Only God Knows Her Name Series

2. These introductory verses established the story’s underlying tension. God had given victory to Aram through Naaman. In the king’s eyes, Naaman was responsible for this triumph. In that battle, King Ahab of Israel was killed, which fulfilled God’s promise to him before the battle began. The pas-sage implies that Naaman was the one who led the battle where an anonymous Aramean had shot an arrow that pierced Israel’s king? The ancient Jewish historian Josephus suggests that Naaman was the archer who fired the shot. The passage also speaks of military bands from Aram that raided Israel & capture a “little” girl. This was the little girl who ended up in Naaman’s house. She became his slave. A pious Jewish reader would prob-ably have viewed Naaman’s leprosy as poetic justice. What’s interesting in the passage is that this doesn’t seem to be the little girl’s view at all. (1)

3. The “little girl” appears to have been out of step with contemporary belief when she demonstrated compassion & maintained a merciful attitude to-ward her master. The fact that the story is more complicated that most Jews at the time understood is demonstrated by the fact that the passage begins by saying God gave Naaman victory of the Israelites.

4. In a way you could say that God allowed this little girl’s captivity & that Naaman was God’s instrument. Why would God punish Naaman for doing His will? Naaman’s leprosy wasn’t pay back for his acts against Israel of the “little maid.” It was in fact, an opportunity for the work of God to be on dis-play." (6)

5. I don’t know about you, but if many of us had been the “little girl” we would have been furious, to say the least, at our captors. Consider this…

• They were responsible for destroying her dreams.

• They were responsible for the nightmares that woke her up in the night.

• Because of them, she would likely never marry a handsome Jewish boy & raise beautiful Jewish children & live in a nice house in a nice Jewish village.

• Because of them, she was alone in a strange land & surrounded by strange people.

• Because of them, she was miles away from her mother & father. (6)

Cell #6:

It’s easy to get a bad attitude toward people & situations when we’re MISTREATED. (2)

6. But that was not at all what this little girl did. She refused to give in to her lower nature. She managed to stay upbeat & reach out to the man who had imprisoned her. Were there times she was discouraged? There must have been. Were there times when she had been angry & lonely & even de-pressed? Possibly, but by this part of the story she had worked through her frustrations & it appears that she had a great attitude that God was going to use to help out her boss.

7. Amazingly, she had a much better attitude than most of the adults in the story. Naaman was about to throw a fit. He had expected the prophet to come out of his house, wave his hand over the leprous sores & say some magic words. His frustration got worse when the prophet told him to dip under the water of the dirty Jordan River 7 times. In a similar vein, the king of Israel panicked when Naaman showed up asking to be cured of his lepro-sy.