One of the best known of Elisha’s miracles (recounted in 2 Kings 5.1-27) is probably the healing of Naaman, a commander in the Aramean (approximately modern-day Syria) army which was often a threat to Israel. Naaman had leprosy and was healed by washing seven times in the river Jordan as instructed by Elisha.
It’s easy to focus on the actions of Elisha and Naaman, the two biggest names in the story, but Krish and Miriam Kandiah’s re-telling of the story emphasises the part played by an unnamed, trafficked, enslaved Israelite girl who worked in his house.
Naaman treated everyone like dirt. And he treated his servants worse than dirt. But he treated the young housemaid even worse than that.
Perhaps it was because she wasn’t Syrian. Perhaps is was because she was from another country called Samaria. Or maybe it was because he had paid so little for her when he had bought her at the slave market as a present for his wife. Whatever the reason, her certainly didn’t care one bit that this young girl had been kidnapped and smuggled out of her country. He didn’t give half a hoot that she’d lost her home and family. He shouted at her and scolded her and made her life even more miserable than it already was.
I don’t know about you, but if I had been kidnapped and forced to work for one of the scariest men in Syria, I would be pretty mad. So mad, in fact, that I might be secretly pleased is my cruel, bloodthirsty boss got a terrible skin disease. Finally he would understand what it was like to lose his home and family and be treated like dirt. It would totally serve him right.
Despite her hard and unhappy life, the young Samaritan housemaid was good at one really important thing – and that was following God. That was why she decided to do what she could to help her boss…
She had even dared tell her mistress about a well-known prophet, back in Israel, who could cure Naaman’s deadly disease.*
I don’t believe that the Bible condones slavery, and God’s ultimate promise in Jesus is for freedom. But the Bible paints pictures of all sorts of people in all sorts of circumstances who take risks in following God’s way, and pointing other people towards God, as the girl does in this story.
Would you or I have had the courage to speak up in the way that this girl did? I hope so, but I’m not sure that I would!
I pray that the Holy Spirit would help us all to point someone to Jesus, even when this is not what that person or those around would expect.
*Quoted from Whistlestop Tales: Around the World in 10 Bible Stories, by Krish and Miriam KandiahPhoto by hosein charbaghi on Unsplash