[This chapter is based on 2 Kings 5.]
"Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with
his master, and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto
Syria: he was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper."
Ben-hadad, king of Syria, had defeated the armies of Israel in the battle
which resulted in the death of Ahab. Since that time the Syrians had maintained
against Israel a constant border warfare, and in one of their raids they had
carried away a little maid who, in the land of her captivity, "waited on
Naaman's wife." A slave, far from her home, this little maid was nevertheless
one of God's witnesses, unconsciously fulfilling the purpose for which God had
chosen Israel as His people. As she ministered in that heathen home, her
sympathies were aroused in behalf of her master; and, remembering the wonderful
miracles of
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healing wrought through Elisha, she said to her mistress,
"Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would
recover him of his leprosy." She knew that the power of Heaven was with Elisha,
and she believed that by this power Naaman could be healed.
The conduct of the captive maid, the way that she bore herself in that
heathen home, is a strong witness to the power of early home training. There is
no higher trust than that committed to fathers and mothers in the care and
training of their children. Parents have to do with the very foundations of
habit and character. By their example and teaching the future of their children
is largely decided.
Happy are the parents whose lives are a true reflection of the divine, so
that the promises and commands of God awaken in the child gratitude and
reverence; the parents whose tenderness and justice and long-suffering interpret
to the child the love and justice and long-suffering of God, and who by teaching
the child to love and trust and obey them, are teaching him to love and trust
and obey his Father in heaven. Parents who impart to the child such a gift have
endowed him with a treasure more precious than the wealth of all the ages, a
treasure as enduring as eternity.
We know not in what line our children may be called to serve. They may spend
their lives within the circle of the home; they may engage in life's common
vocations, or go as teachers of the gospel to heathen lands; but all are alike
called to be missionaries for God, ministers of mercy to the world. They are to
obtain an education that will help them to stand by the side of Christ in
unselfish service.
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The parents of that Hebrew maid, as they taught her of God, did not know the
destiny that would be hers. But they were faithful to their trust; and in the
home of the captain of the Syrian host, their child bore witness to the God whom
she had learned to honor.
Naaman heard of the words that the maid had spoken to her mistress; and,
obtaining permission from the king, he went forth to seek healing, taking with
him "ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of
raiment." He also carried a letter from the king of Syria to the king of Israel,
in which was written the message, "Behold, I have . . . sent Naaman my servant
to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy." When the king of Israel
read the letter, "he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make
alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy?
wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me."
Tidings of the matter reached Elisha, and he sent word to the king, saying,
"Wherefore has thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know
that there is a prophet in Israel."
"So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door
of the house of Elisha." Through a messenger the prophet bade him, "Go and wash
in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be
clean."
Naaman had expected to see some wonderful manifestation of power from heaven.
"I thought," he said, "he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the
name of
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the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and
recover the leper." When told to wash in the Jordan, his pride was touched, and
in mortification and disappointment he exclaimed, "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."
The proud spirit of Naaman rebelled against following the course outlined by
Elisha. The rivers mentioned by the Syrian captain were beautified by
surrounding groves, and many flocked to the banks of these pleasant streams to
worship their idol gods. It would have cost Naaman no great humiliation of soul
to descend into one of those streams. But it was only through following the
specific directions of the prophet that he could find healing. Willing obedience
alone would bring the desired result.
Naaman's servants entreated him to carry out Elisha's directions: "If the
prophet had bid thee do some great thing," they urged, "wouldest thou not have
done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?" The
faith of Naaman was being tested, while pride struggled for the mastery. But
faith conquered, and the haughty Syrian yielded his pride of heart and bowed in
submission to the revealed will of Jehovah. Seven times he dipped himself in
Jordan, "according to the saying of the man of God." And his faith was honored;
"his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean."
Gratefully "he returned to the man of God, he and all his company," with the
acknowledgment, "Behold, now
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I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel."
In accordance with the custom of the times, Naaman now asked Elisha to accept
a costly present. But the prophet refused. It was not for him to take payment
for a blessing that God had in mercy bestowed. "As the Lord liveth," he said, "I
will receive none." The Syrian "urged him to take it; but he refused.
"And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant
two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt
offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord. In this thing the
Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to
worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of
Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy
servant in this thing.
"And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way."
Gehazi, Elisha's servant, had had opportunity during the years to develop the
spirit of self-denial characterizing his master's lifework. It had been his
privilege to become a noble standard-bearer in the army of the Lord. The best
gifts of Heaven had long been within his reach; yet, turning from these, he had
coveted instead the base alloy of worldly wealth. And now the hidden longings of
his avaricious spirit led him to yield to an overmastering temptation. "Behold,"
he reasoned within himself, "my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not
receiving at his hands that which he brought: but . . . I will run after him,
and
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take somewhat of him." And thus it came about that in secrecy
"Gehazi followed after Naaman."
When Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to
meet him, and said, Is all well? And he said, All is well." Then Gehazi uttered
a deliberate lie. "My master," he said, "hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now
there be come to me from Mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the
prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of
garments." To the request Naaman gladly acceded, pressing upon Gehazi two
talents of silver instead of one, "with two changes of garments," and
commissioning servants to bear the treasure back.
As Gehazi neared Elisha's home, he dismissed the servants and placed the
silver and the garments in hiding. This accomplished, "he went in, and stood
before his master;" and, to shield himself from censure, he uttered a second
lie. In response to the inquiry of the prophet, "Whence comest thou?" Gehazi
answered, "Thy servant went no whither."
Then came the stern denunciation, showing that Elisha knew all. "Went not
mine heart with thee," he asked, "when the man turned again from his chariot to
meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive
yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants?
The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed
forever." Swift was the retribution that overtook the guilty man. He went out
from Elisha's presence "a leper as white as snow."
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Solemn are the lessons taught by this experience of one to whom had been
given high and holy privileges. The course of Gehazi was such as to place a
stumbling block in the pathway of Naaman, upon whose mind had broken a wonderful
light, and who was favorably disposed toward the service of the living God. For
the deception practiced by Gehazi there could be pleaded no excuse. To the day
of his death he remained a leper, cursed of God and shunned by his fellow men.
"A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not
escape." Proverbs 19:5. Men may think to hide their evil deeds from human eyes,
but they cannot deceive God. "All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of
Him with whom we have to do." Heb. 4:13. Gehazi thought to deceive Elisha, but
God revealed to His prophet the words that Gehazi had spoken to Naaman, and
every detail of the scene between the two men.
Truth is of God; deception in all its myriad forms is of Satan, and whoever
in any way departs from the straight line of truth is betraying himself into the
power of the wicked one. Those who have learned of Christ will "have no
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness." Ephesians 5:11. In speech, as
in life, they will be simple, straightforward, and true, for they are preparing
for the fellowship of those holy ones in whose mouth is found no guile. See
Revelation 14:5.
Centuries after Naaman returned to his Syrian home, healed in body and
converted in spirit, his wonderful faith was referred to and commended by the
Saviour as an object
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lesson for all who claim to serve God. "Many lepers were in
Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet," the Saviour declared; "and none of
them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian." Luke 4:27. God passed over the
many lepers in Israel because their unbelief closed the door of good to them. A
heathen nobleman who had been true to his convictions of right, and who felt his
need of help, was in the sight of God more worthy of His blessing than were the
afflicted in Israel, who had slighted and despised their God-given privileges.
God works for those who appreciate His favors and respond to the light given
them from heaven.
Today in every land there are those who are honest in heart, and upon these
the light of heaven is shining. If they continue faithful in following that
which they understand to be duty, they will be given increased light, until,
like Naaman of old, they will be constrained to acknowledge that "there is no
God in all the earth," save the living God, the Creator.
To every sincere soul "that walketh in darkness, and hath no light," is given
the invitation, "Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God."
"For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the
ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath prepared for
him that waiteth for Him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh
righteousness, those that remember Thee in Thy ways." Isaiah 50:10; 64:4, 5.
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Taken from: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/pk/pk20.html
