Our Expectations and Pride Can Keep Us From the Blessing of God — 2 Kings 5:9-14
This great general, who is highly esteemed by the king of Aram, has leprosy.
He comes with great wealth to Elisha to be healed.
2 Kings 5:9-10 (NIV84) “So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.””
I mean, Elisha didn’t even go out to meet the man; he sent his servant.
Watch Naaman’s response.
2 Kings 5:11-12 (NIV84) “But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.”
We have our expectations of how it is to be.
When they are not met, we become offended. Like our ways are better than God’s. We can get blinded by our own self-importance and expectations that we are not willing to hear what God is saying to us.
2 Kings 5:13 (NIV84) “Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”
Thankfully, God is merciful, and He is doing something through our circumstances that will bring Him glory. Though we are involved, it is not about us but Him.
2 Kings 5:14 “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.”
What an incredible miracle; in fact, it still brings God glory today, 2,700 years later.
I wonder what impossible thing God has allowed in our lives that He wants to use to bring Him glory? But we are either too full of ourselves or so set on our expectations that we are not listening or willing to hear what God is asking us to do.
He is able. He can. We can’t. What are You saying to us, God? Please send another messenger to us. Help us past ourselves to hear you and obey. Even when it doesn’t make sense to us.
May you get all the glory from our lives. Father, we look to you.
