As a child growing up attending Sunday School, many Bible stories became familiar. Perhaps even overly-familiar, as I heard watered down versions of them year after year. The trouble with this is that when you come to the Bible as an adult and you reach a story you think you know, you can gloss over it without taking on the weight of its true meaning. For me, the story of Naaman the Aramean who was cured of leprosy was one such example. I wouldn’t like to count the number of times we heard that one. We found out about this very important man who had a life-threatening disease, and how his wife’s servant girl – an Israelite slave – told her mistress that if Naaman went back to her homeland and saw the prophet there, he could be healed. The story was used to remind us we served a God of miracles, and indeed we do, but there is far more in this amazing tale than just the outcome.
Recently when I was reading 2Kings 5, God stopped me in my tracks and showed me just how unconventional the whole thing was. For a start, there was the courage of the Israelite servant girl to even dare to speak to her mistress about Naaman’s leprosy. I imagine she was only used to speaking when spoken to, or maybe she was just encouraged to work and not speak. Women in those days had little to no influence, and a female slave would have had even less. Even today, we hesitate to talk of illness or to make judgements lest we offend someone. Given that Naaman was so very important, I imagine the whole subject of his condition was taboo – a shameful thing only to be whispered about behind closed doors, rather like it would be nowadays if a prominent royal or political leader was afflicted with an embarrassing disease.
I can only presume it was the Lord himself who gave that young girl the courage to speak, just as he gave Queen Esther the courage to go before her husband the king to plead for the safety of her people, even though it meant putting her life on the line. The servant girl’s words were brief and to the point, and I can imagine her shaking in her shoes as she said them. “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” (2Kings 5: 3.) This girl took a risk to step out of her man-made boundaries and obey the leading of her God. Maybe Naaman’s wife even took a risk in reporting the servant’s words to her husband. Was she worried that Naaman would mock her, become angry, beat the servant? … The Bible doesn’t give us all the answers so some things are left for us to wonder.
The next amazing thing in this incredible chain of events is that Naaman actually listened to his wife, and so indirectly, to the servant. Men weren’t used to seeking advice from women, especially army commanders. Naaman was used to being an authority figure. Although his influence had no doubt been diminished by his illness likely forcing him into semi solitude, he still wouldn’t have been accustomed to being told what to do by those he considered to be beneath him. Had he become bitter and twisted because of his lot in life? Had he given up hope? Was he lying in bed day after day suffering from deep depression?
Whatever his state of body and mind, something in his wife’s words offered Naaman a glimmer of hope he latched onto. Did he feel that desperate times called for desperate measures? Had his pride been dented so much that he was willing to try anything? We know this wasn’t the case because of later events.
Verse 4 tells us that Naaman went to his master the king to report what the servant girl had said, and the king was eager to let him go to Israel if there was a chance he could be healed. Clearly Naaman was highly thought of. Verse 1 states: “He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier.” The king wanted Naaman back in good fighting order, so he was willing to stoop to the level of writing a letter to the king of one of his enemy nations asking for help.
AT this point in the story, the first misunderstanding happens, because the Aramean king believes Naaman’s cure will come at the hand of the king of Israel, not from their God at the hand of a prophet. Even though Naaman had clearly been told to go and visit a prophet, both he and his master presumed such important matters can only be dealt with by the king. They showed no respect for Israel’s God and his ability to heal. Isn’t that often the way it is today? People seek help from everywhere apart from the only true place it can be found. We rush to and froe panicking, plotting and planning, when all the time the Lord is waiting and wishing we’d just come to him. How much stress could we save ourselves if we truly listened and sought his help over and above the help of man? That’s not to say God won’t use people to help us. He used Elisha to help Naaman, but Naaman went to Israel with his preconceived ideas that he needed to find someone important – someone of influence. He was used to hobnobbing in the world of kings, not the mystical world of prophets who dared to say they’d heard from God.
The King of Israel was baffled when Naaman turned up with a letter demanding his healing. He presumed it was a trick, possibly some way for the king of Aram to pick a quarrel with him. (2Kings 5: 7.) just imagine how disappointed Naaman must have been when the door was slammed in his face. He’d gone all that way – taken a chance by listening to a lower person, and now he’d have to go home with his tail between his legs. However, it is at this point that God steps powerfully into the story once again through the man he had intended to use all along.
We don’t know whether the servant girl gave a name when she mentioned Israel’s prophet. It’s possible that she didn’t even know Elisha’s name, but had only heard of his giftings and power to work miracles. However, Elisha heard about Naaman. He tells the king to send Naaman to him, so he may know there is a prophet in Israel. (2Kings 5: 8).
I can just imagine Naaman turning up at Elisha’s home with all his pomp and power on display. He arrived at Elisha’s house with his horses and chariots and was likely startled to be sent to such a humble home. Then to add insult to injury, Elisha didn’t even have the decency to receive him. The prophet simply sent a messenger out to tell Naaman to go and wash 7 times in the Jordan river to receive his cleansing. (2Kings 5: 10.)
I said earlier that Naaman had definitely retained some of his pride despite his illness, and it’s in verse 11 that this is confirmed. Naaman is furious! Once again, his preconceived ideas had taken a dent. He’d thought Elisha would come out to meet him, wave his hand over his body and cure him, but instead he was told to go and wash in a dirty river. Doesn’t Elisha realise who he is!? He comes from a country where the rivers are much better and cleaner than the dirty old Jordan!
Already we are seeing many ways in which God worked to surprise Naaman and those around him. Another surprise comes when yet more servants have the courage to speak up and reason that if Elisha had told Naaman to do something great and spectacular to obtain his healing, he would have done it without a second thought. Yet here he was being asked to do such a small thing – just to dip himself in the river 7 times? What harm could it do?
I’m glad Naaman finally let go of his pride and listened to his servants. He received not just his healing, but a revelation of the one true God. The Naaman who returns to Elisha after his cleansing is a much more humble man – ready to receive as well as give orders. He even wanted to take some earth home with him so he could build an altar to worship his new-found God. Naaman learned what many of us are still learning on a daily basis. We cannot put God in a box. We cannot presume to know how he will act to answer our prayers, because he doesn’t work to a formula.
Just consider the healings of Jesus. He healed many blind and deaf men, yet once he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva and rubbed it in a man’s eyes, while on another occasion he merely spoke the words and a blind man saw. Sometimes he would touch, but occasionally he didn’t even have to be present for healing to take place. I don’t think a single one of Jesus’ miracles was predictable and could be turned into a formula for us to follow today.
So when we are faced with a situation like Naaman’s, what will we do? Will we look for the predictable outcome? Will we study the ways these things have happened before and convince ourselves they have to happen this way again? Will we scoff at lowering ourselves to things that seem beneath us? Or will we open ourselves up to the exciting, unpredictable, and sometimes scary things God wants to do in and through us? If we do, I believe like Naaman, we’ll be changed not just on the outside, but most importantly on the inside too.