The Shunammite woman lived in a much simpler time. She didn’t have a lot of the distractions we do today. Forget about cell phones, they didn't have any phones then. No lights, no cars, everyone walked or rode an animal.
Of course, with no major distractions, it might seem like she had it easy. Still, she had to decide whether to build her treasure on earth, or in Heaven.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:19-21,
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where most and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where moth and rust doth not corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
What that means is that we can focus on things down here or things in Heaven. What we focus on down here on earth will disappear one day. It will grow old, wear out, rust out, and lose value. People can even steal it. But, doing things for God will give us rewards that last forever. These rewards will never wear out, and nobody can steal them. They can’t grow old or wear out because there is no sin there. It was when sin entered the world that things started to decay. People can’t steal things in Heaven because there can be no sin in Heaven. It will be impossible for people who are there to sin, because they will have been changed on the inside.
If you have received Christ’s free gift of salvation, this is true of you, too, as it is of every believer. However, we still sin because we are still in our fleshly bodies. That means we can still be tempted by the world (that means the world’s system), by our flesh, and by the devil. More on that later, though.
The Shunammite woman had to decide if she wanted to spend time and money to make what was called a “prophet’s chamber” for Elisha to stay in, or whether she wanted to spend it on possessions of her own. Would she feed the man of God, or would she only see to her own needs and not help him?
We’re a lot like that today. We have to decide if we want to help our neighbor, or spend time playing video games, for instance. Certain baseball games are very alluring to me. Being handicapped, it would have been easy to play those my whole life and not accomplish anything for the Lord. But, I wanted to do things for God.
Things for God are the things that last, not the World Series you won with the 1993 Cubs in Strat-O-Matic. The Series title, and the 20-inning Game 1 victory, are fun to talk about. However, I didn’t earn any rewards for them. (Although, since they’re being used in this illustration, in a way I guess I might.)
