Not a king; a prophet. Not a prophet; a servant. Not Abana, but Jordan—seven times! Down, down, down.
Elisha had performed many miracles, but skeptics might doubt. Healing bad water with salt was unlikely, though they do use salt in water softeners today. Raising a dead boy? It looks like resuscitation to the doubter. But healing a leper? Impossible! The way to process a person healed from leprosy was there in Leviticus 14:1-6, but it was never used. The first Jews who followed those directions were the ones healed by Jesus. But this story features just such a miracle. I introduce to you Naaman, who, as “commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor” (2 Ki 5:1). After all that, the grim diagnosis: “But he was a leper” (v 1, KJV). It so happened, on a southwest raid, that a young Jewish girl had been captured and now served Naaman’s wife. When she heard of her master’s dilemma, “she said to her mistress, ‘If only my master were with the prophet…in Samaria! For he would heal him’” (v 3). What faith! It had never happened before. When Naaman’s boss, the king, heard, he dispatched his commander, loaded with treasure, to Israel. After an ill-advised stop at the palace, Naaman made it to Elisha’s door. A messenger gave instructions: “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times” (v 10). Are you kidding? But a servant remonstrated, “If the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it?” (v 13). Good logic. So down to the river he went. Once. Twice. Not till the seventh dip was “his flesh…restored like the flesh of a little child” (v 14). “But he was a leper…And he was clean.” What turned one into the other? Not the Jordan. Not the dipping. It was obedient faith in God.