2 Kings 4:18

THE CHILD DIED AND HIS MOTHER APPEALED TO ELISHA

"And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to his servant, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out. And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the servants, and one of the asses, that I may go to the man of God, and come again. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him today? it is neither new moon nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well. Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slacken me not the riding, except I bid thee. And so she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel."

It was harvest, the busiest time of the year, and the Shunammite woman avoided the kind of delay and commotion that would have resulted if she had passed along the knowledge of the death of their child. Her husband's trust of her was so complete that, despite his wondering why his wife was undertaking such a journey on that particular day, he manifested perfect confidence in her good judgment.

"When the child was grown" (2 Kings 4:18). This cannot mean that the child had become an adult. He was at this time a small boy, easily carried by a servant to the child's mother, and easily carried by her upstairs to the private room of the prophet.

"It shall be well" (2 Kings 4:23). The word thus rendered is actually "peace" in the Hebrew,[19] and carried with it the implication that everything was ALL RIGHT. The dead child's mother was absolutely unwilling to admit the child's death to anyone until she had accomplished her appeal to Elisha.

LaSor tells us that the purpose of the servant's attending this journey was that of "walking by the ass (or behind him) continually urging the beast forward."[20]