Plan in motion
Once the door clicked shut she took steps to see Elisha. No matter what thoughts had been plowing through her head since the servant arrived bearing this family’s ill son she had decided to hear Elisha’s perspective before anyone else put notions into her head. Soliciting a donkey and a servant she set out for Mount Carmel deftly setting aside her husband’s inquiries. Along the way, she came upon Gehazi but also discarded his Elisha-directed scrutiny. None other than Elisha would hear her out.
When she arrived before the prophet she fell down in great anguish, took hold of his feet and only then allowed the free-flow of her bereavement. Of this interaction, we mainly see her grief, Gehazi’s protectiveness, and Elisha’s patient sympathy. Did she say more? Did she even tell Elisha that her son was dead?
28 Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me?’” (2 Kings 4:28–ESV)
She could not have known how Elisha would respond, but she harbored her hopes by keeping her knowledge of his death to herself and hiding the body lest he be disturbed. While Elisha may not have known of the child’s death he surely knew of that risk and responded by dispatching Gehazi.
30 Then the mother of the child said, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he arose and followed her. (2 Kings 4:30–ESV)
So, she learned, Elisha’s sympathy was not going to be limited to comforting words. While that was encouraging it seems that Elisha expected her to head for home. She, however, was not going to leave the outcome in the hands of Gehazi even if Elisha directed them. In her assessment, Elisha overruled her objections and gave her this child; now, it was his responsibility to unravel what he had started. Binding her not-easily dissuaded self with an oath, she finally induced Elisha to rise and leave toward the desperate circumstances in Shunem.
Elisha’s turn to be bold
36 Then he summoned Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite.” So he called her. And when she came to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” 37 She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out. (2 Kings 4:36-37–ESV)
There just seems to be a brusqueness about the interactions between the Shunammite and Elisha. She was feisty with him when she tromped into his presence. Despite her grief, she acted rashly in recalling to him that this blessing of a child was his doing, not her requesting. She blamed him for giving her this child who had now died, and last recorded for us was her oath-bound demand for his personal attention in the matter.
He, likewise, seems curt in the return of this child to his mother. While the ESV says “Pick up your son” many other translations of the Hebrew texts say “Take your son.” It seems to me that she may have continued to hold her son at arm’s length. He had still become dear to her, but could there not have been a steady barrier toward giving herself to him? When Elisha says “Take,” I think he is giving her a command that went further than the physical. I think he is commanding her to embrace him with her emotions, with that part of her soul that had been angry at his arrival, afraid of his departure, and probably poorly thankful for this God-given blessing.
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