Humble Yourself… Be Healed!

2 Kings 5:10–14, Go wash in the Jordan. Elisha did not cater to Naaman’s pride, which dictated that pomp and parade accompany the healing. YHVH, through his servant, dealt with Naaman’s physical sickness, as well as his sin of pride.

The Torah teaches that the sins of pride, selfishness, and robbery are root causes of the skin disorder that plagued the Syrian general. This story demonstrates that YHVH is as concerned with the root causes of an ailment as much as the ailment itself.

Many of Yeshua’s miracles demonstrated this same concern. Humility and self-negation were the cures to what ailed Naaman. Continue reading

 

Elisha: the Non-Profit Prophet

2 Kings 5:5, Ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothing. According to the NIV Study Bible, this equates to 750 lbs. of silver and 150 lbs. of gold. By comparison, King Omri of Israel paid only two talents of silver for the hill of Samaria upon which he built the capital of his kingdom (1 Kgs 16:24).

In today’s market, that is $360,000 in silver (at $30 per ounce), and $4,080,000 in gold (at $1700 per ounce).

This raises two questions: First, what will a person pay to have good health? This is something that sometimes all the money in the world cannot purchase. If you are healthy, how thankful are you for it?

Second, how many ministers or ministries in the church are there who would turn down a $4.5 million charitable donation if YHVH said to do so? Would you?

Maybe such a heart of obedience and such ambivalence to wealth and materialism is what contributed to the prophet Elisha having such a powerful prophetic and healing anointing in the first place. What can we learn from this if we are seeking to be used of YHVH in a greater capacity in the ministry?