Bible Passage: 2 Kings 4:17-37
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: March 26, 2023

Bulletin March 26, 2023

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

As the apostle Paul neared the end of his letter to the Philippians, he wrote, And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)  Have you ever paused to consider Paul’s description of the peace of God?  He says this peace “transcends all understanding.”  He is saying that the peace of God is something that defies logic.  It cannot be reduced to simple syllogisms.  It cannot be explained by way of deductive or inductive reasoning.  The child of God has peace when there is not one good reason to have peace.

This is the story before us today.  A Shunammite woman and her husband have a baby.  This baby boy was a special gift of God to them.  They hadn’t had any children and the husband was old.  Elisha occasionally stayed with this couple on his travels.  On one of the travels he had told the woman that she would have a baby.  And she did!

The little boy grew and one day he ran out to his dad and the workers in the field at harvest time.  When he got there, something was horribly wrong.  This little boy screams to his dad, My head!  My head!  (v. 19)  Dad calls a servant and the servant carries the boy home to mom.  Mom cradles her little boy in her lap.  At noon, her little boy dies.  She takes him to the guest room they have set up for Elisha and lays him on the bed.  Then she sends word to her husband that she needs a donkey and a servant so she can do to the man of God.

What happens next we might say “transcends all understanding.”  Her husband wonders why she wants to go to Elisha.  It’s not a religious holiday.  She sends an answer back to him.  It’s all right (v. 23).  That is the translation of what in the text is one Hebrew word.  What’s the Hebrew word?  “Shalom.”  “Shalom” is most often translated as “peace.”  It’s the word Jewish people use to say “hello” and “goodbye.”  When they meet and when they part they say, “Shalom.”  “Shalom” describes a condition when all is well physically, emotionally, spiritually.  This woman’s message back to her husband when their little boy has died is, Shalom.  Peace!  “The peace of God which surpasses all understanding…”

The woman and the servant look for the man of God at Mt. Carmel.  He is there.  Elisha sees her in the distance.  He sends his servant, Gehazi, to her with this message, [R]un to meet her and say, Are you all right?  Is your husband all right?  Is your son all right? (v. 26)  The Hebrew of this verse is interesting.  Literally Elisha asks, “Is there shalom to you?  Is there shalom to your husband?  Is there shalom to your boy?”

What would you answer if you were the woman?  “No!  There isn’t peace!  My little boy is lying lifeless on the bed in your guest room!  My heart has been broken into a thousand pieces!  When I get back I have to tell his dad he is dead!  Sound like a nice peace-filled day to you?”  That is not the woman’s answer.  She answers Elisha’s question with one word.  “Shalom.” (v. 26)  “The peace of God which surpasses all understanding…”

Death is perhaps the most peace-robbing event in all of human experience.  It is so unsettling because death is the “great anti-shalom.”   Death is the grim reminder that it is not well with me! Not physically, emotionally, or spiritually!  I am unwell.  It makes me think of the way the Lord described Israel’s condition through the prophet Isaiah:  Your whole head is injured, your whole heart is afflicted.  From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness  – only wounds and welts and open sores…(Isaiah 1:6).  The prognosis does not sound good!  So how can you have peace, wellness?  Certainly resurrection helps!  And that is what happens in our text!

Elisha sends Gehazi on ahead with his staff.  Gehazi lays it on the dead boy.  Nothing.  Gehazi reports back to  Elisha.  The Lord teaches Elisha a little lesson here.  Elisha learns that his staff is not a “magic wand.”  Now Elisha prays.  It is after the man of God prays that the Lord brings the boy back to life!  Elisha calls for the boy’s mother. She comes and picks up her son.  Can you imagine how that felt?  Her heart, once a thousand shattered pieces, started beating again, too.  I bet if we could have been there and asked her how that felt to pick up her son alive again, she might have said one word.  “Shalom!”

Certainly, resurrection helps.  Friends, ours is a faith that has at its core a belief in the resurrection of the body.  It has this core because the object of all our faith and hope is the Jesus who died for our sin and rose again!  Christianity, at its core, does not aim to make us “good” people.  It aims to make us people who will rise from the dead one day and live eternally.  It is this hope in the “resurrection from the dead” that gives us such peace.  Is it any wonder that when the risen Lord Jesus appeared to his disciples in the upper room on the first Easter evening, the first word out of his mouth was, “Shalom.”  “Peace be with you.”  Trust in Jesus and the hope in the resurrection allow the Christian to say, even at the time of death, “It is well.”

We are going to end our service today by singing the famous hymn by that name.  If you look at the small print beneath that hymn you will see the usual information.  Who wrote the words, who wrote the tune, what the tune is called.  You will notice Horatio Spafford wrote this hymn.  The name of the tune is “Ville du Havre.”  Ville du Havre was the name of a ship.  It departed New York back in November 1873 headed for England.  Aboard were Horatio Spafford’s wife, Anna, and four daughters.  Horatio had to remain in Chicago for last minute business and would catch the next voyage and meet them.  Six days into the voyage, around 2 a.m. the Ville du Havre collided with another ship.  It took only 12 minutes for it to sink.  Spafford’s wife, Anna, would be rescued.  But all four of his daughters went down with the ship.

When Horatio Spafford received word, he boarded the next vessel to travel to his wife.  Four days into the journey, the captain of the ship called Spafford to his quarters.  He told him that at that moment they were sailing over the spot where his daughters had died.  According to a daughter who was born to Horatio and Anna after this, it was on this journey that he wrote the hymn, “It is well with my soul.”  Knowing the backstory makes the first verse even more profound:  “When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll – whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, ”It is well, it is well with my soul.”

Horatio Spafford.  The Shumanite woman.  You.  Me.  Resurrection.  The peace of God which surpasses all understanding. (Philippians 4:7)  Shalom.  In Jesus.

Amen.