2 Kings 4-5 Healing: My Terms or God's Terms

April 22nd, 2 Kings 4-5

       Naaman was a commander of a foreign army. A great man in the favor of his king and it's said that the Lord gave him victory. One of his victories brought a young Israelite girl to live in his household. As great as Naaman was, he had a real problem...he had leprosy.
       The Israelite girl tells him about the prophet in Israel, that he could cure him. So Naamman did a few things...
       1. He packed a large gift, because even in their day everything can be fixed with money..."I'll buy my way out of my problem."
       2. He goes to the King of Israel instead of going to the prophet Chapter 5:6-7 The Kings last line shows how people make mountains out of molehills, anyway on to the prophet...
       3. Naaman went to Elisha's house (got to go to the right place to get healed). Naaman arrives with his party and his chariots and gifts..."THE SHOW IS HERE, COME GREAT ME." Elisha sends a messenger out to tell him to go wash in the Jordan seven times. Naaman makes a big deal. He wanted a cool show, potions, hand motions, lightning, a Hollywood healing. He certainly doesn't want to go to the Jordan."that's a dirty river, I want to go to a clean river." The mistake is that it's about the river and not about God and obedience to do what's asked. He's a military commander he should know that, but it's been a long time since he's taken an order.
       4. Naaman goes off in a rage. His servants come to him and say, hey, he could have asked you to do something difficult, but he asked you to wash in a river so let's go do that. He did, he was healed.
   
        This feels a lot like people's response to the gospel. I want to be in control so I'll purchase this, something I own, I'll buy my salvation.
        I'll go anywhere but Jesus to try and make this right, then I'll be confused when I've only interacted with the King instead of the prophet (Jesus) who can actually make me well.
        I'll want a bit of a show, I want some flash, some Hollywood glitz and be famous cause of it all. The glory is for me right?
        I'll go off in a rage because the dirty water of the Jordan is no place for an important person such as me.
       Finally the good news...Naaman surrendered all of the above, simply did what was asked and was made clean. Jesus asks us to acknowledge our sin, repent, accept Christ's payment for sin on the cross as our payment and to daily choose to follow him as our Lord. Naaman's reactions live inside of our hearts. Prayerfully over time, we simply learn to wash in the Jordan and be clean.

2 Kings 1-3 It's rough being a Prophet and Bald!!

April 21st, 2 Kings 1-3

       Word to the wise, don't mess with God's prophets. First of all Elijah's taxi from heaven comes to bring him home. Flaming chariots and horse swoop down and take him away. Quite an experience for Elisha who was walking right next to Elijah at the time. It is certainly a confirmation of the prior conversation  in Chapter 2.
       The idea of a pile of clothes after the rapture maybe comes from this passage. Elijah left his cloak behind. Elisha struck the waters of the Jordan river with it and the waters parted, followed by a series of miracles. The prophets of the day saw this as a confirmation of Elisha's place after Elijah.
       Like all prophets, powerful displays of God are followed by teenagers making fun of you because your bald. As much as we're used to people rudely calling one another names, in the OT this absolute disrespect of  a receding hairline cause Elisha to place a curse on the 42 young people. A couple of bears show up and maul them. Truth is stranger than fiction!!
       Chapter 3 demonstrates a parallel to our day. People seem to know where to go when they need help, they just don't go there very much. I'm not sure if God is honored in... "being the last resort if everything we've tried hasn't worked." If we can't think of any other way then we'll call on God. I encourage all of us to have a knee-jerk reaction of ..."God, I need your help here with....