#99. Women Will Receive Their Dead Again!

Published by Ben Stahl on August 18, 2020August 18, 2020

So she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground; then she picked up her son and went out.

II Kings 4:37 NKJV

After the children of Israel crossed over the Jordan River in Joshua 4 and were on the plains of Jericho, the Lord told them to take twelve stones and set them up in Gilgal as a memorial to what the Lord had done by dividing the Jordan River. Why did the Lord require this? So that in years to come children would ask their fathers, “What are these stones?” The fathers would then tell their children that the Lord held back the Jordan so that the Israelites crossed over on dry ground just as they had the Red Sea. So all the peoples of the earth (and all the children of the Israelites) would know that the hand of the Lord is mighty and might fear the Lord God forever!*

Why does the Lord give us the account of the Shunammite woman’s son being raised from the dead and highlight her faith in Hebrews 11? As the stones were a memorial for Israel to trust the Mighty Lord so the Shunammite’s son was a memorial to teach us that women will once again receive their dead to life. There were only a handful of times the Lord parted a river;** there were only a handful of times that the Lord raised women’s sons from the dead, but they are given as testimonies to us that we might not despair at the loss of loved ones but might know with certainty that the Lord will deliver the dead to life again.

The Lord loves His people very much. He does not want us to be ignorant concerning those who have died (fallen asleep) in the Lord lest we sorrow as those who have no hope. So in His infinite kindness and mercy He tells us that if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so will Jesus raise those who have died in the Lord. He is all powerful to raise the dead. The word of His power will raise the dead from their graves at the last day and we will be with the Lord forever. God has given us these words to comfort us and that we might comfort one another (I Thes. 4:13-18).

I suspect these words would have less impact on us if they came without the many historical examples of the Lord raising the dead. Putting together the promise of power with the actual demonstration of that power in the lives of His people we can have much comfort in the Lord our God. Just like the widow of Zarephath, the Shunammite woman, Jairus, the widow of Nain, Martha and Mary the sisters of Lazarus, so too we will one day receive our dead raised to life again. We will hold them, rejoice with them, but most of all worship the Lord with them. For when we behold those who were dead yet living again, we will behold something far greater: We will behold the Lord Jesus Christ who rose from the dead on the third day and never died again but ascended into Heaven and sat there until He descended from Heaven with a shout. As we behold the face of Him who reigns for ever and ever with all our tears wiped away, the ability to sin removed, and glorified bodies and souls, it will not be our loved ones that we first run to, but our Savior Jesus Christ before whom we bow and worship with thanksgiving!

Men and women, boys and girls, in the world we will surely have tribulation and trial, but be of good cheer, Christ has overcome the world! As women of old received their dead raised to life again, so you too will behold those have died in Christ raised to eternal life forevermore! Praise be to the Lord!

*See Joshua 4 and also see similar passages concerning the testimonies and statutes of the Lord in Deuteronomy 6:20-25 and concerning the Passover in Exodus 12. The Lord is eager for the children and the children’s children to the thousandth generation to know of His mighty works and deeds of old that they might fear Him and serve Him and rest in Him all of their days.

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