Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Kings 5-7.

I want to look at the lessons we should learn from three of the accounts in today’s passage.  First, we have the story of Naaman, a commander in the army of Aram.  Naaman was an enemy of Israel and had wrought significant damage against it and its people.  Yet, when he came to Elisha for healing, Elisha healed him.  However, that is not the lesson I want to focus on.  Elisha told Naaman that in order to be healed he needed to wash in the Jordan River.  Naaman was angry about this, but his aides asked him if he would not have undertaken some “great quest” in order to be healed.  In the same way, we often look for the great deeds we can do in order to serve God, when what God is asking us to do is more mundane.  Are we willing to do the mundane tasks to which God calls us?

Second, we have the story of the king of Aram sending an army to capture Elisha because God revealed the king of Aram’s plans to him and Elisha passed that knowledge on to the king of Israel.  When the forces of Aram surrounded the city in which Elisha was living, Elisha’s servant panicked.  Elisha told his servant that there were more on their side than those mustered against them.  Some translations render what Elisha said as, “Greater are those who are for us than those who are against us.”  Elisha then asked God to open his servant’s eyes to those who supported them.  In the same way today, we often think there are more opposing us in our attempts to serve God than there are supporting us.  However, not only are there more supporting us than we realize, since one of those supporting us is God, they are greater than those opposing us.

Finally, we have the story about the famine in Samaria caused by Samaria being besieged by the armies of Aram.  When Elisha told the king of Israel that by the same time the next day, the prices for food would go from being completely unaffordable to practically free, one of the king’s officers said that even if God opened the floodgates of heaven, that was not possible.  Elisha told him that he would see it happen, but not get to eat any of the food.  When the residents of the city discovered the next day that the army of Aram had fled in the night, the officer in questioned was trampled by the crowds.  The officer’s sin was not in his failure to believe what Elisha said.  His sin was in thinking that God was unable to do it.  I struggle with having faith that God will do miraculous things in my life, but I pray that I never doubt that He can do them.  Let us never doubt that anything is possible for God, and pray that we have the faith to believe, and to act on that belief, that He will perform miracles around us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Kings 5-7.

There is a lot to be learned from the story of Naaman, but today I am only going to touch on what we can learn from Elisha’s refusal to accept payment and from his servant, Gehazi.  Elisha does not give Naaman a reason for his refusal to accept Naaman’s donations, but we get a hint later when Elisha tells Gehazi, “Is this the time to take money or to accept clothes…”  To me, this suggests that Elisha did not want Naaman, or others, to think that Naaman had bought healing, that Naaman was cured because he was rich and powerful.  God cured Naaman in order to show that He, YHWH, the God of Israel, was God, Creator of the Universe, and ruler over all.  However, Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, thought that Naaman, this foreigner, should be made to pay something for receiving God’s healing.  Or, to be more precise, Gehazi thought it was unfair that Naaman, who had so much, should be healed without Gehazi, who was so “poor” (poor being a relative term and we have no idea how well off Gehazi was, but certainly less well off than Naaman), getting some reward.  Let’s be clear, what Gehazi did here was embezzlement or fraud.  He had every intention of keeping what he got from Naaman for his own ends.  He had no intention of turning any of it over to Elisha.  Things would have come out differently if Gehazi had openly asked Naaman for the things for himself.

I am going to touch on the story of Elisha and the Aramite army only long enough to quote what Elisha told his servant:

“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

Well, perhaps a bit more than that, but only because it fits so well into my thoughts about the siege of Samaria.  During the siege things got really bad, food became outrageously expensive.  The king blamed Elisha, and through him, God, for these troubles, taking no responsibility for them himself.  This despite the fact that Samaria was besieged by the army of Aram, whose king the current king’s father had allowed to escape the consequences of attacking Israel previously.  So, the king was determined to kill Elisha and thus redirect the people’s anger.  However, Elisha was prepared and had barricaded himself with the elders of the city.  Elisha responded to the king’s accusations by telling him that by the following day, food would be unbelievably inexpensive.  There was no humanly conceivable way for things to turn around that fast.  Yet, they did.

So, when we look at where things are today. they are not nearly as bad as they were in Samaria under siege.  Nevertheless, they are bad.  In some ways they do appear as bad as things did for Elisha when the army of Aram surrounded the town in which he lived, looking to capture or kill him.  Those of us who serve God appear to be surrounded and outnumbered by those hostile to our faith.  Yet, I believe even today, what Elisha said to his servant is true…Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.  Just as Elisha was not counting a human army when he said that, I am not counting the living human followers of Christ, or, at least, not just the living human followers of Christ.  Also, just as in the Samaria under siege, it may appear that things can only get worse, but I have faith that God can bring about change such that if you predicted it, everyone would think you crazy.  In fact, despite the fact that I have felt like perhaps Christ’s Return, and God’s Judgement, were almost upon us, reading this today I feel as if God’s Spirit is telling me that God is preparing to show His power in a way which no one would believe if they did not witness it.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Kings 5-7.

Some of these stories contain lessons about our relationship with God which I feel led to write about today.  Each contains more lessons than what I am going to focus on, nevertheless I am going to limit myself to just a few points.  In the story of Naaman, Naaman was angry because not only did Elisha not personally come to talk to him about his illness, he told him to do something inconvenient, yet completely pedestrian.  Naaman’s servants pointed out that if Elisha had told him to complete some feat of valor in order to be healed, he would gladly have done so.  Which brings us to the lesson.  Sometimes God calls us to do things which are inconvenient and completely unnoteworthy.   We need to recognize that these things may be more important than any action we could do which might bring us glory.  There is a story about a boy who helped a neighbor boy he barely knew with his books one day in grade school, only to learn years later that the boy he helped was planning to commit suicide and chose not to because of his help.  If things had turned out slightly differently the boy who helped may have never learn the difference his actions made.  Sometimes, the inconvenient little things make a big difference.

In the story where the king of Aram sent soldiers to capture Elisha, Elisha’s servant was terrified when he got up in the morning and discovered their city surrounded by a small army.  Elisha told him not to fear because those with them were more than those against them.  Then Elisha prayed for his servant’s eyes to be opened and his servant saw a much larger host of fiery warriors defending Elisha.  In many ways this parallels God’s answer to Elijah when Elijah complained of being the only one left in Israel faithful to God.  On that occasion God told Elijah that He had reserved seven thousand who had remained faithful.  In the same way here, Elisha’s servant thought they were outnumbered by their enemies, but there were many on their own side who he did not see until Elisha had God open his eyes.  However, this contains another message as well.  In this case, the human army surrounding Elisha was not countered by a human army which had not revealed itself.  Instead, the forces of God surrounded Elisha and his servant, protecting them against those sent against them.  So, even if there are not many on our side of whom we are unaware (or if they are too far away to be of aid), still God has the ability to protect us against those who would do us harm.  Let us not fear to be faithful to God, even when we think we are outnumbered by those who wish us harm for doing so.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Kings 5-7.

We rarely pay attention to what Naaman says to Elisha after he was cleansed of leprosy.  Well, we pay attention to the first part, where Naaman says he will no longer make burnt offerings or sacrifices to any god but the Lord.  However, Naaman begs that the Lord forgive him for those occasions when he must accompany his king into the temple of his king’s god and there bow down to that god with his king.  Elisha’s response to this request was to tell Naaman to go in peace.  Elisha’s response seems to affirm that God would indeed forgive Naaman for doing so.  This suggests that we do not always need to make it known that we disagree when those around us worship other gods.  I believe that this short exchange is very significant, but I am not sure of its full meaning.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Kings 5-7.

All of the accounts about Elisha’s actions in today’s passage contain elements in common with urban legends and other stories which should be taken with a grain of salt.  Unlike the story in yesterday’s passage where Elisha accompanied the armies of Israel, Judah, and Edom as they went to attack Moab, these stories contain little information which would allow someone to connect them with events recorded elsewhere.  I am not saying that these stories do not relate actual events.  However, it is possible that along with details being lost over time that some details from other events were added here.

More importantly, these stories contain important lessons for us.  In the story of Naaman we learn that sometimes God calls us to do things which seem mundane and beneath us.  Sometimes God works in powerful ways through things which seem mundane, ordinary, and even sometimes beneath us.  In the story about the attempt by the king of Aram to capture Elisha we learn that even when the odds seem overwhelmingly stacked against us, if God is on our side our enemies are outnumbered and outmatched.  In the story about the siege of Samaria, we learn that even the impossible is possible for God…and if we lose faith in God we may see His power at work but not have the opportunity to enjoy it.  Finally, these stories tell us that even though the kings of the Northern Kingdom were mostly idolatrous and evil, many of the people continued to worship and serve God,  They tell us this by the fact that they were told and retold among the people.