Naaman Almost Went Home Sick

Last week I told you about the ravens. This week I want to tell you about a man who almost walked away from his own healing because he did not like the instructions.

His name was Naaman. He was a commander. Powerful, decorated, used to being handled with respect. He also had leprosy, and in his world that was a slow death sentence with a clock on it.

He hears there is a prophet in Israel who can heal him. So he loads up his horses and chariots, brings silver and gold and royal letters, and shows up at Elisha's door expecting a moment worthy of his rank.

Elisha does not even come outside.

He sends a servant with a message. Go wash in the Jordan seven times and you will be clean. (2 Kings 5:10)

Naaman is furious.

2 Kings 5:11-12. “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me.” Then he says it. Are not the rivers of Damascus better than any of the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?

He had the cure in front of him. And he almost went home still sick.

He Already Decided What It Should Look Like

Here is the thing about Naaman.

He was not refusing to be healed. He wanted to be healed more than anything. He had traveled for it. He had paid for it.

He was refusing the package.

He had a picture in his head of how a real miracle should arrive. A prophet on the porch. A dramatic wave of the hand. Words spoken over him with the proper amount of ceremony. He had pre-approved the delivery system before he ever left home.

And when God sent a muddy river and a servant with a sentence, it offended him.

That is most of us. We do not reject God. We reject the bird. We reject the river. We reject the messenger because the messenger did not come dressed the way we expected.

What It Almost Cost

Read what saved him. It was not his rank, his money, or his theology.

It was a servant with the courage to ask him a simple question. 2 Kings 5:13. “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, wash and be cleansed?”

In other words. You were ready to do something hard and impressive. Why are you refusing because it is small and simple and did not flatter you?

He went down. He washed. He came up clean.

The miracle was never in question. His willingness to receive it through an offensive delivery system was the entire test.

I think about how many believers are standing exactly where Naaman stood. Sick of something. Tired of carrying something. Praying for an answer. And the answer keeps showing up in a form they keep dismissing because it is too simple, too strange, too small, or coming from a source they do not respect.

The Pattern Is The Point

This is not about one man and a river. It is about a God who consistently refuses to deliver on our terms.

A teenage girl carried the Messiah.

A shepherd boy with a sling beat a giant.

A murderer named Moses led the rescue.

A persecutor named Paul wrote most of the New Testament.

A despised tax collector wrote a Gospel.

If you had been on the committee, you would have rejected almost every one of them at the door. Wrong resume. Wrong background. Wrong delivery system.

God keeps doing this on purpose. He hides the gift inside a package that filters out the proud. Only the humble bend down far enough to pick it up.

The Question For This Week

Here is what I want you to sit with.

What answer have you already prayed for, that may have already arrived, that you keep sending back because you do not approve of how it showed up?

The healing. The relationship repair. The new direction. The hard conversation. The unglamorous next step. The person you would never have chosen to learn from.

Be honest. You might be one act of humility away from your Jordan.

One More Thing

This is the whole reason I wrote Ravens and Algorithms. We are entering a season where God is going to deliver provision, direction, and opportunity through forms that will offend a lot of religious instincts. I do not want you standing at the river, arms crossed, while the cure waits.

The book walks through how to recognize the delivery when it does not look the way you expected.

Click → RAVENS AND ALGORITHMS 

Stop sending back the answer because you do not like the envelope.

Go wash in the river.

Onward,
Chris Behnke

P.S. — Notice who spoke truth to Naaman. Not the king. Not the prophet. A servant nobody bothered to name. Sometimes the delivery system for your breakthrough is a person you have been ignoring. Pay attention to who God put close to you this week.