30 THREE PROBLEMS SOLVED

Elisha is in his place, in his element, among the sons of the prophets and teaching them as a father, providing for them. It was good for them that they had someone over them who naturally cared for them, under whom they were well fed and well taught. There was a dearth in the land, which lasted seven years, again just as long as the earlier one in Elijah’s time. There was a famine of bread, but not of hearing the word of God. Elisha had the sons of the prophets sitting before him to hear his wisdom, who were taught, that they might teach others. We see two instances of the care Elisha took about their food supply. Jesus also fed those to whom He preached two different times. Psalm 37:19 says, “In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.”

This is exactly what God does here for the school of the prophets. Through Elisha’s prayers, faith and spiritual gifts God made harmful food safe and then next multiplied wholesome bread. On lecture-day, Elisha asked his servant to provide food for their bodies, while he was breaking to them the bread of life for their souls. It does not say whether there was any meat for them; he only says to prepare pottage with herbs. The sons of the prophets should be examples of temperance and moderation, not desirous of dainties, but content with plain food. If they have neither meats nor sweets, if a mess of pottage was all there was to the dinner, let them remember that this great prophet entertained himself and his guests with nothing better.

Someone was sent to gather herbs who by mistake brought in gourds from a wild vine, cut them up and placed the pieces in the pottage. The sons of the prophets, it seems, were better skilled in divinity than in natural food preparation, and read their Bibles more than their books about food supplies. The men complained to Elisha of the unwholesomeness of their food. Nature has given man the sense of tasting, not only that wholesome food may be pleasant, but also that what is unwholesome may be discovered before it gets to the stomach; the mouth tries meat by tasting it. This pottage was soon found by its taste to be dangerous, so they cried out, “There is death in the pot.”

Elisha immediately cured the bad taste and prevented the bad consequences of this unwholesome pottage. Remember earlier he had healed the bitter waters with salt. This time it was the bitter broth with meal. It is possible there was meal in it before, but that was put in only to thicken it. This was the same thing, but cast in by Elisha’s hand, and with intent to heal the pottage. By this we can see that the change was not due to the meal itself, but to God’s power. Now all was well with not only no death, but no harm in the pot. The Lord is our Healer, Protector and Provider. Praise Him!

(2) 1 Kings 4:42-44 A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said. 43 “How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked. But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” 44 Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.

As Mannah and the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, God worked through Elisha and made a little food go a long way. Elisha had a present brought him of twenty barley-loaves and some ears of corn, a present which would not be despised at any time, but now in a special way valuable, when there was a famine in the land. It is said to be of the first ripe grain, which was God’s due out of their increase. When the priests and Levites were miles away at Jerusalem, the godly people among them, with good reason, looked on the prophets as God’s receivers, and brought their first-fruits to them. This helped to maintain their schools. Having freely received, Elisha freely gave, asking that it all be set before the sons of the prophets, reserving none for himself or for later use. Jesus taught us ‘Let tomorrow take care of tomorrow.’ ‘Give it all to the people that they may eat.’

Elisha may have been teaching by example that men of God should be generous and open-handed that the fathers of the prophets would be liberal with the sons of the prophets. Though the loaves were little, it is likely no more than what one man would ordinarily eat at a meal, yet with twenty of them 100 men were satisfied. His servant thought that to set such a small amount before so many men was but to tantalize them and shame his master for making so great an invitation regarding so little of something to eat so common. But Elisha, in God’s name, declared it a full meal for them, and so it proved that they had food left over, not because of a stomach problem, but because the bread increased as they ate it. What God blesses comes to much, just as what He scatters comes to little. Jesus’ provisions for His hearers was more outstanding, but both miracles, teach us that those who wait on God may hope to be protected and supplied.  

(3) 2 Kings 5:1-14 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. 2 Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” 4 Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. 5 “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. 6 The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.” 7 As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!” 8 When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” 9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 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.” 11 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. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage. 13 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’!” 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.

Our savior’s miracles were intended for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, yet crumbs fell from the table to a woman of Canaan and a Centurion in Capernaum. This one miracle of God through Elisha works for Naaman, a Syrian. God does good to all and wants all men to be saved.

Naaman was under great affliction in the midst of all his honors. He was a great man, in a great position; not only rich and elevated, but particularly happy that he had been very serviceable to his country. God had made him so as verse 1 says, “. . . through him the Lord had given victory to Aram.” Aram had success in their wars even with Israel! Let Israel and all nations know that when the Syrians prevailed, it was from the Lord. Naaman was very acceptable to his king, (“highly regarded”), probably his favorite, something like a prime-minister. This great, exalted and honored mighty man of valor was a leper, under that loathsome disease which made him a great burden to himself.

No man’s greatness, honor, valor or victory, can lift him above the sorest calamities of human life; there is many a sickly and weak body under rich and attractive  clothing. Every man has one thing or another, something that blemishes or diminishes him, some flaw in his grandeur, some damp to his joy. He may be very happy and very good, yet, in something or other, not so good as he wants to be nor so happy as he would like to be. Naaman was as great as the world could make him, but who would want to live in his skin?

Who was the useful missionary that took the good news of the great God of Israel to Naaman? There was a little maid who waited on his lady, by birth an Israelite, and who, in God’s plan was carried captive into Syria, and then moved into Naaman’s family where she announced Elisha’s fame to the honor of Israel and glory of Israel’s God. The unhappy movements of the people of God has often proved the happy occasion of the spreading of the knowledge of God. This little maid could tell the story of the famous prophet they had among them. As a good servant, she wanted the health and welfare of her master, even though she was a captive, a servant by force.

Servants should with a heart of a servant seek the welfare of their masters. The Jews in Babylon were to seek the peace of the land of their captivity. Jesus told his listeners that in Elisha’s time no leper except Naaman was healed. This little maid, from the other miracles Elisha had performed, inferred that he could cure her master, and from Elsha’s good character also inferred that he would do it, though Naaman was a Syrian. Servants will be blessings to families where they serve, by telling what they know of the glory of God and the honor of his prophets.

Naaman received the information even though it was given by a simple maid, and did not despise it because of her low position, when it tended to his bodily health. He did not say, “The girl talks like a fool; how can any prophet of Israel do for me what all the physicians of Syria have attempted in vain?” Though he neither loved nor honored the Jewish nation, yet, if one of that land can cure him of his leprosy, he will thankfully acknowledge the kindness. Oh that those who are spiritually diseased would listen so readily to the good news brought to them of the great Physician!

See what Naaman did from this little hint. He would not send for the prophet to come to him, but he would he pay the honor to one that had so much of a divine power with him as to be able to cure diseases that he would go to him himself, though he himself was sickly, unfit for society, the journey long and the country an enemy’s. He would not go in disguise, even though his errand made his loathsome disease public, but went in state, and with a great retinue, to do the more honor to the prophet. He would not go empty-handed, but took with him gold, silver, and raiment, to present to his physician. He would not go without a letter to the king of Israel from his king, his master, who did himself sincerely want him to recover. He does not know where in Samaria to find this wonder-working prophet, but tries to overcome every obstacle.

The king of Israel misunderstands the Letter from the king of Aram thinking he is trying to pick a quarrel. He rent his clothes, according to the custom of the Jews when they heard or read something they thought was blasphemous. Was the king of Aram saying the king of Israel had divine power? “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life?” In this way this great and bad man, the king of Israel, is forced to admit he is but a man. Why did he not, with this consideration, correct himself for his idolatry, and reason this way, Ha! I am not a god. Jehovah is God. If the king of Israel had correctly understood the meaning of the letter, that when the king of Aram wrote to him to recover the leper, the king of Aram merely meant that he hoped the king of Israel would help Naaman to be recovered, he would not have been in this fright. We often create a great deal of uneasiness to ourselves by misinterpreting the words and actions of others that are well intended. It is great mercy to ourselves not to imagine so many evils that might, but never, come our way. Shame on this king that he did not think of Elisha as the little maid had. It was no advantage to this king to have distanced himself from the man of God. 

Though overlooked by the king and his former good services forgotten, Elisha still was willing to do anything he could to serve his king. Hearing why the king had rent his clothes, he sent to him to let him know that if his patient would come to him, “he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” He would have made the same point had he said, “he will know that there is a God in Israel.” That was his meaning. That is the God you and I have and you and I represent.

Naaman planned to honor Elisha when he came in his chariot and with all his retinue to Elisha’s door or perhaps he planned to try to impress the prophet with his grandeur! This highly positioned man of valor appeared at Elisha’s door as a beggar for alms. Anyone who wants to be cleansed from spiritual leprosy must wait at Wisdom’s gate and watch at the posts of her doors. Naaman expected to have his compliment returned, but Elisha gave him his simple answer without any formality, would not go to the door to him, but sent a messenger to him, saying, Go wash in Jordan seven times, and promised him that if he did, his disease would be cured. The promise was short: You will be clean. The method prescribed was plain: Go wash in Jordan. This was not intended as any means of the cure but rather it was intended as a sign of the cure, and a test of his obedience. Those who want to be helped by God must do as they are told. But why did Elisha send a messenger to him with these directions? Perhaps Elisha was busy at his ministry of prayer or perhaps he did not want to feed Naaman's ego since all men stand at the same lame level in God’s sight.

Being full of an expectation of a cure, Naaman had been fancying how this cure would be accomplished. He will surely come out to me and see me in all this state, he will see me, the one who has so often been victorious over Israel. He will stand, and call on the name of his God, and name me in his prayer, and then he will wave his hand over the place and so effect the cure. And, because it was not done this way Naaman fell into a passion, forgetting that he was a leper, and the law of Moses, which Elisha would religiously observe, shut lepers out from society—a leper, and therefore he ought not to insist on the normal ceremonies of honor. His pride interfered with his project. He forgot that he was a petitioner, asking for a favor which he could not demand; and that patients must not prescribe to their physicians. See, with me, in Naaman the foolishness of pride. A cure will not satisfy him unless he be cured with ceremony, with a great deal of pomp and parade. He scorns to be healed unless he be humored and his ego stroked.

He thought that Elisha dishonored his country. He resented that he must be sent to wash in Jordan, a river of Israel, when he thought Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel. He might wash in them and be clean from dirt, but not wash in them and be clean from leprosy. He was angry that the prophet told him to wash and be clean; he thought that the prophet must do all and was not pleased that he was told to do anything. Perhaps he did not know that the Jordan belonged to Israel’s God, and that this river had more than once before this obeyed God’s commands. It is common for those who are wise in their own eyes to prefer their own fancies before the more humble position of simply being obedient. Naaman talked himself into such a state that he turned away from the prophet’s door in a rage, ready to swear he would never have anything more to say to Elisha. Who then would be the loser? Proud men are their own worst enemies.

The servants gave him modest and good advice. They argued the matter with him. They had received a better opinion of the prophet than Naaman had heard from the king. So they counsel him to consider: “If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? As we should be deaf to the counsel of the ungodly, though given by the greatest and most venerable names, so we should have our ear open to good advice, though it is brought to us by those who are far below us, no matter who speaks, if the thing be well said.

The methods prescribed for the healing of the leprosy of sin are equally plain so that people are completely inexcusable if they do not observe them. It is just, “Believe, and be saved”—“Repent, and be pardoned”—“Wash, and be clean.” To his great surprise and joy, Naaman’s  flesh became again, like the flesh of a child. By yielding to the will of God, Naaman’s cleansing by obediently washing honored God’s law for cleansing lepers. God will magnify his Word.

We have much to learn about leadership from Elisha, obedience from Naaman and problem-solving from God.