I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Kings 5-7.

    Naaman was a rich and powerful man. When he went to see Elisha he expected to be treated preferentially. After all, he was a rich man, which meant that he could highly reward those who pleased him, and he was a powerful man, which meant that he could punish those who offended him. But Elisha could not be bothered to greet him in person. He just sent out a messenger to Naaman, telling him to undertake a simple task in order to be healed. Naaman was furious at the perceived slight and at the pedestrian, but inconvenient, nature of the task set for him. We can get caught up in looking at this as a story about healing, but it is more than that. We often want to do great things for God, but balk at doing boring, every day tasks to serve Him. Sometimes the tasks which God has for us are simple and inconvenient. If we wish the opportunity to serve God in great things we need to be faithful and serve Him in the simple things, even when they are inconvenient.

    The other story in this passage I want to write about today is the siege of Samaria. Things had gotten so bad that women were killing and eating their own children. The king went to Elisha intending to kill him because God had allowed this to happen. Elisha responded to the king saying that God had told him that by the following day food prices in the market would collapse. Everyone understood that Elisha was saying that food prices would collapse because food would be so plentiful. The king’s chief officer scoffed that it was impossible for that to happen. Elisha told the officer that he would see it happen, but not live to enjoy it. There are really two lessons from this story. No matter how bad things are today, God will bring salvation for His people. No matter how deeply we are sunk in misery, if we put our trust in God He will abundantly bring us joy. The other lesson here is to never deny that God is able to make things better.