SCRIPTURE: 2 Kings 5:1-27
OBSERVATION:
The Lord even gets the credit for the victories (and defeats) of Israel’s neighbours.
A mighty man humbled by leprosy, yet still too proud to bathe in Jordan.
The servant girl has a horrible life (taken from parents, enslaved) yet witnesses for God.
The girl knew that God could heal, but the king did not – God works through little ones.
Naaman comes to believe in God of Israel, but still has mistaken views (ie God is tied to the land/soil) and retains ritual worship of Rimmon to keep his job.
Elisha says ‘go in peace’, but wasn’t this compromise?
Pride stands in the way of healing, and greed leads to misery.
Elisha found his ‘payment’ in Naaman’s conversion.
APPLICATION:
Does my pride stand in the way of my receiving God’s grace, does my selfish greed lead me into more misery?
Do I believe that God can help people, do I witness to His healing power even in my hard circumstances, or whine like the king?
God is ruler over all nations, He does lead them, He can help those who seek Him, its not up to me.
I just need to direct people to Jesus (God’s appointed Elisha for today).
PRAYER:
Lord, forgive me for not believing that you can heal and help people. Help me to be like the servant girl and urge people to look to you for the help and hope they seek. And help me to not run after worldly payment, but rather take pleasure in helping people find You. Amen.
One thing that stood out to me, was how so fragile the lines of communication are. The King of Aram sent Naaman and silver to the King of Israel in a genuine hope that he could be healed, and when the King of Israel read it, he just assumed it was mockery and tore his robes. Ring true for anybody else? Definiltey for myself.
I also noticed the fact that Naaman was too good to bathe in the Jordan when there are other, nicer waters to bathe in. Another story showing how important it is to put our faith in God because He knows absolutely everything He is doing, while we pretend and try to act like we know what we’re doing.
I found it interesting in this passage where it talked about Naaman’s expectations of what Elisha was going to do to him. I can well imagine that during the whole journey to Israel, Naaman must have been going through his mind the different scenarios of what Elisha would do for him. But to Naamans surprise, Elisha caught him off guard with this very unorthodox approach – go bath in the dirty waters of the Jordan 7X’s. Scripture records that Naaman “turned and went away in a rage”.
Also, I found it interesting that when Gehazi had returned to Elisha’s home after taking some of the gifts from Naaman, that the response from Elisha was this … “Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards etc…” In Ecclesiastes 3, it reminds us there is a time for everything … sometimes there is a time for gathering, collecting and relaxing, but then there is also a time to humble oneself. I think Elisha’s mindset was that they were in a time in history that was not a time for collecting and establishing wealth – it was a time to humble themselves before the Lord.
Application: How often do I have such an expectation on what God is going to do in a situation or in my life? Sometimes I get so fixed in my own vision of what should happen that I totally do not see the forest for the trees. I have to remind myself that God is a God of Creation, that is, He is very creative! May I always be ready to see His unique way of handling things and may I be ready to just Trust and Obey.