2 Kgs 5:1-19 · Read 7 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, the woman of Shunem said “I will not leave you” (2 Kgs 4:30); Elisha followed her, and her child came back to life. This is in Lesson 2.
The man in this lesson comes from outside Israel. Syria lay to the north of Israel, and the two countries often went to war.
1Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria; he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
2The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little girl, and she waited on Naaman’s wife.
3She said to her mistress, “I wish that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would heal him of his leprosy.”
4Someone went in and told his lord, saying, “The girl who is from the land of Israel said this.”
5The king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothing.
6He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, “Now when this letter has come to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy.”
7When the king of Israel had read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to heal a man of his leprosy? But please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.”
8It was so, 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? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
9So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
10Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean.”
11But Naaman was angry, and went away and said, “Behold, I thought, ‘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 leper.’
12Aren’t Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
13His servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
14Then went he down and dipped himself 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.
15He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him; and he said, “See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.”
16But he said, “As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.” He urged him to take it; but he refused.
17Naaman said, “If not, then, please let two mules’ load of earth be given to your servant; for your servant will from now on offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but to the LORD.
18In this thing may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon. When I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, may the LORD pardon your servant in this thing.”
19He said to him, “Go in peace.” So he departed from him a little way.
A great man. Naaman was captain of the army of the king of Syria, “a great man with his master, and honorable”; the passage says it was “because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria”; “he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper” (v. 1).
A little girl. The Syrians had taken a little girl captive from the land of Israel, and she waited on Naaman’s wife (v. 2). She said just one thing: “I wish that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would heal him of his leprosy” (v. 3).
Am I God? The king of Syria wrote to the king of Israel, and Naaman went with silver, gold, and clothing (vv. 5–6). When the king of Israel had read the letter, “he tore his clothes and said, ‘Am I God, to kill and to make alive’” (v. 7). Elisha heard of it and sent to the king: “Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel” (v. 8).
Go and wash. Naaman came with his horses and chariots “and stood at the door of the house of Elisha” (v. 9). Elisha sent a messenger to tell him: “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean” (v. 10). Naaman was angry: “He will surely come out to me” (v. 11); “Aren’t Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?” (v. 12).
How much rather. His servants said: “My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” (v. 13). “Then went he down and dipped himself 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” (v. 14).
See now, I know. Naaman went back to the man of God, “and came, and stood before him; and he said, ‘See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel’” (v. 15). He asked Elisha to take a gift, and Elisha said: “As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none” (v. 16). Naaman asked for two mules’ load of earth, saying, “your servant will from now on offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but to the LORD” (v. 17).
The house of Rimmon. He spoke of one more thing: when his master went into the house of Rimmon to worship and leaned on his hand, he too would bow; “may the LORD pardon your servant in this thing” (v. 18). Elisha said to him: “Go in peace” (v. 19).
Afterwards. Naaman had gone only a little way when Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, said: “Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought” (v. 20), and ran after him and asked him for silver and clothing. Elisha said to him: “Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive groves and vineyards, and sheep and cattle, and male servants and female servants?” (v. 26); Gehazi “went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow” (v. 27). In the next lesson the horses and chariots of Syria come again — this time to seize Elisha.
In Elijah’s day, a widow of Zarephath in Sidon saw her son come back to life and said to Elijah: “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the LORD’s word in your mouth is truth” (1 Kgs 17:24). This is in Elijah, Lesson 2.
Readers can see this: in this lesson, the one who says “See now, I know” is Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria (v. 15).
Perhaps you, too, have something you have already settled in your own mind: how God would act, where he would act, what he would let you see. Perhaps, like Naaman, you have been held back by a word that seemed too small.
This lesson does not say that if you only do as you are told, your illness is sure to be healed; nor does it say that illness comes because you did something wrong. What it shows you is this: Naaman said, “He will surely come out to me” (v. 11); his servants said, “How much rather then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” (v. 13); he went “according to the saying of the man of God” (v. 14), and came back saying “See now, I know” (v. 15); and Elisha said to him, “Go in peace” (v. 19).
This week: Think about when, and through what, you yourself began to know God. This week, write it down; if you want to, also write down what you still want to know.
After Naaman was made clean, he said: “See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel” (v. 15).
Many years later, in the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus said: “Most certainly I tell you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown” (Luke 4:24). He spoke of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath (Luke 4:25-26, see Elijah, Lesson 2), and then said: “There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, except Naaman, the Syrian” (Luke 4:27).
These verses are only set side by side here: Naaman, made clean in Elisha’s day, is the one Jesus spoke of at Nazareth.
Scripture: World English Bible.