2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.”

But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, `Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came and stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.”

Message

A few months ago we had a message about Elijah and the day he was taken away to heaven in a whirl wind with golden chariots. He was with a fellow prophet and that is who this message focuses around. His name is Elisha. He is a prophet not only in Christianity but Judaism and Islam. He was the protégé of Elijah and follow him for many years learning how to serve God.

He is noted to have performed miracles that astounded those around him. In his time there were many prophets as God was continually giving the messages of direction needed to the young nation of Isreal. He changed food that was poisoned into food that could be eaten by the other prophets. There was so little yet it stretched that all who were there were able to eat their fill. He fed 100 people from it even though there was one bowl.

He put an end to a drought that many had perished in. His impact was felt by all the people of his time.

The miracle we will focus on is when he healed the commander who had great power. Although the prophets of God were well known in the time there were countless people who believed the messages from God were not important enough to give heed. It was not uncommon for the message given by a prophet to fall on deaf ears.

These deaf ears that refuse to hear a message can be found on Naaman. He believes he is so great that Elisha should come to him and perform a healing that would cause his leporacy to heal. We know now that leopracy of the time was extremely contagious and included a multitude of skin conditions. If someone had leopracy it is likely no one would have gone near them willingly for fear of catching it themselves. He expects Elisha to travel to him, but he does not. The prophets, unless they were employed by a king, rarely went to those in need.

Instead of traveling to him, Naaman arrives to see Elisha and demands healing. Elisha instead sends a messenger with the simple task of washing in the river 7 times for his skin to be restored. When his message is delivered the commander believes it must be a hoax and that there must be something more that needs to be done to restore his skin from leprosy. He is enraged believing that the water of his native home is better than the water of the prophet has designated. He holds the rivers in Demascus in better regard. The servant tells him that he should do what he is told especially because it is not hard and eventually he agrees. Sometimes the things that God lays before us are complicated only because we make them that way. Let me give you an example.

Yesterday in our 2^nd Sabbath we put a little golden road around the room to talk about following the path that God lays before us. It was a shiny, brilliant mylar tape that glistened in the light of the windows. It made a clear path around the room beginning at the door and ending at the cross. Our path was small, easy to navigate and lead basically around in a circle.

The children did not really notice but we had a plan when we laid out that golden path. Our path in 2^nd sabbath was more important than the destination. They rushed through it and worked to zoom to the end hoping that they would find something waiting for them. Much to their dismay they did not. The end was not the prize it was the stations set up along the way. We had things set up like painting with leaves, working with magnets to follow a drawing path, and even a table to show God’s beautiful creations. The children who zoomed around found they finished so quickly and missed out on everything their friends were doing. Most of them decided to go back and look again at what was offered.

If we take this and place the thought onto our passage what could God have been teaching the commander?

*Life in God is often less complicated than life without God.

*Often the journey to our answer is more important than the parts we look to understand or the goal we set out to accomplish.

When I was young I had a soccer coach who was a Christian man. Our soccer league was sponsored by the Victory church of God. We were in a really poor area and lots and lots of kids participated in the soccer league, their basketball league, and there was no cost. Everyone was a volunteer. On any given Saturday morning 100 kids were playing soccer and when we got a little older there was travel ball and we would all pile into the church van and go to the other team.

As part of the program we needed to take these classes called Character Achievement Program CAP classes. In the classes we learned how to be good people, and we learned about God. We also learned about making choices. If there was one thing they knew is that living where we were we would all be tempted, truly tempted by sex, drugs, alcohol, and a million other things. Most of which a 10 year old should never know about but we lived where we lived and we knew about them. We knew about drive by shootings, about the drug pushers on the corner, and which blocks to not go down. Life had its own set of rules it own expectations to survive.

One day I was on the field with Cessal likely venting about my family being the oldest of 6 and he told me I needed to pray about it and I remember turning to him and saying How do you even know God is real?

He was a patient man and talked with me telling me that I don’t need to see God to know God is real and the presence of God. He was so sure of himself and he said, Look, God is the only one who will always tell you the truth. If there are 2 paths that look different and you are guaranteed to find what God says at the end you make a conscious choice which one you will take.

Questioning me- but how do you know what is really there?- His patient answer, Because God does not lie. Jesus loves you and will never never lie to you. You choose your path.

Those word are something I think about almost every day, I have a choice in the path before me and so do you. We can choose to make things complicated, to feel sorry for ourselves, we can choose to be miserable. We can choose to focus on the rocky terrain and poisonous vipers and that is all we will see the path for because it is all we want to see.

The Path of God is filled with good people just working through the day, people who stumble but God sends people to help people and that is the truth of what we find on the path of God.

The commander would never have taken such a simple action, he believed his problem to be so big that God, and in turn the prophet, should make a grand gesture to fix it. In the larger scheme of the world although important, and valid, the concern was fixed with a spirit of obedience.

Scripture tells us, Deuteronomy 5:33

You must follow exactly the path that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land that you are to possess.

In all our coming and going we can loose sight of what is most important and the path that God sets before us. We can not walk the path of anyone else and they can not walk ours. However, we can walk together for the time that God ordains knowing that God will take care, direct, and lead us.

Each day is a new day to do what God calls us to do.

I leave you with this proverb, Proverbs 5:21

For human ways are under the eyes of the Lord, and he examines all their paths.

God knows where you and I both are. May we work to follow the path God sets before us and follow directions. We need not make things any more complicated than they are. God has got this, and we are God’s people. Let us serve and obey this day and all to come. Amen