You may subscribe yourself at the Ascension site here and receive notifications in your email, or just follow along on my blog. Bible in One Year Readings Index
Chapter 5 ~ Elisha Heals Naaman the Aramaean
2 Kings 5:1-7 ~ Naaman the Aramaean seeks help in curing his skin disease
Naaman is an Aramaean and the commander of the army of Ben-Hadad II, the king of Damascus. He is a very important man, but he suffers from a skin disease. The Hebrew word sara'at, translated as lepra in the Septuagint, refers to a wide variety of skin diseases (Cogan and Tadmor, II Kings, page 63).
A captured Israelite girl who is the slave of Naaman's wife mentions the healing powers of the Northern Kingdom's great prophet. Naaman approaches his king who willingly writes to Israel's king on his behalf. The Israelite king is King Jehoram. From the beginning of the story, the inspired writer shows us that it is God who is guiding events, even events outside of Israel.
That is about 750 pounds of silver and about 150 pounds of gold. Silver and gold, then as now, were highly valued in commercial exchange. They were measured by weight since coinage did into come into existence until the seventh century BC in the ancient Near East.
2 Kings 5:8-14 ~ Elisha heals Naaman
Again God's prophet comes to the aid of the king of Israel without being invited. God sent him not for the sake of an apostate king but for the sake of the Gentile general.
Naaman's servants intercede with him, calling him "father", the usual title for a leader by men who respect and serve him.
There are two points that show Naaman is not a disagreeable or unapproachable man. He listened to his wife concerning consulting the Israelite prophet, and he listened to his servants and decided to do as the prophet told him. His faith and trust, even though small at this point in the story, is enough to heal him of his affliction.
2 Kings 5:15-19 ~ Naaman offers Elisha a reward
The general had to be obedient in submitting to the plan for his healing through the waters of the Jordan River. The general is truly humbled by his experience and realizes that it is not the waters of the Jordan that healed him but the God of Israel. As a sign of his newly found humility, he refers to himself as Elisha's "servant." The Fathers of the Church saw the healing of Naaman as prefiguring Christian Baptism, the sacrament in which, through the water and obedience in Christ's word, mankind is cleansed from sin and given the gift of faith and new life.
Question: What is the essence of Naaman's statement in verse 15?
Answer: It is his personal profession of faith in Yahweh is the One True God.
Question: Why does Elisha refuse Naaman's gift?
Answer: Serving Yahweh in the man's conversion from a pagan to a monotheist is his reward.
Naaman asks for earth from the land God gave Israel in order to make a clean offering to Yahweh and not a profane offering on pagan soil. Elisha agrees since Naaman is not a member of the Sinai Covenant and therefore the Laws of the Covenant do not apply to him concerning only offering sacrifice at the altar of the Jerusalem Temple. Elisha even accepts his confession that he must accompany his king into a pagan temple. Rimmon was the national god of Aram, evidently a storm-god.
2 Kings 5:20-27 ~ The deception of Gehazi and his punishment
Gehazi became susceptible to the sin of greed. He asked Naaman for about 75 pounds of silver, but Naaman in his generosity gave him twice that amount.
Question: How many times does Gehazi sin?
Answer: He sins three times: first there is his sin of greed and then he lies twice: first in lying to Naaman and a second time in lying to Elisha.
Question: What is ironic about Ghazi's judgment
Answer: It is ironic that the unfaithful, lying Israelite is now afflicted with the condition that had formerly plagued the converted Gentile.
The condition cannot be leprosy since Gehazi will continue as Elisha's servant.
CHALLENGE: “In Scripture, God has a physical form, doesn’t know things, learns new things, changes his mind, and so on, but modern philosophers and theologians portray God as immaterial, changeless, and perfect.”
DEFENSE: The early portions of Scripture describe God using anthropomorphic language accommodated to the original audience.
Divine revelation was given to mankind over a period of more than a thousand years. When God began to guide the Israelites, he initiated a “divine pedagogy” in which he “communicates himself to man gradually. He prepares him to welcome by stages the supernatural revelation that is to culminate in the person and mission of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ” (CCC 53).
This is similar to helping children learn a subject. At an early stage, children are only able to grasp the rudiments of a field—whether theology or anything else. We thus must accommodate our explanations to what children are capable of understanding. But as they develop intellectually, we can give them a more sophisticated presentation of the topic.
The original Israelites were not culturally and intellectually prepared to understand God in the sophisticated way that the history of thought later made possible. They would have no more been able to understand the details of modern theology than they would have been able to understand the technical aspects of modern science. The needed concepts had not yet been developed.
Thus, particularly in Genesis, we find anthropomorphic images used to communicate things about God to the Israelites. He is described as walking in the garden (Gen. 3:8), asking questions (Gen. 3:9–13), “learning” things (Gen. 22:12–13), changing his mind (Gen. 6:6–7), and so on.
This mode of language involves symbols, but it conveys real truths about God (cf. CCC 42, 390). It therefore points beyond itself to the more refined understanding that God led his people to discover, ultimately giving them his definitive word in the person of Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1–2; Jude 3). We see this process unfolding in Scripture itself, which elsewhere makes clear that God is immaterial (John 4:24; cf. Luke 24:39), all-knowing (Ps. 147:5; 1 John 3:20), and changeless (Num. 23:19; James 1:17).
In the 2,000 years since public revelation ended, further reflection has led to an ever-more refined understanding of the deposit of faith (John 14:26, 16:13).
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
No comments:
Post a Comment