“But Naaman was furious and went away and said, ‘Behold, I
thought, ‘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 cure the leper. Are not Abanah 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.” 2 Kings 5:11-12
Naaman was
the captain of the army for a king by the name of Aram. By all accounts he was highly respected and a
valiant warrior, but he had a problem.
Naaman was a leper. Through a
series of events, he found himself at the door of Elisha, a prophet of the
living God to whom he was referred.
Elisha sent a servant to the door with a message to go and dip himself
in the Jordan river 7 times and he would be clean. As the Scripture records, he was incensed
about the way he was treated as well as the prescription. Is this not reminiscent of the popular “gift
horse” colloquialism?
It is easy to be critical of Naaman until we take honest
stock of our own behaviors. How often do
we put ourselves in jeopardy of not receiving our blessing because we are not
satisfied with the method of delivery or the content? We so often pray for deliverance from health,
financial, relationship or other circumstantial situations but reject God’s
means because they do not agree with what we expect or desire. We are far more rigid than we think we are,
even when we find ourselves in the greatest need. The rich young ruler famously
asked Jesus for eternal life, but rejected the method by which he might acquire
it, thus infamously losing it.
Beloved, we must be people of faith at all times. This means trusting God with all of our
hearts and not leaning on our own understanding (Prov 3:5). When we only trust God “so far,” and resort
to our own means when He does not deliver on our timetable or by our preferred
method, we demonstrate faithlessness. In
so doing, we put ourselves in danger of not receiving the blessing that God so
graciously offers.
Naaman’s servants rhetorically asked if Elisha had required
some herculean task of him, would he not have done it to be rid of his
leprosy. Fortunately, he got the point,
complied with the instructions and was cured as he was told he would be. When we go to God, let us do so in humility
and be willing to accept His will in whatever form it may come. There may even be a blessing in a “no”;
however, let us not cost ourselves a “yes”, knowing that in God, all things work
together for our good.
In pursuit of transformed life,
Lee
