9So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha’s house. 10But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy.”
11But Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me! 12Aren’t the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?” So Naaman turned and went away in a rage.
13But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!’” 14So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed!
15Then Naaman and his entire party went back to find the man of God. They stood before him, and Naaman said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.”
16But Elisha replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept any gifts.” And though Naaman urged him to take the gift, Elisha refused.
17Then Naaman said, “All right, but please allow me to load two of my mules with earth from this place, and I will take it back home with me. From now on I will never again offer burnt offerings or sacrifices to any other god except the Lord. 18However, may the Lord pardon me in this one thing: When my master the king goes into the temple of the god Rimmon to worship there and leans on my arm, may the Lord pardon me when I bow, too.”
19“Go in peace,” Elisha said. So Naaman started home again.
Today in my daily reading this really pop out to me. There are two parts in this that spoke to me. The first one was when Naaman was angry that the task of getting healed was too easy. At time when God speaks to us when we feel like the task is too easy for the blessing, we go the hard way which is not the way God wanted us to go and then when there is no blessing at the end of it, we are confused. What I am hearing is whether it is the easy path or the hard path, we must follow the direction the God has given us. It at time may seem strange but he will always direct our path straight.
The Second item that stuck out to me is that he knew that he had to go back to his master that worshiped other Gods. But instead of going back self-righteous saying I am not going to bow anymore. He understood his master ways were not changed as his were, so he asked for forgiveness as he still needed to obey. I thought that was interesting as in this day of almost militant either this or that, here he was stuck between two worlds. But he is asked for this all Elisha had to say to him was “Go in Peace”. I think at times we forget
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