Seow reminds us: “There are people in every era who are so terribly afflicted with diseases and other ailments, who are desperate to find any word of hope from spiritual leaders. And there are always opportunists like Gehazi who are ready to make a quick profit in the name of the Lord. This text sternly warns against such opportunism.” But as Seow himself points out, it may well be the unnamed Israelite slave back in the beginning of the chapter who is in a very real sense the proper foil to unfaithful Gehazi, and therefore the true role model of proper faith in her God, Yahweh. Although a hopeless captive in a foreign land, her “eyes of faith” perceived, and thus provided, hope for her foreign master, and through him, for his entourage as well. Thus, as greedy Gehazi fails, the unnamed servant girl succeeds in advancing the Kingdom of God beyond the borders of Israel. We today smile at Naaman’s overly literal transporting of Israelite soil to his Aramean homeland to worship his new God, but we surely recognize that none of that could have happened without the brave, simple testimony of a captive Israelite servant girl, whose name our storyteller probably never even knew. One never knows what simple word of testimony might well change forever the course of salvation history. --William H. Barnes, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: 1-2 Kings
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 04:05:02 +0000
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