"Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria,
was a great man with his master, and honorable,
because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria:
he was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper."
Ben-hadad, king of Syria, had defeated the armies of
Israel in the battle which resulted in the death of Ahab.
Since that time the Syrians had maintained against Israel
a constant border warfare, and in one of their raids they
had carried away a little maid who, in the land of her
captivity, "waited on Naaman's wife." A slave, far from her
home, this little maid was nevertheless one of God's
witnesses, unconsciously fulfilling the purpose for which God
had chosen Israel as His people. As she ministered in that
heathen home, her sympathies were aroused in behalf of
her master; and, remembering the wonderful miracles of
healing wrought through Elisha, she said to her mistress,
"Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in
Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy." She
knew that the power of Heaven was with Elisha, and she
believed that by this power Naaman could be healed.
The conduct of the captive maid, the way that she bore
herself in that heathen home, is a strong witness to the
power of early home training. There is no higher trust
than that committed to fathers and mothers in the care
and training of their children. Parents have to do with the
very foundations of habit and character. By their example
and teaching the future of their children is largely decided.
Happy are the parents whose lives are a true reflection
of the divine, so that the promises and commands of God
awaken in the child gratitude and reverence; the parents
whose tenderness and justice and long-suffering interpret to
the child the love and justice and long-suffering of God,
and who by teaching the child to love and trust and obey
them, are teaching him to love and trust and obey his Father
in heaven. Parents who impart to the child such a gift
have endowed him with a treasure more precious than the
wealth of all the ages, a treasure as enduring as eternity.
We know not in what line our children may be called
to serve. They may spend their lives within the circle of
the home; they may engage in life's common vocations,
or go as teachers of the gospel to heathen lands; but all are
alike called to be missionaries for God, ministers of mercy
to the world. They are to obtain an education that will
help them to stand by the side of Christ in unselfish service.
The parents of that Hebrew maid, as they taught her of
God, did not know the destiny that would be hers. But
they were faithful to their trust; and in the home of the
captain of the Syrian host, their child bore witness to the God
whom she had learned to honor.
Naaman heard of the words that the maid had spoken
to her mistress; and, obtaining permission from the king,
he went forth to seek healing, taking with him "ten talents
of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes
of raiment." He also carried a letter from the king of Syria
to the king of Israel, in which was written the message,
"Behold, I have . . . sent Naaman my servant to thee, that
thou mayest recover him of his leprosy." When the king
of Israel read the letter, "he rent his clothes, and said, Am
I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto
me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I
pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me."
Tidings of the matter reached Elisha, and he sent word
to the king, saying, "Wherefore has thou rent thy clothes?
let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is
a prophet in Israel."
"So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot,
and stood at the door of the house of Elisha." Through a
messenger the prophet bade him, "Go and wash in Jordan
seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and
thou shalt be clean."
Naaman had expected to see some wonderful manifestation
of power from heaven. "I thought," he said, "he will
surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of
the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and
recover the leper." When told to wash in the Jordan, his
pride was touched, and in mortification and disappointment
he exclaimed, "Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus,
better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash
in them, and be clean?" "So he turned and went away in
a rage."
The proud spirit of Naaman rebelled against following
the course outlined by Elisha. The rivers mentioned by the
Syrian captain were beautified by surrounding groves, and
many flocked to the banks of these pleasant streams to
worship their idol gods. It would have cost Naaman no great
humiliation of soul to descend into one of those streams.
But it was only through following the specific directions of
the prophet that he could find healing. Willing obedience
alone would bring the desired result.
Naaman's servants entreated him to carry out Elisha's
directions: "If the prophet had bid thee do some great
thing," they urged, "wouldest thou not have done it? how
much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be
clean?" The faith of Naaman was being tested, while pride
struggled for the mastery. But faith conquered, and the
haughty Syrian yielded his pride of heart and bowed in
submission to the revealed will of Jehovah. Seven times he
dipped himself in Jordan, "according to the saying of the
man of God." And his faith was honored; "his flesh came
again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean."
Gratefully "he returned to the man of God, he and all
his company," with the acknowledgment, "Behold, now
I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel."
In accordance with the custom of the times, Naaman
now asked Elisha to accept a costly present. But the prophet
refused. It was not for him to take payment for a blessing
that God had in mercy bestowed. "As the Lord liveth," he
said, "I will receive none." The Syrian "urged him to take
it; but he refused.
"And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee,
be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for
thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor
sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord. In this thing
the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth
into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth
on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon:
when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord
pardon thy servant in this thing.
"And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed
from him a little way."
Gehazi, Elisha's servant, had had opportunity during
the years to develop the spirit of self-denial characterizing
his master's lifework. It had been his privilege to become
a noble standard-bearer in the army of the Lord. The best
gifts of Heaven had long been within his reach; yet, turning
from these, he had coveted instead the base alloy of worldly
wealth. And now the hidden longings of his avaricious
spirit led him to yield to an overmastering temptation.
"Behold," he reasoned within himself, "my master hath
spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands
that which he brought: but . . . I will run after him, and
take somewhat of him." And thus it came about that in
secrecy "Gehazi followed after Naaman."
When Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted
down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well?
And he said, All is well." Then Gehazi uttered a deliberate
lie. "My master," he said, "hath sent me, saying, Behold,
even now there be come to me from Mount Ephraim two
young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray
thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments." To
the request Naaman gladly acceded, pressing upon Gehazi
two talents of silver instead of one, "with two changes of
garments," and commissioning servants to bear the treasure
back.
As Gehazi neared Elisha's home, he dismissed the servants
and placed the silver and the garments in hiding. This
accomplished, "he went in, and stood before his master;"
and, to shield himself from censure, he uttered a second lie.
In response to the inquiry of the prophet, "Whence comest
thou?" Gehazi answered, "Thy servant went no whither."
Then came the stern denunciation, showing that Elisha
knew all. "Went not mine heart with thee," he asked, "when
the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it
a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive
yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants,
and maidservants? The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall
cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed forever." Swift was the
retribution that overtook the guilty man. He went out
from Elisha's presence "a leper as white as snow."
Solemn are the lessons taught by this experience of one
to whom had been given high and holy privileges. The
course of Gehazi was such as to place a stumbling block in
the pathway of Naaman, upon whose mind had broken a
wonderful light, and who was favorably disposed toward
the service of the living God. For the deception practiced
by Gehazi there could be pleaded no excuse. To the day of
his death he remained a leper, cursed of God and shunned
by his fellow men.
"A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that
speaketh lies shall not escape." Proverbs 19:5. Men may
think to hide their evil deeds from human eyes, but they
cannot deceive God. "All things are naked and opened unto
the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Heb. 4:13.
Gehazi thought to deceive Elisha, but God revealed to His
prophet the words that Gehazi had spoken to Naaman,
and every detail of the scene between the two men.
Truth is of God; deception in all its myriad forms is of
Satan, and whoever in any way departs from the straight
line of truth is betraying himself into the power of the
wicked one. Those who have learned of Christ will "have
no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness."
Ephesians 5:11. In speech, as in life, they will be simple,
straightforward, and true, for they are preparing for the fellowship
of those holy ones in whose mouth is found no guile. See
Revelation 14:5.
Centuries after Naaman returned to his Syrian home,
healed in body and converted in spirit, his wonderful faith
was referred to and commended by the Saviour as an object
lesson for all who claim to serve God. "Many lepers were
in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet," the Saviour
declared; "and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman
the Syrian." Luke 4:27. God passed over the many lepers
in Israel because their unbelief closed the door of good to
them. A heathen nobleman who had been true to his
convictions of right, and who felt his need of help, was in the
sight of God more worthy of His blessing than were the
afflicted in Israel, who had slighted and despised their
God-given privileges. God works for those who appreciate His
favors and respond to the light given them from heaven.
Today in every land there are those who are honest in
heart, and upon these the light of heaven is shining. If
they continue faithful in following that which they understand
to be duty, they will be given increased light, until,
like Naaman of old, they will be constrained to acknowledge
that "there is no God in all the earth," save the living God,
the Creator.
To every sincere soul "that walketh in darkness, and hath
no light," is given the invitation, "Let him trust in the name
of the Lord, and stay upon his God." "For since the beginning
of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by
the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what
He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him. Thou meetest
him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that
remember Thee in Thy ways." Isaiah 50:10; 64:4, 5.