Naaman - Who Are You Again?

2 Kings 5:1

1 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.

When reading a book, most of the time it's very easy to remember the main characters.  Those are the ones that define the plot, the ones we follow along on the journey, the ones that stay in our mind when we've finished.  You will remember Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy - but do you recall Rumblebuffin and the lesson we learned from him?  Maybe, maybe not. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is not the only book where this is the case.

I think the same is true for the Bible. We remember the people who have whole books written about them, Ruth, Esther, Job - but if someone is even mentioned in the Bible, there is a lesson to be learned there.  So, for the next few months, let's look at the people that are mentioned but may not get the recognition they should.

The first is Naaman.  Naaman was a commander in the army.  The Bible says he was a great man and highly regarded by the king.  We are even told why he was highly regarded: "because through him the Lord had given victory to King Aram". He was labeled as a 'valiant solder'.  

In today's world, a man with those credentials we would expect to see in a military uniform with medals and ribbons attached to it. There is one crucial physical attribute attached to Naaman's description: "but he had leprosy".

In Naaman's time, this was a death sentence.  I did a little research on leprosy and a person can have the bacteria that causes leprosy in their system for 3-5 years before symptoms appear. So by the time Naaman knew he had leprosy, it was showing over his skin. Now the Bible doesn't say - Naaman was a great military leader and then he found out he had leprosy.  It says he was a valiant soldier - but he had leprosy.

How many times do we give an excuse to not complete a task?  I'm guilty of it.  Maybe my back was too sore one day or I was just too tired.  Naaman had LEPROSY and yet when the Lord called him out to war to claim victory for King Aram - Naaman went.  I think the first thing we can take away from Naaman in just the first mention of him is that when God is truly calling you to do His work, nothing should stand in your way.