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Is It Well With You?
Paul wrote to Timothy that “godliness with contentment is great gain…If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content” – 1 Tim. 6:6, 8. We are further exhorted in Heb. 13:5 to “keep our lives free from the love of money, and to be with what we have.”
A perfect example of godliness with contentment is found in the account of Elisha and the woman at Shunem – 2 Kings 4:8-37. The record says she was a prominent woman and apparently a godly woman because she recognized Elisha as a holy man of God. She and her husband extended their hospitality to Elisha as often as he passed by and persuaded him to stop and eat bread at their house. They further extended hospitality by making a little walled upper chamber for him with a bed, a table, a chair and a lampstand, that when he passed by he could turn in and rest. The walled upper chamber would allow him to come and go freely without having to join in with their family life each time he passed that way.
Elisha appreciated her kind hospitality and wanted to repay her in some way. He had Gehazi call the Shunammite woman who came and stood before Gehazi who acted as a go-between for her and Elisha. Elisha offered to speak to the king or the captain of the army in her behalf. She just answered in effect, no thank you, “I dwell among my own people.” This illustrates the contentment of this great and godly woman. Had she been a covetous person, she might have read off a list of things she already had formulated in her own mind. She did not.
When Elisha asked Gehazi for a suggestion to repay her kindness, he said, “Truly, she has no son and her husband is old.” Gehazi called her back and Elisha said to her, “At this season, about this time next year, you will embrace a son.” The woman was so taken aback she said in effect, “Since you are a holy man of God, surely you would not deceive me about this would you?” Elisha did not deceive her. The child was born and the context suggests he had grown probably to the age of four or five years old because he was old enough to go out in the field with his father, but young enough for a servant to carry him back to his mother when he had become ill (maybe with a sun stroke, we are not told). The child sat on his mother’s lap until noon and then died! The woman became bitterly troubled. She took her son’s body to Elisha’s room since it was he who had promised the miracle birth of her only child.
When her husband questioned her wanting to find Elisha at this odd time since it was not a feast day or the Sabbath day, her answer here is significant. She said, “It will be well,” (with probable reference to the child). When Elisha saw her coming, and not knowing of the child’s death, he sent Gehazi to ask her three questions: “Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?” Again, her answer here is significant. She merely said, “It is well.”
The story has a happy ending, but there are always lessons we can glean: You may have to learn to smile through pain and tears, but it will always be well and great gain for the godly who learn contentment. But, it will always be ill for the wicked who will get what they deserve in the end. Isa. 3:11; Matt. 25:24-30; Rom. 6:21.
Gentle reader, how is it with you and me? Is it well with my soul? Am I a godly one with contentment? Are you a godly one having learned contentment in this life? If so, it will always be well with your soul!
