Healing of Naaman’s leprosy
5
📚Now Naaman 📖, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and highly respected man with his master, because by him the LORD had given victory 📖 to Syria. He was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper 📖.2 📚And the Syrians had gone out in raiding bands, and had brought a little girl captive from the land of Israel; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. 3 📚And she said to her mistress, “Would God my lord were with the prophet 📖 who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy”.
4 📚And he went in and told his lord, saying, “Thus and thus is what the girl who is from the land of Israel said”. 5 📚And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel”. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver 📖 and six thousand pieces of gold 📖 and ten changes of clothing. 6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said: “Now when this letter comes to you, see, with it I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy”.
7 📚And it came about, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he tore his clothes 📖 and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to heal a man of his leprosy? Therefore please consider, and see how he is seeking grounds for a quarrel against me”.
8 📚And it came about when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent word to the king, saying, “Why 📖 did you tear your clothes? Let him come now to me, and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel”. 9 📚So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. 10 📚And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan 📖 seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you, and you will be clean”.
5:10 Elisha did not even come out to see or meet this “great” man (v 1).⚜
11 📚But Naaman was angry and went away, and said, “Look, I thought 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. 12 📚Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
5:11-12 Namaan had pre-conceived ideas of how the prophet should heal him. He was not ready yet for childlike obedience. It seems also that his pride was offended. He thought surely Elisha would come out to him – after all, he was a great man in Syria. Pride can rob men of God’s blessings (Jam 4:6, 10; Mark 10:15).⚜
13 📚And his servants came near, and spoke to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash and be clean?’ ” 14 📚Then he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, in accordance with the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
5:14 Faith and humble obedience gain from God what nothing else ever can.⚜
15 📚And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him, and said, “Look, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel. Therefore now please accept a gift from your servant”.
5:15 This foreign idolater learned what Israel as a nation had not learned (1 Kings 18:21). They were rushing after other gods, he was about to abandon his. This knowledge Namaan gained was a far greater gift of God than the healing of his body. Compare John 17:3.⚜
16 📚But he said, “As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will not accept any”. And he urged him to take it, but he refused.
5:16 Elisha did not serve God for the gifts he might get. This one gift from Namaan would have made him a rich man (v 5), but Elisha was not interested in obtaining wealth, even by gifts others wanted to give him. How unlike Balaam and many others since (2 Pet 2:15. See Paul’s warning to Timothy in 1 Tim 6:6-11).⚜
17 📚And Naaman said, “Then, please, shall not two mules’ load of earth 📖 be given to your servant? For from now on your servant will offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but to the LORD. 18 📚In this thing the LORD pardon your servant, that when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow in the house of Rimmon. When I bow down in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon your servant in this thing”.
5:18 Namaan knew that bowing to another god would not be right, but did not see how he could escape when the king with him bowed.⚜
19 📚And he said to him, “Go in peace”. So he departed from him a little distance.
5:19 Elisha did not try to be Namaan’s conscience, but left it to him to work out his own problem.⚜
Bringing leprosy on Gehazi
20 📚But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Look, my master has let this Syrian Naaman off lightly, by not accepting from his hands what he brought. But, as the LORD lives, I will run after him and take something from him”.
5:20 Gehazi is typical of all those who seek personal gain through the service of God. He was eager for money. The mind of Gehazi is often seen in Christian circles today. It leads to God’s judgment (Matt 6:24; Luke 12:15; 1 Tim 6:5, 9). Servant of God, flee these things! Beware of greed, of trying to make gain from your position, of taking gifts God does not want you to have. Those things can ruin your ministry and your life.⚜
21 📚So Gehazi went after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him, and said, “Is all well?”
22 📚And he said, “All is well. My master has sent me, saying, ‘Look, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from Mount Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.’ ”
5:22 Getting what he wanted involved Gehazi in lying and misrepresenting his master. One sin, as often happens, led to another. He loved money more than truth, like so many today. When they who say they are servants of Christ are greedy for money and twist the facts to get it, they are misrepresenting Christ, bringing harm to His work on earth, and eventually great harm to themselves.⚜
23 📚And Naaman said, “Be pleased to take two talents”. And he urged him, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and placed them on two of his servants, and they carried them in front of him. 24 📚And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand and stored them in the house, and he let the men go, and they departed.
25 📚But he went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, “From where are you coming, Gehazi?” And he said, “Your servant did not go anywhere”.
5:25 The attempt to cover up wrongdoing usually leads to more lying, all of which is hateful to God (Prov 6:16-19. See also Prov 28:13).⚜
26 📚And he said to him, “Did not my heart go 📖 with you, when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to accept money and to accept clothes, and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen, and male and female servants? 27 📚Therefore the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and to your offspring forever”. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.
5:27 It is as though Elisha was saying “You wanted something belonging to Namaan, did you? Take, then, his leprosy!”⚜