The Syrian Raid

Our Text:
2 Kings 5 : 2 "And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel.  She waited on Naaman's wife. "

Here was a young Hebrew girl who had been captured when Syria under the command of Naaman raided the land of Israel.  She was snatched from her home, her mother, her siblings.  She was taken out of her culture and everything familiar and under the oppression of slavery, brought to this strange country with a strange language and strange gods.

A Hebrew girl who had been raised to believe in one God whose name is Jehovah.  She had been taught the history of her people, about all their sufferings and how the Almighty hand of Jehovah God had always been with them because they were His chosen people.

And now here she was a slave in this foreign land.  We don't know what was done to her between the time of capture and the time or circumstances under which she was delivered to Naaman's wife, and I am certain that even if we can sympathize with this little girl,  we couldn't possibly empathize with her because we've never been slaves, we really don't know what it means, but we do know that it is absolutely unpleasant. None of us would wish it on our daughters.

So she's a captive in Naaman's house. She's performing her duties as unto the Lord under a very broken heart.  Her faith in the God of Israel remains strong so we know she didn't assimilate into the Syrian culture (In Psalm 137:4, the captives from Israel upon being required to sing a song of Zion mourned,  saying "how shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land.").  The Bible in Proverbs 22:6 admonishes us to "train up a child in the way he should go,  and when he is old he will not depart from it."

We know all this because in verse 3 she said to Naaman's wife, "If only my master were with the Prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy." She clearly believes in the God of Israel 'so she would be established, and in His Prophets so she would prosper!'

In spite of how grossly she'd been wronged, in spite of the fact that she was a slave far from home,  she didn't take all that as occasion to keep her mouth shut when she knew the solution to her master's problem, the only one problem he had. She still reached out to her captors to help them.

How many of us can emulate this Hebrew girl?  Let us search ourselves and learn to take on the Spirit of Christ as this young lady did. And may the Lord in His mercy help us in Jesus' name,  Amen.

#momomily2014