2 Kings 5-6

 

Read 2 Kings 5-6

Verses chosen for devotion:

9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and 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, and you shall be clean." 11 But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. 12 Are not Abana and 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 But his servants came near and said to him, "My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?" 14 So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

In 2 Kings 5 we read that the little Israelite girl who was brought in captivity to Syria told the wife of Namaan (commander of Syrian Army) about a prophet in Israel who could cure him from his leprosy. Namaan believed what was said by the little girl without even questioning her credibility. Namaan has great faith in God of Israel and the healing of his leprosy was even quoted by Jesus in Luke 4:27. What surprised me more was how quickly the King of Syria agreed to Namaan’s request to go to Samaria (not a friendly ally) to seek healing from prophet Elisha.

Hence Naaman brought with him loads of valuables and clothings to go and meet the man of God (Elisha). He was filled with anticipation as he was doing this, traveling all the way from Syria to Samaria. However he was met with great disappointment and anger as instead of being received personally by Elisha, he was being greeted by a mere messenger. To aggravate the situation further he was asked to go and wash himself 7 times in Jordan to get cured. 

There are 2 parts to this selected verses to reflect upon. Firstly Naaman was a great commander with mighty power. He carried with him certain expectation when he came to Samaria (at least on the part of being greeted personally by Elisha or with some exclusive treatment due to his status). Secondly, he had his own expectation too on how healing should be carried out (the prophet to be there physically to waive hand and call out the name of the Lord, v11). Probably he felt that the instruction of washing himself seven times in Jordan was an act of mockery and embarrassment. And most of all it did not make any sense for him to do such “illogical” act of healing. At this point he could have forgotten about his objective of coming to Samaria (to seek healing from the God of Israel he has great faith in). His pride has gotten the better of him.

And there is one more thing worth noting here in v13. A servant of Namaan changed his mind from walking away by offering him a sound advice - “Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” NIV‬‬ version.

This logical argument from a servant (could be an instrument of God) changed  Naaman’s mind ‬ and he eventually put aside his pride, followed the instruction of Elisha and was healed.

Relate

We have our own expectations too in our christian lives. We have expectations when we attend worship service on sermons to be preached by pastors, choice of worship songs, worship environment, the list goes on. Even in serving or ministry work we expect our voices to be heard, our views to be accepted and efforts to be acknowledged. Very often we forgot that the purpose of attending Sunday Service is to worship God, and the purpose of participating in ministry is to serve. We are not here to win a debate or popularity contest. Otherwise we may have a same problem as Naaman (whose own expectation and pride frustrated an otherwise simple healing process). In our personal relationship with God we may also have expectation on how God should intervene in our lives (like Naaman on how he should be healed). We prayed for God to give us that dream job, to grant us the desire of having the ideal education path for our children and even to plea with God on how He should heal us in time of our sickness. And if the outcome did not turn out to be what we expected we would then conclude that our prayer was not answered. Sadly I have seen people leaving the church because of this. God’s way is above ours (Isaiah 55:8-9) and there is no way we could fathom why certain things happened certain ways. Like Namaan who expected healing of his leprosy to be done in a certain way (waving of hand and calling upon the name of God), we also expected to have God’s answering of our prayer in our own way. And sometimes it took someone else (our friend, our family or even a total stranger) to knock some senses into us in order to discern God’s will, just like in the case of Namaan where his servant took the courage to put him in the right state of mind to follow Elisha’s instruction to get cured. This also showed us that God can use anyone to speak to us to guide us towards His will for us.

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV - “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope”. Very often we are only able to see how marvelously God’s plan unveiled for us, only if we continue to trust and wait upon Him, patiently, according to His way and in His perfect timing.

Rest

Heavenly Father, help us to discern Your will. We do not want our own expectation and pride  to stand in between us and Your plan, for Your plan is to prosper, not to harm us, and to grant us a future.

In Jesus name we pray Amen

Alan