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The events of the story of Naaman and Elisha recorded in 2 Kings 5:1-15 occurred in around 850 or 840 BC, over 2800 years ago. At that time, Israel was in conflict with Syria, located north and east of Israel. Just a few years before this story, the king of Israel had lost his own father to the Syrians, so there was bad blood between these two countries. Syria had raided Israel and even taken some Israelites into captivity.
One of the captives was a little girl and had become a servant in the household of Naaman, who was the five star general of the Syrian army. Even though Naaman was an unbeliever, not an Israelite, the Lord had blessed Naaman with great success in his career, but he also was cursed with leprosy. Naaman had the resources of the entire Syrian kingdom at his disposal, but they did him no good when it came to his leprosy. But his little servant girl had paid attention to what her parents taught her about the Lord while she was growing up in Israel, and the little girl knew that there was a prophet of the Lord back in Israel who could help Naaman in a way that no one in his home country could, so the girl told Naaman’s wife about Elisha and his ability to heal lepers. And to his credit, he listened to this little girl’s faithful confession and went in search of Elisha.
While the little girl who sent Naaman to Elisha demonstrated great childlike faith in the Lord, Naaman acts like a typical faithless adult once he has headed off to Israel. After the little servant girl told Naaman about Elisha, Naaman had gone to his king in Syria to get permission to travel to Israel, and the king sent Naaman on his way with an enormous amount of wealth. The king was accustomed to buying favors from men and gods alike. Pagan religion always involves humans doing things that are designed to move the gods to act; sinners assume that God is like us — we can bribe Him, or butter Him up to help us — so it was natural for the Syrian king to think his money could procure Naaman’s cure. But as we find out in this story, grace excludes works and merit, and there’s no way to buy grace!
