The Story Of Naaman - 2 Kings 5

This week, part of our Bible Sunday School lesson was about Naaman.  For those that do not know, he was a leader of the army of Aram.  However, he had leprosy.  Being that he had this can you imagine how he was treated, even being a man of high stature?  Lepers were required to live outside the city walls, and he would have been treated as if he had AIDS (by today's standards for example).  A servant girl who had been captured and served Naaman's wife told him of the prophet who was in Samaria and that he could cure this disease.  The king of Aram sent Naaman with 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and 10 changes of clothes.  When he arrived in Samaria, the king of Israel was enraged, he really took it as a sign of insult because the king could not heal this man (the king of Israel knew his place, but did not stop and think of a solution, he was blinded by rage).

Then the prophet Elisha heard of this Naaman coming and told the king of Israel to send him to his house.

Coming to Elisha, after being told to, Naaman gets angry because first, Elisha did not perform a voodoo hoodo all out ritual for him, but simply sent a messenger and told him to wash in the Jordan 7 times.  This infuriated Naaman even more, because the messenger delivered the resolution, and that in that time the Jordan was a very dirty river!  Naaman is even quoted as saying could he not have bathed in 2 other rivers in his home land, for surely they were cleaner!

Because it was not a hard thing to do, Naaman just could not believe that this simple washing in a dirty river would solve his Leprosy.  Eventually he did wash in the Jordan and became clean.  The Bible says his skin was that of a new born baby.

This story tells us that sometimes we need to take a step back and realize that solutions are that simple.  Are you open to humility in order to solve your problems?  Are you humble enough to simply say, "OK", or are you like Naaman and find reasons not to do something?

Another GOOD portion of this story that sticks with me is that the key to all of this is that first a servant tells of Elisha, then the servants in the end tell Naaman that if the solution was hard he would have done it, why not do something simple?  It brings to mind that sometimes we should listen to those around us, they may be able to help us, don't be single-minded, and a know-it-all.  Also it shows that when we see someone acting
like Naaman, that we should give advice, BUT MAKE SURE IT'S GOOD ADVICE!