Scripture Daily

Context No. 1970 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 5:21-27: in context

21So Gehazi followed after Naaman. When Naaman saw one running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him, and said, “Is all well?” 22He said, “All is well. My master has sent me, saying, ‘Behold, even now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.’” 23Naaman said, “Be pleased to take two talents.” He urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and laid them on two of his servants; and they carried them before him. 24When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and stored them in the house. Then he let the men go, and they departed. 25But he went in, and stood before his master. Elisha said to him, “Where did you come from, Gehazi?” He said, “Your servant went nowhere.” 26He said to him, “Didn’t my heart go with you when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive groves and vineyards, and sheep and cattle, and male servants and female servants? 27Therefore the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and to your offspring forever.” He went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow.

After Elisha refuses any payment from the healed Naaman, his servant Gehazi, consumed by greed, runs after Naaman with a lie: my master has changed his mind and asks for silver and clothing for some visitors. Naaman gladly gives more than asked. Gehazi hides the treasure and returns, and when Elisha asks where he has been, Gehazi lies again: your servant went nowhere. But Elisha knows: did not my heart go with you? he asks. Is this a time to take money? And the leprosy that had left Naaman clings to Gehazi.

Gehazi's downfall is a study in the destructiveness of greed. His covetousness, awakened by the sight of Naaman's wealth, drove him to lie to get what Elisha had refused, and then to lie again to cover it. Greed made a deceiver of him, and led him step by step into ruin. And notice the pointed detail: he thought his secret sin was hidden, that no one had seen him chase Naaman, take the silver, and hide it. But Elisha says, did not my heart go with you? The sin Gehazi thought was hidden was known; his secret greed and lies were not concealed. There are two warnings here. The first is about the destructiveness of greed. The love of money, Scripture says, is a root of all kinds of evil, and Gehazi shows how it works: covetousness makes us grasp what is not ours, deceive to get it, and lie to hide it, corrupting us and leading to ruin. Greed is not a harmless desire but a corrupting one, and it destroyed Gehazi. The second warning is that our secret sins are not hidden from God. Gehazi thought no one saw; but his master's heart went with him, and God saw it all. We are prone to think our secret greed, our hidden grasping, our covered-over lies, escape notice; but they do not escape God. Be sure your sin will find you out, Scripture says. Gehazi's secret was known, and the consequence he thought he had escaped fell upon him. This searches us on both counts. It warns against letting greed grow in us, the covetousness that would drive us to grasp and deceive, remembering how it destroyed Gehazi. And it reminds us that our secret sins are seen by God, that the hidden greed and the covered lie are not concealed from him. Gehazi grasped in secret and was struck; and greed that grasps and hides, thinking itself unseen, is both destructive and known to the God from whom nothing is hidden.

Is there a greed growing in me, a covetousness that would drive me to grasp what is not mine or to deceive to get it, and do I imagine my secret grasping and hidden lies escape notice, or can I take warning from Gehazi, whose greed destroyed him and whose secret sin was known, remembering that the love of money corrupts and that nothing is hidden from God?

Sources