Our Ideas Are Not Always God's Plan for Us

The story of Naaman's leprousy and how he was healed, is a good example of the importance of humility.  Naaman, the captain of the Syrian army had defeated Israel once again and took a little Israelite girl captive to be a slave for his wife. Obviously, the little maid's parents has taught her to obey God in everything. So when this young girl told her mistress, that a prophet in Israel could heal Naaman, Naaman's wife told Naaman, then somebody else passed on to the king of Syria. By the time the message reached the king of Syria's ears, he thought that it was the king of Israel that would heal Naaman! So the king of Syria sent a message and some presents to the king of Israel to heal Naaman of his leprousy. What shame it was, that the king of Israel didn't even worship the true God, and didn't even think of Elisha! We'll read the rest of the story from the Bible, in 2 Kings 5:9-14. "So Naaman  came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, 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 strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith unto thee, Wash and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean."

  Obviously, Naaman had some pre-conceived ideas of how the prophet was going to heal him. But it is interesting that Elisha himself didn't even come out of the house to see him, he just sent a messenger out of the house telling him to do something__ So simple.__Too simple! It seemed so insulting to him, the captain of the great Syrian army, that the prophet wouldn't even come to see him, and tell him to wash in such a muddy river.

  But fortunately, he had some servants that had some head sense. they said something like this, 'if Elisha had told you to do something great, like climbing to the top of the highest mountain and jumping of the tallest cliff into a chasm, wouldn't you instantly do it? Why not do something so simple like washing?'   

   We often have ideas of the way God will help us out of our troubles, but God often works out our deliverance in ways that will humble us, and in ways that we have never thought of.  God requires things of us that are so simple. Like Trusting. Surrendering. Loving.  Micah 6:7-8 says, "Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humble with thy God?"