can be taken as a spiritual
question. You see we can be well in this
life. Everything may be going well.
It may be well with our family. It may be well with our husband
or wife. It may be well with children
or grandchildren. But the first thing he asks is,
is it well with thee? Is it well with you? Is it spiritually well? We know
that it doesn't matter how well we are in this life, it matters
how well we are in the next life. Jesus tells us that there is
one thing that is needful and that is to sit at the feet of
the Lord Jesus Christ, to sit at the feet of the great prophet,
the Lord Jesus. So we ask the question is it
well with thee? The woman wasn't content with Gehazi. She wanted the prophet. I wonder
are you content? Have you found the greater prophet? Have you found the true man of
God, the son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ? This lady had to
search for him. She didn't know exactly where
she was going but she headed out knowing that the Lord would
direct her to the right place. Where is he? Where is the Lord Jesus Christ?
How can you find him? Well the scripture tells us you
can find him if you search for him with all of your heart. The
book of Psalms tells us in Psalm 34 that the righteous cry and the Lord
heareth and delivereth them out of their troubles. The Lord is
nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as I have
a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of all of them. And so the Lord is near unto
those who are of a broken heart. This lady had a broken heart
and she went to search for the prophet. Do you have a broken
heart? Do you have a broken heart over
your sin? Does your sin trouble you and
concern you? Do you know where you need to
go? If you've got a broken leg, you have to go to a doctor. If
you've got a broken heart, a broken and a contrite heart, you need
to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, the greater
prophet and his messengers ask, is it well with you? Is it well
with your family? And the Lord Jesus Christ will
say, it is. It is well. By nature, you and
I, we are just like this little boy. dead. But when we are breathed upon
by the Spirit of God we become alive. Remember as Adam was created
he was breathed into by God and he became a living soul. The scripture tells us that we
are all dead in trespasses and sins and we need to be breathed
in, born again, regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God. And so
this is the ultimate question. Often we ask, don't we children,
how are you getting on at school? How are you getting on at college?
How are you getting on at university? How are you getting on at work?
Have you made much money this week? How's your extension going? Have you got a new car yet? And we're always focused upon
these material things but how often do we hear the pointed
question How is it with your soul? Is it well with your soul? And if it isn't well it doesn't
matter how big your house is or what car you drive, how many
GCSEs you've got, how many NVQs you've got, whether you're a
doctor or whether you're a tramp it doesn't matter. What matters is this. Is it well? with your soul. This little boy
was dead but he was made alive again and returned to his mother. May we be made alive again, breathed
on by the Spirit of God and be able to declare it is well. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen. Our closing hymn for this Lord's
Day is hymn number 112 from Hymns of Worship. In all my Lord's
appointed ways, my journey I'll pursue. Hinder me not, ye much-loved
saints, for I must go with you. Hymn number 112 from Hymns of
Worship to tune 104. you The Lord is with thee. And I. my proud shall be. Almighty God, we do thank thee
that it can be well and it shall be well with thy people. And we pray, Lord, that we may
answer that question this evening. Is it well with our soul? We pray, Lord, that thy spirit
may Accompany the word with power that it may affect our hearts. To be with us we pray as we depart
from each other. Do return us here on Wednesday
according to thy will. Watch over each and every one
we pray. And now may the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us each now and
for evermore. Amen.