Daily Devotional For Tuesday, June 16, 2026
Good morning and good day Southside! Today, our devotional comes from 2 Kings 5. It involves an enemy of Israel who has leprosy. His name is Naaman. What this story shows us is God’s kindness to even our enemies, to those who wish us harm and even to those who have harmed us. When Jesus was speaking in Nazareth, he brought up this story, which offended the Jews in His hometown. Look at Luke 4:27, “And many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian” (NLT).
Jesus’ words stung worse than a bee. He was telling them they were no different than the Jews who lived under King Ahab, who led the Jews to worship Baal. And to add gas to the fire, Jesus had to mention Naaman. His point was if you would take some time to look at Naaman, he would teach you a thing or two about God. Naaman lived in Syria, whose capital was Damascus. Syria was formerly called Aram, which had historically been enemies with Israel. It was the army of Aram that had given Israel’s king, King Ahab, a lethal injury that killed him. The Jews in Nazareth would know this. You can almost hear them fuming, “How in the world Jesus could a pagan who was responsible for the death of one of our kings teach us a thing or two about God?”
Naaman was a leader for King Ben-hadad. The Bible tells us that Naaman was held in high favor with the Syrian king. The Jews in Nazareth were not about to see it this way. It would be the same of us saying that Lavrentiy Beria was held in high esteem by Joseph Stalin. General Naaman carried a name for Jews since the days of Elijah that Jews in Jesus’ day hated. The Bible tells us that Naaman was a “mighty man of valor.” He was a national hero for killing Israel’s king, King Ahab. Maybe on his uniform was a medal depicting that.
We are told that he is a leper or has leprosy. The Hebrew word is [מְצֹרָֽע, metzra]. In those days, leprosy was highly contagious and deadly. It kills nerves. People with it become grossly disfigured. They can cut off a finger or get burned and not even know it because there are no nerves to elicit pain. Today, leprosy is called “Hansen’s Disease,” and it is curable today. In biblical days, anyone with any type of skin discoloration, was avoided for fear they had leprosy.
In the Old Testament, God had given laws about such skin diseases in Leviticus 13-14. Obviously, Naaman had tried all the doctors of his day and had no healing. It takes a Jewish servant girl to give him the answer. We do not know her name, or age, only she knew where the cure of leprosy could be found – in God’s prophet named Elisha. We are told that this little unnamed girl was taken by force from her family to serve as a maid (2 Kgs. 5:2). Instead of being bitter and withholding where a cure was, she was kind and offered help (2 Kgs. 5:3). This is surprising that she would be so kind to the enemies of her own people.
Ben-hadad sent lavish gifts to Elisha, probably thinking that since Elisha was Israel’s prophet, compensation to the king of Israel and the prophet were required. He sent 750 pounds of silver and 200 pounds of gold and very expensive clothing. This shows you how important Naaman was to King Ben-hadad. So, King Ben-hadad sent a letter to Israel’s king, King Jerhoram, who totally misunderstood the nature of the letter. He thought he was being asked to cure Naaman and he had a meltdown over this.
Elisha intervened and if you read the Bible carefully, he told King Jehoram to send Naaman to him NOT so he could be used by God to heal him, but so that everyone in Syria would know there is only one true God and He is in Israel. Elisha told Naaman to go dip himself 7 times in the Jordan River, which infuriates him. He has traveled all this way to be healed by dipping himself in the filthy waters of the Jordan River?
His pride had been injured and people whose pride gets injured do not respond well because they have a too high view of themselves. What the writer is showing us here is that for most of us, our issue is not with the unreasonable requests from God, but our own folly and foolishness. The Apostle Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 1:21. Naaman will soon learn how his pride almost cost him a healing. His servants beg him to do what the prophet suggested, comparing it to if the prophet had asked him to do something sensational, wouldn’t he have done it? The answer is, of course.
Naaman’s initial pride is the same pride in people today. They feel they do not need God. They have other gods they worship and their pride keeps them in their own spiritual leprosy. Instead of turning to Christ, they turn to themselves. They choose to be their own god or they pursue other gods in our culture. Instead of letting Jesus cleanse them of their sin, they choose to live in it and with it.
The Hebrew text implies that Naaman does this. He dips 7 times, not with enthusiasm, but with doubt and a sense he is being made a joke by Elisha. After the 7th time, when he came up, his leprosy was gone. Notice here that God’s kindness and grace was given to man who did not deserve it. He was responsible for the death of Israel’s king, Ahab. Yet, when Naaman was healed, he publicly proclaimed he knew there was no other god but Yahweh (2 Kgs. 5:15-16).
Happy ending right? No. Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, got so greedy when Elisha refused to take any compensation for God using Elisha to heal Naaman. So, he pursued Naaman and lied to Naaman, suggesting that Elisha had changed his mind. When Elisha asked Gehazi what he had been up to, he lied to Elisha. As a result, God used Elisha to pronounce leprosy on Gehazi and all his descendants in the future.
Reflection Assignment: So, what lesson is God teaching you about how He wants to treat and will treat those who harm you? What lesson does God want you to learn about how you should respond to those who hurt you?
Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 5:43-48, “Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ (44) But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (NKJV).
Prayer To Pray: “Lord, help me to love those who loathe me, hurt me and misunderstand and misrepresent me. I want to be like You. I want the goodness of Your grace to turn their heart towards You, not any greedy desire in my heart to turn them away from You. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly