Naaman had everything a man could want except his health. He commanded the army of Aram, he had the king’s favour and he had a house full of servants. He also had leprosy. When a young Israelite girl, taken captive and working in his wife’s household, mentioned a prophet in Samaria who could heal him, he set off with horses, chariots, silver, gold and ten sets of fine clothes.
He expected a performance. What he got was a message at the gate. Elisha did not even come out. He sent word: go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and you will be clean (2 Kings 5:10).
Naaman was furious. “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy” (2 Kings 5:11, NIV). Were not the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? He turned and went off in a rage.
If he had told you to do some great thing
Then comes the turning point, and it is not the prophet who brings it. It is Naaman’s own servants, whose names we are never told. They approach him carefully and say: “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” (2 Kings 5:13, NIV).
It is a very wise sentence. They understood their master. He was ready to do something heroic and expensive. What offended him was being asked to do something small, ordinary and humbling.
The Jordan in our house
Households often behave like Naaman. When something is wrong, we reach for the big, impressive fix, and walk away from the plain one.
The finances are in trouble, and we dream of a promotion, a windfall, a business idea, a sale of the land. The plain remedy is to write down every dollar for a month, cancel two subscriptions and stop lending money we do not have. It is not glamorous. It works.
The house is damp and mouldy, and we price a whole new roof. The plain remedy may be clearing the gutters, fixing one downpipe and opening the windows each morning.
A marriage is strained over money and the building project, and we imagine things will improve once the house is finished. The plain remedy is to sit down together, say sorry, and perhaps see a counsellor, which feels to some of us as humbling as bathing in a muddy river in front of the neighbours.
A family is divided over land, and everyone waits for a lawyer’s letter to settle it. The plain remedy might be one person picking up the phone and asking to talk.
Pride makes the simple thing feel beneath us, or too small to matter. Naaman needed to hear that obeying in a small thing was not beneath him at all.
The unnamed people God sends
It is striking how many unnamed people carry this story. A captive servant girl speaks up about the prophet. A messenger delivers Elisha’s instruction. Servants talk their master round. None of them are famous. All of them are essential.
God still sends people like that to our homes. The tenant who mentions, politely, that the wiring in the meter box looks burnt. The young bank officer who suggests a budget before a bigger loan. The church sister who says, “Have you thought about asking your brother to come and talk?” The teenager who asks why we always argue about the light bill. We are often tempted to dismiss them because of who they are: too young, too junior, not qualified, not family. Naaman almost did. The healing came through the people he least expected to listen to.
Seven times
Notice, too, that Naaman had to dip seven times, not once. Nothing obvious happened after the first dip, or the third. Humble remedies often work like that. The budget does not fix everything in the first week. The mould does not disappear after one morning of open windows. The family conversation does not heal years of hurt in an afternoon. Faithfulness in the small thing has to be repeated.
When Naaman came up the seventh time, his flesh was restored, Scripture says, like that of a young boy (2 Kings 5:14). And he went back to Elisha, not in a rage now, but saying, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel” (2 Kings 5:15, NIV). The humble step did not only heal his skin. It changed his heart.
For reflection
- Is there a plain, humbling step for your home, money or family that you have been avoiding because it seems too small or too embarrassing?
- Who are the “servants” in your life whose advice you have been tempted to dismiss?
A prayer
Lord, forgive me for wanting grand solutions when You are asking for simple obedience. Thank You for the ordinary people You send to speak sense into my life and my household. Give me the humility to listen, and the patience to keep dipping until the healing comes. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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