Year 1, Week 51, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 1, Week 51, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of 2 Kings 5.

Today’s reading continues with an emphasis upon the prophet Elisha. Israel was to be a light to the nations: “you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5b-6a). But as they failed to honor and obey the LORD, they also failed in their mission to represent the LORD before the nations. 2 Kings 5 demonstrates that Israel’s failure did not mean that the LORD would be unable to bear witness to the nations. As Israel failed, the LORD had other means to show the nations that He is the one true God: “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel” (2 Kings 5:15b). These words are the testimony from the lips of a man named Naaman: “Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper” (2 Kings 5:1). While Naaman was unable to be healed of his leprosy, a little Hebrew girl that Naaman had taken captive conveyed: “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy” (2 Kings 5:3).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was first of all the significant witness of an insignificant girl: "Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife” (2 Kings 5:3). Naaman was presented as “a great man.” In contrast, this no-named captured Hebrew was a “little girl.” This entire episode, which reveals the greatness of God, is initiated by a hostage who is burdened over the health of her captor. It would not seem a stretch at all to suggest that this little girl had been horrifically traumatized. But what she is shown to be is someone with great confidence in the LORD and the prophets of the LORD. In other words, this little girl was a godly little girl, who it seems was more shaped by the LORD than her trauma. This little girl displayed a great strength in her witness about the LORD.

While the little girl is confident that the LORD would heal Naaman, the King of Israel is pathetic. Naaman, a military man who understands a chain of command, assumed that any great prophet would be a part of the king’s court. So Naaman first went to the King of Israel, who did not have a clue what to do: “And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me” (2 Kings 5:7). While the little girl was optimistic, the king was full of despair. The king doesn’t have any idea how to help Naaman, and thus, he is greatly fearful. While the little girl was godly, the king did not know either God or His power. The king had no answer.

Elisha steps in to help. Elijah is the second significant witness: “But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel” (2 Kings 5:8). Elisha is not intimidated by Naaman. In fact, it seems his strategy was to humble Naaman. Via a messenger, Elisha tells Naaman: “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean” (2 Kings 5:10). Naaman is unimpressed with the instructions and feels disrespected by the prophet: “But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel…So he turned and went away in a rage” (2 Kings 5:11-12). This man, in all of his self-perceived greatness is disappointed and mad at the way he was treated. He did not like the terms that God put before him.

But at the pleading of his servants, Naaman obeyed the Words of Elisha and was healed. And in response to his healing Naaman declared: “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel” (2 Kings 5:15). Trust in and obedience to the LORD were the means by which Naaman was healed. Apparently, many Israelites lacked that kind of trust and obedience and therefore they remained lepers: "And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian” (Luke 4:27). And while the king and people of Israel were given over to idolatry, Naaman’s conscience is immediately pricked by the rampant idolatry that surrounds him: "In this matter may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon your servant in this matter” (2 Kings 5:18). The salvation that many in Israel lacked had come to a Syrian commander: “For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe