In the days of Elijah and Elisha life was rather cheap. Countries which were not very productive preyed on their neighbors. They would raid a neighboring country and steal people to make them their slaves. One little girl who had been kidnapped this way played a significant part in a deliverance God wished to bring.
II Kings 5: Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and highly respected, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians had gone out in bands, and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. And she said to her mistress, “I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy.”
In her affliction she still showed love. She loved the master who owned her body and soul though she had been a free Israelite girl who should have been walking in her inheritance.
It is good that no matter what happens you do not succumb to the evil root of bitterness. It can move like spiritual cancer through you and corrupt every aspect of your life. It can destroy every relationship you have. There is nothing worse that can befall you in any circumstance than the bitterness of your own heart over it.
And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, “Thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel.” Then the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, “And now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” And it came about when the king of Israel read the letter, that he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? But consider now, and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me.”
And it happened when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent word to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Now let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots, and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was furious 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 wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper.’ Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
Humility cannot be divorced from faith. You cannot believe God for something without going through a humbling process.
This is the reason that the more pride and arrogance prevail in a person, the less he gets from God. God says, “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and seek My face.…” (II Chronicles 7:14). Everything from God starts with a humble heart. God is always concerned about the state of your heart.
Repentance is a state of heart, as you walk continually in repentance. A true believer who walks in faith is an instant repenter. The minute he sees something wrong in his life, he is on his face before the Lord. Sometimes his spirit anticipates when something is wrong, for he weeps before he realizes what he has done wrong. Repentance comes very readily and easily to his heart, because this is the Spirit’s way of producing a real walk in faith.
People always tend to want something a little spectacular, and that was the way it was with Naaman. Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, “My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
People really want their faith mingled with pride. This was the case with Naaman. If he was going to wash in a river, he would pick one in Damascus that was a little cleaner than the Jordan. Who would want to bathe in a dirty river? Pride entered with his faith.
God always picks the rivers that look muddy to human sight through which to bring your cleansing. If you look for a church where everyone is well spoken of and appreciated by the religious community around them, remember Jesus’ words: “Beware when all men speak well of you” (Luke 6:26). If you want to find a pure word, seek for it where the river looks muddy and not pleasant to the sight of men. There you will be cured of your leprosy.
Pride always wants something that is well received by other people. Often people are convicted of their sins, but they will not take a stand for Christ because a reproach rests upon the church that has ministered to them.
But when a well-respected evangelist comes to town, they will go forward to be saved. From that time on they acknowledge themselves as “saved,” but they are bypassing the cross experience. They do not want anything that will be expensive to their good name. Pride must go in order for a person to walk with real faith.
The story of Naaman points out that pride and faith cannot coexist. Pride must go if a person is to have a successful walk with God. Elisha saw Naaman coming and said to his servant, “Go tell Naaman to wash in the Jordan seven times.” Elisha did not even bother to come out to greet Naaman. It would seem that Elisha would have been hospitable to a man of such influence, and thereby help break down the hostility between Israel and Syria. But Elisha simply sent word to him to dip in the muddy river Jordan seven times to be cleansed.
Naaman was furious. Pride and temper go together. When parents become angry with their children, often they are not angry because of the offense. They are angry because their children are an extension of themselves and they are humiliated by their children’s acts. Many times a man’s temper is directly related to an offense against his pride.
Naaman was a great general, a great strategist. He would have done any great deed Elisha asked; but when Elisha asked a small thing, Naaman’s pride was offended. People still like to mingle faith with some work of the flesh they can point to: “Look what we did.”
So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. When he returned to the man of God with all his company, and came and stood before him, he said, “Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel; so please take a present from your servant now.”
Naaman’s thinking was changed. It is amazing what the Lord can do. Not only was Naaman cured of leprosy, but his pride was cured too.
But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will take nothing.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused. We need ministry that is without a price, ministry that is not looking for something in return.
If someone comes to me and asks for prayer, and then hands me five dollars, I will refuse it, even if he says it is for the church. I do not want the association of a price to be with the ministry. This has been impressed on my heart. I am not adverse to people supporting the ministry, but no amount of money could pay for the blessing of the Lord.
There must not be any association of price with a ministry. If this truth is kept in our hearts, it will prevent us from becoming hirelings. Jesus said the hireling leaves the sheep in time of danger because he does not love them (John 10:13). We are not hirelings. We are shepherds of the flock. We do not run, nor do we put a price on our ministry.
Elisha said he would take nothing. And Naaman said, “If not, please let your servant at least be given two mules’ load of earth; for your servant will no more offer burnt offering nor will he sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord. In this matter may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand 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.” And he said to him, “Go in peace.” So he departed from him some distance.
But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, thought, “Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian, by not receiving from his hands what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him.” So Gehazi pursued Naaman. When Naaman saw one running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him and said, “Is all well?” And he said, “All is well. My master has sent me, saying, ‘Behold, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothes.’ ” And Naaman said, “Be pleased to take two talents.” And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags with two changes of clothes, and gave them to two of his servants; and they carried them before him. When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand and deposited them in the house, and he sent the men away, and they departed.
Gehazi valued the money. The disciples did likewise when the alabaster box was broken. Judas said it could have been sold for much money and the money given to the poor. The Gospel of John says it was not that he cared for the poor, but he carried the bag (John 12:5, 6).
There are times when a pastor cannot afford to take money for it will corrupt the spirit of the church. There are also times when he must lay upon the people total sacrifice, because they cannot walk with God without discipleship.
Gehazi used the plight of the sons of the prophets as an excuse, but he was really thinking only of Gehazi.
But he went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” And he said, “Your servant went nowhere.” Then he said to him, “Did not my heart go with you, when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money and to receive clothes and oliveyards and vineyards and sheep and oxen and male and female servants? Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cleave to you and to your descendants forever.” So he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.
Elisha’s spirit was so free that he was able to see something in a place other than where he was. Some would call this extrasensory perception, but it goes beyond that.
A person’s spirit can so focus on a place that he can actually see what is happening there. Elisha said, “Did not my heart go with you when the man turned from his chariot to meet you?” The word “heart” could be used interchangeably with “spirit” in this Scripture.
Gehazi thought no one saw him, but Elisha saw what happened, and the leprosy of Naaman was put upon Gehazi and his descendants.
As the days come when God brings to His people divine health, we will have a much deeper understanding of sickness and of health. Health is very dependent on a person’s mental state. Health foods do some good, but I wonder how much of it is psychological. The mind is very powerful. I think that people could subsist on foods totally lacking in nutrition; and if they trusted the Lord and blessed the food, they would not get sick; they would thrive. I am emphasizing how strong the power of the mind is. How much disease is true sickness, and how much is in the area we call psychosomatic? Often the cause of sickness is not so much physical as it is emotional and mental.
Much of sickness is a result of a spirit of infirmity, a spirit that invades the body to create sickness. The Scriptures speak of a spirit of infirmity (Luke 13:11). Sometimes Jesus laid His hands on people and healed them. Sometimes He cast demons out of them. Sometimes He would rebuke the sickness and talk to it as if it were something living (Luke 4:39).
There are many aspects of illness and sickness we do not understand as yet. After Naaman was healed of leprosy, the leprosy was not gone forever. It was transferred that same day to Gehazi. That could have happened if the leprosy was infectious, demonic, living, or only psychosomatic. Many things can be transferred. The prophet Elijah knew how the process worked. Gehazi carried the infirmity until the day he died.
Much of health and well-being is also psychosomatic. There are people who will never feel well. They always feel sick because they do not want to feel well. There are other people who will trust God, no matter what they go through. They have such a state of health in their minds that they refuse to accept any illness. In refusing it, they get well at a much more rapid pace.
If the Holy Spirit of God rests upon us, there is a spirit of strength, the opposite of a spirit of infirmity. Strength is a creative flow from God so that the body can constantly be in a superior state of health. Divine health can be transferred and imparted. As we move into the days of the Kingdom, God will open up many new realms of truth to His people. May we have the faith to walk in them.