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Captain Naaman Healed of Leprosy
117
A Captive Girl Encourages Naaman to Seek Healing
Naaman heard what the maid had said to her mistress. After
getting permission from the king, he went in search of healing,
taking “ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten
[92]
changes of clothing.” He also carried a letter from the king of Syria
to the king of Israel: “I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that
you may heal him of his leprosy.”
When the king of Israel read the letter, “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.’”
News of these developments reached Elisha, and he sent word to
the king: “Why have you torn your clothes? Please let him come to
me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
“Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at
the door of Elisha’s house.” Through a messenger the prophet told
him, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall
be restored to you, and you shall be clean.”
Naaman had expected to see some wonderful display of power
from heaven. “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.’” When Elisha’s messenger
simply told him to wash in the Jordan, it wounded his pride: “‘Are
not the Abana 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.”
The rivers Naaman mentioned were beautified by surrounding
groves, and many people flocked to the banks of these pleasant
streams to worship their idols. Naaman would not have needed any
humility to go down into one of those streams to wash. But only by
following the prophet’s specific directions could he find healing.
Naaman’s servants urged him to carry out Elisha’s directions: “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?’” The proud Syrian yielded his pride and dipped himself
seven times in Jordan, “according to the saying of the man of God.”