Skip to main content

Taking the initiative

 [WOMEN of the Old Testament] 

THE SHUNAMMITE WOMAN: Taking the initiative_ 

2 Kings 4:8-37 

 

[Discussion starter] What are the ingredients of hospitality? 
 What happens when you feel welcomed into someone’s life or home?  
 

 
In this story a woman welcomes a “man of God” into her home and is rewarded for doing so – or so it seems, until the day her son dies. The initiative she shows in offering hospitality leads her to deeper faith in expecting God to act on her behalf. Her faith and boldness, as well as her generosity, are a model for us... 

 
[Read 2 Kings 4:8-37] 

 

How does the Shunammite woman take initiative here? 
 
 

 

Why did the woman use her resources to help Elisha? 

What do you think her generosity meant to Elisha and his servant? 
 
 

 

Compare your own use of resources. 
How can you show hospitality even with limited resources? 
 
 

 

In verses 12-14, what do you think Elisha’s concern for her needs meant to the Shunammite woman? 

Why do you think the woman didn’t initiate her own request to Elisha?  
 
 

 

After being given a son and raising him to boyhood, the woman now faces a terrible loss (verses 18-20). In verses 21-30, how does she respond to the death of her son? 
 
 

 

In verse 28, how do you account for the implied accusation the woman makes against Elisha? 
 
 

 

What is the woman’s strong resolve in the face of her son’s death? 

What alternative action might she have chosen? 
 
 

 

When you feel distressed about something in your life, how do you react? 
 
 

 

How can we develop a foundation of faith and trust in God before times of crisis come to us? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

{SEVEN CHURCHES} #1

  The Lord Who Speaks_   Revelation 1:9-20   We  don’t  tend to get many letters these days. We get emails, text messages,  WhatsApp  and other electronic messages, but rarely  a handwritten, pen-and-paper letter.    I tend to save any good ones I get... notes from when Leah was little. Letters that encourage or bless me.   I’ll keep them in my  bedside  drawer or  tucked  into books on our shelves. Then I get to read them again and feel loved and blessed by their words. ..     [Discussion starter]    Tell the group about a significant letter you have received and why it meant so much to you.     Revelation 2-3 records seven letters written by Jesus to seven churches.   It must have been a thrill for an early church congregation to receive a letter from the apostles Paul, Peter, or James... but here were letters from Jesus himself . And we all get to read everyone else’s ma...
Post a Comment
Read more

{SEVEN CHURCHES} #3

  {SEVEN LETTERS}    The Attractiveness of Suffering_   Revelation 2:8-11     In the year AD 177 persecution broke out against the Christians living in what is today the French city of Lyon. Christianity had raised the suspicions and hatred of the Roman  bureaucrats who governed the city. The vicious persecution that raged, touched Christians at every level of society. After the persecuti on subsided, church father Irenaeus, arranged for a letter to be written to Christians in other parts of the Roman Empire describing the faithfulness of the  martyrs...   We  can’t  even begin to put into words, much less describe in detail, the  magnitude  of the persecution here: how the pagans raged so terribly against the saints, and how the ble ssed martyrs endured so patiently... To begin with, they nobly endured all the abuse the whole mob collectively piled on: screaming  at them, punching them, dragging them through the stre...
Post a Comment
Read more

PARABLE: the rich man and Lazarus

  {PARABLE} the rich man and Lazarus_   Luke 16:19-31   Have you ever heard someone say that religion is just  a ‘crutch’ or just a source of comfort for the weak?   Have you ever heard someone say that religious people pay no attention to those who are hungry or suffering?   Christianity doesn’t teach passive suffering in the face of injustice and oppression. Jesus calls us to serve those who are in need.     [Discussion starter] Have you ever been asked for money by someone homeless?   How did you react?     The final parable in this study reminds us that suffering in this life can be replaced by bliss in the next ...     [Read Luke 16:19-31]     In verses 19-21, how does the parable reveal the rich man’s lack of concern for Lazarus?       How would you account for the rich man’s indifference towards Lazarus?       What are some of the ways that you have heard people explain why ...
Post a Comment
Read more