Everyday Miracles: 20 Day Journey With Elijah And Elishaنموونە

The Good News is so good that it seems too good to be true but it’s good news because it is true good news.

The Gospel announcement is astonishing. Unless there’s a part of you that cries out “that’s too good to be true,” you probably haven’t heard the Gospel. In Luke’s account of Jesus’ first post-resurrection appearance, the disciples “disbelieved for joy” (Luke 24:40, ESV). The thought of such good news was so hopeful, so joyful that they couldn’t let themselves believe it for fear that it was too good to be true. That’s what a childless, wealthy woman felt when Elisha gave her news that seemed too good to be true. 

There was a wealthy woman in Shunem who showed regular hospitality to Israel’s prophet Elisha. At first, she simply fed the man of God as he passed through town, but eventually she and her husband made a small bedroom just for the prophet to use whenever he had need. 

Elisha was grateful and wanted to bless the woman. But she was a woman who, by appearances, had it all. She had a lovely home, a fine husband, and nice things. It seemed like she had no need. But, like all of us, she did have a deep yearning – a secret grief. 

Though the Shunammite woman reassured the prophet that she didn’t need anything, Elisha’s servant confided to the prophet: “She has no son, and her husband is old” (2 Kings 4:14, ESV). A word of the Lord came to Elisha. He called in the Shunnamite and declared: “About this time next year, you shall embrace a son” (2 Kings 4:16, ESV). 

Elisha’s word aroused the deepest grief of her life. In a culture that established its economy according to the customs of primogeniture, a woman with an old husband but no son, was vulnerable. She’d put the dream of a son to rest many years earlier.

“No … O man of God; do not lie…” (2 Kings 4:16, ESV). 

As Pastor Kenny Thacker has pointed out, that is the rightful response of any one who hears the Gospel: “Don’t lie to me man of God!” The Good News is so good that it seems too good to be true but it’s good news because it is true good news. The Shunnamite had a son. Jesus is alive. And that’s the Gospel!

Questions for Reflection

1) Other than the Gospel, what’s the best news you ever received? How did you feel? How did the news change you?

2) What part of the Gospel announcement most often makes you “disbelieve for joy”? Total forgiveness? Being made holy? Becoming an heir with Christ?

3) Spend some time journaling your reflections on the Good News of the Gospel. List all the reasons you can think of that the Gospel is the best news ever. 

Prayer for the Day

Lord, thank you for good news that is so good that it seems too good to be true. Let me continue to grow in wonder and astonishment at your mercies. Let the Good News thrill me and fill me and shape me. May the Gospel keep me in wide-eyed wonder. May my every thought of your goodness send me into worship. Keep my eyes today fixed upon Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. It is in His name that I pray, AMEN.