Naaman
A Syrian general who found healing by humbling himself to obey a prophet’s seemingly undignified instructions.
A Great Man with One Problem
Naaman was commander of the Syrian army, a man of great honor and high standing with his king. He had won victories for his people. But he was a leper — and no worldly honor could fix that. The account in 2 Kings 5 introduces him with a sentence that holds his entire condition in tension: “He was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper” (2 Kings 5:1).
The path to his healing came through an unlikely source: a young Israelite girl, captured and serving as a slave to his wife, who quietly said there was a prophet in Samaria who could cure him. A slave girl pointing a general toward a foreign prophet — Naaman took her word seriously enough to act.
The Offense of Simple Instructions
Naaman arrived at Elisha’s door with horses, chariots, and gifts — prepared for a dignified encounter with a great prophet. Elisha did not even come out to meet him. He sent a messenger with these instructions: go wash seven times in the Jordan River.
Naaman was furious. He had expected a dramatic ceremony — the prophet calling on his God, waving his hand, something befitting the occasion. The Jordan was a muddy river. Syria had better rivers. The whole thing felt like an insult to his dignity. He turned to leave.
His servants reasoned with him: “My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?” (2 Kings 5:13). Naaman listened. He went. He dipped seven times. And on the seventh time, “his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean” (2 Kings 5:14).
A Converted Heart
Naaman returned to Elisha and declared, “Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel” (2 Kings 5:15). He tried to give Elisha a large gift; Elisha refused it. Naaman then made an unusual request — to take home two mule-loads of Israelite earth, because he intended to worship only the God of Israel from that point forward, even while continuing in his duties as a Syrian official.
Elisha answered simply: “Go in peace.” The healing of his body had led to the conversion of his soul.
2 Kings 5:13
“If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?”
What Naaman Teaches
The obstacle to Naaman’s healing was not difficulty but simplicity. He would gladly have done something hard and spectacular. What he could not initially stomach was something small, humble, and undramatic. His story is a rebuke to every form of spiritual pride that insists on being healed in a way that suits our self-image.
Jesus referenced Naaman’s healing in his sermon at Nazareth to make the same point: God’s grace does not follow our assumptions about who deserves it or how it should come (Luke 4:27).
Key Scriptures
- 2 Kings 5:1–19 — Naaman’s complete story
- 2 Kings 5:14 — Flesh restored like a little child’s
- 2 Kings 5:15 — “There is no God in all the earth, but in Israel”
- Luke 4:27 — Jesus cites Naaman in his sermon at Nazareth