V.8 "Now it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a NOTABLE WOMAN, and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat some food."
Why was she notable? I would think she was considered notable because of her hunger to hear and respond accordingly to who God is and what He was doing.
V.9 "...I know this is a holy man of God, who passes by us regularly. Let us make room for him."
She and her husband provided sustenance for Elisha. I don't question her motivation in this for she asked nothing of him. I think she wanted just to have fellowship with Elisha as they both wanted the same thing - intimacy with God. Elisha thought to help her in conventional ways - to speak on her behalf to the king or the commander of the army (interesting here that holy men/women of God held sway with kings and all who were in authority). She was not interested. She wanted higher things - that is what made her notable!
Elisha, having heard from Gehazi that she had no son and it appeared, conventionally, that she would not be able as her husband was old, informed her that she would give birth to a son in about one year. She was startled and apparently blessed by the spoken word of the prophet. God had given her something she dearly desired.
Now, here is where her notableness served again: the son died of a head ailment. What did she do? She ran to the man of God! What did she say? "It is well." (Verse 23 and 26), which is translated "it WILL BE well", and, it was! Although the boy had died, the prophet of God breathed life back into him!
So it shows that the NOTABLENESS of the Shunemite woman served her well! What she was after was more of God. She humbled herself under His mighty hand through her engagement of His prophet. The result: God gave her something He knew would bless her outside her ability to do for herself, and, even though the weapon formed and a significant one at that, the weapon did not prosper in the end. No sorrow added.
So it shows that the NOTABLENESS of the Shunemite woman served her well! What she was after was more of God. She humbled herself under His mighty hand through her engagement of His prophet. The result: God gave her something He knew would bless her outside her ability to do for herself, and, even though the weapon formed and a significant one at that, the weapon did not prosper in the end. No sorrow added.
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