NOTES for Ki2 5:13

Why does distrust of God or distrust of a man of God arise in a person? There can be many reasons. But there is one that appears to occur more often than others. The issue is love for everything unusual, extravagant, and striking to the imagination.

It is hardly possible that the Syrian who came to Elisha did not know who prophets were and what could be expected of them. Prophets in those times existed not only among the Jews; there were many of them in the pagan world as well, where they usually spoke in the name of the supreme gods of their pantheons, most often in the name of the sun god or the thunder god. And almost always these prophets either demonstrated certain miracles, often of a quite magical character, or offered those who turned to them participation in rites that were very extravagant even in the eyes of their contemporaries, connected with the service of the gods in whose name and on whose behalf they spoke. But Naaman had heard about the God of the Jews that He was greater than all the gods of other peoples, that He was more powerful and higher than they. And he expected from the prophet of such a God something unusual, something that in his eyes had to correspond to the majesty of the God whose servant Elisha was. Elisha, however, offers him only to wash in the Jordan. To the high-ranking Syrian such a proposal seems mockery: does he not have enough rivers in Syria, and what rivers, not to be compared with this Jordan, which in its upper course in summer looks more like a stream.

But his servants and assistants advise him not to rush: what if? After all, the prophet is a man of God; what he says is in any case worth listening to. What if all this is not mockery at all? This is where the main thing lies. What if? What if the God of this strange prophet will still help? What if the prophet is right?

And Naaman decides. And receives healing. For he did trust the God of Elisha, the God of Israel, though not at once. And such trust never remains unanswered.