Wednesdays in the Word

2 Kings 5 tells us that a man named Naaman was the commander of the Syrian army. It says that he was a great and honorable man and that God used him to bring a victory for Syria. He was a "mighty man of valor, but a leper."  (I've heard that the word 'but' is a verbal eraser) So, Naaman's great abilities all paled in comparison to the fact that he had leprosy.

The nation of Israel sent lepers to live outside of society, but I guess that wasn't the case in Syria. He lived with his wife and a captured slave girl from Israel. Major kudos to this girl! She was captured on a raid and taken to a foreign land and would never again see her family, and who spoke up and shared her faith anyway! That's so gutsy and God glorifying. Imagine getting outside of your own pain and grief enough to do that! She's my hero!
She said "If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy."

What took place next was like a round of the telephone game. Those two simple sentences were repeated to the king of Syria, who then wrote  them to the king of Israel but what came out was totally different. The letter said "heal my servant Naaman of leprosy."
He freaked out and thought the king of Syria was trying to pick a fight with him and he was like "Am I God?" LOL
That makes me smile every time!

Elisha hears about all of this and intervenes. (and probably averts war)
Elisha graciously sent word to Naaman about what he needed to do to be healed by God.

And the kicker here is, the means to the end did not meet with the approval of this desperate man. In all actuality, he must have forgotten he was desperate!
The method wasn't showy enough. He wanted someone to come wave his hand and call out to God and he sure didn't like the looks of the river he was sent to wash in. He was sure that a better one existed.

How often are we not OK with God's methods or timetable for restoring us? Whether it be physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Ouch!
Can we accept the quiet, often slow way that He does it?

Naaman's servant said "If he said do something hard you would've. Why not do it even when it is easy?"

He eventually did and his skin was restored to that of a child! And he declared that he knew that there was no God in all the earth except in Israel. I love that!
And then he realizes he has a problem on his hands because part of his job description was to help the king of Samaria get down on the ground to bow before his god in a temple. He bravely asked to be pardoned for that in the future and Elisha tells him to "Go in peace" which was kind of like saying God gets it, and don't worry about it. How sweet was that?
And who knows, maybe in the future he had a chance to tell the king about the God who gave him that child like skin that he was leaning against!

~Becky