Yet, the more I think about it, the more it begins to make sense to me. Over the years, I have met too many people like Gehazi in church. A preacher can say on a Sunday morning that the Bible contains all the answers, all the lessons, all the ways for successful living, because it is the Word of God.
People sit down and hear those words applied to various facets of life, areas where they are going through problems or have questions, and they ignore the answer to pursue their own solution according to their whims, fancies, or desires.
And at the end of the day, they seem thoroughly surprised that their lives are messed up, sometimes irrevocably. Or in other cases, individuals dealing with personal problems cover it up well in church. It happens quite frequently. He did not make his thoughts known to anyone else for the simple reason that he had a part to play. After all, he was the servant of the Elisha.
God forbid if he turned out to be crooked! The other side of this, however, is that when one harbors questionable ideas, one needs a friend or mentor who can help. Gehazi had gone far beyond this particular point in his life. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings for death.
Gehazi took off to intercept Naaman. Gehazi concocted a story about some preachers who just came by and needed some financial help. Naaman was more than willing to oblige. Gehazi had only asked for a talent of silver and two changes of clothes. Naaman gave double. It is hard to ascertain how much of a fortune that Gehazi had taken from Naaman, but it was substantial yet low key enough not to attract public attention, and Gehazi was capable of making it bigger through investments and real estate deals.
Everything seemed alright when he came back to the house where Elisha was sitting. And then the next phrase brought down a crushing shock. Therefore the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and to your descendants forever. He had his money and the brains to make it great, and he most likely would, but the taint of leprosy would never leave him, and while money can buy friends, influence, titles, benefits and other stuff, it cannot buy satisfaction, joy, peace, or family.
In short, it cannot buy anything that makes life worth living. He was a leper. He could not touch anyone and all would cringe when they looked at him. And always, the memories of those times of ministry alongside Elisha would haunt him. While leprosy has been wiped out from most the world today, the judgements of God on sin have not. Not all judgement in the Bible or in society as a whole should be considered in the same way or method.
There is the unspoken judgement that clings to lives like leprosy. It is distrust that clings to a person who has been caught in acts of treason, disloyalty, or infidelity, no matter how many years pass by; the stigma of their act never seems to die away. In the Old Testament, leprosy drove people away from the presence of God.
How many people who once were on fire for God are now tormented by the memories of the past because of their decisions and the compromises they made to achieve something that was at the end, fleeting. Leprosy was something that had to be covered, kept secret.
Victims were alienated from family and vice-versa on purpose because of the fear of embarrassment and humiliation, not to mention the social ostracism. Not only did Gehazi lie about Elisha - he lied directly to Elisha.
When Elisha asked Gehazi where he had been, Gehazi responded without hesitation, "Nowhere! God was giving Gehazi one last chance to repent and tell Elisha what a terrible thing he had done. If Gehazi had confessed his sin to Elisha right then, the situation could have been rectified, and we would have had a wonderful story of repentance and restoration! But Gehazi compounded his sin with a cover-up. How do we react when we have fallen short of God's standards in some area, and we are gently confronted by a fellow believer who asks us, in essence, "Where have you been?
The Bible is warning us here that while God is always seeking to restore us, if we refuse to humble ourselves to His restoring process, we have chosen His judgment! Dishonoring the Lord's servants is a sin that's very easy to commit.
In most churches or ministries, the Lord's servants do a lot of the "up-front" work, and are therefore subject to a lot of criticism. Criticism of the Lord's servants is dangerous.
Let's be especially careful that our comments do not put words that were never actually spoken into their mouths! Lying to or about anyone is a sin. Lying about a servant of the Lord is a particularly serious sin, however, because it's not only the Lord's servant who is dishonored - the Lord Himself is dishonored!
God may have to remove those who continue to misrepresent and criticize His servants from their church or area of service. Sometimes it is quite obvious when God steps into the situation and disciplines with the "leprosy of Gehazi. The "mark of Gehazi" not only renders the believer unclean to serve the Lord, it reminds fellow believers that dishonoring the Lord's servants brings serious consequences! The legacy of leprosy becomes God's warning to every potential Gehazi.
In addition, Gehazi's sin was serious because it distorted the Lord's gospel. The gospel is God's good news. God's good news is that salvation and all of his gifts are free! Isaiah says, "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Moreover, Gehazi caused the spiritual picture in this story to be distorted.
The free gift of cleansing from the fatal disease of leprosy pictures the truth that salvation, God's cleansing from the fatal disease of sin, is a free gift! In great gratitude and joy, Naaman offered Elisha gifts but the prophet refused it and send him away in peace as a converted person that have found the true God. Naaman urged Gehazi to take twice as much silver as he had asked for. But nothing can be hidden from the Lord Numbers But all he could think about was money.
The Lord is kind and merciful and never brings unjust or unnecessary affliction upon His children. For a long time leprosy was thought to be a hereditary disease, a curse, or a punishment from God. Before and even after the discovery of its biological cause, leprosy patients were stigmatized and shunned. Who was Elisha's servant in 2 Kings 6? Was the Jordan River dirty in biblical times? The holy waterway of Biblical times has become a polluted, foul-smelling stream.
The lower Jordan River is filled with raw sewage and contaminated agricultural runoff from neighbouring communities in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. How did King Ben Hadad die? Ben-hadad was murdered by the usurper Hazael.
Who was the Leper King? Baldwin IV. Who is Elisha in 2 Kings? As a prophet, Elisha was a political activist and revolutionary. Though Elisha recruited Jehu to revolt against and succeed Ahab, it was Elijah who was instructed to anoint Jehu as Israel's king 1 Kings
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