care

2 Kings 5 – Two Things That Always Make Sense

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THIS DOESN’T MAKE SENSE

While in seminary, I served as a hospice chaplain to patients who were diagnosed with 6 months or less to live.

There was a nice and personable patient who sticks in my memory. This man had a wonderful wife, kids, and grandkids. He had just retired and was getting ready to spend retirement traveling when he received his diagnosis. Instead of enjoying a hard-earned retirement traveling around the country, he would live out a few short months confined to a hospital bed in his house.

I remember leaving that home thinking, “There are bad people in this city who will live to a ripe old age. Yet this sweet patient will die early and never enjoy his retirement. This doesn’t make sense!”

I have the same feeling when I read 2 Kings chapter 5. The story doesn’t make sense:

  • A slave girl shows care and compassion toward her captor. (2 Kings 5:3)
  • A ruthless king shows compassion and care for a commander and sends him for healing.
  • God’s king and the servant of God’s prophet both are self-centered and lack compassion.
  • The man in need of healing is prideful and arrogant at first, yet he’s still healed.
  • The servant of God’s prophet ends up with leprosy.

In other words, the people you would have thought to be selfish were compassionate, and the people you would have thought to be compassionate were selfish.

THE TWO THINGS THAT ALWAYS MAKE SENSE

Naaman’s healing came about because of people in his life who were compassionate and cared for him, while Gehazi’s leprosy came about because of his greed and lack of compassion. (2 Kings 5:20)

Care and compassion are two things that always make sense because they are akin to God’s own heart. Selfishness and greed, on the other hand, are forces akin to the evil one.

So, despite the assumptions people might make about you, if they dug down to your core, would they find care and compassion for others or selfishness and greed for yourself? Would they find the heart of God or the heart of the enemy?

Joshua 22 – It’s Really None of My Business

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“It’s really none of my business. “Besides, what right do I have to say anything to them?”

Individualism and personal freedom dominant our world today. They sound like noble ideas, but they actually run counter to what Scripture teaches.

  • God implies that we are our brother’s keeper. (Genesis 4:9)
  • He encourages us to “interfere” in the lives of those involved in sin. (Galatians 6:1-3) (James 5:19-20).

God tells us that we weren’t created for individualistic isolation, but rather for caring community. (Gen. 2:18) (Ecc. 4:9-12).

In Joshua chapter 22, the Israelites on the west side of the Jordan river learn their brothers and sisters on the east side of the river have sinned. They don’t say, “What they do over there is their business. God will deal with them. It doesn’t really effect use anyway.” Instead, the people to the west go to those in the east, and seek their restoration. They even offer to bring their eastern brothers and sisters back home with them and share their land with them. The people of the west cared enough about their eastern brothers and sisters to be assertive and get involved.

This may feel like intruding, but we are our brother’s keeper. We are to get involved when others are drifting into sin, in hopes of restoring them to the community. As God’s people, we are not called to be a collection of individuals, but rather a community of care and concern for one another.

So, in love, gentleness, and humility, get involved in reaching out to your brother and sisters struggling with sin.