When Jesus walked the earth, God's word was central to life. It was the everyday conversation of the community. They were brought together by the text, and they even agreed on a text of the week. This same ancient rythmn is available to us today! Join us in reading and commenting on what is know as the "Parashah." Imagine a community whose unity is rooted in the very word of God!
Naaman had just experienced a miracle at the hands of a God in whom he had not previously known. He had heard about a prophet in Israel (a country in which the Aram's loved to cause trouble in by, of course as scripture says, by kidnapping people) that could cure his leprosy. So by faith he went into Israel, the place he messed with, like the bully going into the puny wimps backward, and asked the wimp for help, in essence asked the king of Israel for help, who in all his drama tore his clothes because he wasn't God and Naaman was asking him for something he was incapable of doing, or thought he was incapable of doing, ye of little faith oh King! So he was directed to Elisha who told him to go bath in the river 7 times. That just made Naaman even angrier because he was an Aram. He was above the Israelites who were flees to the Aram nation. But in his humility, and following the council of his servant he went, and in the process was cured of his ailment.
What I find the most interesting is that Naaman became a believer in the God of Israel, the Lord! But he was forced to bow down to this false God of rain and thunder, but asked in doing so that he would be forgiven. then Elisha says "Go in peace." In essence to me says "you are free from that."
All of this is a beautiful display of God's heart. God knew that Naaman would come to him, but he also knew that he had an obligation to serving his master who bowed to Rimmon. I'm guessing his master was old because he had to lean on Naaman to get down and bow causing Naaman to bow. What faith! It reminds me that God is so much more concerned with our hearts than our actions. Of course some will say that our actions will represent what is flowing from our hearts but in some cases maybe it doesn't. Maybe there are people who are bound to obligation, to things that God in his pure heart would not want them to do, but they can't get out of it. Maybe they too are free but yet stuck. And we who are Christian look on and say, this person, or that person doesn't know the Lord because they bow to Rimmon. But maybe, just maybe, they don't want to be bowing to Rimmon at all. Maybe their Rimmon is addiction, or some type of habitual sin. Maybe its some kind of sinful force that causes them to bow to a God who they do not want to worship.
It all takes me to Romans 7:20 - "Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."
All this reminds me so much that the exterior of someone does not always resemble the interior heart!
1 comment:
my simple thoughts!
2 Kings 5 - Naaman
Naaman had just experienced a miracle at the hands of a God in whom he had not previously known. He had heard about a prophet in Israel (a country in which the Aram's loved to cause trouble in by, of course as scripture says, by kidnapping people) that could cure his leprosy. So by faith he went into Israel, the place he messed with, like the bully going into the puny wimps backward, and asked the wimp for help, in essence asked the king of Israel for help, who in all his drama tore his clothes because he wasn't God and Naaman was asking him for something he was incapable of doing, or thought he was incapable of doing, ye of little faith oh King! So he was directed to Elisha who told him to go bath in the river 7 times. That just made Naaman even angrier because he was an Aram. He was above the Israelites who were flees to the Aram nation. But in his humility, and following the council of his servant he went, and in the process was cured of his ailment.
What I find the most interesting is that Naaman became a believer in the God of Israel, the Lord! But he was forced to bow down to this false God of rain and thunder, but asked in doing so that he would be forgiven. then Elisha says "Go in peace." In essence to me says "you are free from that."
All of this is a beautiful display of God's heart. God knew that Naaman would come to him, but he also knew that he had an obligation to serving his master who bowed to Rimmon. I'm guessing his master was old because he had to lean on Naaman to get down and bow causing Naaman to bow. What faith! It reminds me that God is so much more concerned with our hearts than our actions. Of course some will say that our actions will represent what is flowing from our hearts but in some cases maybe it doesn't. Maybe there are people who are bound to obligation, to things that God in his pure heart would not want them to do, but they can't get out of it. Maybe they too are free but yet stuck. And we who are Christian look on and say, this person, or that person doesn't know the Lord because they bow to Rimmon. But maybe, just maybe, they don't want to be bowing to Rimmon at all. Maybe their Rimmon is addiction, or some type of habitual sin. Maybe its some kind of sinful force that causes them to bow to a God who they do not want to worship.
It all takes me to Romans 7:20 - "Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."
All this reminds me so much that the exterior of someone does not always resemble the interior heart!
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