2 Kings 8:6

"And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king assigned unto her a certain officer, saying, 'Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now.' "

This woman is the Shunammite, who has to be one of the most blessed characters in all of scripture. We first meet her in 2 Kings 4:8, where she is referred to as a 'great woman.' She is shown just out of the blue forcing her hospitality upon Elisha, not once but often, before she's really aware he's a prophet. So Elisha wants to bless her in return, which she humbly declines. So Elisha promises her a child, because she has none, and sure enough she has a son. But the next time we hear from her, years later, the son is sick and dies! So Elisha raises him from the dead. Ho-hum.

Then she disappears from the scene for awhile, but in chapter 8 she's back, being warned by Elisha of a famine that will strike Israel. So she moves to Philistine territory and survives, then returns after the famine is passed. It just so happens the king of Israel (presumably Joram, who's not that great) feels like hearing about all Elisha's exploits that day, and he is told of the son's resurrection. Then who walks in the door but the woman herself, begging for her lands to be returned to her now that she's returned to Israel. Joram is only too happy to serve the woman who blessed Elisha.

This is a gentile woman, singled out for tender care by God even as He besets Israel with warfare and famine. She is a type of the Church, chosen from the nations to be the bride of Christ. Ray Stedman points out that Elisha's ministry, following the harsh judgments declared by Elijah, is a foreshadowing of the sweet graces Jesus performed in His first advent. The Shunammite woman is just another testimony that God always had the gentiles in mind, not as a people in the way Israel was a people, but as a nation brought forth where there was not one before (1 Pet. 2:9-10).