At first he ignored the spot.

Either his armor rubbed there, or some bug bit him. Naaman, a Syrian general, spent his days on the move. No time to waste on itchy skin.

Oops. The skin rash matured into a dreaded disease—leprosy. No cure and no hope, except for the slave girl in his house who told of a powerful prophet in Israel. Naaman, grasping at a cure, rode to meet Elisha.

When Naaman arrived, trailing his retinue of fighting men, Elisha didn’t even come to the door. He sent his servant to tell Naaman to go dip himself into the Jordan River seven times. Naaman stomped to his chariot in a huff.

Wisely, Naaman’s people coaxed him into giving it a try. What would it hurt? You came all this way? Don’t be so prideful—face it, Naaman, leprosy respects no man and you ain’t looking any better.

So Naaman dipped and dried, seven times. His skin cleared and his heart opened. He drove home proclaiming, there is no God in all the earth but in Israel!

Notice the evolution of Naaman’s faith—from desperation to indignation to resignation to exultation.

I’m encouraged by Naaman’s kernel of faith. He walked into the water (almost dragged in by his servants), with barely enough faith to even get wet. Turns out that’s enough, when your faith is in the right place.

Here in Colorado water freezes in the winter. I can have all the faith in the world that a half-inch of ice will hold me when I walk onto a frozen lake, but I’ll still fall through. But I can be scared to death when edging onto a lake with ice two feet thick, and I’ll still stay dry. In fact, I could drive my car on that lake. It’s not my faith that’s important, it’s the object of my faith.

Naaman discovered the God of Israel, the only God worthy of faith. In doing so, he experienced fresh skin and more importantly—a fresh soul.

2 Kings 5 in week twenty-nine of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Alex Kramarevsky