You want me to what?

A long time ago there was a general who fought for the enemy.  He was such a powerful general that when he captured a city he whisked away young women – girls really – to serve as “servants” for the people back home.

These servants, of course, were slaves.  They didn’t have any choice in what was happening.  They were taken from their home and led away hundreds of miles to the country the general was fighting for.

Now this general was no fool, so he picked the best “servant” to take care of his wife and his home.

This particular young woman was a devout believer in God.  She didn’t fight or argue.  She didn’t try to escape.  She didn’t cry even though she was lonely and missed her family and friends.

She decided to trust God even in these dire circumstances.

Then the general got sick.  Very sick with something most people would today call leprosy.  The servant girl told the general if only he would go see the minister she knew back home, she knew he would pray to God and the general would be healed.

The general thought this was crazy.  But he was desperate.  So he got some of his men together and traveled back to where he had captured the girl.  He took with him gold and silver; a lot of gold and silver.  By some estimates today’s value of what they packed was $9 Million dollars.

The general was going to pay for his healing, and not be indebted to any foreigner.

When they arrived at the gate of the minister’s home he banged on the door and demanded to be heard.

“I am the general who captured your city, come out and talk to me.” he yelled. So the minister came out and looked at the general and said, “what can I do for you?”  The general explained his situation.  At that, the minister said, “go down to the river and wash yourself, your entire body, three times.  You will be healed.”

The general thought that was crazy.  “There’s water in the river by our base he decided, I’ll just wash there.”

But, one of his men said, “boss, we’ve come this far, why not give it a try?”

So the general did.  And you probably see where this is going…he was cured of his disease.

It’s a real story.

Maybe you recognized it already?

It’s from the Old Testament of the Bible; specifically in 2^nd Kings Chapter five.

It’s one of my favorite stories for two reasons.

First off, the young woman taken up into captivity never lost faith.  She never blamed God that she was a slave.   Her love of God was so fierce it prompted her to help the man who had enslaved her.

The second reason I love this story is the general.  His name was Naaman.  Naaman had no faith until he was the recipient of a miracle from God.

Those of us who think we are older and wiser need to recall both these people.  The girl who would not abandon God and the mighty warrior who thought he could get everything in life because he could kill or imprison those who stood in his way.

God healed him not because of who he was.  God didn’t need the $9 million dollars, and the minister who sent him to the river to bathe didn’t want it either.  Naaman was healed  I think, because of the faith of that young woman.  She is not named in the story. God wanted her story to be shared, and he used Naaman as the way to show us that faith that never doubts is the most powerful thing in the world.   She is unnamed so we can look at faith through her eyes and say about her faith:

That’s the kind of faith I want too.