Seeking Greater Closeness and Depth with God

The Shunammite woman sought intimacy with God through her relationship with the prophet Elisha. She is a woman of standing in her community, a woman of respectable character, a woman who loves the things of God, who is seeking greater intimacy with the Lord, who has spiritual discernment.

We see in Second Kings, chapter 4, verses 9 and 10, how this woman approaches her husband and takes the initiative and speaks to him, because she is a wife who submits to her husband, but she is also a woman of great initiative.

One of the interesting things about this woman is that, on the one hand, she always consults her husband when she is going to do something important, but she is also a woman of great energy and diligence in material and spiritual matters. This tells us something: Scripture has nothing against a woman being a person of initiative, authority, and spiritual creativity, but it also points to the importance of accepting her husband’s direction and leadership, since, according to the biblical pattern, he is the one who takes the lead, the head of the household.

So she approaches her husband to consult with him, but notice that she is the one who has discerned what is happening spiritually, because her husband is also portrayed here as a man who is somewhat passive about the things of the Lord. Throughout, he is almost just a secondary character; she is the one taking the lead. Unfortunately, this sometimes reflects a reality: very often it is the women who exercise leadership in spiritual matters, while we men lag a little behind in this area.

How important it is for a man to embrace his leadership as head of the household, but also for his leadership to be effective, to be real—for him to lead not by decree but by example. In this case, we see that this man was indeed the head of the household and his wife acknowledges it, but he is not the one who takes the key spiritual initiatives for the good of the household.

In any case, she approaches her husband and, after telling him that she has discerned that Elisha is a holy man of God, she says to him in verse 10: “I beg you, let us make a small room with walls and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lampstand there, so that whenever he comes to us, he may stay in it.”

So this woman wants to go a step further. Perhaps months or even years have passed—who knows—and when the prophet passes by her house, he comes in and stays to eat, and I imagine they spend some time talking. But now she wants to take things to an even deeper level.

Here we see how important it is in the Christian life, in the spiritual life, for us to keep seeking greater closeness to God and greater depth with Him. Her desire for him not merely to pass by her house but to stay for a meal was a great spiritual leap, but now she wants him to be able to stay in her home from time to time, to lodge there, and perhaps to grow closer to God through this contact with the prophet.

But we also see that she wants to bless the servant of God and is willing to invest materially in a room, a bedroom, perhaps a little house beside her own. That place would be reserved for the prophet so that, when he passed through on his journeys, he could stay there and be comfortable.

So this woman is interested not only in her own spiritual growth and the blessing that might come to her home; it is evident that what interests her most is blessing the servant of God by providing a place where he can lodge and stay during his ministry journeys.

How important it is, isn’t it, for us to care about the things of God. The Bible says quite clearly: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the other things will be added to you.”

When a person makes sure that the church they attend has what it needs for its well-being, when they serve the Lord by volunteering, when they care about the well-being of God’s servants, when they tithe faithfully, when they do everything they can to enrich their church and the ministry of the Church of Christ in general, that person will be blessed.

We also see that this woman is very meticulous, very attentive to detail, because she already has in mind what she wants to do: she wants to make a room, and she already knows she needs to put in a bed, a table, a chair, and a lampstand. She has pictured the needs of the servant of God.

How important it is, when we are going to serve the Lord, to be attentive to detail, to be thorough, to be disciplined. Sometimes we are a little distracted and casual because we think, well, if I am going to serve the Lord, that alone is enough. It is clear that this woman is very attentive to detail. She has planned, devised a plan, gone to her husband, and told him what she needs to do. I imagine she must have asked him for some financial resources to carry out her plan, but everything is prepared, and this woman wants this prophet of God to stay in her home, to enjoy greater closeness, and for her to be able to bless him in a deeper way.

Here we see that idea, don’t we, that the Christian life is a life of growing intimacy with God; that we cannot remain merely on the surface or at the edge, but must go deeper in our relationship with God and our service to the Lord; and that we must also invest materially and financially so that the Kingdom of God may advance. God bless you, and in our next message we will continue this meditation.