Effie Darlene Barba

One Unlikely Believer

Naaman was the chief captain of the Syrian Army, a man of great valor and position. Yet, he was a leper.  The leprosy must have been in its early stages. However, it would only be a matter of time until the disease would take its toll and Naaman would lose his ability to lead.  On many occasions they were the enemy of Israel.  Their position played a key role and at times treaties were made with Syria either by Israel or Judah.  It was during a moment of relative peace between Syria and Israel that our story takes place; although, peace was only a relative term.  Syria still held captive slaves taken from previous conquests and that seemed to not bother the King of Israel.  So, in this event we are about to see the grace of God poured out upon one unlikely believer.

Naaman would never have heard of God.  Oh, perhaps there were rumors and stories of the God of Israel having protected Israel.  However, from what Naaman had seen, he had won many battles against Israel in the past.  Indeed, there was an Israelite maiden captive who attended to his wife.  A little slave girl who was about to be the one who opens the eyes of this powerful captain.  Although a slave child, she with a compassion, faith and care that only God could have instilled, she told Naaman’s wife about God’s ability to heal.  She told her of Elisha, God’s spokesman who could in God’s power heal Naaman.  Well, Naaman knew he was in desperate need of healing and wanted to be healed.  That is of course the first step.  Before we can be healed, we must realize we need healing.

A Kings Disbelief

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Elisha returned to Gilgal, and a famine was in the land, (2 Kings 4:38 GNV).  The famine affected the righteous and the unrighteous.  When God enacts His judgment upon a land, all are affected.  The “sons of the prophets” dwelt with Elisha, as he was their instructor.  Hunger filled the little school for prophets.  Perhaps even a hunger greater than just that of food, for the land was filled with idolatry and false ideologies.  The people of Israel had turned their backs on God in search of other ideas.  Those who still believed had allowed their faith to be corrupted by false ideologies that “sounded good to the human heart.”  Sounds so much like America today with a watered-down faith to appease the crowds.  There is a spiritual famine spreading across our land. 2 Kings 4:38-44 speaks to us of facing the spiritual famine as well as the financial famine.

Financially, I face moments of famine.  Despite my prayers for financial wisdom, I find myself often pressed against a rock.  So often I have found myself in moments of health crisis that took whatever was saved or other moments when I have financially stepped in to help either a stranger or family member in need.  Then, I look at the balance and wonder how the needs will be met.  Sometimes, I try to say that I need not tithe because I already have through all those I helped.  But alas, that is not how it works.  Look at what happens in this story from 2 Kings, compare it with Christ feeding the multitude with 5 loaves and two little fishes.  Whether facing a spiritual famine or a financial one, God can accomplish great and mighty things when we are willing to surrender our all.

Spiritual Famine-A poisonous pot of soup

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C. S. Lewis wrote in the Four Loves, “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” But truly is love worth the heartbreak? Ask that of a widow standing beside her beloved’s grave.  Or ask that of a mother whose child died in her arms like the Shunammite woman.

The child that God gave her, the one Elisha told her would be hers suddenly was brought to her from the fields with a severe headache.  Was it a heat stroke? Or did a blood vessel burst in his head?  We do not know. What we are told is that he died in her arms.  She had not asked God for a child or perhaps she had already made peace with God regarding her barrenness.  We heard her plea not to play with her heart in 2 Kings 4:16 and again she reminds him of this verse 28.  But now she had known the love of child.  She had cherished him and felt the joys of motherhood only to now feel the pain, the heartbreak of loss.  She ran to Elisha to hear from God concerning her heartbreak.

One Response to Heartbreak

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Elisha traveled about Israel as God’s spokesman.  During that travel he passed by a town named Shunem.  One day as he was passing through, a woman of that town invited him to eat bread.  And so, it was, that every time he passed through Shunem, he stopped at her house to eat.  Hers was an act of kindness to this prophet; but it was also for her a means of seeking God.  Surely, she had heard of Elisha and his predecessor Elijah.  It was a time in Israel where many false teachers and phony ideologies were running rampant.  There was no bible she could turn to.  No means of directly seeking God; except, to go to the temple.  However, many of the priests were themselves corrupted, seeking their own gain rather than being true spokesmen for God.  But Elisha had come to town and she was hungry for God’s word.

If you recall from 2 Kings 2, Elisha was not always met with such kindness as he neared cities in Israel.  Many did not want to hear the truth of God’s word.  Yet, here was a woman who was seeking God’s word.  After listening to Elisha speak, she proposed to her husband that they build a room onto their house for Elisha to have a place to stay whenever he came to town, furnished with a table, a candlestick, a stool and a bed. She did this because she perceived that this is a holy man of God which passeth by us continually (2 Kings 4:9).  Indeed, in her own humble way, she was seeking God’s word and presence in her household. Her act of kindness to God’s prophet, as if she were doing so for God.

Seeking God with a True heart

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Jehovah Jireh, God will provide.  Within scripture this word description of God first occurs in Genesis 22:14. “And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh.  Remember that God’s Holy Scripture is His revealing of Himself to us through His word.  As Abraham climbed that mountain to sacrifice to God his son upon God’s command by faith, he believed with all his heart, mind, and soul that God had a plan.  He knew that God was his provider.  After all, God miraculously had given him Isaac as He had promised so many years before.  All the years of waiting upon God to fulfill that promise had grown Abraham’s faith, so that now he trusted that God would provide a miracle once more.  Perhaps God would raise Isaac from the dead once the sacrifice was done.

At any rate, Abraham believed they would both descend from that hill.  He said so in Genesis 22:5 as he left the servants behind.  He and Isaac went on alone to the top of the hill.  Only they would be present to watch God show Himself as their provider.  Isaac too must have believed God would provide, as he willingly allowed his father to tie him to the altar, for he was a young man at least 15 years of age.  We know the story, God provided a ram to be the substitute.  A portrait of God’s greatest act as our provider!  Jesus Christ would be the sacrificial lamb that paid our sin debt.  No longer would we be slaves to our sin nature; because, He bore upon Himself our penalty.

Since God is our Provider of life, eternal life to all who believe in Jesus Christ; why would we not trust Him as our Provider in lesser things?

A Widow, Some Oil, and God as Provider

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