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- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
2 Kings 5
God revealed His plan for the redemption of the world through His prophets by more than just their words. I see so many things in these stories that relate to Jesus, His work, and how we come to and live in Him. This story of Naaman is one of those Jesus moments. There are a few things I see in this story.
- Expectations! Naaman had a grand picture in his mind of how his healing would go. Therefore, when it didn’t come to him the way he expected, that became a stumbling block for him. Jesus likewise did not fit people’s grand picture of God’s Messiah. He, too, became a stumbling block due to those misplaced expectations.
- Like Naaman’s healing, our salvation is humble, simple, and free. The fact that Elisha would not accept a gift in return for the healing stresses the point that we cannot do anything to buy or earn our salvation. In fact, trying to negates God’s gift of grace. I think we even see a little picture of that in Gahazi’s actions after Naaman left. He was like the Christian Jews in the early Church who insisted on clinging to works of the law.
- When God redeems us, He changes us. After Naaman’s healing, he clearly ‘got it’. Taking the soil with him was a tangible way for him to intentionally seek to be in God’s presence. And his request for pardon shows that he knew worshipping Rimmon was wrong, something he never would have considered before. To me, it also shows that whenever and wherever we come to God, though our circumstances stay the same, we face them with a different attitude.
2 Kings 6-7
I see yet another picture of how we come to and live in Christ in this story of the siege on Samaria. I’m sure there are more than one, but the one I am looking at has to do with the lepers. These lepers realized that, if they stayed where they were, they were dead regardless of what they did. So they turned to mercy and opted to turn themselves over to the Arameans. When they acted on that decision, they found their salvation, but it was not from the Arameans. Then, while they were reaping the riches of God’s grace, they realized that it wasn’t right to keep it to themselves. So they went and spread the word.
We, too, must come to a realization of our need. If we stay where and as we are, we are dead. If, however, we put our hope in God’s mercy, we not only live, but we live in the riches of His grace. To truly receive that grace, however, we need to share it. If we try to keep it to ourselves, we will find we never really had it because we never really understood it. One more similarity with the leper’s situation – when they did go back to share the good news, they met with skepticism. People will not always receive the grace we offer or accept the truth we share. We have no control over that. Our only responsibility is to point others to where God’s riches lie.
2 Kings 8
In the CSB translation, this passage has a footnote saying that the name, Jehoram, means, “The LORD is exalted”. I find that very interesting. Jehoram, the son of Judah’s righteous King Jehoshaphat, was married to the daughter of Israel’s evil King Ahab. Thus, he had two opposing influences in his life. Jehoram chose to follow the wrong one. Nothing about Jehoram’s life exalted God. Which is precisely the point. In spite of Jehoram’s wicked ways, God spared Judah because of His promise to David. Thus God was exalted through Jehoram because He showed Himself to be righteous. As Paul said in Romans, “But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more” (Rom. 5:20b).