He had come expecting something impressive. He got a river and an instruction.
📖Based on 2 Kings 5:10
He was a great man.
Commander of the army of Syria. In high favor with the king. Mighty man of valor.
He had leprosy.
A slave girl from Israel had told his wife that the prophet in Samaria could heal him.
Naaman came with horses and chariots and ten talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold.
He stood at the door of Elisha's house.
Elisha sent a messenger out.
He didn't come out himself.
The messenger said: Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.
Naaman was furious.
He said: I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of his God and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.
Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?
He turned and went away in a rage.
His servants came near and spoke to him carefully.
They said: If the prophet had commanded you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, Wash and be clean?
He went down.
He dipped himself in the Jordan seven times.
On the seventh time, his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child.
He was clean.
He went back to Elisha.
He stood before him and said: Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.
He had come expecting ceremony.
He received a river and an instruction.
And both were the same thing.
Scripture — 2 Kings 5:10
"And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean."
Reflection
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Naaman almost missed his healing because the method was too simple. Pride nearly cost him everything.
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The servant's wisdom was plain: if you would have done something hard, why won't you do something easy?