It Is Well with My Soul

Scripture: 2 Kings 4:8-37 (NIV)

Introduction

• My sister Susan’s friend, Jamie Hogge was in a church in Beaumont, Texas on a Wednesday night service where once a month they have a singalong night instead of Bible study
• On one night the song leader, Scott Brown, led the congregation in the hymn: It Is Well with My Soul.
• Over 250 people would attend Dowlen Road Church of Christ that night.
• Part way through the first verse he stopped them and said they sounded terrible.
• His reason was that they were singing without feeling.
• He asked: “how many of you people know the story of the author?”
• He then went on to tell the story of Horatio Spafford who wrote it 153 years ago in 1873.
• He wrote the hymn that we just sang about a great and enduring faith after a series of massive personal tragedies.
• In 1870, Horatio and Anna Spafford lost their four-year-old son to scarlet fever.
• In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed most of Spafford’s real estate investments, wiping out his fortune.
• In 1873, the family planned a trip to Europe.
• Spafford was delayed by business, so he sent his wife Anna and their four daughters (Tanetta, Annie, Margaret, and Bessie) ahead on the French ocean liner SS Ville du Havre.
• On November 22, 1873, the ship collided with a British vessel and sank rapidly
• Anna Spafford survived the disaster, but all four of their daughters drowned. Upon arriving safely in Wales, Anna sent a grim telegram to her husband that read: “Saved alone.”
• Spafford immediately boarded a ship to travel to England and join his grieving wife.
• During the voyage, the captain of the vessel informed Spafford when they were passing near the approximate area where the tragedy had occurred.
• Looking out over the waters that held his daughters, Spafford was moved to write the famous opening lines: “When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll… it is well, it is well with my soul.”
• After sharing this story with the congregation, most of whom were moved to tears, Scott said to them: “now, let’s try that song again.”
• This time, the congregation was so moved emotionally, that the 250 voices sounded like an angel choir.
• What a great testimony of faith in the face of great adversity.
• Most hymns are written with a Scriptural anchor and this is no exception.
• The Scripture anchoring this hymn comes from 2 Kings 4 that we just heard read about a woman of great faith and the prophet, Elisha.
• As we walk together through God’s Word, think about a man’s great faith in the wake of tremendous adversity as well as your faith in light of the adversity that you face in your life.

Message

• V8 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.
• We don’t know the name of the woman or her husband from Shunem other than they were well off
• Elisha was a prophet who was the successor to Elijah and inherited twice the power of Elijah when Elijah was taken up to heaven.
• V9 And she said to her husband, “Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us regularly.
• This was a woman with profound faith and hospitality
• V10 Please, let us make a small upper room on the wall; and let us put a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; so, it will be, whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there.”
• She was willing to remodel her home to accommodate Elisha’s needs.
• V11 And it happened one day that he came there, and he turned into the upper room and lay down there.
• Elisha was appreciative of the woman’s hospitality.
• V12 Then he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite woman.” When he had called her, she stood before him.
• Elisha wants to repay the kindness and faith of this woman.
• V13 And he said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Look, you have been concerned for us with all this care. What can I do for you? Do you want me to speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’ ”
• “What can I do for you?”, he asked her.
• She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”
• V14 So he said, “What then is to be done for her?”
• Since she didn’t ask him for anything herself, Elisha asked his servant.
• And Gehazi answered, “Actually, she has no son, and her husband is old.”
• V15 So he said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the doorway.
• As a prophet of God, it was revealed to him that she would have a son.
• V16 Then he said, “About this time next year you shall embrace a son.”
• When he told her she didn’t believe him.
• And she said, “No, my lord. Man of God, do not lie to your maidservant!”
• V17 But the woman conceived and bore a son when the appointed time had come, of which Elisha had told her.
• She did have a son as promised.
• V18 And the child grew. Now it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the reapers.
• Years later, there is an unspecified problem with her son.
• V19 And he said to his father, “My head, my head!” So, he said to a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”
• V20 When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.
• Think of what a terrible tragedy this is: she finally has a son and he dies.
• V21 And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went out.
• This is where her faith in God would shine through her grief.
• V23 So he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath.” and she said, “It is well.”
• V26 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.”
• It was this same faith that inspired Horatio Spafford, as he passed over the watery grave of his four daughters, to pen the words: it is well with my soul
• V32 When Elisha came into the house, there was the child, lying dead on his bed.
• V33 He went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord.
• V34 And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands; and he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm.
• V35 He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him; then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
• V36 And he called Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite woman.” So, he called her. And when she came in to him, he said, “Pick up your son.”
• V37 So she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground; then she picked up her son and went out.
• Elisha performs divine CPR and resurrects her son from the dead
• It is well with my soul