Elisha to the rebuke and rescue
The rip and rant rang all the way to Elisha. God’s followers, while potentially few and far between, are present everywhere; the court of King Joram was no exception, and that unnamed soul was self-dispatched with the day’s events all the way to Elisha. The prophet’s words raced back to rebuke Joram and rescue Naaman.
Why did you tear your robes?
Elisha did not expect an answer from the king. Both the king and Elisha knew that answer: fear. Not only was he afraid of war, and needlessly so, but more piteous is that he never needed to have been conquered. Had Joram been among the rare God-fearing kings of Israel his people never would have been conquered by Naaman and his king.
Secondly, his sin, idolatry, following the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat so bankrupted Joram that he could not see clearly. Since Joram did not know God or his prophet he saw things askance. He knows that healings such as that requested by Ben-Hadad are a thing of God but is spiritually in no position to put the breadcrumb trail together to Elisha.
1Just because the king doesn’t know God does not mean he isn’t real.
Leaders at home, work, and the world may deny or be ignorant of God. That does not have any bearing on God’s reality. He is there all the same.
There may be those around you who are good with their rhetoric. They may be eloquent in their God-denial or masterful in how they write that he is bogus. Don’t be rattled by such foolishness. Chances are they know God is real and are half-trying to convince themselves he is false.
One of Madeline L’Engle’s adult novels is entitled Camilla. There is a character in there who is a supposed atheist. Another of the characters says, “For an atheist Mona talks about God an awful lot. She’s always getting me into arguments and discussions.” See Mona is a pseudo-God-denier, a false atheist, one who doubts what she touts.
Don’t be
2What are you doing with the knowledge God gave you?
Are you like King Joram, afraid and tearing your robes (or tearing your hair out)? Are you like the compassionate, Jewish slave girl who lived in Naaman’s household (2 Kings 5:1) who even though minuscule on the world’s scope moved kings? She touted God’s help. Are you like Elisha providing God’s helps?
Do you know there is a God in heaven ready to help, able to help, seeing the widest and the best picture for your place in the people-tapestry he is weaving?
These things are available. Go for them today. Put them up as a billboard before others.
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