Elisha’s treatment of Naaman was intended to bring him into direct and conscious dependence on God; or, in other words, to produce humility and faith.  Some persons are crushed and mastered by pain and sickness, and some gain in spiritual worth what they lose in physical strength.  But Naaman’s disease had as yet done little to instruct him.  He came as a great man, with his servants, and chariots, and piles of money, to purchase a cure from a skilled man.  He did not see what Elisha plainly saw, that if this blessing came at all, it must come from Israel’s God, and that with Jehovah no man Could barter or be on bargaining terms, but must accept freely what was freely given.  Therefore Elisha refuses even to see him, that Naaman might understand it was with God he had to do; and by refusing a single penny of payment he compelled the Syrian to humble himself and accept his cure as a gift.

And probably the incident finds a place in the sacred history because it marked an important step in the knowledge of God.  It was an early instance of the Conquests which the God of Israel was to make among the heathen, a distinct and legible proof that whoever from among the outlying nations appealed to Him for help would receive the blessing he sought.  But it was more than this, it emphasized the freeness of all God’s gifts.  Nothing could be purchased from Jehovah; everything must be received as a gift.  This was a new idea to the heathen, and probably to many of the Israelites also.  Certainly it is an idea that is only dimly apprehended by ourselves.  Our dealing with one another is to so large an extent governed by the idea that nothing can be had for nothing, that we carry this idea into our dealings with God, and expect only what we can earn and claim.  It is a wholesome pride that prompts us to work at anything rather than be dependent on other men, but it is a most unwholesome and ignorant pride that forbids us to acknowledge our dependence on God, and to accept freely what He freely gives.  Until we learn to live in God, to own Him as alone having life in Himself, and to accept from Him life and all that sustains it, both physical and spiritual, we are not recognising the truth and living in it.  Our good deeds and good feelings, our repentances and righteous intentions and endeavours, are as much out of place as a means of procuring God’s favour and help as Naaman’s talents of silver and pieces of gold.  We have God’s favour irrespective of our merit, and we must humble ourselves to accept it as His free gift, which we could not earn and have not earned.

Naaman no sooner saw that Jehovah was a living and true God than he perceived that certain practical difficulties would result from this belief.  Sometimes men do not connect their belief with their practice; they do not let their left hand know what their right hand is doing.  But Naaman . foresaw that, as hitherto, he would still be expected to enter the temple of the god Rimmon when his master went to worship.  And he wished Elisha’s authority for this measure of conformity.