Kingdom Home
6 min read
14 “What can be done for her?” Elisha asked. Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.” 15 Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. 16 “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.”
“No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!” 17 But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.
— 2 Kings 4:14-17
This Shunamite woman had done a great service to Elisha by providing him with a place to stay whenever he was in her area. Elisha wanted to reciprocate, but she refused, saying, “I have a home among my own people” (verse 13b). But then, Elisha discovered that she was childless, and so promised that she would have a son, which she did. Jewish tradition has it that her son was actually the prophet Habakkuk.
Three things stand out for me in this story. First, when the woman told Elisha, “I have a home among my own people,” she is alluding to the covenant promise of land for the people of Israel. The significance of land has nothing to do with real estate holdings, but everything to do with having a place to call home—a home where God reigns—in other words, a home in the kingdom of God.
Second, there is the gift of hospitality. Sharing one’s home with others is a blessing for the ones sharing and the ones receiving. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the kingdom of God is built up through the hospitality of the saints. Hospitality provides a platform to build up relationships and love among God’s people.
Third, the woman was happy and blessed and content with her life, but the prospect of having a son was beyond her wildest dreams. For the covenant people of God, “home” was always a place where multiple generations of a family would grow and live—whether they were physically in the same house or not. In a way, the prospect of having an heir for the home completed the idea of having a “home.”
The covenant promises of God were always meant to be passed on generation to generation. That is the basic sociocultural mechanism for filling the earth with the glory of God in Jesus’s name through God-fearing, God-honoring, God-worshiping, God-loving communities and families, which is the church.
So “home” in the kingdom of God is much more than just a physical house, but a place where the covenant promises and blessings of God in Jesus Christ are received, nurtured, witnessed, and shared.
We are in the process of buying a home. We always hoped that this blessing would be possible one day, but we knew that it was totally in God’s hands. I never even prayed for it, honestly. But when we close this week, we are going to praise God.
Our home will not merely be an address in San Pedro. God will reign in our home, and so our home will have an address in the kingdom of God. As such, I pray that our home will be a place to share the love of Jesus Christ with the covenant people of God and also to bear witness to Christ to those who do not know Him. Finally, I pray that our home will be “home” for our children, and their children’s children, as well—that their homes would always have an address in the kingdom of God.
Father, I praise You for this blessing of a home. Protect us and bless us according to Your great love, for we call upon Your name and praise Your holy name. In Jesus’s name. Amen.