2 Kings 5:8

_AND IT WAS SO, WHEN ELISHA THE MAN OF GOD HAD HEARD THAT THE KING OF ISRAEL HAD RENT HIS CLOTHES, THAT HE SENT TO THE KING, SAYING, WHEREFORE HAST THOU RENT THY CLOTHES? LET HIM COME NOW TO ME, AND HE SHALL KNOW THAT THERE IS A PROPHET IN ISRAEL._ Elisha ... sent to the king, saying ... let him come now to me. Through indirect channels the prophet learned what had passed in the palace, and he took in immediate care to relieve the king of all anxiety, by requesting that the Syrian captain might be directed to him. This was the grand and ultimate object to which, in the providence of God, the journey of Naaman was subservient. On the Syrian general, with his imposing retinue arriving at the prophet's house, Elisha sent him a message to "go and wash in Jordan seven times." This apparently rude reception to a foreigner of so high dignity, incensed Naaman to such a degree that he resolved t...

1-8 Though the Syrians were idolaters, and oppressed God's people, yet the deliverance of which Naaman had been the means, is here ascribed to the Lord. Such is the correct language of Scripture, while those who write common history, plainly show that God is not in all their thoughts. No man's greatness, or honour, can place him our of the reach of the sorest calamities of human life: there is many a sickly, crazy body under rich and gay clothing. Every man has some but or other, something that blemishes and diminishes him, some allay to his grandeur, some damp to his joy. This little maid, though only a girl, could give an account of the famous prophet the Israelites had among them. Children should be early told of the wondrous works of God, that, wherever they go, they may talk of them. As became a good servant, she desired the health and welfare of her master, though she was a captiv...

Verse 2 Kings 5:8. _LET HIM COME NOW TO ME_] Do not be afflicted; the matter belongs to me, as the prophet of the Most High; send him to me, and he shall know that I am such....

HE SHALL KNOW ... ISRAEL - namely, “That which thou (the king of Israel) appearest to have forgotten, that there is a prophet - a real Yahweh prophet - in Israel.”...

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 5:1 THE CURE OF NAAMAN'S LEPROSY. HIS GRATITUDE; AND THE SIN OF GEHAZI, The historian continues his narrative of Elisha's miracles, commenced in 2 Kings 2:1; and gives in the present chapter a very graphic and complete account of two which were especially remarkable, and which stood in a peculiar relation the one towards the other. One was the removal of leprosy; the other, its infliction. One was wrought on a foreigner and a man of eminence; the other, on a Hebrew and a servant. The second was altogether consequential upon the first, without which the

AND IT WAS SO, WHEN ELISHA THE MAN OF GOD HAD HEARD THAT THE KING OF ISRAEL HAD RENT HIS CLOTHES,.... And upon what account: THAT HE SENT TO THE KING, SAYING, WHEREFORE HAST THOU RENT THY CLOTHES? and thereby expressed so much concern and distress: LET HIM COME NOW TO ME: meaning Naaman the Syrian leper: AND HE SHALL KNOW THAT THERE IS A PROPHET IN ISRAEL; able in the name of the Lord to work miracles, which he should be sensible of and acknowledge, to the glory of the God of Israel, by the cure that should be wrought upon him; and hereby he taxed the king of Israel with ignorance or neglect of him as a prophet....

4. NAAMAN AND HIS HEALING CHAPTER 5 _ 1. Naaman, the leper (2 Kings 5:1)_ 2. The testimony of the maid of Israel (2 Kings 5:2) 3. The message to the king of Israel (2 Kings 5:5) 4. Naaman and Elisha (2 Kings 5:9) 5. Gehazi; His sin and punishment (2 Kings 5:20) The story of this chapter is peculiarly rich in its spiritual and dispensational meaning. Naaman, captain of Ben-hadad, the King of Syria, was a Gentile. He was no common man. In all his greatness and might, with all the honors heaped upon him and wealth

NAAMAN HEALED OF HIS LEPROSY. This story, familiar to all, presupposes a time of peace between Israel and Syria. As in 1 Kings 20, the king of Syria addresses the king of Israel (unnamed here) as his vassal (2 Kings 5:6 ff.). Elisha was living in Samaria, apparently in his own house. Naaman, on being healed, returned to Elisha, who refused to take any present, using Elijah's formula (1 Kings 17:1 *). Naaman thereupon declared himself a worshipper of Yahweh (it is remarkable that 2 Kings 5:1 ascribes his victories to Yahweh), asking pardon if in his official capacity he bows himself before Rimmon (Ramman, the thunder-god of the Assyrians). Readers of _Tom Brown's Schooldays_ will remember the not unnatural discussion amongst th

MAN OF GOD. See App-49....

_that he sent to the king_ The prophets of Jehovah were now in no such peril as they had been in Ahab's days. Elisha has his house in the royal city, and has no fear of sending a message to the palace. _that there is a prophet in Israel_ i.e. a true messenger of the God who can kill and make alive. Cf. the words of the people (Luke 7:16) when our Lord raised the widow's son at Nain, -A great prophet is risen up among us, and God hath visited his people"....