The lessons of Naaman

Because I am discussing a full chapter here, I decided to post it below before proceeding with my lesson.  

2 Kings 5:

"Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper. 2 And the Syrians had gone out on[a] raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She [b]waited on Naaman’s wife. 3 Then she said to her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy.” 4 And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, “Thus and thus said the girl who is from the land of Israel.”

5 Then the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”

So he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. 6 Then he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said,

Now be advised, when this letter comes to you, that I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy.

7 And it happened, when the king of Israel read the letter, that he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and make alive, that this man sends a man to me to heal him of his leprosy? Therefore please consider, and see how he seeks a quarrel with me.”

8 So it was, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Please let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.”

9 Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” 11 But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’ 12 Are not the [c]Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. 13 And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 14 So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him; and he said, “Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel; now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.”

16 But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive nothing.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused.

17 So Naaman said, “Then, if not, please let your servant be given two mule-loads of earth; for your servant will no longer offer either burnt offering or sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord. 18 Yet in this thing may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the temple of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord please pardon your servant in this thing.”

19 Then he said to him, “Go in peace.” So he departed from him a short distance.

Gehazi’s Greed

20 But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Look, my master has spared Naaman this Syrian, while not receiving from his hands what he brought; but as the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him.” 21 So Gehazi pursued Naaman. When Naaman saw him running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him, and said, “Is all well?”

22 And he said, “All is well. My master has sent me, saying, ‘Indeed, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the mountains of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of garments.’ ”

23 So Naaman said, “Please, take two talents.” And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and handed them to two of his servants; and they carried them on ahead of him. 24 When he came to [d]the citadel, he took them from their hand, and stored them away in the house; then he let the men go, and they departed. 25 Now he went in and stood before his master. Elisha said to him, “Where did you go, Gehazi?”

And he said, “Your servant did not go anywhere.”

26 Then he said to him, “Did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants? 27 Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever.” And he went out from his presence leprous, as white as snow."

The Bible is full of many challenging stories. By challenging, I mean stories that make you wonder why they’re even in the Bible, and this is especially true of the Torah.

 Now, I’ve long thought that, even if the stories in the Torah are just that—stories—they still have value. After all, several religions have similar flood accounts to the Biblical account, Several even have virgin births. Don’t get me wrong, I believe the veracity of the Bible as a whole, but I also look beyond the actual veracity to the lessons behind the stories. One story in particular that I’ve bene puzzling over as I read through Second Kings is the story of Naaman. Sure, it’s entertaining with lots of good battles but, surely God in His infinite wisdom didn’t breathe into His word just to entertain us—though that’s certainly a bonus.

 We are introduced to Naaman in 2 Kings 5. He is the commander of the army of the King of Aram (Aram was most likely in modern day Syria). By all accounts he was a great soldier but he had a problem—he was stricken with leprosy. Leprosy was a serious skin disease which, during Biblical times, had no cure. He takes a wife from Israel and she tells Naaman of an Israeli prophet named Elisha whom she believes could cure his leprosy. So he sends his servant (along with payment) to the King of Aram, and petitions him to cure his disease. The letter was actually meant for Elisha, but, the King assumed the letter was for him and was greatly distressed. Lesson number one from the story of Naaman: Don’t jump to conclusion. This is practical advice and, in some ways, could be life saving.

Elisha agrees to heal Naaman and tells him to dip himself in the Jordan River seven times. At first, this makes Naaman angry and he storms away. Remember, he is a commander, he is used to giving orders, not taking them. This would be an incredibly humiliating and humbling act for him and He expected Elisha to simply wave his hand over him and he would be cured. Lesson two: Sometimes you have to be humbled to be exalted. Sometimes you have to go out of your comfort zone to get the desired result. Lesson number three: Sometimes God is going to make you do some work to get your blessing. After some prodding from his servants, he consents to the “treatment” prescribed by the prophet.  When he arises from the water after the seventh time, he is cured! Lesson three: God knows what He is doing and won’t as you to do anything without a reason.

Another lesson here is that God is creative. You never know how he is going to work. Jesus healed the blind man by spitting in the dirt, creating mud and placing it on the blind man’s eyes. Others, he simply spoke to and they were healed. Why does God choose to work in so many ways? I don’t know. His creativity could be part of it.

After Naaman is healed, he confesses that the God of Israel is the only God he will worship. His body was healed and it led to a spiritual healing and revival—which, for we Christians, is far more important than any physical ailment. These bodies are temporary but our souls are forever. That’s another lesson—physical healing can lead to spiritual healing and revival.

Naaman offers Elisha payment and Elisha refuses it. He was doing the Lord’s work free of charge. He did not want to taint it by taking payment. I’m not saying those that do the work of the Lord should not take payment. I use ad content to fund this blog, pastoring is a full time job—but the motive should be to truly help people. Any financial rewards or motivations should be ancillary. 

 After this, chapter five shifts to Elisha and his servant Gehazi. Gehazi, seeing that Elisha did not take the payment from Naaman becomes upset and decides to take the reward from Naaman. He tracks him down and demands the payment that Elisha declined, claiming that Elisha changed his mind. Naaman gladly gives it to him, but, one can only imagine that the purity of Elisha’s motives were questioned, though Naaman appears to still be grateful. When confronted by Elisha, Gehazi lies about where he was, yet, Elisha knew where he was an what he did and struck Gehazi-- and all of his descendants-- with the very skin ailment that Naaman had just been cured from. This final lesson might be the most important: Don’t second guess God and don’t let your greed get you in Dutch with God. Jesus said that our reward would be in Heaven so sometimes delayed gratification isn’t a bad thing. Do things with pure motives and let the chips fall where they may—and for goodness sakes, don’t lie to god. He already knows anyway. Adam and Eve tried it and look what happened? Gehazi thought that he could get away with it, but you can’t trick an all knowing God or his prophets.