First, look at what happened at the moment of Jesus’ death for our sins:
Mt 27:51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
God made us to have a direct, speaking relationship with Him. When sin came into the world, it ruined our relationship with God. We couldn’t be on speaking terms with Him. That’s because He is holy. That means separate from sin.
The veil in the temple separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. The presence of God was in the Holy of Holies. The priest could only enter it once a year, and then only if his sin was totally covered. In fact, when it was time for him to enter, a rope was tied to his ankle in case he died from being in the perfect presence of God with sin in his heart which hadn’t been covered, so he could be dragged out!
Christ’s death meant there was no more need for that veil. You can talk directly to God, if your sins have been forgiven through his death.
His shed blood didn’t just cover your sins. God took your sin all away from you, and placed it on Jesus. This wasn’t true in the Old Testament. The sacrifices could only cover sin; they could not take it away for good.
Second, in the Book of Exodus, we see that God tells Moses that he would be as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron would be as Moses. (This, by the way, may be why Elisha asks his own servant, Gehazi, to find out what the Shunammite woman needs.) The servant of God was supposed to represent God to the people.
Finally, the Bible doesn’t tell us everything this woman ever did. We don’t see her pray. However, she may have. It was possible for people in the Old Testament to pray, but there were very specific conditions. Another woman who received a son as a miracle – Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel – is shown weeping very bitterly in 1 Samuel chapter 1. Hers is a good example of how the Shunammite woman may have prayed. This is because sons were very valuable to women at that time. Especially because nobody knew who would give birth to the Messiah. So, it is entirely plausible that the Shunammite woman did pray for a son.
There is still a major difference between them and us, however.
