I think that often kids think they don’t have to be concerned with
serving God until they get older. It’s like they get a “free pass” until they
reach the age of accountability. They think they don’t need to carry God’s
message to others because, well, they’re just kids and who’s going to listen to
them anyway. There’s an amazing story in the Bible that tells us that this just
isn’t so and I want you to listen to this story and imagine what you would do
if it were you.
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Imagine a gang of marauders come ripping
through your village; your neighborhood. They’re well organized, well equipped
and unstoppable. They’ve taken everyone by surprise and they outnumber you.
They‘ve broken into every home in sight and killed anyone who resisted. They’ve
wiped out family members, loved ones, even pets. What they didn’t find of value
or couldn’t carry they burned and utterly destroyed. Having completed their evil
mission they ride off before any emergency first responders or law enforcement
can get there.
Now just suppose one of the things they found of value was you, human
trafficking. Slavery. You’ve been roughed up and kidnapped and carried back to
their camp. Eventually, they carry you off to a foreign land taking their
spoils of war and their slaves with them.
That includes you.
How would you feel? Imagine the fear. Imagine the sorrow, the sense of
loss and hopelessness of seeing your neighborhood and maybe even your entire family
destroyed right before your eyes. Imagine the terror of not knowing what’s
going to happen next. And what are they going to do to you?
Now imagine you’re just a ten year old little girl. Does the fear and
the lump in your throat grow larger? Does your breathing get more difficult and
your heart beat even faster knowing how helpless you are against such an overwhelming
force? And now you’re in a foreign country and don’t know where to look for
help. What would you do and how would you feel about these men who had done
this to you?
Turn to 2 Kings Chapter 5.
King David’s kingdom is gone and Solomon’s kingdom has unraveled and
become divided and is fighting with each other. The prophet Elijah is gone and
the mantle passed to Elisha who had taken up residence in Samaria. (2Kings 2:13; 6:32) The northern
kingdom is being ruled from Samaria by Jehoram I the
son of Ahab. The southern kingdom of Judah is being ruled
by Jehoshaphat from Jerusalem and they’re
continuing to war with each other. If that weren’t enough the Syrians to the
northeast ruled by Ben-hadad are beginning to stir and rumors of war are
everywhere. Rather than mounting a direct attack by the full host of their
army, the Syrians have taken to sending out smaller marauding parties to loot
and pillage remote villages just to antagonize them and weaken their resolve;
and on such occasions they would bring away grain, cattle, and such of the
inhabitants as were proper to make slaves.
2Kings 5:1-16 NKJV
(1)
Now Naaman, commander
of the army of the king of Syria, 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.
Naaman was the
mighty General of the whole Syrian army, well respected, proud and arrogant. However,
he had the incurable disease of leprosy, the only disparaging trait to an
otherwise honorable and perfect life. In those days doctors were of little help
as leprosy was only curable by divine intervention.
(2)
And the Syrians had
gone out on raids, and had brought back captive
a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman’s wife.
We aren’t told
much about this little maid, this little girl. We don’t really know how old she
was or even what her name was. It could have been Kasi, or Giselle, or Sarah, or Jade, or Jillian, or Sabri, or Bailey, or Rhiannon, or Samantha or Erin or Sophie, or Destiny or Cloe. What is interesting though is
that she must have been extraordinary and thought of highly as she ended up
being the servant girl to Naaman’s wife. Being the General of the whole Syrian
army, he could have had his pick of all the girls taken captive to be the maidservant
to his wife and he chose her. Notice her attitude toward this man who held the band
of marauders who had murdered and burnt her village under his command.
(3) Then she said to her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy.”
Wow! This
helpless little girl had seen firsthand such devastation and mayhem as we hope
never to witness, was kidnapped and dragged off to be a slave in a foreign country
never to see her family again. What would your attitude have been? Would you
have been inclined to make a recommendation about how the man responsible for
your condition could be healed or would you relish in the thought that he was
tortured day and night by a disease that would irritate him and aggravate him
until it would likely be the very cause of his death?
It would have
been a normal reaction for Naaman and his wife to ignore what seemed to be the outlandish
boasting of a mere child especially one from despised Samaria. To claim that a
prophet of a foreign religion could do what all the physicians and priests of
his own nation could not, must have seemed laughable at first. But there was
something about this little girl that caused Naaman’s wife to believe her and
she passed it along to her husband and Naaman was convinced also. Surely Naaman
and his household believed the girl’s advice because it was consistent with
what they had observed in her life, her faith. She must have exemplified great
honesty, integrity and sincerity at other times during her captivity or else
Naaman's wife and Naaman himself wouldn't have believed her enough to travel
all the way to Israel.
(3) And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, “Thus and thus said the
girl who is from the land of Israel.”
(4) Then the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king
of Israel.” So he departed and took with him ten talents of
silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.
(5)
Then he brought
the letter to the king of Israel, which said, Now be advised, when this letter
comes to you, that I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him
of his leprosy.
So, Naaman rides
out with his entourage in search of this prophet residing in Samaria. Not knowing
where he is, he first goes to see the king of Israel. The king freaks
out thinking he’s trying to start a war with him but Elisha gets wind of it and
sends a message to the king to send him on down to his house.
(7) And it happened, when the king of Israel read the letter, that he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and make alive, that
this man sends a man to me to heal him of his leprosy? Therefore please
consider, and see how he seeks a quarrel with me.”
(8) So it was, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, “Why
have you torn your clothes? Please let him come to me, and he shall know that
there is a prophet in Israel.”
When Naaman gets
there he is expecting Elisha to come out and call down the healing power of God
and cleanse his leprosy instantly. What happens next sends him into a fit of rage.
(9)
Then Naaman went with
his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house.
(10) 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.”
(11) But Naaman became furious, and went away and
said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘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 heal the leprosy.’
(12) Are not the Abanah and
the 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.
In other words, “you
want me to do what?! Do you know who you’re talking to? You expect me to go
wash in the filthy muddy water in your Jordan river? The rivers in
my home country are much cleaner and fresher than that mudhole! And Elisha
didn’t even come out himself. He sent a messenger."
Here’s the mighty
Naaman, General of the whole Syrian army. He travels all the way to Samaria looking for this
so-called prophet that some little girl happened to mention to his wife. He’s
got all this gold and silver with him to pay for this miracle and he was told
to go wash in a muddy river instead. Not only was he going to have to wash in
the muddy Jordan but he would
also have to shave off all his hair, even his eyebrows! You know his men had to
be snickering when they heard this. If Naaman was to be healed, he was going to
have to humble himself before God. But would he do it?
What he didn’t
know is that this was the prescribed formula outlined by God Himself in
Leviticus chapter 14. Elisha wasn’t being difficult, he was just following God’s
instructions.
(Lev 14:8-9) NKJV He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave off
all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean. After that he
shall come into the camp, and shall stay outside his tent seven days. (9) But on the seventh day he shall shave all the hair off his
head and his beard and his eyebrows—all his hair he shall shave off. He shall
wash his clothes and wash his body in water, and he shall be clean.
But there was one
more bit of information that had he known it at the time he might never have
left Syria. Turn to Luke
chapter 4.
(Luke
4:27) NKJV
(27) And
many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them
was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.
Elisha had never done this before! Naaman would be
the first and only!
(2Kings 5:13-16) NKJV
(13) And his
servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “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’?”
(14) 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.
(15) And he returned to
the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him; and he
said, “Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel; now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.”
(16) But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will
receive nothing.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused.
So by
the small act of faith of a captive little maid the great Naaman, General of
the whole Syrian Army came to know the God of Israel.
(Psa
8:2) NKJV Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained
strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the
avenger.
(Psa
27:10) NKJV When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take care of me.
Even though Elisha had not ever
cleansed a leper in Israel before, this little maid, by faith, inferred
not only that he could cure her Naaman, and but that he would do
it, even though he was a Syrian.
Think
about the great risk she took in opening her mouth and bearing testimony of the
prophet of God. What if no one had listened to her? What if they laughed at
her? What if the prophet hadn't been able to heal Naaman or wouldn’t do it? But
she did have the faith to speak. She didn't let her fear keep her silent. She
didn’t let resentment or feelings of vengeance keep her from doing what was
right. Her story teaches us to have faith even in difficult and scary
situations. She believed God and had faith in his healing power. Despite her
circumstances, she served God where she was though but a child.
It’s
not what happens to us in life that matters. That is a matter of faith that we
place in God’s hands and trust in Him for our care. Often we’re put in
situations in order that we might learn a lesson to develop our character or
that we might be tried that God would know what’s in our hearts. (Deut 8:2) What
matters is how we react to the events and circumstances in our lives, our
response, what we do. That’s why we’re told to be exceedingly joyful in
tribulation (2Cor 7:4) trusting in God and His love for us.
Remember, we are here to serve God and to be good ambassadors of His
Kingdom (Eph 6:20) wherever we are
no matter the circumstance. And to let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Matt 5:16) regardless of our age or condition
or even if we were a captive little girl.
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