The weakest link

Today we start in the Old Testament at a time when the Kingdom of Israel was a vassal state within the Syrian empire.

2 Kings 5:1;  ''Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the LORD had given him deliverance [victory] unto Syria; he was also a mighty man in valor: but her was also a leper.''

Naaman was the military commander of the Syrian army, highly regarded by his king, high in social standing, courageous, honourable and he was probably very, very wealthy.

Did Naaman have it all - well no - not quite; for he was a leper. 

At the time leprosy was an incurable disease which would eventually result in it's victim, Naaman in this case, loosing his job, loss of wealth and with it his social standing. In short, due to the contagious nature of his condition the fear of others would drive him to become a social outcast.

Now, fortunately for Naaman he had given to his wife a young woman, whom he had captured during skirmishes with Israel, to be her servant. This young woman being a trusted member of Naamans' household learnt of Naaman's condition and, despite being frightened, alone and in a foreign land , had compassion on her captor and told her mistress how her husband could be cured once and for all. 

2 Kings 5:3;  ''And she said to her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover [heal] him of his leprosy.''

This young woman chose to speak out and share with her mistress that her God had immense power and, for those who had faith in Him, an awesome ability to do miracles.  Naaman's wife told the great news to Naaman who in turn related to the king of Syria the solution to his medical condition.  Equally for a very relieved king it also provided the solution to retain his best commander as the head of his army.

So the king of Syria sent Naaman to the king of Israel, Syria's militarily weak vassal state.  With Naaman, Syria's king sent the equivalent of 5 men's weight in silver, a man's weight in gold and 10 changes of very, very expensive and elaborate clothing.  He also sent with Naaman a letter requesting that the king of Israel do a seemingly impossible feat and heal his commander of leprosy.

In antiquity it was not an unusual approach by a nation's leader who was looking to pick a fight to request, by letter, a seemingly impossible action of another nation's leader who, when he failed to deliver, gave an excuse for the aggressor to invade.

Israels' king on receiving the letter panicked as he saw the letter as a pretext for war and a letter of provocation:

2 Kings 5:7;  ''And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent [tore] 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.''

Frankly, a king of Israel should have had more faith in God's almighty power.  However, Elisha, God's prophet in Israel at that time heard of the ridiculous panic of his king and sent a message to the king telling him to send Naaman to him.   

So Naaman came with his chariots, soldiers, horses and associated paraphernalia and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. It must have made quite a spectacle!

2 Kings 5:10;  ''And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.''

On receiving the instructions from Elisha's messenger Naaman was furious. 

He had expected that Elisha as a citizen of a vassal state, should have more respect for the great commander of the powerful, all conquering Syrian army; as a minimum Naaman would have expected Elisha to come out of his house himself and speak to him directly on such an important matter - not do so through an intermediary.

Naaman had expected Elisha to carry out some ritual in which the prophet would have waved his hand over the site of the leprosy and call upon his God to deliver the miraculous healing - instead of sending a lowly messenger to instruct Naaman to go and wash in the Jordan.  

To cap it all Naaman had been instructed to wash in a river which at that time of the year, between the former and latter rains, would have been little more that a trickle.  In comparison to the great rivers of his homeland, Abana and Pharpar, it must have seemed to Naaman as a Syrian that the Jordan was a wholly inadequate and pathetic river in which to bring about such a great miracle.

Wow - no wonder Naaman was cross!

But his servants, who probably had a lot of practice of learning how to cope with an angry Naaman, knew exactly how to handle him.  Gently and successfully they calmed him down, getting him to see reason and persuading him at least to try and carry out what the great prophet had instructed;

2 Kings 5:13;  ''And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, my father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee Wash, and be clean.''

Brave servants in the face of an angry master - but it worked;

2 Kings 5:14;  ''Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.''

And boy - wasn't Naaman delighted;

2 Kings 5:15;  ''And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore I pray thee, take a blessing [gift] of thy servant.''

So let's look at who was the most important link in the chain of events in Naaman coming to know the full magnificence of God;  was if the captive young woman, Naaman's wife, Syria's king, Israel's king, God's prophet Elisha, Elisha's messager or was it Naamans' servants.

Well I would argue each 'link', each person's intervention, was crucial to the successful outcome of Naaman coming to the point where he could choose to follow God's instruction and bring about a miracle in his life.

One final thought as we go out this week to be a messenger and witness for God in His world - we need to take every opportunity to tell people about how wonderful, powerful and all conquering our God is. 

We never know just where our intervention is in someones journey, in the chain of events, of that person coming to know Jesus and have an everlasting relationship with God our Father.

So have courage, speak out in faith to those around you when the opportunity presents to witness and testify about Jesus - don't be the weakest link and result in the breakage in a chain of events which, link by link, is bringing someone to know our brother Jesus Christ and God, his our Father.