AS we look upon this picture, we wonder whether the kindly and loving wish of the little captive maid of Israel for her master was due to the grief of her mistress, the Syrian lady. Maybe it was. The little maid was a captive and a slave; she had been stolen away from her home in Israel by a band of Syrians, but, captive as she was, and in a country where false gods were worshipped, her heart was true to her God, and her kindly feelings were such as were prompted by His Spirit. The Scriptures do not state her name; they merely record the fact of her desire expressed to her mistress, “Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.” (2 Kings 5:33And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. (2 Kings 5:3).) She waited upon Naaman’s wife, whose grief probably made the captive girl forget her own griefs, and long that her “lord” might partake of the blessings that were to be had in Samaria at the hand of the prophet of Jehovah.
Certain it is that God’s people can afford to wish and to pray for the blessing of others, in whatever position of life they may be. The more we know of divine grace, the more we desire that others may know it also. Perhaps it would be better to say, the more we enjoy of divine grace, the more we long that others may be the subjects of it The prophet in Samaria had wrought great deeds of mercy as well as of judgment, and the “little maid” was assured that, Syrian though Naaman was, and captain of the host of the king whose hand was so often uplifted against Israel, still for him there might be had such mercies as Jehovah’s prophet alone could communicate.
She was far wiser than the king of Israel, who rent His clothes at the thought of a leper being recovered; wiser, too, than the royal courts of Syria and Israel combined, for she knew that the way for the leper to be healed was for him to go direct to Elisha, whereas the courts, as ignorant of God as royal courts usually are, had made the healing of the leper a matter for kings. Few are so wise as she, unless, indeed, it be the simple and the ignorant, for such do usually know that the only way to receive God’s salvation is to go direct to God for it. Elisha signifies “God (is) salvation,” and to God, who is the Saviour, and who in Christ has wrought salvation for man, must the sinner repair. Naaman (“the beautiful”) had at length to go to Elisha (“God (is) salvation”) in his leprosy. It went sorely against the pride of him who bore the name of “beautiful” so to do, but what the little maid had longed for on his behalf was, after a while, accomplished; Naaman stood before the door of the prophet of Jehovah in Samaria.
And what did the prophet say to him? The true prophets of God speak for God. Elisha bade the proud Syrian go to the waters of Jordan and wash there. And what was the Jordan to Naaman? Merely a small river, and one not to be compared with those of his own land. Indeed, he regarded the message as an insult.
Perhaps he did not lay hold of the signification of Jordan (“death or judgment”), or, if he did, he would not allow its application to himself. But there was only one way of salvation for the leper, and that was by the leper himself going down into the waters of death or judgment. At last he, who bore the name of “beautiful,” descended into those waters in his leprosy, and in a moment he became clean, All God’s salvation addresses the sinner to Christ’s death for him. In none else save in Jesus is salvation; no other saves. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21,21And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21))