The value of a story can never be underestimated.  So many of us are the product of words, spoken and written.  Shelves full of books and the thoughts of others in sound are the colour and richness of our lives.  Good memories of childhood often revolve around storytime—the good ones and the bad ones, the questions that arise from them, and that special contentment at the end of a great story.

Stories have impact.  Suddenly, our environment changes in light of the words we hear or read.  They stay with us, live in us, are processed, and… perhaps forgotten.  That is why our own story is so important.  It remains essential to write down our own story and not forget it, especially when it is God’s Word and God’s thoughts that shape our lives.  How many special moments of miracles and breakthroughs are forgotten because we don’t record them?  The small details are astonishing.

It was an incidental testimony that led my grandmother and grandfather to a deeper life when they heard that there were people who laid hands on a person and prayed for healing.  It was an unusual practice in their rural setting, at a time when it was neither preached nor practiced.  When my grandmother was critically ill and medical options seemed vague and hopeless, she remembered the comment of an old farm visitor about his brother’s stomach cancer.  Some pastor had prayed for him, and now he was already back at work.  Just like that—hearsay from hundreds of miles away about an unknown person.

So she sought…and found.  In an office in downtown Johannesburg, a pastor took out his small bottle of oil, anointed her, and prayed for her.  She got better, was completely healed within a few weeks, and only passed away twelve years later from something unrelated.

These are the words I grew up with.  Then I read something similar in the Bible. Sit back and relax for a story.  Turn to 2 Kings 5—the story of Naaman and the slave girl.

First, we must realize how important a man Naaman was—commander of the army of Aram (Syria), a respected man who had the favour of the king and great success in his position as a “professional” soldier.  He knew victory, honor, and the esteem he held in the highest circles of his country.

But he was sick.  Not just a cold that would pass.  He had leprosy—a death sentence with no hope of healing.

In his house was a slave girl from Israel, whom his soldiers had taken from her parents and family during one of his great victories, bringing her by force to his land.  How old was she?  Perhaps as young as ten or eleven—we don’t know, but the Bible calls her a little girl.  She already knew many things.  She had heard stories, and her stories equipped her to give advice to a royal official.

She knew about Elisha and his miracles.  She knew that sickness had an answer—a solution through prayer.  Just think.  She passed on this hearsay testimony, and the result is an entire chapter in an ancient text. There is a prophet in Israel who has the answer to the impossible.

There is no doubt that Naaman was desperate.  He “used” his connections. He went to the king, and the king spoke with the king of Israel.  What could be better than that?  Kings discussing Naaman’s illness and seeking a solution at the highest level… but finding none.

Naaman set off with a fortune in gifts.  Read verse 5.  Even the wording of the letter to the king of Israel is recorded, with no mention of God or a prophet.

It reads as follows: “I have sent my servant Naaman to you with this letter. When he arrives, you must heal him of his leprosy.”

The king of Israel panicked, seeing the request as a diplomatic provocation for war.  His fear of the king of Syria clouded his judgment to such an extent that he lost all his dignity.  His lament is also recorded:

“Am I God, who can kill and bring to life, that this man sends someone to me to be healed of his leprosy? Clearly, he is looking for a fight with me.”

Elisha heard about the king’s meltdown.  How?  It is clear that this royal request and Naaman’s need were part of God’s plan, placed there by the testimony of a slave girl from Israel (symbolic of the Kingdom of God in the New Testament).

Elisha was unimpressed by his own king’s panic and fear.  This is evident in his response: “Why have you torn your clothes? Let Naaman come to me, so that he will know there is a prophet in Israel.”

Naaman arrived at Elisha’s house with great expectations.  He had come for what he had heard about—the prophet who had been spoken of.  Now things should go according to his plan… or not?

His expectations are clearly spelled out (verses 11 and 12).

Naaman went away angry and said: “I thought he would surely come out, stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot, and cure me of my leprosy. Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?”

Elisha did not meet him as expected.  Instead, he sent a messenger with his “healing recipe.”  The prophet ignored Naaman’s status, position, and wealth.  Nothing Naaman valued “worked” here at the famed prophet’s house.  He was treated no better than one of his servants.  He would not stand for it!  Furious, he rode away.  Suddenly, his entire illness and need were consumed by pride and arrogance, and he was ready to return home without what he had come for.

Naaman’s servants “saved” his mission.  They were accustomed to a life without protocol and ritual.  Once again, the words of the lowest in society were the decisive factor.  They pleaded with him to obey the prophet’s words.

The Jordan River was just a simple stream compared to the great rivers of Syria, but the Jordan was the river  in Israel, the Kingdom of God.  It was the river in the mouth of the prophet.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Revelation 22:1)

Naaman wanted to adjust the prophet’s instructions to suit himself. Why wouldn’t the rivers of Syria work?

It is important to know that ancient people believed that gods were territorial.  The people of Israel were furious with Ahab when he built a temple to Baal in Samaria at the insistence of his wife Jezebel.  They believed Baal had gained access to the territory under Israel’s God’s rule.  It was only during the Babylonian exile that they realized God was everywhere, still with them even in the land of Babylon’s idols.

The Jordan was in Israel, just as the River of the Water of Life in Revelation is in the New Jerusalem—the Kingdom of God.  The rivers of the world do not contain the water of life because they are not in the prophet’s words. The words spoken by the prophet are powerful and obedience is the key.

Naaman finally obeyed—probably grudgingly and full of resentment—but he followed through.  His healing was not an instant “wave of the hand” as he had expected.

Seven times—the perfect number.  God’s plan, not your expectation.  The perfect process to bring about your healing.  Will you submit to the process, to the greater miracle of inner transformation, just as Naaman’s ego had to bow before the prophet’s words?

Surely, by the seventh time, his mood had changed.  His humiliation was complete.  His healing emerged, and in his humility—the fruit of the process—he went back to Elisha with his own words of power and repentance.

“I now know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.”

And then he wanted to pay.  After all, he hadn’t carried all that gold and silver for nothing.  Was there still a bit of his own plan left?

We will discuss it next time.