Faith and Hardwork
Tuesday, June 20, 2017 at 12:58PM 2 Kings 5:1-3
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
As God works through scripture to reveal more and more of himself. Christians are faced with the decision, do they like God? God is a person with sharp edges that we might not care for. In the history of Naaman Christian find a small portion of this question if they desire to see it. Too often Christians choose to focus on the large details of the story and miss details that deepen and grow the narrative. Revealing more of God’s nature and character.
Many have heard the history of Naaman and choose to keep the lens fixed on the prophet Elisha and how God uses simple obedience to bless Naaman. This time let us widen the lens even more and see what can be found. Let us focus our lens on a family bereaved of their child. Questioning and trying to “get on with life” not knowing what evil has befallen their “little girl” (verse 2) since she was taken from them? Or perhaps the focus should be on the little girl herself potentially having seen her family murdered before her eyes. Now living as a servant to a rich family.
Why did God allow this evil? Why did he allow this little girl to be taken from her family and culture thrust into the great unknown of life? Into these question God gives us a glimpse of how all things “work together for good” (Romans 8:28). The question becomes what can we learn from this little girl and from the household she has been thrust into? This servant Jew has worked her way to the point of being friendly enough with her mistress that she talks openly about her former home and the great prophet that lives in it. Her word is also trusted enough to bring the request before the King of Syria! From this we can determine that she was an industrious and hard worker. Full of empathy and truth. Such that Naaman, on her word, was willing to take on the cumbersome and expensive trip to a rival power and ask for healing of another king!
God brought healing to Naaman, he established a household of believers in Syria, and he gave us a story of faithfulness. All this through the faithful witness of a small child. Trusting God could heal her master. The faith of this little child saw the need of her master and she had the answer, she spoke truth into the darkness of his life. In addressing the problem of evil Christians cannot hide, because we serve a sovereign, all powerful, all knowing God. Those are not his only attributes however! God is Just, God is love, GOD IS GOOD! God denied this little girl her parents and country, that good might come. She trusted this God! Will you trust God in the midst of your trials? When your soul longs for answers and cries out why? At this point will you trust that God is good? That he is able to pay for all the sins you have committed and prepare a place for you with him in paradise? That all you must do is trust him when there seems to be no hope? “I believe in Jesus” is easy to say but will we, when we are buffeted on all sides?
CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO