2 Kings 5

You know, there are certain things that science now have discovered, certain sickness, certain disease, that they say it runs in the family.

You know, If you read the story further in 2 Kings chapter 5, from verse 20 to 27, 2 Kings 5, 20 to 27, Elisha had a servant.

The servant did something terrible.

As a result, the man of God placed a curse on him.

And I'm Cameron Howard.

And this week, as we continue our Prophets series within the Fall Narrative Lectionary, we are reading 2 Kings 5, the story of Naaman, who is healed by Elisha, the prophet.

And this story is very interesting to me on a couple of levels.

One is the sort of one-upsmanship about whose prophets, whose gods, whose commanders are better, right? Aram and Israel.

There were, there were blockages in his heart that kept him, at first, from experiencing what God wanted to do.

So what are some of the blockages in our life? I want you to hear this story, and it's in 2 Kings 5.

I want you to hear about Naaman.

Naaman wasn't an Israelite, but you're gonna hear about him.

In fighting, disputes and murder are the result of desires and emotions that have not been completely resolved.

2 Kings 5 verse 11.

But no man was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

Sometimes injured pride or ego stirs up anger.

He talks about 1 Kings 17 where God sends Elijah to feed a foreign widow while all the Israelites were starving in a famine.

He talks about 2 Kings 5 where the Syrian leper was the only one who was cleansed.

And suddenly they don't like the idea of proclaiming good news and freedom and favor because they only want it to apply to them, not the people of other nations, not their enemies.

So the guy they were praising moments earlier, they're now trying to kill.

This week's talk is an exhortation by Brother Pitt Mansfield that he gave in September of 2021 called, It's Not That He Would, It's Knowing That He Could.

I very much enjoyed this exhortation, very easy to listen to and gave me a few things to think about from 2 Kings 5 or the story of Naaman's wife's servant.

Really powerful thoughts about faith and trust and knowing what our Father can do, knowing what Jesus has done and is doing for us, and trusting in that, and having faith in that, and not just thinking that they could, but that they will.

And that's the example of faith by the servant girl.

It's interesting hearing, it's really just one line actually he throws in on the context of the pandemic, because this talk is now five years old and kind of still in those pandemic times, but very applicable in other ways.

And he uses a few kind of fun examples or hypothetical situations that had me thinking as well about this story.

So very good kind of illustration of 2 Kings 5 and an excellent exhortation, very easy to listen to.

So I was happy to share it.

That is a problem, prioritizing process over results.

Let's go to 2 Kings 5.

Maybe this is a new Bible lesson story to you, Bible event, I like to say, rather than story, but either way, whatever you want to call it, it really happened.

But let's go look at it, and let's see how there were some unmet expectations, and maybe it would help us tonight.

So here we see an expectation that happened with Naaman.

Naaman is the general of the Syrian army.

Okay, and let's look at 2 Kings 5.10, please.

And Elisha sent a messenger unto him.