Why Does God Do Something in His Way?

And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 2 Kings 5:13

Cleaning is on my mind this morning, as it is another abandoned house for us to work on today. So, I looked for a story of cleaning in the Bible and found that one about Elisha and a leprous fellow. Naaman from Damascus had connections to the king of Syria and went to Israel well outfitted and recommended. But he also had some paradigms about how things were supposed to be done, and God did not do them his way.

Arriving at Elisha's house, Naaman is not received in the usual way. Instead the prophet does not even come out to see the man who has traveled far, a faux pas in that time, but sends instructions for the dirty thing to go wash seven times in the Jordan River. Okay, I added the 'dirty thing' bit, but as a leper he would be unclean by the law. The insulted Naaman storms off in a rage and thinks of how he could have just washed seven times in the rivers near his house. It is up to his servants to end the dirty thing's tantrum and get him to obey the servant of the Lord. Fellow servants perhaps understand what it is to obey even when the instructions seem too simple or not to our liking. After listening to his servants (we might add 'for once') Naaman is healed, and thus we have our lesson too.

The Lord's way to solve a problem we bring to Him may seem to us wrong, perhaps even absurd, and yet it is obedience and trust that is the way for us to follow. We know this from the Word, do we know it faithfully in our hearts yet?

Have a great Friday in Christ our Lord!
Bucky