2 Kings 5:5, commentary and pictures

The verse sends Naaman, a Syrian nobleman and military captain afflicted with leprosy, on his journey to Israel for healing and divine truth, carrying a royal letter with ten talents of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. His going was made possible by the little Israelite maid placed in his household to help him, whose presence there was God's own sending. Naaman recognized his great need, lived faithfully up to the best light he had, and opened his heart to receive instruction. Because of that response he was cleansed from leprosy and enlightened to know the true God, showing that those who respond faithfully to the light they have are ready for greater light. The many lepers in Israel in Elisha's time were passed over because unbelief, self-exaltation, and perversion of precious privileges closed the door of good, so that even a heathen who does right as far as he can distinguish right from wrong is counted more worthy and favorably positioned before God than those with great light whose daily lives contradict their profession.

Story Setting and History

2 Kings 5:5 belongs to the account of Naaman, a Syrian nobleman and military captain afflicted with leprosy, who sought healing and divine truth. Naaman recognized his great need for help, lived faithfully according to his convictions of right and fully up to the best light and highest privileges he had, and was willing to open his heart to receive instruction. Because of that response he was cleansed from leprosy and enlightened in divine truth and came to know the true God, showing that those who respond faithfully to the light they have are ready for greater light and that God's gifts of grace are not confined to Israel. His faithfulness to the light he had received set him apart from Israelites who had greater privileges but were unbelieving, and Jesus used his cleansing to show that God's power and prophetic help were given to a foreigner outside Israel while many lepers in Israel remained unhealed.

Naaman's cleansing by Elisha was the previous known instance of a leper being healed. Since Elisha's day no afflicted person had been cleansed, so sufferers did not dare expect healing.

The verse involves the little Israelite maid placed in Naaman's household to help him, and her presence there was God's sending.

Grace Beyond Israel's Unbelief

Naaman was a Syrian nobleman and military captain afflicted with leprosy who recognized his great need for help, lived faithfully according to his convictions of right and fully up to the best light and highest privileges he had, and was willing to open his heart to receive instruction. He had been true to what he knew was right, did right as far as he could distinguish right from wrong, appreciated divine favors and responded to light given from heaven. Because of that response he was cleansed from his leprosy and enlightened in regard to divine truth and came to know the true God. His case shows that God's gifts of grace are not confined to Israel and that those who respond faithfully to the light they have received and live up to the light they have are ready for greater light and more favorably positioned before God.

The many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha were passed over and not cleansed because their unbelief closed the door of good and placed them where God's power could not be manifested in their behalf. Their self-exaltation and abuse and perversion of precious privileges to self-exaltation, slighting and despising their privileges, left them unhealed while the foreigner was healed. Even a heathen who lives according to the best light he has is regarded with greater favor and counted more worthy, righteous, and favorably positioned before God than those who have great light and make high pretensions to godliness while their daily lives contradict their profession. Those with greater spiritual advantages who do not live by them, who reject truth for convenience and worldly honor and are made proud, boastful and self-sufficient by their light, forfeit what the faithful heathen receives.

Jesus used Naaman's healing to show that God's power and prophetic help were given to a foreigner outside Israel while Israelites were unhealed. When Israel rejected God's messengers, help could go to someone outside Israel, for receiving God's light matters more than belonging to His chosen people. The history shows that those God chooses for special and important work are not allowed to labor for hard-hearted and unbelieving people, but display God's power for those who have hearts to feel and faith to grasp the evidences God gives. At Nazareth this history was set forth as a severe rebuke exposing corrupt lives and wicked unbelief, because the hearers scorned the reverence first inspired and would not believe one who came in meekness and lowliness, poverty and sorrow, to be more than a common man, wanting no one as king unless attended by riches and splendor and a grand and imposing army.

Guidance and Present Application

God guides a person's steps to the place of His own choosing because someone in that very place needs the help that person can give, as seen when the little Israelite maid was placed in the household of Naaman the Syrian captain to help him and her presence there was God's sending. Work that is not of personal choice is to be accepted as God's choice, and the duty that lies nearest, whether pleasing or unpleasing, is to be done. As God sent that maid to Naaman, so He still sends men and women and youth today as His representatives to those in need of divine help and guidance.