Naaman

I started to mention Naaman the leper on Thursday, when the subject at hand was water, and we got into the rite for recovering a leper, but I realized that the story of Naaman would have taken up a lot of space, and not contributed that much more to my point. However, yesterday, my pastor preached the story of Naaman, so, now I will blog about Naaman. If you haven't read Thursday's post yet, though, you might want to read that before you read the rest of this.

Naaman was a general with the Syrian army who also happened to have leprosy. He was also married (with kids? the Bible doesn't say), and his wife had a Hebrew slave girl. I have to believe that Naaman was a benevolent master (for more than one reason). The girl (what was her name? the Bible doesn't tell us that either, even though she is very important to the story)told him that, in Israel, the man of God could heal the leprosy. Naaman, being an important man in the Syrian military, gained audience with the king, and asked permission to go to Israel to try to be healed. The king, who would have liked to have had this general healed, gave permission, and Naaman went to Israel. Naaman first went directly to the king of Israel. The king believed that this was a trick, and bemoaned the 'fact' that the Syrians were trying to pick a fight. Elisha the prophet sent a messenger to the palace, and told the king to send Naaman to see Elisha. The king, afraid that he was going to have a war on his hands if Naaman was not healed, sent Naaman to Elisha. Elisha then had his servant, Gehazi, tell Naaman to dip himself seven times in the river Jordan. Naaman was, at first, upset. I can imagine the thoughts running through his head: "What? we don't have any good rivers in Syria? There's something special about the Jordan river, I had to come all the way to Israel to take a bath? Are you suggesting that I am a leper simply because I don't wash enough?" But one of his servants said, "My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith unto thee, 'Wash, and be clean?'" So Naaman relented, and went and dipped himself in the river Jordan, according to the words of the prophet. Now, he went under once, and came up still a leper. He went under a second time, and came up still a leper. After he obeyed completely, and dipped himself the seventh time, then he came up clean. So then Naaman went back to the house of Elisha, and tried to give him presents for the healing. Elisha told Naaman that God had healed him, and that he should be grateful to God, and wouldn't accept any gifts. Gehazi, meanwhile, is thinking, "What? Are you crazy? He's got all this stuff that he brought specifically for this healing, and you won't take any of it?" So Gehazi snuck off, and ran and met Naaman's chariot before he had gotten very far, and told Naaman that Elisha had some unexpected guests, and could he just get a little something for them? Naaman was only too happy to give Gehazi whatever he wanted (which, to be honest, was still only a fraction of what Naaman had expected to pay for his healing), and wished Gehazi and Elisha well, and went on his way. When Gehazi returned to Elisha (after hiding the stuff), Elisha asked him where he went. Gehazi didn't think Elisha had even noticed him being gone, and replied, "Thy servant went no whither" (I didn't go anywhere). And Elisha told Gehazi exactly where he had gone, and what he had done, and then told him that Naaman's leprosy was now Gehazi's. Gehazi looked, and he was leprous.

Now, I mentioned that Naaman was a benevolent master. The Hebrew girl might have told her master about the greatness of God even if she didn't like him, but the one servant called Naaman, "My father." I have heard some people say that that servant was Naaman's son, but I don't think so. I know that sometimes slave owners have taken advantage of their female slaves and wind up with little ones, but they generally either brought those children up as slaves, and never acknowledged that those slaves were their own children, or they brought them up as their own children, and not as slaves. It seems to me that this servant was basically using shorthand: He was saying, "Master, you know that I love you and respect you as my own father..."

I think that it is very telling that Naaman went to the king of Israel and the king didn't have a clue what to do. A lot of times we get into situations, and we may pray about the situation, we may believe that God has the answer, but we try to work it out on our own anyway.

When the man of God told Naaman what he needed to do, at first Naaman didn't like it; but, when he realized that what he had been asked to do was simple (maybe a little weird, but easy to do), he went and did it. Once his obedience was complete, then he was healed, but it wasn't a question of, well, I'll dip myself three times, and then be about half healed, and that will be good enough. Okay, I admit it, that's kind of stupid: Why would anyone settle for being half healed of leprosy? But so many times God gives us something to do, and we either do it half way, or we do it half-heartedly, and then we wonder why we don't get the reward. If you were washing cars for a living, and only washed half of each car that came through, would you expect a whole paycheck? Keep it up, and you won't get a paycheck at all...

Naaman can be forgiven for thinking that the gift of God can be bought with money. God owns everything, he doesn't need money-but churches have expenses, and God has given parishioners to churches, and he's given jobs to those parishioners, and he blesses those that pay their tithes...

Gehazi, on the other hand, tried to turn a profit just because he was present when a miracle took place. To be honest, out of all the people in the story, Gehazi is the one that I can identify with the most. I probably would have fallen for that. Naaman's got all this stuff that he wants to give away, and you won't take it because you didn't do anything... Can't I at least have some of it? Yeah, I know I don't deserve any of it; I didn't do anything either, but he wants to give it away... But, you know, God has so much for me that I already don't deserve.