Healing God’s Way

 II Kings 5: 1-14

 Naaman is a man who wants to be cured from leprosy. He finds hope in the words of his wife’s slave girl – a young girl captive from Israel. She says her prophet Elisha could cure him. So, he goes to the one in authority over Israel – the King hoping to pay for this miraculous healing with silver, gold, and ten garments. God’s miracles are not for sale though. The king who may have earthly ruling power doesn’t have power over life and disease. He thinks the King of Aram is making a quarrel with him by showing his helplessness and he tears his clothes in defeat. When Elisha gets wind of this, he tells the king to send Naaman to him.

Now Naaman arrives at Elisha’s house in quite a fanfare showing his riches and power coming with horses and chariots. Does Elisha come out to honor him as a powerful man? No, he sends out his messenger with the simple instructions: “Wash yourself seven times in the Jordan and your flesh will be restored.

Now Naaman does want his leprosy cured, but is he willing to do it God’s way? He is upset. He was expecting a grand performance – Elisha waving over him and saying a prayer. Not only that he questions the choice of the river – couldn’t I have done it in a cleaner river closer to home?

Sometimes the Lord chooses to heal us in ways we may not like and through people we may not like.

I find it interesting God’s use of servants here. The servant girl, the servant giving him the message, and his own servant who approaches him with wise words. “If he would have asked you to do something more difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? How much more when all he asked you to simply wash yourself.” What will it hurt to follow his instructions?

Sometimes God chooses the simple to solve our problems. We make mountains out of molehills and feel that something complicated is necessary.

Thanks to the servant’s reasoning, Naaman finally follows Elisha’s instructions and goes to the Jordan, washes seven times, and his flesh is restored to the flesh of a young boy.

God communicated through low on the social scale servants to relay the information to cure Naaman. May we be open to all when we are searching for solutions, knowing God can provide answers and healing through the most unexpected people in the most unexpected ways. Amen

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Join Me on a Lenten Journey

For those of you not familiar with Lent, it is a season of forty days, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. Lent comes from the Anglo Saxon word lencten, which means "spring." The forty days represents the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, enduring the temptation of Satan and preparing to begin his ministry. Lent is a time of repentance, fasting and preparation for the coming of Easter. It is a time of self-examination and reflection. Today, Christians focus on their relationship with God, often choosing to give up something or to volunteer and give of themselves for others. Easter comes early this year. Many of us not brought up in this tradition can still embrace its emphasis of focusing on the gifts Christ has brought into your lives and finding ways to share the love of Christ to others. This emphasis of love goes along well with the beginning of Lent this year, Ash Wednesday, falling on all days – Valentine’s Day. So whether or not you plan
Read more

Setting Your Hope in God

 Disclaimer: Paul talks about the Rapture in this passage a concept I still struggle with. I believe that once you die you go direct to the Lord, so bodies awaiting till the rapture to rise is hard for me to grasp. I can see how Paul was comforting the Thessalonians here but was his concept correct? Add any comments you wish to this bafflement of mine. That said, I wrote this per the text. What do you all think? Psalms 78:1-7; I Thessalonians 4:13-18   The psalmist in Psalms 78 is not only telling his current audience to listen to his teaching but to pass it on from one generation to the next. Just like he has heard it from his ancestors, he asks the Israelites to teach them to the coming generations. They are to teach them to the children yet unborn so that these children will teach their children. Why? So, they should set their hope in God, not forgetting God’s works. Fast forward to the New Testament where Paul is passing on this hope to the Thessalonians. The question these bel
Read more

Do What they Teach, Not What they Do

  Matthew 23: 1-12; I Thessalonians 2:9-13   Jesus when he talks about the scribes and the Pharisees in Matthew 23 basically says: “Do what they teach but not what they do.” What he questions most is their motivation. They do what they do to be seen by others. They wear fancy robes and love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues. They love to be greeted with respect. All this Jesus sums up in the word pride or not being humble. He states then that those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Years later Paul writes to the Thessalonians telling how he did what Christ had instructed. That he was humble leading a life worthy of God, his motivation being for God’s glory not his own. He tells that not only are the Thessalonians his witnesses of this but God also. They have seen how pure, upright, and blameless his conduct has been. He encourages the Thessalonians to do the same. To live a life worthy of
Read more