God’s Servants Endure Great Sorrow

When the child had grown… he said to his father, “Oh, my head, my head!” The father said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” …The child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died.

2 Kings 4:18-20

Here we have every mother’s nightmare. The unimaginable sorrow of the death of a child. She laid the boy in Elisha’s room and told her husband that she was going to see the man of God. She said, “All is well” (4:23).

She rode her donkey as fast as she could to Mount Carmel where Elisha was—about 18 miles. Elisha told his servant to run and meet her and ask, “Is all well with you?” The woman brushed him off with the same answer: “All is well” (4:26).

But when she saw Elisha, she let him have it! “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me?’” (4:28). She was saying, “This is exactly what I was afraid of: that my heart would be filled with joy and then be broken.” God’s servants are greatly blessed, and God’s servants endure great sorrows. This is the pattern of the Christian life.

You can’t read this story without thinking about another godly woman whose Son was promised and then died. Remember the words of the angel to Mary: “Behold, you will… bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:31).

Then in the temple, Simeon said to Mary, “a sword will pierce through your own soul also” (2:35). A sword did pierce Mary’s soul. Who can imagine the pain she felt at the cross while her Son suffered and died?

Why do the godly suffer? We are only told that they do, that this too is in the purpose of God, and that one day, God will wipe all tears from our eyes.

Read Revelation 21:3-4 and reflect on the day God will wipe away your tears.