2 Kings 4:8-17
"8 One day Elisha went on to Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to eat some food. So whenever he passed that way, he would turn in there to eat food. 9 And she said to her husband, “Behold now, I know that this is a holy man of God who is continually passing our way. 10 Let us make a small room on the roof with walls and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there.”
11 One day he came there, and he turned into the chamber and rested there.12 And he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite.” When he had called her, she stood before him. 13 And he said to him, “Say now to her, ‘See, you have taken all this trouble for us; what is to be done for you? Would you have a word spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”14 And he said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.” 15 He said, “Call her.” And when he had called her, she stood in the doorway. 16 And he said, “At this season, about this time next year, you shall embrace a son.” And she said, “No, my lord, O man of God; do not lie to your servant.” 17 But the woman conceived, and she bore a son about that time the following spring, as Elisha had said to her."
These verses introduce us to another gracious episode in the hidden life of the faithful in Israel. The Shunamite (8) stands out, like many others in the sacred record, as a great woman. (Why is it that even down to our day, and perhaps especially now, women outshine men so often in the things of God? Is it that they are constitutionally capable of more devotion than men, or that morally and spiritually they respond more fully to the claims of Christ?). And her greatness is seen not only in the discernment with which she gauged the character and calling of Elisha, but also in the provision she made for his temporal needs. Men of God are called to a life apart in the things of the Spirit, but they are still men of like passions as other men, with the same kind of needs - a fact which some good folk apparently have not suspected - and therefore should be entitled to such provision as God's people can supply. The Shunamite honoured him and cared for him because he was God's servant, her respect for his calling and for his God not being divorced from respect for him. This is as it should be, for a man whom God is pleased to use in His service is identified with Him in such a way to neglect or despise the one is to neglect or despise the other. This, at all events, is how God views the matter. He does not take lightly the slights paid to His servants; He takes them to Himself.