Day 184 (2 Kings 5-8) - Year 7
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Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Today was so good. Elisha the prophet is still working miracles to display God's character and there's so much of it to see.

Our first story is of a Syrian military commander named Naaman. Before he ever comes into a relationship with God, God has his hand on his life. God grants him military victories, which wouldn't sound odd if he were an Israelite, but he's not. He's actually one of Israel's enemies.

Just a few days ago, Israel and Judah were at war with Syria. In fact, in one of Syria's raids on Israel, Naaman captured a girl and brought her back to serve his family. She just so happened to mention that she knows a guy who can heal Naaman of his pesky leprosy. Naaman gets permission from the Syrian king to go seek healing, but Naaman has to run things past the king of Israel, too. He's an enemy, after all. What kind of king grants an enemy the right to get healed in their country? Israel.

But the king of Israel doesn't actually think healing is possible. In fact, he thinks the request is so preposterous that Naaman must actually be trying to pick a fight.

But Elisha finds out about it, knows it's legit, and sends for Naaman. Elisha gives Naaman some unconventional advice for healing. Naaman is used to healing rituals performed by pagans, so when Elisha tells him to take seven baths, and in a filthy river no less, he's furious. He's come all this way to get a lesson on hygiene, but his servants are like, hey, what have you got to lose? And it turns out that all he had to lose was his leprosy. He's healed.

He comes back to give Elisha a thank-you gift, but he turns it down. And in connection with this thank-you gift to Elisha, Naaman also has a thank-you gift to God—repentance. He confesses that he believes Yahweh is the one true God. Then he asks Elisha for a strange gift.

He wants to take back a bunch of dirt from Israel because he believes the actual land of Israel belongs to Yahweh, unlike the enemy nations. And he wants to take part of that land back home so he can build an altar out of it and make sacrifices to Yahweh. I love his zeal. But it seems like Elisha doesn't grant his request, probably because sacrifices are only supposed to be made in Jerusalem. As he's heading home, Elisha's servant Gehazi comes running after him.

He has a plan in mind to personally benefit from this situation. He makes up a story about some needy people, and Naaman hands him some clothes and approximately $35,000. That'll do. Then Gehazi hides it away in his house. But he forgets who he's dealing with. God. And God has a close relationship with double-portion Elisha, so God fills him in.

Elisha confronts Gehazi about it, who lies to him. And then God gives Gehazi and his family leprosy. How ironic is this story? One of God's enemies who doubts gets healed, and one of the Israelites who follows his own heart gets leprosy. God's family is made up of people with new hearts, not similar DNA.

Then, from something as big as disease to something as small as a borrowed axe head, God shows his great attention to details. Elisha miraculously recovers the axe head that a young prophet dropped in a river. Even the little things are areas for God to show his glory. And from leprosy to axe heads to international battles and death threats, Elisha continues to show off God's attention to detail.

The Syrians keep trying to strategize about how to defeat Israel, but every time they get a plan together, God shows Elisha their playbook and he tips off the king of Israel. It keeps happening so frequently and with such precision that the Syrian king thinks he has a traitor in the ranks. But nope, just Elisha. So the Syrian king sends a bunch of guys to kill Elisha. But per usual, Elisha knows exactly what's up.

When his servant starts to panic as the Syrian army approaches them, Elisha asks God to let his servant see what he can see—a literal army in the spiritual realm, surrounding and protecting them. And not only can Elisha pray sight for those who can't see, but he can also pray blindness. He temporarily blinds the Syrians and leads them to the king. The king is like, "Should I kill them?" And Elisha's like, "Nah, how about we feed them dinner instead?"

They feed the enemy who is trying to kill them, then send them home. Elisha won peace with his enemies by treating them kindly. God did this with his enemies too. I'm proof. Then a famine hits the land. It's so severe that a donkey's head costs $1,600 and the going rate on bird feces is $100. And far worse than that, people are cannibalizing their own families.

The king of Israel holds Elisha personally responsible for this famine and orders one of his servants to behead Elisha. But God tells Elisha what's up, and he also tells him that the famine is about to end tomorrow. The servant doubts Elisha's prophecy that things could be well for them all in 24 hours, and Elisha basically says, well, for you, you're right. You'll see it fulfilled, but you won't get to benefit from it.

Meanwhile, outside the city, four lepers decide that since they're about to die, they might as well eat a good meal first. They go to the Syrian military camp, but it's been abandoned. God drove the Syrians away in fear. The lepers take some spoils, but then feel convicted and decide to share the good news. So they alert the gatekeepers of the city. Word spreads and Israel comes back to plunder the camp. And all the Syrian spoils offset the Israeli famine.

Meanwhile, the messenger who came to behead Elisha gets trampled in the gate, and all of Elisha's prophecy is fulfilled. Then we get to touch base with the woman we met yesterday in 2 Kings 4, the wealthy Shunammite woman. Elisha warns her that a seven-year famine is about to happen, and it's likely that this was the famine that just ended in the previous chapter, because now she's coming back home after being gone for seven years.

She wants her house and land back, so she goes to make an appeal to the king. That same day, Gehazi, the leper servant of Elisha, is telling the king all the miraculous things Elisha has done, like raise the dead, for instance. And like clockwork, she walks in and he's like, speak of the devil, or well, you get my drift, here she is, Elisha raised her son. And because of this divine timing, the king says to give her back all she left behind.

Actually, he says to give her back more than she left behind. He gives her what she would have gained in the meantime. God's timing in this encounter magnifies his attentiveness and generosity. It's incredible. Finally, Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, is sick and wants to know if he'll recover. He sends his servant Hazael to ask Elisha. Elisha tells him the full story. He'll recover, but he's still going to die.

and Elisha instructs Hazael to only tell Ben-Hadad the good news. Then Elisha tells Hazael the servant more bad news. Hazael is going to be king, and a wicked one at that. Hazael goes home in pursuit of the throne, and not long after that, he murders Ben-Hadad. What was your God shot today? Mine was in the story of Naaman. If we zoom out on this story to look for God's character, here's what I see.

God sought out his enemy, who doubted him. He used the theft of a little girl as a spoil of war, the permission of his own king, the doubt of Israel's king, and the encouragement of his servants. God wasn't thwarted by Naaman's anger, and Naaman was humbled and repented. The God who has been granting Naaman favor all along granted him the greatest favor of all, an eternal relationship with himself.

God seeks out his enemies. He tracks them down to bless them. Despite their doubt and the doubt of those around them, he seems to position believers in their lives, even enemy servant girls, to point them toward himself. Naaman doubted, but God persisted, and God always gets what he wants. Despite Naaman's resistance, Naaman finally found out that he's where the joy is. ♪♪

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