2 Kings 5

Elisha’s healing of Naaman results in a powerful story of greed.  Naaman came to Elisha and wanted to give him a gift for healing him.  Elisha refused and Naaman goes on his merry way.  Elisha’s servant, Ghehazi, sees an opportunity here.  He knows that Elisha had not taken the gifts offered and decides to go after them for himself.  He takes off after Naaman who had left for home and runs him down.  When he catches up he fabricates a story about a couple young “brothers from the guild” coming in that needs stuff and plays on Naaman’s goodness to gather 150 pounds of silver and a couple sets of clothes to take back to these make believe men.  Naaman even provided a couple servants to help carry the gifts which created somewhat of a challenge for Gehazi.  He had to stop outside of town and stash the cash thinking no one would know.  Guys – lesson number one – when you do something wrong someone always knows.  God for certain and usually someone else will too.  Sin is never committed in a way that no one knows.  No matter what the enemy may tell you – when you do something that violates God’s plan – He always knows.  Elisha confronts Gehazi who compounds the problem by lying about it.  Lesson number two – when you screw up – admit it.  Don’t complicate things by trying to cover it up more.  Too often we think we can lie our way out of something we did wrong.  It never works.  Greed was the root cause of this dilemma.  We have to be very careful we keep our heads on straight lest we too become overwhelmed with greed.  Gehazi gets the real result of his selfish sin – he is given the disease from which Naaman was healed.  Check this out:  “Naaman’s skin disease will now infect you and your family, with no relief in sight.” Gehazi walked away, his skin flaky and white like snow.”  Lesson three – Gehazi’s sin spreads way beyond impacting just him.  Do you see this?  Naaman’s disease not only affected Gehazi but his family too.  One simple act, some would argue logical and just since Elisha turned down the offer.  After all, Gehazi was just taking advantage of the opportunity, right?  WRONG.  He was being greedy and selfish and thinking only of himself.  Sin always takes us farther than we want to go and keeps us longer than we want to stay.  Certainly Gehazi never considered the fact that his decision would impact his family like it did.  In this case the impact was immediate.  Scripture tells us that “Gehazi walked away, his skin flaky and white like snow”.  His life was changed forever that day by one seemingly small decision.  Guys – how we live matters.  It is often those things that seem small and unimportant that will determine much in our future.  Live life like it matters – it does!