Share the Good News to Dying People

2nd Kings 5

Have you ever been treated badly by someone at your school? Maybe it was someone that is a bully and they pick on you once in a while? Maybe you just looked at the wrong person the wrong way? Once they treat you badly and pick on you, most likely you are not wanting to go out of your way for them let alone walk by them.

In this chapter we are going to read about a Syrian named Naaman who had leprosy and through the faith of a unknown, Israeli, slave girl who mentioned who God is and that a righteous man named Elisha might be able to help.

Naaman- Doesn’t Everyone Know Him

We start out by reading about a man who was a big deal to the Syrians. He was a great man with high favor. Even though he was a known man, he still had a big problem, he had leprosy. Now some scholars try to figure out if was what we call leprosy now or some other condition, either way he was sick with something that made his skin was as snow. He was sick and he was going to die unless he was miraculously healed. He was such a great man but still had a problem that his fame and popularity could fix.

One day a slave girl who was taken from her home in Israel and somehow managed to be serving under Naaman’s house had enough guts to mention Elisha. Nothing is known about this girl, not a name, not even what happens to her after this, all we know is that she pretty much saved Naaman’s life. This girl had enough faith that God would show himself to this man who was not a Jew. She had enough faith that God would work out even though she could have been bitter that she was taken from her home and now was a slave. She could have kept her mouth shut and enjoyed the luxury of knowing a saving God but instead she shared good news with a dying man.

Naaman Listens

Naaman gets permission and goes into enemy territory with the hope of healing. He brings with him a hefty gift for the man named Elisha. Naaman and his entourage visit Elisha at his house but Elisha does not greet them; he sends a servant to give the instructions. They were, wash in the Jordan seven times. You think Naaman would have been, nice, let’s do this but instead he gets cranky and upset. He throws a temper tantrum. I thought this prophet would have come out to me and greeted me, am I not someone special. He was beginning to act a little to big for his britches. 

It took his servants telling him, “Dude, this guy did not say you will be healed, he said, ‘Wash and be healed.’ You should take his instruction.” Naaman listened. Sometimes a little humility is what we all need. We become to proud to listen to a wise person, a parent, a teacher, an authority figure, because we think we know it all. May this serve as a warning to us all.

Since Naaman listened, he did just as Elisha said. His skin became restored to that of a little child. He was clean. How cool, his skin did not only get cleansed but also became like a child, smooth. He was probably a rugged man, lived under the sun, was a man of war and so his skin was probably all leather like and nasty. God not only cleansed him but gave him better skin than what he had before. Awesome!

Gehazi should have learned from the foreigner

In verse 15 we see a change in the story. Naaman returns grateful as ever and wants to give Elisha the hefty reward that he brought from Syria. Elisha did not want to accept it because he did it just because he was obedient to God. Elisha’s servant Gehazi saw it differently. He thought they should have received something so he followed after Naaman and asked for some of the gift and left. But there was no fooling old Elisha, he knew what Gehazi was up to and for his personal benefit now Gehazi received the leprosy that once was upon Naaman. 

Who is Your Enemy?

It is interesting that the story begins with an unknown girl who opened up her mouth to save her captor. Talk about loving your enemies. Jesus spoke up about this in Matthew 5:43-48. He talks about loving your enemies. We all have them, we all have people we do not like. As Jesus challenged the multitude to love their enemies, to love those that persecute them, to love those who do not love them, that is hard. It is hard to go out of your way for someone you cannot stand. It is hard to be able to want to share something great with someone who does not deserve it. The servant girl did not need to share good news with a dying man and neither did someone need to share good news to us, dying people. Someone shared the GOOD NEWS of Jesus Christ with you so you we be healed of the sin inside. You were dying but now you have life. May we learn to be able to share this good news with our enemies. May we learn to be a light to a dark world. May we desire to speak up to dying people in a dying world. AMEN!