And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door.
And he said, Call her, is the command to call the woman, and when he had called her, she stood in the door, is her standing in the doorway when called, placing the Shunammite woman at the doorway when Elisha calls for her. In homely picture it is as a father telling his eldest child to call the mother of the family to come when visitors have asked for her. The woman so called is the Shunammite, the “great” woman whose son Elisha later raises. She was childless when Elisha promised her a son at a certain time.
She was genuinely hospitable to Elisha because she perceived him as an holy man of God passing by continually. She thought and planned and acted to make him comfortable as he passed back and forth in his travels, taking special interest in him specially because he was a man of God. She with her husband made a little chamber on the wall with a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick for him to turn in thither, preparing a room in her house for his special use, and she refused any pay.
The Lord in loving-kindness remembered and richly rewarded her kindness to His servant, accepted as done to Him and not forgotten by Him. He sent first a greatly desired blessing to that home as a reward for that hospitality, a son in fulfillment of the promise, which was the highest aspiration of every wife among the children of Israel in hope of the coming Messiah. He later graciously remembered their hospitality by saving them from a great famine, and second by having that son restored to her even from the dead. When the promised boy had grown large enough to go out to the field where his father and the reapers were at work he was suddenly taken sick. His father sent him to the house, and he sat on his mother’s knees until noon and then died. Laying him upon the prophet’s bed his mother sent for her husband, called for a saddled ass and a servant, and started to find Elisha.
The chapter records a genuine, true resurrection from the dead before Christ’s resurrection, when the Shunammite’s son was restored to life, along with the raisings in 1 Kings 17, Luke 7, Luke 8, and John 11. He was raised by virtue of the sacrifice of the Son of God, although that sacrifice had not yet taken place, because it was established in God’s purpose. All these resurrections center in Christ, who is the resurrection and the life and stands out chief and preeminent in every instance whether before or after His own resurrection, because the raising of all the others depended on His power. Christ being called the first-fruits, first-born, and first-begotten does not mean first in order of time but foremost in rank and station in redemption. This proves Christ was neither the first nor the only one raised from the dead, so Moses could also have been raised before appearing on the mount of transfiguration. To say those raised before Him were raised to mortality only does violence to Scripture, for even the wicked who are raised to mortality are spoken of as resurrected.
Shunem lay on the opposite side of the hill from Nain, where Jesus raised a widow’s only son, and the nearby plain of Jezreel was associated with Elijah’s great works. The people’s memory of Elijah and Elisha may have led them to call Jesus a great prophet. Her example calls others to take thought and care for the work and worship and service of God, setting affection on things above.
And he said, Call her, is the command to call the woman, and when he had called her, she stood in the door, is her standing in the doorway when called, placing the Shunammite woman at the doorway when Elisha calls for her. In homely picture it is as a father telling his eldest child to call the mother of the family to come when visitors have asked for her.
The woman so called is the Shunammite, the “great” woman whose son Elisha later raises. She was childless when Elisha promised her a son at a certain time.
She was genuinely hospitable to Elisha because she perceived him as an holy man of God passing by continually. She thought and planned and acted to make him comfortable as he passed back and forth in his travels, taking special interest in him specially because he was a man of God. She with her husband made a little chamber on the wall with a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick for him to turn in thither, preparing a room in her house for his special use, and she refused any pay.
The Lord in loving-kindness remembered and richly rewarded her kindness to His servant, accepted as done to Him and not forgotten by Him. He sent first a greatly desired blessing to that home as a reward for that hospitality, a son in fulfillment of the promise, which was the highest aspiration of every wife among the children of Israel in hope of the coming Messiah. He later graciously remembered their hospitality by saving them from a great famine, and second by having that son restored to her even from the dead.
When the promised boy had grown large enough to go out to the field where his father and the reapers were at work he was suddenly taken sick. His father sent him to the house, and he sat on his mother’s knees until noon and then died. Laying him upon the prophet’s bed his mother sent for her husband, called for a saddled ass and a servant, and started to find Elisha.
The chapter records a genuine, true resurrection from the dead before Christ’s resurrection, when the Shunammite’s son was restored to life, along with the raisings in 1 Kings 17, Luke 7, Luke 8, and John 11. He was raised by virtue of the sacrifice of the Son of God, although that sacrifice had not yet taken place, because it was established in God’s purpose. All these resurrections center in Christ, who is the resurrection and the life and stands out chief and preeminent in every instance whether before or after His own resurrection, because the raising of all the others depended on His power.
Christ being called the first-fruits, first-born, and first-begotten does not mean first in order of time but foremost in rank and station in redemption. This proves Christ was neither the first nor the only one raised from the dead, so Moses could also have been raised before appearing on the mount of transfiguration. To say those raised before Him were raised to mortality only does violence to Scripture, for even the wicked who are raised to mortality are spoken of as resurrected.
Shunem lay on the opposite side of the hill from Nain, where Jesus raised a widow’s only son, and the nearby plain of Jezreel was associated with Elijah’s great works. The people’s memory of Elijah and Elisha may have led them to call Jesus a great prophet. Her example calls others to take thought and care for the work and worship and service of God, setting affection on things above.