March 19, 2022 - 2 Kings 5-8

How needy was the Syrian general, Naaman! How great a victory he had over Israel! “He was a mighty man of valor” but, also, “he was a leper” (5:1). Oh, and we must not forget, he was also a very proud man. A little girl pleaded, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy” (5:3). A young girl. An enemy prophet. Instruction to wash, seven times, in the river Jordan. Such a simple thing to be cured of leprosy! But Naaman would not, and he responded to the prophet’s instruction: “’I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and 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” (5:11-12). Much better for Naaman, and for us, to know our desperate need and humbly come to God as beggars receiving healing and life from his hand

Just as I am, though tossed about

with many a conflict, many a doubt,

fightings and fears within, without,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come. -- Charlotte Elliott (19th century)