Too Easy

Read 2 Kings 5: 1-15.

Do you remember the story of Naaman who came to Elisha to be cleaned from leprosy?  Naaman was a captain in the king of Syria's army, and he had his own ideas about how things should be done. However, desperate for a cure, he ended up seeking Elisha. When the prophet sent a messenger to tell him to go and wash in the Jorden River seven times, Naaman was insulted. He 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 in Damascus, better than the rivers in Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean?" Naaman turned away in anger, not intending to do this simple thing. However, his servants talked him into it, saying, "My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean." He dipped himself seven times in the Jordan river and was cleansed, cured of this dreaded disease.

There are too many people who are like Naaman. They think asking for forgiveness and for Christ to cleanse and save them is too easy. From a human perspective, there should be some cost involved, some punishment or penance. But God made it easy, so we would know that it was His gift and nothing we could earn. It is all Him and nothing of us.  To God be the glory!

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