"Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.^"

The story of Naaman is told in the 5th Chapter of the 2nd Book of the Kings. If you want to read it, I have reproduced it below from BibleGateway.com. It is probably placed between 850 and 840 BC. The actions and attitudes of the principal characters give us some insights into human nature which are relevant to us in our Christian life.

The principal character is Naaman himself and the interaction between him and the prophet Elisha is very telling. Naaman was a five star general, commander in chief of the Aramean army. He was highly regarded by the king of Aram (Hazael) and no doubt by his officers and soldiers - after all he had just lead the army to a great victory. But the story tells us that he also had a high regard for himself. We shall come to this presently.

The Jewish slave girl is the next significant character to come in. She had been captured by the army and she served Naaman's wife. She must have been well treated as she seems to be truly concerned about Naaman's illness. She speaks up and suggests that Naaman should go to see "the prophet" (Elisha) in Samaria. Her significance is that her intervention eventually lead to Naaman being healed and converted to be a follower of Yahweh, the God of Israel. Naaman seeks his king's advice and permission, and off he goes with a letter from Hazael to the King Joram of Israel. The letter was short and to the point. It said, ‘With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.’ When he received this Joram was scared witless! "Am I God", he says, "Can I kill and bring back to life?  This fellow is trying to pick a quarrel with me." He didn't know where to turn. But when Elisha heard about it, he said to King Joram, "Make the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel."

So Naaman rolls up in a great procession to Elisha's house. And what does Elisha do? He sends a messenger to tell Naaman to go and wash seven times in the River Jordan and he will be healed. Naaman was furious. He is a great man. He deserves more respect that this. He expected Elisha to come and wave his hand over the leprosy and to call on the name of Yahweh. "Why should I wash in the Jordan? Surely the rivers of Aram are better that the Jordan? Harrumph!" Luckily his servants had more sense and they persuaded their master to do as Elisha requested. And Naaman was healed.

Was Elisha right to treat Naaman as he did? Yes he was. Naaman was full of self importance. He felt he should be healed because of who he was. He felt that Elisha should have played a ceremonial role in the healing. So he had to realise that he was healed by Yahweh and not Elisha, and he was healed because Yahweh loved him.

When we turn to Christ for forgiveness and healing we must do so knowing that we are unworthy to receive any of this, but that we are forgiven and healed by the grace of God. Our own good works or our status in human society count for nothing. Brennan Manning puts it like this, “Real freedom is freedom from the opinions of others. Above all, freedom from your opinions about yourself. ” (The Wisdom of Tenderness: What Happens When God's Fierce Mercy Transforms Our Lives)

And don't forget the slave girl! Never miss an opportunity to point out to others the way to Christ.

[If you read on to the end of the chapter, past verse 14, we see that Naaman became a worshipper of Yahweh in the only way he knew how - by taking a lorry load of the soil of Israel back home with him. At that time it was believed that the gods of the nations were all territorial gods and could only be worshipped on their own territory. And Elisha's servant Gehazi makes another appearance in the story, but only to show that he was a selfish and greed man and that he paid a heavy price for his greed.]

Ken

2 July 2013