Among the many instances of divine grace and illustrations of the gospel contained in the Old Testament, there are few more attractive than the story of Naaman (2 Kings 5).
Where is the evangelist who has not delighted to trace the thread of redeeming mercy toward that "honorable" but afflicted man, from the voice of the "little maid" in his own household, and the expostulation of his servants when his pride was roused, to the moment when, in obedience to the word of Elisha, he dipped himself seven times in Jordan's stream, and obtained the cure so ardently desired? "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted" is the golden rule for the soul in having to do with God; and in becoming the Savior of sinners, Jesus Himself has trodden this path. He humbled Himself (Phil. 2:8) when He bare the penalty of death that the sinner deserved, and now God "giveth grace to the humble" (1 Pet. 5:5), to those who will take their true place before Him, as having sinned and perverted that which is right. To such, the interpreter can say on God's part, "I have found a ransom" ( Job 33:24); "His flesh shall be fresher than a child's" (v. 25).
But God, who fills the hungry with good things, and sends the rich empty away, has placed side by side with this happy picture of deliverance and blessing, a most solemn example of divine warning and displeasure. The gospel is preached to those that are afar off, and to them that are nigh (Eph. 2:17), and the word to those that have been brought outwardly nigh, as Christendom has been, is "toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off" (Rom. 11:22).
Gehazi, the servant of God's prophet, had a position of privilege that was unique in that day. Associated with the man who had the divine testimony in Israel, he had a share in the giving, and raising from death, of the Shunammite's son, as well as the multiplication of the loaves and corn to the people (2 Kings 4). He also was with the prophet at the time, if he was not actually the "messenger" to bear the word of healing to Naaman. But vanity and the love of money—root of every evil (1 Tim. 6:10)—lead him to falsify the grace of the God of Israel expressed to this stranger, and the prophet has the melancholy experience of seeing the fresh springs of joy and healing corrupted in Naaman's heart as he starts away to his own land. Unless one had faith in God that He who had begun a good work in the Syrian captain would complete it, we might well feel saddened and distressed that this soul that so lately learned that blessing from God was "without money and without price" (Isa. 55:1) should have had his heart chilled by the reversal of the prophet's message. Who can tell if after all the mule's burden of earth was used on his return? (2 Kings 5:17.)
Gehazi's heart being set upon gain, he became blind to every other consideration. But there is one thing most striking about the narrative, and that is that the moment his object is achieved, he has the conscience of a thief, and bestows his silver and garments in the "house" (v. 24). The attractiveness of sin is lost as soon as it is committed. "Ye shall be as gods" seemed so fair; but the moment the sin and disobedience was committed, the first pair learned that they were "naked" in the eyes of God and of one another.
Who would envy Gehazi his success obtained by lying and deceit? Hardened by unbelief, and deceived by Satan, he comes and stands again before his master. He meets the prophet's searching question again with untruth, but he has to learn to his own confusion that neither God nor the prophet was deceived, though he had been, and that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Gal. 6:7. He had desired Naaman's money and apparel; he gets also his leprosy. He is numbered with the company of the "many lepers... in Israel" (Luke 4:27), but with him is the added judgment that it should cleave to him and to his seed forever—a suggestion, we may surely say, of the endless doom that awaits those who neglect, refuse, or corrupt the grace of God as it is now expressed in the gospel. We next meet him, a sycophant in the king's presence (and such a king!—see 2 Kings 8:4) and there he passes off the scene, a hopeless leper, striving apparently to stifle the accusings of a bad conscience with the pleasures of the world.
What a warning and a lesson for us! If it be with the lips only we draw near to God, and the heart be far from Him (Matt. 15:8), after having been brought outwardly near and in a place of privilege, how shall we stand before a greater than Elisha "in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ"? Rom. 2:16. It will be only to hear that awful word "Depart" (Matt. 7:21-23). To any such we would urge, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15).