All is not lost
And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed a certain officer for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, and all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the land until now.”
Have you ever had something in your life that you thought was gone for good? Maybe an opportunity passed, a relationship changed, a dream was put on hold, or circumstances took you somewhere you never planned to go. Sometimes life can make you feel like you’ve missed your moment, and there’s no way to get back what was lost. But today’s scripture reading gives us a beautiful reminder that God can be working on your behalf even while you’re walking through a season you didn’t choose.
Earlier in the book of 2 Kings, Elisha had warned the Shunammite woman about a coming famine and told her to leave the land with her household. She obeyed and lived in the land of the Philistines for seven years. Imagine leaving your home, your land, your familiar surroundings, and everything you knew because God was preparing you for something you couldn’t see, yet.
Then the famine ended, and she came back. But there was a problem. Her land was no longer hers to enjoy. She had left everything behind, and now she had to ask the king for the restoration of what belonged to her.
Here’s where the story gets really interesting. While she was on her way to make her request, the king happened to be talking with Gehazi about the miracles Elisha had performed. Gehazi told him about the Shunammite woman and how Elisha had raised her son from the dead. Then she walked in. Talk about perfect timing.
The king heard her story and immediately ordered that everything belonging to her be restored, including the income from the land while she was gone. She didn’t know the conversation was happening before she arrived. She didn’t know that God had already arranged the conversation. She was simply walking toward the place where she needed to go. That’s the kind of God we serve. Sometimes God is preparing the answer while you’re still trying to figure out how to ask the question.
Here are three powerful truths in this chapter that can encourage us when we’re walking through seasons of uncertainty, waiting, transition, and restoration:
1. Obedience may take you through seasons you didn’t plan
The Shunammite woman left her home because Elisha told her there was going to be a famine. She could have questioned it. She could have said, “But this is my home. Why would God want me to leave?” Instead, she obeyed. Her obedience took her away from what was familiar for seven years.
Sometimes obedience to God doesn’t immediately make life easier. Sometimes it requires you to leave something comfortable, wait longer than you expected, or take a step when you don’t have all the details.
Maybe God is asking you to make a change you weren’t expecting. Maybe you’re in a season where things feel unfamiliar. Perhaps you’re waiting for something to come together, and you’re wondering why God hasn’t brought you to the next place yet. Remember the Shunammite woman. The fact that she was in a temporary place didn’t mean she was forgotten. God was preserving her through the famine.
There are seasons when God is protecting you from something you can’t see. What feels like an interruption may actually be His provision. You don’t have to understand every part of the journey to obey the next thing God tells you to do.
2. God is working behind the scenes before you ever see the answer
This may be my favorite part of the chapter. The Shunammite woman had no idea that the king was talking about her before she entered the room. She was simply going to tell her story. Meanwhile, God had already started preparing the answer.
That should encourage us when we’re praying about something and nothing seems to be happening. Just because you don’t see movement doesn’t mean God isn’t moving. You might be waiting for a door to open, and God may already be talking to the person on the other side of it. You might be praying about a financial need, and God may already be arranging provision. You might be praying for a family member, and God may already be working in their heart. You might be asking God for direction about your future, and He may be preparing something that you couldn’t possibly arrange yourself.
The Shunammite woman didn’t have to manipulate the situation. She didn’t have to make something happen. She simply showed up and told the truth about what belonged to her. Sometimes we make ourselves exhausted trying to force an answer God is already preparing.
Most of the time when I talk to God about my concerns, I want to try to help Him out with the details. I give Him my prayer request and then five minutes later I’m thinking, “Okay, God, I have a few suggestions.” But God doesn’t need my suggestions nearly as much as He needs my trust.
Keep praying. Keep obeying. Keep walking forward. God may already be having conversations you know nothing about.
3. God is a God of restoration
The king didn’t just give the woman her land back. He told the officer to restore all that belonged to her, including the proceeds from the land from the day she left until the day she returned. God wasn’t simply giving her back what she had lost. He was taking care of what had happened during the years she was away.
That’s a powerful picture of God’s heart. We often look at what has been lost and think, “I’ll never get that time back.” And technically, we’re right. We can’t go backward and relive those years. But God can redeem what was lost. He can restore purpose. He can restore joy. He can restore relationships. He can restore opportunities. He can restore peace. He can bring something beautiful out of seasons that seemed wasted.
Restoration doesn’t always mean God gives us the exact thing we lost in the exact way we had it before. Sometimes His restoration looks completely different from what we expected. Maybe you feel like you’ve wasted time. Maybe you’ve made choices you regret. Maybe you’ve experienced disappointment or loss that changed the direction of your life.
Don’t assume the story is over. God is an expert at taking broken pieces and making something beautiful out of them. Your past may explain part of your story, but it doesn’t have the authority to write your ending. The Shunammite woman probably couldn’t imagine how she would get her land back when she returned. But God already knew.
Today I want to encourage you that God hasn’t forgotten you just because you’re walking through a season you don’t understand. There may be things happening behind the scenes that you know nothing about. There may be conversations happening that you haven’t heard. There may be doors being prepared that you haven’t even seen yet.
Keep obeying God, even when the path takes you somewhere unexpected. Keep trusting Him, even when you don’t see immediate results. Keep believing that He is able to restore what has been lost and redeem what you thought was wasted.
The Shunammite woman didn’t know what was happening in the king’s room before she walked in. She only knew she had a need and she was going to do what she needed to do. You may not know what God is arranging right now either. But you can trust Him.
Your job isn’t to figure out every conversation happening in heaven. Your job is to keep walking in obedience on earth. And when the right moment comes, you may discover that God was already working on your behalf long before you ever knew it. Just keep doing your part and go as far as you can and that’s where God shows up with your miracle.
Today’s scripture reading: 2 Kings 8
1 Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can; for the Lord has called for a famine, and furthermore, it will come upon the land for seven years.”
2 So the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the Philistines seven years.
3 It came to pass, at the end of seven years, that the woman returned from the land of the Philistines; and she went to make an appeal to the king for her house and for her land.
4 Then the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me, please, all the great things Elisha has done.”
5 Now it happened, as he was telling the king how he had restored the dead to life, that there was the woman whose son he had restored to life, appealing to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, “My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.”
6 And when the king asked the woman, she told him.
So the king appointed a certain officer for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, and all the proceeds of the field from the day that she left the land until now.”
7 Then Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad king of Syria was sick; and it was told him, saying, “The man of God has come here.”
8 And the king said to Hazael, “Take a present in your hand, and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord by him, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this disease?’ ”
9 So Hazael went to meet him and took a present with him, of every good thing of Damascus, forty camel-loads; and he came and stood before him, and said, “Your son Ben-Hadad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this disease?’ ”
10 And Elisha said to him, “Go, say to him, ‘You shall certainly recover.’ However the Lord has shown me that he will really die.”
11 Then he set his countenance in a stare until he was ashamed; and the man of God wept.
12 And Hazael said, “Why is my lord weeping?”
He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel: Their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword; and you will dash their children, and rip open their women with child.”
13 So Hazael said, “But what is your servant—a dog, that he should do this gross thing?”
And Elisha answered, “The Lord has shown me that you will become king over Syria.”
14 Then he departed from Elisha, and came to his master, who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he answered, “He told me you would surely recover.”
15 But it happened on the next day that he took a thick cloth and dipped it in water, and spread it over his face so that he died; and Hazael reigned in his place.
16 Now in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoshaphat having been king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat began to reign as king of Judah.
17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
18 And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife; and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.
19 Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah, for the sake of His servant David, as He promised him to give a lamp to him and his sons forever.
20 In his days Edom revolted against Judah’s authority, and made a king over themselves.
21 So Joram went to Zair, and all his chariots with him. Then he rose by night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots; and the troops fled to their tents.
22 Thus Edom has been in revolt against Judah’s authority to this day. And Libnah revolted at that time.
23 Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
24 So Joram rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. Then Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.
25 In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, began to reign.
26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah the granddaughter of Omri, king of Israel.
27 And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab, for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab.
28 Now he went with Joram the son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth Gilead; and the Syrians wounded Joram.
29 Then King Joram went back to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which the Syrians had inflicted on him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.
Journal:
- What season of my life feels uncertain or unfamiliar right now?
- Is there something God has asked me to do that requires me to trust Him without knowing the whole plan?
- What situation am I tempted to believe isn’t changing simply because I can’t see anything happening?
- Where do I need to trust that God may already be working behind the scenes?
- Is there an area of my life where I need to believe God for restoration?
- What have I considered “wasted” that I need to place back in God’s hands?
- Write a prayer thanking God that He is working even when you can’t see what He is doing.
