Naaman was the commander of the army of the king of Syria. He “was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper.” The Lord blessed Naaman’s wife with a servant girl from Israel. She informed her mistress that a prophet in Samaria could heal her husband. This girl had faith in God and faith in God’s servant. Her expressed confidence in God, yielded a deal proposal from the King of Syria to the King of Israel: $250,000 worth of silver, $2,978,640 worth of gold (in today’s US currency), along with ten expensive clothing outfits, about 5.5 million dollars in exchange for Naaman’s healing! [1]
This deal almost failed due to Israel’s king’s lack of faith in God. He tore his clothes in anguish. He assumed that the King of Syria was saying to either heal Naaman or prepare for war. A miracle was in the making but Israel’s king lacked discernment because he did not know the Lord. Thankfully, God intervened. He let Elisha know what was happening. Elisha said to Israel’s King, “Please let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.” [2]
The king of Israel complied. Naaman arrived.
Elisha gave to Naaman the instruction that he himself had received from the Lord. At first, Naaman was not willing to comply with the Lord’s instructions. The Lord wanted Naaman to humble himself. To wash seven times in the Jordan River! Naaman needed to hear God’s Word, trust God’s Word and obey God’s Word if he wanted the Lord to heal him of an incurable disease. Naaman had imagined God working in a different way. He wanted God to do the work for him without him having to believe God’s Word. Thankfully, Naaman servants urged him, saying, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’? So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” [3]
Naaman declared, “Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.” [4]
God’s servant Elisha discipled “sons of the prophets” in a similar fashion to the way Jesus discipled His twelve apostles. There were “sons of prophets” in Bethel and Jericho. In the Old Testament, “sons of prophets” refer to a group of disciples or a school of prophets, not necessarily physical sons.
They were with Elisha: “And the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, ‘See now, the place where we dwell with you is too small for us. Please, let us go to the Jordan, and let every man take a beam from there, and let us make there a place where we may dwell.’ So, he answered, ‘Go.’” But they wanted Elisha to go with them just as the disciples of Jesus wanted Jesus to remain with them. So, he consented to do so. While constructing the larger school, one of the laborers lost an axe’s head in a body water. He informed Elisha. Elisha relied on God to resurface the axe from the water, and God did it. Elisha mentored his disciples to believe God for miracles. [5]
Oh that we would all believe God’s Word! Elisha, by the grace of God, was able to inform his king in advance of where and when an enemy army would attack his country. Twice! He didn’t need a futuristic satellite or radar system. God was his eyes. [6]
Later, God helped Elisha to capture an entire army of enemy soldiers. He relied on God to do it. God blinded the soldiers momentarily until Elisha led them to his king in defeat. Thankfully, God’s servant Elisha had faith that one man with God is a majority. By the way, God also used divinely imposed blindness in Genesis 19:11, Acts 9:8 and Acts 13:11 to redirect people. [7]
Sadly, after God did these miracles, Israel’s king was prepared to behead Elisha. His kingdom was under siege by an enemy army. Some women had ate a child to survive. The king blamed God’s faithful servant for his nation’s plight not his lack of faith in God. [8]
Oh that we all would believe God’s Word! His Word is more powerful than any two-edged sword. “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.” [9]
The Word of the Lord came to Elisha. Who is the Word of the Lord? Jesus is! Jesus spoke to Elisha, not in bodily form, but by His Spirit. Elisha told the king that by tomorrow the price of food would drop. There would be food in abundance. And it happened! God scared the enemy army off. They fled in such panic that they left their supplies behind. [10]
Let us pray for faith in God and in His Son Jesus Christ in these last of the last days!
“And He [Jesus] spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; saying, there was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: and there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ And the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unjust judge says. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth?’” [11]
[1] 2 Kings 5:1-6
[2] 2 Kings 5:7-8
[3] 2 Kings 5:9-14
[4] 2 Kings 5:15
[5] 2 Kings 2:3,5, 6:1-6
[6] 2 Kings 6:8-12
[7] 2 Kinga 6:14-23
[8] 2 Kinga 6:24-33
[9] Hebrews 4:12; 2 Corinthians 10:4
[10] 2 Kings 7:1-20
[11] Luke 18:1-8
No comments:
Post a Comment