Initially the Shunammite woman did not believe Elisha when he told her she would have a son. She said to Elisha,
No, my lord. Don’t mislead your servant, O man of God! (2 Kings 4:16)
Yet, one year later, she gave birth to a son. When the child later died, sitting on her lap, she laid him on the bed in the room designated for Elisha. Then she told her husband that she had to go to Elisha quickly, even though it was neither a New Moon nor the Sabbath. When Elisha’s servant Gehazi met her and asked if she, her husband and her son were all right, she replied,
Everything is all right (2 Kings4:26)
Grief does strange things to people. In her distress, she was unable to speak of the cause of her anguish, yet Elisha discerned it at once.
Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me why (2 Kings 4:27).
Her grief in the loss of her one, her only son, became clear when she cried out to Elisha,
Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?” (2 Kings 4:28)
The woman could not understand why the Lord would take from her that which she had been given as a special demonstration of his grace and the trustworthiness of his word. (NIV Study Bible notes)
After Elisha raised the dead boy back to life, she fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. My NIV Study Bible notes make this comment:
The woman gratefully acknowledged the special favour granted to her by the Lord through Elisha, and silently reaffirmed the verbal confession of the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:24).
The Shunammite woman was God-fearing and a believer. Why, she even went to the trouble of preparing a room for Elisha so he could be a guest and eat and sleep whenever he passed that way. Her distress at the loss of her son motivated her to turn to Elisha for help. When she said “Everything is all right,” it was more likely done in order to prevent anyone else from sharing her distress. She did not even tell her husband that the boy had died, nor did she confide in Elisha’s servant. Instead, she made haste to seek out the prophet, Elisha. Only then did she unburden her grief and insist that Elisha himself return with her to her home (2 Kings 4:30).
Her faith was displayed by her insistence on having Elisha personally return with her to the room where her dead son lay. She most certainly had faith in Elisha, whom she acknowledged as “a holy man of God” (2 Kings 4:9) and in the God whose grace resulted in the birth of a much loved son.
