5:1 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. 5:2 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. 5:3 She said to her mistress, "If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." 5:4 So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. 5:5 And the king of Aram said, "Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel." He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. 5:6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy." 5:7 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." 5:8 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." 5:9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha's house. 5:10 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." 5:11 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! 5:12 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. 5:13 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'?" 5:14 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.
If it's not broken, don't fix it. We're familiar with this time-tested adage, but why does it ring true? Because we know that when something breaks, it can be challenging to fix.
Usually, when something goes on the fritz, we know what to do. If the car breaks down, we take it to a car dealer or our favorite local mechanic. A bicycle goes to a bicycle shop, and we might even repair it ourselves if we're handy. Sometimes a malfunctioning smartphone or computer can simply be handed to the nearest teenager for a quick fix. Even if something more complex, like a marriage or relationship, goes off the rails, we can go to a therapist, counselor, or pastor.
But what do we do when a device isn't working, and we don't know how to fix it? Even if we find a skilled tech who can deal with it, we might discover that a repair is too costly and not worth the time and effort. We're better off shelling out the cash to buy a new device … which will fail within 18 months … and we swap out again, parting with more cash … until it fails, and the pattern continues. We know how it goes.
To break this cycle, France stepped to the forefront on the world stage in 2021 and, according to one source, began to require "makers of certain electronic devices, including smartphones and laptops, to tell consumers how repairable their products are. Manufacturers selling these devices in France must give their products a score, or 'repairability index,' based on a range of criteria, including how easy it is to take the product apart and the availability of spare parts and technical documents. … The repairability index represents France's effort to combat planned obsolescence, the intentional creation of products with a finite life-span that need to be replaced frequently, and transition to a more circular economy where waste is minimized."
It is easy to fix electronic items, but what about when a person needs fixing? Some people tend to believe that when a person is broken that they cannot be repaired. That certain sicknesses or issues make a person irredeemable. Leprosy was one of those types of illness in the Bible.
Leprosy was a disease that made you a societal outcast. People did not want to be around someone with leprosy, nor did they want to be around someone who had been around someone with leprosy. Does that sound familiar? People had to announce they had leprosy when they were in public; they would have to go around yelling unclean! Unclean! The book of Leviticus devotes two whole chapters in the book, chapters 13 and 14, regarding how people were supposed to clean themselves after catching leprosy. Contracting leprosy in the Bible would turn your life upside down. No matter your education, social status, or position, anyone could catch this sickness.
Naaman was a commander in the Aram military, and Naaman had leprosy. Naaman went to Israel looking for healing. Naaman put on fine clothes and brought gifts. Had a letter from the King of Aram. Ten talents 15-16k
6k shekels 13-14k
When Naaman arrived, the King of Israel was upset at the letter. He said, "am I God that I can heal this man?" The King of Israel feared war because Aram had already defeated Israel. Israel had a new King right now because the father, Ahab, died in the last war, and his son Jehoram was King now. The new King tore his clothes, thinking the King of Aram wanted the King of Israel to heal Naaman himself. After that miscommunication, Naaman got sent to Elisha.
Naaman was upset that Elisha didn't come out. Naman was a part of what I would call the pastor-only crowd. The people who feel like if the senior pastor isn't giving them direct personal attention that it doesn't matter. The pastor-only crowd thinks only the pastor is supposed to care for them and visit them when they're sick. Only the pastor is supposed to call them and check up on them; only the pastor is supposed to give them their undivided attention.
The pastor-only crowd wants to know which week the senior pastor is preaching because those are the only weeks they want to attend church. Sometimes the church folk need to take care of the church folk, and you can't leave everything up to the pastor. Sometimes, you might also need to take a hit to your ego. You look at the Bible, and nowhere does it have the pastors doing everything for everybody; through the Bible, the people worked together to make something happen. In the Old Testament and the New Testament, the priest, prophets, pastors, etc., were out front, but a group of people was behind them. Naaman went to Elisha, and a messenger came out and told him what he needed to do for healing.
Help can come from unexpected places,
There is a play on words when they describe Naaman in Hebrew, they use phrases that mean big man, and this big man has to get help from this little girl. You never know who is around you and what they are capable of doing. God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. How many good ideas have we shot down because they didn't come from the person we expected? How many opportunities have we missed because the opportunity didn't fit in the box we made for it? Naaman, by most social standards, would have ignored the servant girl and kept looking elsewhere for healing, but this big man got help from this little girl. We have to be open to getting help from unexpected places. We don't even know the girl's name, but none of this stuff happens without her.
God does not leave us when tragedy strikes
God does not leave us when tragedy strikes; God does not cause tragedy to happen to us. God is here to tell us that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. God is grieving with us. God is supporting us when we are hurt. Elisha wanted to ensure that Naaman knew there was a prophet in Israel. God will never leave you nor forsake you. The Bible says he who has begun a good work in you shall perform it until the day of Christ Jesus; God was with Naaman, God is with you.
Do common things consistently
Naaman got mad at Elisha, telling him to dip himself in the water; Naaman expected a bunch of bells, whistles, and some sort of performance to get healed. The prophet said dip yourself in the Jordan River. Sometimes, the simple things get the job done, not the complicated ones. When I was working as an engineer, I was introduced to something called the universal troubleshooting process. The universal troubleshooting process had a bunch of steps that you could take to fix any piece of broken equipment, and we were supposed to apply the universal troubleshooting process to our day-to-day duties. One of the tenants of the universal troubleshooting process was to keep cutting the problem in half; as long as you kept cutting the problem in half, you would get down to the root issue that caused the object to break in the first place. Every time we broke an issue down, the solution became simple. Naaman was ready to leave until one of his men stopped him (another unnamed person). They said if the prophet asked you to do something complicated, you would have done it; why not do something simple?
God loves all his children
God loves all his children, Naaman is the main character in this story, and God heals Naaman by Naaman following Elisha's instructions. Something we forget is that Naaman is not a believer before this situation. God loves all his children; God did not say well; Naaman is not a believer, so Elisha doesn't have to heal him; God healed Naaman anyway, and later on in the same chapter, Naaman becomes a believer. We have to be willing to help people before we worry about conversion because we didn't worry about conversion first. Naaman was healed.
And so, the mighty Naaman, reduced to humbling himself before the God of Israel, enduring the snub of a prophet of the Most High, walked down to the muddy Jordan, removed his clothes, and in so doing, revealed his scabrous and broken body to his servants, and then lowered himself into the water until he was seen no more. Then, he shot up out of the river, gasping for air, and took a second plunge and repeated this until the seven-fold baptism was complete. Naaman was not too broke to be fixed.
This is good news for those who feel their relationship with God is broken or beyond repair. Rather than attempting a repair, the owner is issued a completely new phone, or, as the Bible puts it, a new nature, a new creation — a fresh start with an entirely new outlook and perspective.
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