In His Place

       Do you ever put yourself in the place of one of the Bible characters in order to try and understand the story?  I actually do it often and I find, especially in historical context, it brings up some interesting points.  In the days of Elisha, there was a Syrian man of great importance to his country and his king.  His name was Naaman (meaning beautiful; agreeable) and he was the head of the army, known to be great, honourable and a man of valour (2Kn. 5:1).  But Naaman was no longer beautiful for he had leprosy.

       Naaman must have taken pride in the fact his sickness did not prevent him from doing his job, and doing it well.  In fact, he won several battles and took spoils from the other lands.  On one of these excursions, he brought home a Jewish servant girl for his wife, and the servant girl mentioned to the wife about a prophet who could remove the sickness (v.2,3).  Naaman loaded up some bribe money and clothing (v.5) and drove off to find the prophet.

       After a brief detour to the king of Israel, Naaman rode his chariot (v.9) to the door of the prophet.  I’m sure as he arrived, he expected a large welcome, at the very least an honourable welcome from the prophet himself, after all, he was a well respected, noble man.  Instead, a lowly servant answered the door and told him to go wash in the Jordan seven times and he would be clean.  ‘Huh?  What?’

But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.  (v.11)

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.  (v.12)

       Why was Naaman so enraged?  Because he was an important somebody and Elisha treated him as insignificant.  How dare he!!!  Naaman wanted the man of God to at least show up in person, then call on God in a grand display of spirituality, and show God’s power through his own actions.  Then considering the filthy waters of the Jordan, Naaman would have gotten angrier as the waters in his own country were far superior to the Jordan.  Naaman almost lost out on God’s blessing due to his own arrogance and pride.

And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and 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 to thee, Wash, and be clean?  (v.13)

Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.  (v.14)

       Obviously a wise and sympathetic man, Naaman’s servant reminded his master that if it was a great task instead of a humble one, he would have done it probably without question, and so Naaman followed the instructions properly and was completely healed.  Finally, Naaman humbled himself to the hand of God and saw the truth.

And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.  (v.15)

But he said, As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.  (v. 16)

       It is hard to say if Naaman’s offer of blessing was in honest gratitude or wanting to pay for services rendered, but either way, Elisha could not be convinced to take any of it- after all, it was God who did the healing.  A sovereign God works miracles out of compassion and mercy, not bribes.

       Like Naaman, we often expect God to act in certain ways in our lives, miracles to happen when and how we want them to, difficulties to disappear, money to appear, and diseases to be healed on our schedule.  (I’ve been in Naaman’s place many times.  I can’t count how often I was angry at God for not doing what I wanted…)  The reality is that a sovereign God, one who sees and knows all, should be trusted to do what’s best for all of us; and for that we must humble our own pride and arrogance and surrender, praying that God’s will- will be done.

One slice of humble pie available for eating!

     (Lord, help me to trust You more...)