2 Kings 5:1 - Meaning and Application

Our Savior’s miracles were meant especially for the lost sheep of Israel, yet one blessing, like a crumb, fell from the table to a Canaanite woman. In the same way, this miracle was done by Elisha for Naaman, a Syrian. God does good to all, and he wants all people to be saved.

Here we first see the great trouble Naaman carried in the middle of all his honors, 2 Kings 5:1. He was a great man in a high position, rich and raised up, and in two ways especially blessed. First, he had been very useful to his country. The Lord had often given Syria victory through him, even in wars against Israel. The safety and success of people who do not know or serve God must still be credited to him, for he is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Let Israel understand that when the Syrians prevailed, it was from the Lord.

Second, Naaman was very well liked by his king. He was the king’s favorite and chief officer of state. He was great, honored, and a mighty soldier, but he was a leper, suffering from that ugly disease that made him miserable. No one’s greatness, honor, influence, courage, or victories can put him beyond the reach of the hardest troubles in human life. Many a weak and sick body is hidden under rich and beautiful clothes. Every person has some flaw, something that spoils and limits him, some loss in his greatness, some sadness in his joy. He may be very successful and even very good, yet in some way he is not as good as he should be, nor as happy as he would like to be. Naaman was as great as the world could make him, and yet, as Bishop Hall says, the lowest slave in Syria would not have traded places with him.

Next, a little maid who served Naaman’s wife told him about Elisha’s power, 2 Kings 5:2-3. She was born in Israel, taken captive into Syria, and placed in Naaman’s household. There she spread the fame of Elisha to the honor of Israel and Israel’s God. The sad scattering of God’s people has sometimes become the happy way God has spread knowledge of himself (Acts 8:4).

This little maid acted as a true Israelite should. Even though she was only a girl, she could speak well of the prophet God had given her country. Children should learn early the great works of God, so that wherever they go, they will have something good to tell about him (Psalm 8:2). She also acted as a good servant, wishing for her master’s health and good, though she was a captive and had been forced into service. Those who serve by choice should care all the more for their masters’ good. The Jews in Babylon were told to seek the peace of the land where they lived in captivity (Jeremiah 29:7).

Elisha had not healed any lepers in Israel (Luke 4:27), yet this little maid reasoned that he could heal her master from the other miracles he had done. From his general kindness, she concluded that he would do it, even though Naaman was a Syrian. Servants can be a blessing to the families they serve when they speak of God’s glory and his prophets’ honor.

Then the king of Syria acted on this report and sent to the king of Israel on Naaman’s behalf. Naaman took the girl’s word seriously, even though it came from a simple maid, and did not despise it because of her low status when his health was at stake. He did not say, “This girl is talking foolishly. How could any prophet in Israel do what all the doctors in Syria have failed to do?” Though he neither loved nor respected the Jewish people, if one of them could heal his leprosy, he would gladly accept the help. Oh, that people who are spiritually sick would listen just as quickly when they hear about the great Physician.

Naaman’s response to this small hint is worth noticing. He would not send for the prophet to come to him. Instead, he thought it fitting to go himself to one with such divine power, even though he was sick, the trip was long, and the land was an enemy’s land. Princes, he thought, must humble themselves before prophets when they need them. He would not go in secret, even though his errand exposed his shameful disease. He went in full dignity, with a large group, to show the prophet more honor. He would not go empty-handed, but took gold, silver, and clothing as gifts for his healer. Those who have wealth but lack health show which blessing they value more. What will people not give for relief, strength, and bodily health? He would also not go without a letter from the king of Syria to the king of Israel, since his master sincerely wanted his recovery. He did not know where in Samaria to find this miracle-working prophet, but assumed the king knew. To make sure Naaman was helped, he came with the support of two kings. If the king of Syria must ask for help, he hoped the king of Israel, as his superior, might command it. He assumed the subject’s gifts should all serve the prince’s honor, so he asked the king to recover the leper, 2 Kings 5:6, thinking there was a closeness between the king and the prophet that did not really exist.

This letter alarmed the king of Israel, 2 Kings 5:7. He thought it contained two serious problems. First, he thought it insulted God. He tore his clothes, as the Jews often did when they heard or read something they considered blasphemous. What else could it mean, he thought, but to give God a power that belonged only to him? “Am I God, able to kill and make alive as I wish? No, I do not claim such authority.” Nebuchadnezzar used similar language in Daniel 5:19. “Am I God, able to kill with a word and make alive with a word? No, I do not claim such power.” So this great man, though a bad man, is forced to admit that he is only human. Yet why did he not use that same thought to turn from his idolatry and reason, “Should I worship as gods those who cannot kill or make alive, who can do neither good nor harm?”

Second, he thought the letter hid a bad plan against himself. He appealed to those around him and said, in effect, “See how he is looking for a quarrel with me. He is asking me to recover the leper, and if I do not, though I cannot, he will use that as a reason to make war on me.” He suspected this all the more because Naaman was the king’s general. If he had understood the letter rightly, he would have seen that the king meant only that he should see to Naaman’s healing, and he would not have been so frightened. We often make ourselves miserable by reading other people’s words and actions in the worst possible way, even when they mean well. It is kindness toward ourselves to think no evil.

If the king had thought about Elisha and his power, he would have understood the letter easily and known what to do. But he was confused because he had made himself a stranger to the prophet. The captive girl had Elisha more in mind than the king did.

Elisha also offered his help. He was willing to do anything to ease his prince’s distress, even though the king had ignored him and forgotten his past kindnesses. When Elisha heard that the king had torn his clothes in grief, he sent word that if Naaman came to him, his journey would not be wasted (2 Kings 5:8). Then Naaman would know that there was a prophet in Israel, and it would be a sad thing for Israel if there were none. There was a prophet in Israel who could do what the king of Israel would not dare try, and what the prophets of Syria could not even claim to do. Elisha wanted this made known, not for his own honor, but for God’s honor. He wanted them all to know that there was a prophet in Israel, even though he was overlooked and kept in the background.