14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. 2 Kings 5
Naaman finally, reluctantly obeyed Elisha’s instructions (WE SHOULD BE READY TO OBEY QUICKLY AND NOT DITHER!) and his skin was healed, he had perfect skin like that of a young boy. It wasn’t just his skin that was healed, but all the pride and arrogance left his soul as well. Both the external sickness and the internal pride were gone in the same moment. God was gracious to this foreigner who’d come such a long way on the word of one young Israeli slave girl. God sees into people’s souls and wants to draw out the good, if we’re willing to let Him. Sometimes with the unlikeliest people.
15 Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, ‘NOW I KNOW (NAAMAN PUBLICLY CONFESSED HIS NEW FAITH IN THE LIVING GOD) that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.’ 2 Kings 5
Our confession often binds us to the things we speak of, ‘Out of the heart the mouth speaks’. Luke 6:45 Naaman had all the same people with him when he returned to Elisha’s house but this time there was no bravado, he came back in humility. He’d met with God and would be a changed person for the rest of his life. When Jacob wrestled with God in the nighttime, Genesis 32:28, it says, ‘he wrestled with God and man and had overcome’, but God touched his hip, his natural strength and he always walked after that with a limp. I’ve heard Believers say, ‘never trust a man who doesn’t walk with a limp’. Never trust someone whom God hasn’t broken their natural strength, who still walk according to the flesh and live by the old nature. Such people constantly speak about their ego and use words like ‘I, me and mine’ all the time. They are living for and from themselves, not to serve the Lord and His people.
Naaman wanted to give Elisha a gift, this time from pure motives, but Elisha would have none of it. He too had heard from God and refused any payment for what God had done for Naaman. No matter how pure people’s motives may be and how much we need the gift, we must still obey God first.
16 The prophet answered, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.’ And even though Naaman urged him, he refused. 2 Kings 5
The gift Naaman offered willingly and with honest motives would become a snare to another person, before this miraculous affair concluded. Surely a warning that when God’s Spirit moves in power we mustn’t try to take things for ourselves. DON’T TOUCH THE GLORY.
May the Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us.