Monday, August 21, 2023
The king of Aram had great admiration
for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him
the Lord had given Aram great victories. But though Naaman was a
mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy. At this time Aramean raiders had invaded
the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been
given to Naaman’s wife as a maid. One day the girl said
to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy.”
So Naaman went with his horses and
chariots and waited at the door of Elisha’s house. But
Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go and wash yourself
seven times in the Jordan River. Then
your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy.” But Naaman became angry and stalked
away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected
him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of
the Lord his God and heal me! Aren’t the rivers
of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than any of the rivers of
Israel? Why shouldn’t I wash in them and
be healed?” So Naaman turned and went away in a rage. But his officers tried to reason with him and
said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult,
wouldn’t you have done it? So you should
certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!’” So
Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man
of God had instructed him. And his skin
became as healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed! 2 Kings 5:1-3, 9-14
This is one
of those favorites in Scripture, because it has one of the
most dramatic illustrations (on so many levels) of the purity and exceptional
nature of faith.
First, the
servant girl, who expresses love for the master who owns her. In compassion she wishes aloud her master would
go to Elisha to be healed. Naaman acts
in faith that is clouded with expectations of a grand show of magical powers,
but the prophet won’t even answer the door; he sends a servant to tell the sick
man to exercise a more profound faith…go dip in the Jordan seven times!
When Naaman’s
expectations are ignored, he gets angry and, in his rage, wants to take his
ball and go home. But his servants
convince him with logic…you wanted a grand show, and you got a simple
request: If it was some
hard thing, you’d have done it…what’s a little dip in the muddy waters? Naaman caves, and the healing evidence
becomes history!
I love this
account of Naaman’s healing because it is our story of faith in Christ. Sin in the soul is immeasurably more damning
than leprosy in the flesh. Leprosy can kill
only a temporary skin-and-bone body; sin in our immortal soul condemns our eternal
being to a never-ending separation from God.
We are all
Naaman…confronted with our sinful ways, we’re faced with the decision to have faith
in God by trusting in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins, or remain
rotting in our chosen sinful ways.
For You Today
You have a
choice to make, much like Naaman.
Apostle Matthew records the exact words of Jesus about this eternally-significant
choice:
Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 10:28
Hardly any advice needed on this,
simply an invitation: trust Christ now,
and be forever thankful for His gift of eternal life.
There are about 2,600 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.
Title Image: via WikimediaCommons Images without citation are in public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT©
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