Welcome and thank you for taking a bible break to test your knowledge of God's word.
This week's question:

In Luke 4:23 Jesus told the hometown crowd of Nazareth on the Sabbath day that no lepers were cleansed during the day of Elisha the prophet but Naaman the Syrian. Their heritage and pride being hurt, the synagogue was filled with rage as they then tried to kill Jesus by throwing Him off the cliff where the town was built. The question that may come to mind is why God chose the cleansing of Naaman's leprosy to be preserved for the ages. We will explore that question for an answer that still speaks to us today.

And with that in mind, to 2 Kings chapter 5 we go to see Naaman, the captain of the king of Aram, a great man and a valiant warrior, but he was a leper, a dreaded disease that rots the flesh with no known cure. In his battles he had taken captive an Israelite girl who had pity on her captive and said that it was too bad that Naaman could not be before the prophet of Israel for she knew that he, through the works of God, could cleanse him.

Naaman listens to this and responds by requesting a letter from his king to the king of Israel to make him well and takes along gifts of silver, gold and 10 changes of clothes to be given when the cleansing is complete. When the king of Israel reads the letter he tears his clothes as apparently it requests the king to make him well for he says: "Am I God, to kill and make alive, that this man is sending word to me

to cure this man of his leprosy? But consider now, and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me."

(2 Kings 5:7) His thought seems to be that the king of Aram requests something that he thinks he cannot do and when the request cannot be fulfilled it could mean war. Elisha, though, sees opportunity in this request by being able to make known to Naaman, the gentile, that there is a true prophet of God in Israel. When Naaman stood on the doorstep of Elisha the prophet, a messenger is sent by Elisha to Naaman telling him to:

2 Kings 5:10 "go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you

shall be clean."

Well, one would think that Naaman would be elated at the simplicity of the request to have this dreaded disease removed from him, by immediately getting on his noble steed and ride to the river Jordan. But instead he says:

2 Kings 5:11-12 But Naaman was furious 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 wave his hand over the place

and cure the leper.' Are not the Arbanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better that all the

rivers of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? And he went away in a rage.

So for our answer to today's question of how Naaman's leprosy was healed. In his own mind Naaman thought some great magnificent thing would be done by the prophet Elisha himself before this "great man and warrior" known as Naaman. Not only that, but then to be sent to the river Jordan of Israel which ran swift and of course very dirty. Wouldn't the rivers of Damascus be better? Naaman would rather have it "his way" than be cleansed of his leprosy and so he leaves in a rage! At least his servant encourages him to think what he would have done had the prophet asked him to do some great thing, no doubt he would have done it, so why not do this less than mighty thing and be cleansed?

And so, Naaman did go and wash seven times, the number of completeness, into the river Jordan and was cleansed of his leprosy. And so we have our answer to today's question! He had to pay nothing, for God granted it to him. Ask yourself, if he had washed only once or twice would have he been cleansed? We all understand that he would not have. Why not? Because he would not have done what God asked him to do to be cleansed. In this way, Naaman's obedience still speaks to us today.

In John 3:5 Jesus told Nicodemus that we must be born of the water and the spirit to be allowed into heaven. 1 Peter 3:21 tells us that baptism saves us by having a good conscious before God. Which is to say, just as Naaman was cleansed as he obeyed by washing in the river Jordan. We too, who hear the word of God and obey for life by being buried in that watery grave (Romans 6:1-6) and washing away our sins (Acts 22:16) will be born of the water and the spirit and then we too will be able to stand before God in all good conscious on judgment day.