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June 23, 2024
- By Ed Powell
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"Please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other God but the LORD." 2 Kings 5:17
Naaman had met God in a life-transforming way that affected every aspect of his life. The first thing he wanted to do was return to Elisha's house and tell him what God had done for him. His whole demeanor was radically changed! He was indebted to Elisha for revealing God's plan for his physical healing and spiritual cleansing of his heart by God. Isn't it wonderful when the Holy Spirit cleanses and reconciles one to God, and implants within his heart the desire to please Him that affects the whole of his life!
He is at Elisha's house. What a contrast from the day before. The "roaring lion" has been changed into a "humble lamb." The "turbulent warrior" swelling with rage, now enters Elisha's house singing "Songs of Deliverance." How great must have been the rejoicing as Naaman told Elisha all that had happened. Do you recall how it all started?
There was a "word fitly spoken" from his little maidservant, in slavery from Israel, led of God to tell Naaman of God's prophet Elisha. Going to Elisha, he follows in obedience Elisha's words and dips seven times in the Jordan River. Naaman came as he was...without hope and without God...and exercised childlike faith in the Living God, who gloriously healed him physically and redeemed him spiritually.
The focus of Naaman was to be wholly on the Lord, to renounce all other gods and serve Him only. Naaman was saying, "When I return to Syria, my friends will ridicule me, but I HAVE MET GOD! I will forsake all my worldly haunts and vanities. Away with idols and pagan gods I worshiped and the vain circle of people which were my delight. Away with all the shallow follies that once squandered away my time. I will join hand in hand with the people of God. Much may be falsely said of me, but it matters not; I am wholly the Lord's. I will break away from everything that will hinder my life with God!" This was Naaman's declaration to everyone. WHY? Because God was on the throne of his life, he sought to live and serve God under His sovereign control.
Naaman does a beautiful thing. He asks Elisha for two mules' burdens of earth. He wants to erect an altar to Jehovah when he returns to Syria with the soil from Israel. Each time he knelt to pray, he was reminded that it was in the land of his enemy, Israel, that he had his encounter with God, who healed him. It was there his life was completely transformed by God's mighty power. It was there he committed his heart and life to His lordship. The home of despair and gloom only days before, it was now an "altar of praise, thanksgiving, and worship to God." He sings, "I will henceforth offer neither burnt offering or sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord. Beside Him, there is no other!" God said, "I am going to erect an altar and plant a torch of truth in the midst of that pagan and idolatrous land." THIS IS IT! Naaman was His instrument to accomplish His plan. Oh, that we might have such a full and complete surrender before God, even as Naaman.
© 2007 by Ed Powell. Used by permission.
This page was reprinted by permission from: http://litmin.org/dare.php?date=2024-06-23&print=1
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