Our Seventh Companion: Naaman
... who found the humble path
Naaman... was a great man.
(2 Kings 5:1)
The man who walks beside us now - or gallops past us in his chariot, as we first meet him - is not a Jew at all but a Syrian, a member of the warlike nation to the north of Israel. Larger, wealthier, Syria looked in contempt on its poor neighbor to the south, and raided and plundered Israel at will.
With Naaman God had an all-important lesson to teach - one we need today as much as he did in the ninth century B.C. For there is one primary roadblock to every spiritual journey in every age.
Pride.
Naaman, it is true, had plenty to be proud about. General of Syria's army, he was a mighty man of valor who had won his nation's independence from the great Assyrian Empire. The name literally meant Delight.
And then... Naaman contracted leprosy.
When that first telltale white spot appeared on General Naaman's body, he was terrified. And terror changed him from a haughty, self-satisfied person to a humble and modest one. Right?
Not at all. Problems do not in themselves make us humble.
Naaman doubtless spent a fortune making the rounds of local miracle workers, paying inflated prices for amulets of locusts' eggs and foxes' teeth.
Nothing helped. The hideous pale patches spread and multiplied. Naaman the Delight of his people became Naaman the Leper. In the normal course of events he would soon replace his linen robes with the sackcloth of mourning, and disappear into one of the outcast colonies that haunted the Damascus city dumps.
And now the God of Israel moves into the story with the first lesson in humility.
1. Naaman must accept help from beneath
Naaman is used to moving in the best circles. Kings, high priests - "when you need help, go to the top." Meanwhile, beneath Naaman's very nose is a little slave girl, captured in some Syrian raid on an Israeli village. The little captive tells her mistress, Naaman's wife, about a prophet in her own land of Israel who has the gift of healing.
There are four reasons why the great general would ordinarily have paid no attention to her: She's a slave, an Israelite, a female, a child - all, in his eyes, marking her as inferior. How often today do we miss a truth of God because it doesn't come in a social or cultural form acceptable to us?
Naaman, however, is now grasping at straws.
2. He must recognize his poverty
Naaman is desperate enough to follow the advice of a slave girl, but he's still operating through channels. From the king of Syria he secures a letter of recommendation to the king of Israel. Furthermore, he knows the power of money. To pave his way, he takes with him gold, silver, embroidered robes - $100,000 worth of gifts.
But in Israel he discovers that his connections and his cash count for nothing. The king reads the letter and tears his clothes in distress: He can't heal leprosy! And the prophet, when Naaman finally realizes he's not to be found in the palace and seeks him out in his humble home, will have none of Naaman's money.
Status and wealth - they ought to help on our journey, but how often they hinder us! As long as Naaman is counting on his high-placed friends and his camel-loads of gifts, he is not seeking God.
3. He must give up his own scenario
Naaman gallops up the prophet's door in his splendid chariot with his retinue of mounted attendants, making a considerable clatter. He pictures in his mind how it will be. The healer will come out (a little awed - he doesn't often get a client like me in this one-horse burg!) and begin an elaborate sequence of chants and incantations.
How often we too try to dictate how God's help is to come! But the prophet doesn't follow Naaman's script. He doesn't even put in an appearance. To the proud Syrian general he sends out a message: Go and wash in the Jordan seven times.
Naaman storms away. A nobody prophet from a nothing nation first slights him, then sends him off on an idiot's errand. If it's a river that's needed, Syria has better ones than this little trickle of a Jordan! But it is his crucial third lesson in humility: If Naaman had been able to dictate the means of his healing, he and not God would have remained in charge.
4. He must stop trying to earn God's gift
Once more it is a mere servant, one of his own attendants, who speaks the word of God to Naaman: If the prophet had commanded you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?
Of course he would! So would we! Some great act of devotion, some impressive sacrifice - some contribution, in other words, on our part, to render us deserving of God's favor. To receive His blessing wholly as a gift, to receive it without an ounce of merit on our side, to be totally in God's debt - this is what our pride finds hardest. Just... dunk up and down in a river? It sounds too easy. Surely He requires more of us?
But at last proud Naaman steps in the muddy Jordan.
Incredulous, unable to at first grasp what is happening, Naaman watches his putrefying skin become like the flesh of a little child.
Naaman hurries back to the prophet's house. This time he dismounts from his chariot and stands humbly before the door, and this time the man of God comes out to greet him... as God greets us, too, when we climb off our high horse.
Out of gratitude now, no longer trying to buy God's good will, Naaman again attempts to present his costly gifts. But the prophet will not accept them even now, for the Syrian has a last lesson to learn. God, not man, remains the giver - at the end of the journey as well as at the beginning. The way we enter on the walk of faith... by coming with empty hands to receive His provision... is the way we continue in it: coming with nothing in our hands to partake of His bounty.
Lord of the Journey, I am grateful that I never cease to need: need sets me on the low road to Your high calling.
Meet our next companion now >
Naaman... was a great man.
(2 Kings 5:1)
The man who walks beside us now - or gallops past us in his chariot, as we first meet him - is not a Jew at all but a Syrian, a member of the warlike nation to the north of Israel. Larger, wealthier, Syria looked in contempt on its poor neighbor to the south, and raided and plundered Israel at will.
With Naaman God had an all-important lesson to teach - one we need today as much as he did in the ninth century B.C. For there is one primary roadblock to every spiritual journey in every age.
Pride.
Naaman, it is true, had plenty to be proud about. General of Syria's army, he was a mighty man of valor who had won his nation's independence from the great Assyrian Empire. The name literally meant Delight.
And then... Naaman contracted leprosy.
When that first telltale white spot appeared on General Naaman's body, he was terrified. And terror changed him from a haughty, self-satisfied person to a humble and modest one. Right?
Not at all. Problems do not in themselves make us humble.
Naaman doubtless spent a fortune making the rounds of local miracle workers, paying inflated prices for amulets of locusts' eggs and foxes' teeth.
Nothing helped. The hideous pale patches spread and multiplied. Naaman the Delight of his people became Naaman the Leper. In the normal course of events he would soon replace his linen robes with the sackcloth of mourning, and disappear into one of the outcast colonies that haunted the Damascus city dumps.
And now the God of Israel moves into the story with the first lesson in humility.
1. Naaman must accept help from beneath
Naaman is used to moving in the best circles. Kings, high priests - "when you need help, go to the top." Meanwhile, beneath Naaman's very nose is a little slave girl, captured in some Syrian raid on an Israeli village. The little captive tells her mistress, Naaman's wife, about a prophet in her own land of Israel who has the gift of healing.
There are four reasons why the great general would ordinarily have paid no attention to her: She's a slave, an Israelite, a female, a child - all, in his eyes, marking her as inferior. How often today do we miss a truth of God because it doesn't come in a social or cultural form acceptable to us?
Naaman, however, is now grasping at straws.
2. He must recognize his poverty
Naaman is desperate enough to follow the advice of a slave girl, but he's still operating through channels. From the king of Syria he secures a letter of recommendation to the king of Israel. Furthermore, he knows the power of money. To pave his way, he takes with him gold, silver, embroidered robes - $100,000 worth of gifts.
But in Israel he discovers that his connections and his cash count for nothing. The king reads the letter and tears his clothes in distress: He can't heal leprosy! And the prophet, when Naaman finally realizes he's not to be found in the palace and seeks him out in his humble home, will have none of Naaman's money.
Status and wealth - they ought to help on our journey, but how often they hinder us! As long as Naaman is counting on his high-placed friends and his camel-loads of gifts, he is not seeking God.
3. He must give up his own scenario
Naaman gallops up the prophet's door in his splendid chariot with his retinue of mounted attendants, making a considerable clatter. He pictures in his mind how it will be. The healer will come out (a little awed - he doesn't often get a client like me in this one-horse burg!) and begin an elaborate sequence of chants and incantations.
How often we too try to dictate how God's help is to come! But the prophet doesn't follow Naaman's script. He doesn't even put in an appearance. To the proud Syrian general he sends out a message: Go and wash in the Jordan seven times.
Naaman storms away. A nobody prophet from a nothing nation first slights him, then sends him off on an idiot's errand. If it's a river that's needed, Syria has better ones than this little trickle of a Jordan! But it is his crucial third lesson in humility: If Naaman had been able to dictate the means of his healing, he and not God would have remained in charge.
4. He must stop trying to earn God's gift
Once more it is a mere servant, one of his own attendants, who speaks the word of God to Naaman: If the prophet had commanded you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?
Of course he would! So would we! Some great act of devotion, some impressive sacrifice - some contribution, in other words, on our part, to render us deserving of God's favor. To receive His blessing wholly as a gift, to receive it without an ounce of merit on our side, to be totally in God's debt - this is what our pride finds hardest. Just... dunk up and down in a river? It sounds too easy. Surely He requires more of us?
But at last proud Naaman steps in the muddy Jordan.
Incredulous, unable to at first grasp what is happening, Naaman watches his putrefying skin become like the flesh of a little child.
Naaman hurries back to the prophet's house. This time he dismounts from his chariot and stands humbly before the door, and this time the man of God comes out to greet him... as God greets us, too, when we climb off our high horse.
Out of gratitude now, no longer trying to buy God's good will, Naaman again attempts to present his costly gifts. But the prophet will not accept them even now, for the Syrian has a last lesson to learn. God, not man, remains the giver - at the end of the journey as well as at the beginning. The way we enter on the walk of faith... by coming with empty hands to receive His provision... is the way we continue in it: coming with nothing in our hands to partake of His bounty.
Lord of the Journey, I am grateful that I never cease to need: need sets me on the low road to Your high calling.
Meet our next companion now >