These two chapter have one thing in common - they both show God at work in the lives of foreigners. In Chapter 4, we see Elisha continuing the miracles that God did through Elijah (by the way, am I the only one who wishes that Elisha and Elijah's names weren't so similar?) and the similarities between the "subject" matter of the miracles th
ese two men performed. Elisha is offered an entire room to himself at the Shunammite's woman's house. What wonderful hospitality this woman offered to Elisha! What an amazing example of Hebrews 13:2 which says, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." (ESV) Then we see Elisha perform a miracle through God of resurrection of the Shunammite woman's son. This is the second miracle of resurrection, as Elijah performed the same miracle back in 1 Kings chapter 17. This is quite amazing work that God did through these two men, as we do not see this kind of work again until Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. I just want to be sure you do not miss the significance of these two miracles!
Then, in Chapter 5, we see God heal the commander of the army of the king of Syria, Naaman, who of course was another foreigner. It cracks me up that Naaman pitches a little hissy fit about what river he goes into to be healed. I mean, really??? You are about to be healed from leprosy and you are going to be picky about the river it happens in? Pride...it almost kept Naaman from being healed at all! Then we see the sin of greed (which has its root in pride!) played out by Elisha's servant Gehazi. As a result of this sin of greed, Gehazi is given the leprosy of Naaman to him AND his descendants. Again, we need to learn from the mistakes of others in the Bible so that we do not have to feel and experience the consequences of these sins!
Back to the foreigner thing. When the Bible uses the word "foreigner" in these chapters, what exactly is the definition of this word? A foreigner would have been any person that was not born into one of the twelve tribes of Israel. So, that would include...US! So the amazingly wonderful news here is that even though we are not Jewish or an Israelite by birth, we get to receive the love and healing of God the Father just as these characters did in our reading for today. Even BEFORE Jesus came to earth, God was showing His love for ALL nations by healing them and allowing his prophets to reach out to them. The result? Naaman said, as we do today, "Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel." (Chapter 5, verse 15, ESV) Of course, we are adopted into God's family with all the rights and privileges of sons (or daughters) because of Jesus' redemptive work on the cross. Praise God that as Gentiles, we can still have all of these rights!!! So let's not get comfortable with the fact that WE are already adopted into Christ's family. We need to get all the foreigners we can into the family! What are YOU doing to bring in some foreigners???
