Today's daily lesson comes from 2 Kings chapter 5 verses 1 and 9 through 14:
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper . . .9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house. 10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” 11 But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. 13 But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is was a great thing the prophet had spoken to you to do, would you not do it? But he has actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 14 So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
Naaman is the great military leader of one of Israel's arch enemies, Syria. He is a mighty man with mighty victories under his belt. But he is also a leper, which makes him desperate -- desperate enough to go and seek out healing from a prophet of Israel. So with all his horses and chariots and no doubt in full military regalia, Naaman shows up at the prophet Elisha's house -- eager to be received. Elisha, however, refuses to receive Naaman or even meet him at the door. Instead he sends a messenger out to Naaman who tells Naaman that if he wants to be cleansed he needs to go down and wash in the most piddling little creek in all the Middle East called the Jordan. It was all a real insult to the mighty general's pride.
Most of us spend our lives denying our leptospirosis and the leprosies in our families. Pride stands in our way of getting the help we need. But at some point we get desperate enough to go down to Israel. And that's when the prophet's messenger comes out to ask us just how badly we want it, and tell us just how much pride we will need to put aside in order to get it. That's when he tells us we'll have to go even further down to Jordan.
And that's when we'll know just how bad we want it, when the general in us realizes he will either have to surrender or die.
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