2 Kings 5:13

NAAMAN OBEYED GOD'S WORD AND WAS HEALED

"And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee to do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean."

"If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing" (2 Kings 5:13). The very simplicity and insignificance of what the man of God commanded appears to have been another one of the reasons why he, at first, refused to obey. Alas, this is an attitude often found in mortal sinners on the brink of the grave. This writer vividly remembers an incident in 1932 at the base hospital in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, when the wife of a high-ranking military officer fell while visiting her son in that area. She sent word to this young preacher to visit her, and she asked what to do to be saved, since she realized that her death was near. The great passages pertaining to the forgiveness of sins, as found in the holy N.T., were read in her hearing, prayers were offered, and she was invited and urged to obey the gospel. She thought about it awhile; and then said, "Well, baptism has always seemed to me to be such an insignificant thing that I just can't believe that it would do any good!"

"His flesh came again" (2 Kings 5:14). It appears from this that some of Naaman's flesh had been lost, as also indicated by the words of the prophet, "Thy flesh shall come again to thee" (2 Kings 5:10). When this writer visited a leper compound in Pusan, Korea in 1953, he observed sufferers from this disease who had lost their nose, or eyelids, or ear, or portions of their lips, and it is certain from the terminology used here that Naaman had suffered such loss of flesh. If there had been any doubt of what his disease was, these words would have certified the diagnosis as confirming a case of Hansen's disease, or leprosy.