From the Dead: Hold it In

 

Have you ever had a situation where you had to "hold it in?" Like something crazy sad just happened, but you have to hold back the tears. Or something is super scary, but you have to hold back your fear and move forward in fake (or mustered up) courage?

I'm terrible at doing that. At the first sign of disaster, I'm a wreck. The disaster doesn't even have to occur for me to breakdown. Just imagining it. Just thinking about it, can put my nerves on fray.

But there is a time to hold it in. There's a verse in Exodus 14:14 that says:

"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." 

Moses says this to the people when they're backed up against the Red Sea with Egyptian chariots barreling down on them. "This is a panic-worthy situation, but don't panic...this is a time to run, but don't run." Hold it in. Wait. Hold it in. Trust in the Lord.

This next story is so similar to the last, that they're are often confused with each other. But the players have changed. Instead of Elijah, we have Elisha. And instead of the Widow of Zarephath we have the Shunammite Woman. And we have a situation where someone "holds it in."

Background

The Shunammite woman and her husband routinely let Elisha crash at their place when he's passing through. They built an entire room for him, they cook him meals, they extend immense hospitality to the man of God. As a result, Elisha wants to bless them somehow, but she can't think of anything that she wants. So Elisha and his servant look at her situation: she's barren, her husband is old, she doesn't have an heir. So Elisha says:

“At this season next year you will embrace a son.” And she said, “No, my lord, O man of God, do not lie to your maidservant.” The woman conceived and bore a son at that season the next year, as Elisha had said to her. 

- 2 Kings 4:16-17

This is not the crux of the story, but I have a few key takeaways from just this part:

•  Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us - Ephesians 3:20

She didn't ask for anything! She couldn't think up anything that she wanted...that was possible. A child is clearly something she yearned for, but it was in the realm of impossibility so she didn't even bother asking. This is limited faith. But, your limited faith doesn't necessarily stop what God has planned for you. Throughout scripture, we see God working with people; helping them build faith. I'm not sure why we think the ball is always in our court.

The Shunammite woman's inability to ask for what she wanted? Faithless. Her reaction to the promised fulfillment of her unspoken desire? Still faithless: "Don't lie to me."

She's like: "stop playing." She is really skeptical. As such, I feel this chick; I identify with her doubt. Because I'm never quite looking for the impossible. I'm generally looking for the "doable." God can do so much more than the doable. We really have to start thinking in God-sized terms. But we're afraid of that because the let down can be too much.

Despite all this, she had a son, and then this happened:

When the child was grown, the day came that he went out to his father to the reapers. He said to his father, “My head, my head.” And he said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her lap until noon, and then died. 

- 2 Kings 4:18-20

Her son just died in her arms. Time for panic. Time for weeping and gnashing of teeth. It really is that time. But this is what happened next:

^"She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door behind him and went out. Then she called to her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and return.” He said, “Why will you go to him today? It is neither new moon nor sabbath.” And she said, “It will be well..." 

- 2 Kings 4:21-23

Then, when Elisha see her coming, he sends his servant out to greet her:

When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Behold, there is the Shunammite. Please run now to meet her and say to her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’” And she answered, “It is well.”

 - 2 Kings 4:25-26

But when she gets to Elisha, she falls down at Elisha's feet, begs him to come heal her son. He goes, he prays over him, brings him back from the dead (2 Kings 4:32-37). 

Her son died. But nobody got to know it until she brought it to God (via Elisha). Everything was fine. Everything was cool. Until she could bring it to the Lord. It was there and only there that she unleashed her petition. 

She held it in. All of her despair, all of her fear. It was suppressed beneath her faith that once Elisha heard her cry, that God would hear her cry, and her son would be restored. She didn't bother telling her husband...though some may think he had a right to know. She didn't bother telling Gehazi (Elisha's servant) even though he was in a position to relay her message. But she took it straight to where she knew her help could and would come from. 

And the takeaway for me, personally, is sometimes I have to hold it in. I need to learn to hold in all of my doubts/fears/crazy and take it to the Lord in prayer. Why do I  first vent to my friends and family members? Why do I first bemoan my circumstance in the public sphere before God hears a word of it? Maybe I'm alone in this, but I think maybe I talk too much and pray too little. 

God has already brought us this far. And everyone's distance is different, but wherever you are...God brought you there. God brought the Shunammite the son, and that was a miracle in and of itself. So she thought it no small thing that God could also bring him back from the dead. Even though that was in the realm of impossibility! It was more possible for her to give birth than it was for her son to die and come back to life. But the former thing she doubted, and the latter she believed wholeheartedly. 

Why? Because God has already proven Himself to her, and from then on...all of her problems would be laid at his feet. 

So why don't we do the same? Why aren't we holding it in until we can get to God in prayer? Maybe we've forgotten our former thing. And need to take some time to recall them. 


**Watched Fear the Walking Dead last night. Gloria was not "patient zero." Just an unfortunate drug user who OD'd and then ate her friends. :(