2 Kings · chapter 5 of 25
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2 Kings 5 tells how Naaman, commander of the army of Aram, sick with leprosy, is sent to Elisha by a captive Israelite girl. After resisting, he obeys and washes seven times in the Jordan, and is made clean. He confesses that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel, but Gehazi, Elisha's servant, secretly asks for payment and is struck with Naaman's leprosy.
After Elisha's miracles among his own people in chapter 4, 2 Kings 5 shows that God's grace also reaches a foreign enemy. Aram was a power that threatened Israel, yet one of its officers receives healing and faith. Jesus would recall this story in Nazareth to show that God cares for the nations. The chapter contrasts Naaman's humility with Gehazi's greed.
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, is a brave and honored man, but he has leprosy. A captive Israelite girl who serves his wife tells her that in Samaria there is a prophet who could cure him. The king of Aram writes a letter to the king of Israel, and Naaman travels with silver, gold and garments. The king of Israel tears his clothes, convinced that Aram is looking for a pretext for war.
Elisha sends word to the king to send Naaman to him. Naaman arrives with his horses and chariots at Elisha's door, but the prophet sends only a messenger: wash seven times in the Jordan. Naaman is furious, because he expected a ceremonial gesture and thinks the rivers of Damascus are better. His servants persuade him: if the prophet had asked something difficult he would have done it, so how much more something so simple? Naaman dips seven times and his flesh becomes like a child's.
He returns to Elisha and declares that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. He wants to give a gift, but Elisha refuses. Naaman asks for earth from Israel, two mule loads, to worship only the Lord, and asks the Lord's pardon for when he goes with his king into the house of Rimmon. Elisha tells him to go in peace.
Gehazi, the servant, runs after Naaman, invents a request for two needy young prophets and receives silver and garments. He hides them, but Elisha knows what he did. He tells Gehazi that Naaman's leprosy will cling to him and his descendants, and Gehazi goes out white as snow.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The captive girl wishes her master were with the prophet in Samaria, who would cure him of his leprosy. A nameless slave girl without power is God's instrument to bring healing to her captor.
Naaman is enraged because he expected Elisha to come out, call on the Lord and wave his hand over the diseased spot, and because the rivers of Damascus seemed better than the Jordan. His pride almost kept him from healing.
Naaman dips seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh becomes like that of a child. Healing comes through simple obedience to God's word, not through a complicated ritual.
Naaman returns to Elisha and confesses that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. The pagan commander moves from rage to faith, and his confession anticipates the blessing of the nations.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: A captive Israelite girl who served his wife. — 2 Kings 5:2-3
Answer: Because he thought the king of Aram was seeking a pretext for war by asking him to cure Naaman. — 2 Kings 5:7
Answer: Wash seven times in the Jordan. — 2 Kings 5:10
Answer: He expected a ceremonial gesture from Elisha and thought the rivers of Damascus were better. — 2 Kings 5:11-12
Answer: Earth, two mule loads of it, so he could worship only the Lord. — 2 Kings 5:17
Answer: He received Naaman's leprosy, for himself and his descendants. — 2 Kings 5:27
God used a slave girl to bring hope to an enemy commander. No testimony is too small when it is spoken in faith. In Sunday school it is worth remembering that sometimes we are the ones with something to say to a person who is suffering, even if our position seems weak.
Naaman nearly lost his healing through pride. God often works through simple means that offend our expectations. Let us ask where we demand that God act our way, and where greed, like Gehazi's, tempts us to profit from what God gives freely.
2 Kings 5 ends with Gehazi leprous and Naaman clean, a striking reversal between the prophet's servant and the foreigner. In chapter 6, Elisha will keep acting among the community of prophets and against the raids of Aram.
Elisha wanted to make clear that healing was a free gift of the Lord and not a service that could be paid for. Accepting the gift would have blurred the message and given credit to the prophet instead of to God. Gehazi, by contrast, tried to profit from what was pure grace.
Naaman was committing himself to worship only the Lord, but his office required him to accompany the king into the temple of Rimmon, a Syrian god. He asks pardon in advance. Elisha tells him to go in peace, without a detailed explanation, and the text leaves the matter open.
In Nazareth, Jesus recalled that there were many lepers in Israel in Elisha's time, and none was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. He was showing that God's grace reaches everyone, and his hearers were furious. The passage is in Luke 4.