“Doesn’t he know who I am? Who does he think he is? He can’t treat me this way! This is not how it was supposed to be. This was not how I expected things to be.”
That’s how it begins – ‘offense’ that is. We get to thinking that we should be treated a certain way, with a certain level of respect. When we don’t get treated that way we get angry and offended.
That’s how it began with the General. He was, after all, a General of one of the most formidable armies of his day. People trembled around him. He wielded authority and power in a way that few men on earth ever experience. He really was ‘the man’. But right now, he was not being treated like ‘the man’. He was not getting the respect he felt was due him. This could easily end in death for the one not meeting his expectation.
However, the General was over a barrel. He was sick and needed help. He needed healing. He came a long way with his gloriously pompous entourage to be given the utmost of respect, care and attention. He even carried a letter from the king demanding he be treated exactly the way the General expected. But this encounter was not going according to the plan.
General Naaman had leprosy. He was commander of the armies of Aram and was used to being treated a certain way. Elisha apparently did not get the memo that a VIP was coming by for a visit. Elisha had heard that Naaman had leprosy. Naaman had heard that Elisha had the power to heal him. He first came to the palace to see the king and was then told to go to Elisha’s house.
This was where things went sideways…
Elisha didn’t even bother to come out and greet him. He sent a messenger to tell him to go wash in the Jordan River 7 times in order to be healed.
“What??!!? You have got to be kidding me!” Naaman was enraged!
“I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.”, ranted Naaman.
His was ready to take off offended, resentful and unhealed until his servants convinced him to at least give Elisha’s directions a shot. Who knows? It could work…
So, Naaman swallowed his pride and washed in the Jordan 7 times. Guess what? He came out totally healed. He returned to Elisha a different man – a humbled man who submitted to the Lord, experienced His grace and power, and now considered himself Elisha’s servant.
Elisha did to Naaman what the Lord often does to us: he offends our mind to reveal our heart.
Is there a situation you are in the midst of that is not going the way you thought it should? Are you angry? Are you getting resentful and offended? That’s arrogance. You are not being treated the way you think you should be and it’s ticking you off. Just like Naaman.
We can often have expectations for how God should deal with us, or how the people of God should deal with us. When those expectations are not met we can either get angry or get low. We can get mad in our arrogance, or get low in humility and surrender to a bigger story the Lord is leading us in that we may not even see.
“Lord I surrender to your will.”
You never gain weight swallowing your pride. You know if you have a servant’s heart by how you respond when someone treats you like one.
If things aren’t working out the way you thought they should, take a lesson from Naaman and submit to the Lord’s will and direction even though it may seem ridiculous. God may be offending your mind to show you what is in your heart – pride or humility? Humility leads to healing, but pride leads to offense, resentment and alienation.
God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Who do you think you are?
2 Kings 5: 11-14
“But Naaman was furious and went away and said, “Behold, I thought, ‘He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.’ Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, “My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.”
James 4:10
“Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”