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(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
2 Kings 5:1–8, “Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that 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. And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
The Syrians had been Israel’s enemies for many years and they fought many battles against each other. However, there was one senior general in Syria called Naaman. He was one of their best generals and was known for his courage and great ability in battle. As was customary in those days, Naaman and his troops captured slaves during their battles and these slaves were brought back to Syria to perform domestic and menial tasks for their masters. Even though Naaman was a great general, he had a serious health problem. He was affixed with leprosy, which was an incurable disease at that time. Naaman had a slave girl from Israel who helped his wife, this girl had a simple and childlike faith in the Lord God. One day she told her mistress that Naaman would be okay if he lived in Israel because there was a prophet there who could perform miracles. If only the general would see that prophet he would be healed of his leprosy. Naaman went to the king and told him that there was prophet in Israel who could heal leprosy and the king sent a message to Israel’s king asking that Naaman be healed. The Syrian king sent many valuable presents to the king of Israel because Naaman was an important and successful general and he didn’t want to lose the services of this general. The king of Israel didn’t really believe in the true God of heaven and didn’t know that the Lord could even heal a person with leprosy. He was quite upset and assumed that the Syrians were looking for a cause to start another war. Elisha heard what was happening and told Israel’s king to send Naaman to him for he could do something as he was in contact with the Lord and could ask the Lord to heal the general.
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