Naaman had always done things his way—the right way, the best way. But still, his mottled skin . . . He was up against a monster that would devour him inch by fleshy inch.
What if it worked?
He laid his pride on the riverbank, slogged through the slippery mud, and waded into the Jordan.
He knelt in the stream and let the cold water rush over him. Nothing. He stood. How unsavory for a man of such rank. He dipped again. And again. He rose the seventh time, brushed the water from his eyes and saw that "his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean" (2 Kings 5:14). Naaman immediately knew that only the God of Israel could perform such a miracle. It was beyond anything he had ever witnessed. We can see him shouting at the top of his lungs and charging toward shore, leaping through the turbulence. "Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel" (2 Kings 5:15). Naaman had passed the greatest milestone of his success-strewn life. He knew then he would honor only the God who had cured him.
The commander returned to Elisha's dwelling, a little sheepishly, no doubt, after his tirade. He wanted to thank the prophet. Elisha conceded to talk to the humbled, healed Aramean.
Naaman tried to pay for the miracle with the gold and silver he had brought with him—over $400,000 in today's currency—but Elisha refused compensation. He wanted Naaman to understand that he was completely dependent on God's sufficiency. There was nothing he could do to earn, or pay for, his deliverance from the dread leprosy.
Naaman was a man of power and self-reliance who found himself helpless in the face of leprosy. He learned that true success meant relying on God's power.
Too often, we, like Naaman, go to God in our own strength with great plans to evangelize, to teach, to heal our own "leprosy"; however, God is not glorified in our strength, but, as He told Paul, His "power is perfected in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). "Seek the LORD in His strength" (1 Chronicles 16:11). Then you, too, will "tell of His Glory among the nations" (v. 24) and "ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name" (v. 29).
By Patrick Davis
In Touch Ministries
