5:1 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.
5:2 And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman's wife.
5:3 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."
5:4 And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, "Thus and thus said the girl who is from the land of Israel."
5:5 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.
5:6 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.
5:7 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."
5:8 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."
5:9 Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha's house.
5:10 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."
5:11 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.'
5:12 "Are not the 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.
5:13 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'?"
5:14 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.
Here is Naaman, a great warrior and military leader. He answers directly to his (earthly) king, and represents his king before other kings. He is an important man in his time and place. Yet, notice how God works in his life through a slave girl, through Naaman's own servants, and through something quite ordinary for the time: a bath in a river.
Often God works in our lives in ways that we don't notice. If God were more theatrical, constantly working big, showy miracles (like what Naaman expected to see), miracles that obviously could come only from Him, more people would obey Him -- out of fear! (Or would they? -- more on that in a moment!) That does not seem to be what He wants. Instead, He wants people to seek Him out of faith.
Originally, He gave humanity instructions on what to do to be happy in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve rebelled, and now we have thousands of years of human history, much of which is misery.
He also gave humanity advice through His prophets and through His Son. Many people don't pay much attention to His advice, and the misery continues. Even "good Christians" goof things up every day.
So, despite how bad we have goofed things up in this world, we insist on not following His advice and on doing things our own way. Rather than beating us over the head with the fact that He is God (and we're not!), He allows us to make our mistakes. At some point, if nothing else out of desperation, we start looking for something more than what we have here, which is woefully inadequate, and then we begin to seek Him.
Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
So, God works in our lives in ways that are often low-key, through ways that we might not notice, and through people that we often would not pay attention to. In the case of this story of the mighty warrior Naaman, He worked in his life first through a slave girl.
Later, the prophet Elisha sends Naaman to wash in the Jordan River, which is hardly an impressive place to bathe; even in Biblical times, it was rather polluted. Expecting some great miracle, Naaman, who wasn't even greeted by the prophet himself, was offended, thinking that he had been "had" and played for a fool. After all, if a mere bath could cleanse him, would not a bath in water that was actually clean be more useful?
Angry, Naaman was leaving, but those accompanying him saved the day. Again, the focus may have been on the prophet here, but in many ways it was the ordinary people in Naaman's life that convinced him to give this bath in the Jordan a try, rather than just calling it a wasted trip at that point. So, having traveled to see this prophet, Naaman went ahead and bathed in the Jordan River, as instructed, and...
It worked! He was cleansed of his leprosy!
What's the point of all this?
If someone were standing in front of you parting the Red Sea and sending plagues on your hometown, you would pay attention to him, right? After all, those miracles are pretty impressive. Seeing is believing, right?
Maybe you wouldn't pay a whole lot of attention. After a while, parting the Red Sea wouldn't be so impressive any more, and you might be tempted to say, "Hey, if God is really working here, let's see the Atlantic Ocean get parted!" Our threshhold for the miraculous would just keep climbing.
Instead of playing that game, God does it His way. He has given us instructions and advice, which we typically don't heed. So, He works in our lives in subtle ways and through people who, to us, seem relatively inconsequential. He asks us to do ordinary things, but to do them in faith, and to do these things with Him.
It is usually only after we turn to Him in faith and start doing things with Him that we begin to notice all the little things in our world that He is setting in place for us.
Who was it who said that some things have to be believed to be seen?
Believe in Him, believe that He is a Rewarder of those who seek Him, and begin to see the miracles all around you!
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