Grace in Unexpected Places
Elijah boldly confronts King Ahab, but the first person to whom God tells Elijah to “go” is not the king but a non-Israelite widow (1 Kgs 17:1, 8–9). The God who had “directed the ravens to supply you with food there” (v. 4) now “directed a widow there to supply you with food” (v. 9). Here is a claim to sovereignty outside the land and his people—“Zarephath in the region of Sidon” is the home not only of Jezebel but of her god!—and a widow outside of Israel will learn to her life-continuing gain that indeed “the Lord your God lives” (v. 12). Far away from centers of power and wealth she will be the first to affirm that “the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth” (v. 24).
Jesus’s introduction, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown” (Luke 4:24), shows that he has more in view than simply pointing to God’s grace to gentiles, although that aspect is important. The widow is an example of an “outsider,” someone on the fringe, who, when given opportunity to respond to God’s gracious saving provision, believes and lives, whereas “insiders” are not willing to believe or have a compromised faith and may be critical when “outsiders” are welcomed. How ready is the church today to see God graciously at work in people outside certain boundaries and perhaps to see that as a challenge to our own actions and attitudes? Konkel36 tells of Lamin Sanneh, an Islamic scholar, originally from Gambia, who became a follower of Christ but met suspicion and skepticism from various churches. He persevered because “Jesus was for real in spite of the prevarications of the church” and from 1989 until his death in 2019 was Professor of Missions and World Christianity at Yale Divinity School. The story of the widow of Zarephath encourages us to open our eyes and hearts to God’s grace in unexpected people and places, and to allow their response to challenge our own.
Here is also a story where the person of God does not come with all the resources but rather depends on help from the “outsider.” A striking comparison is Jesus asking for a drink of water from the woman at the well in Samaria, and she too, an “outsider,” became the first to see that he could be the Messiah and told others (John 4:7, 25–29).37
Naaman is Also a Human Being Like Us
The story of Naaman and his cleansing from a skin disease (2 Kgs 5) is familiar and Christians have seen many analogies with the gospel of Jesus Christ and cleansing from sin. Is this the main reason for the story being here? A number of features aid reflection on varying responses of God’s people in living amongst the nations.
From the start it challenges self-centered (or rather God’s people-centered) attitudes. It opens with simple, but unexpected, statements: “Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram” (2 Kgs 5:1). How might an Israelite receive these words? “Here is an archenemy. It can’t be true that the Lord gave Aram victory; God is supposed to give us victory.” Yet the narrator asserts God’s sovereignty and freedom to act on the side of Aram against Israel and continues to praise Naaman, “he was a valiant soldier” but he “had leprosy” (one of a number of possible skin diseases). An Israelite could give three reasons for detesting Naaman: a foreigner, head of the army that has defeated them, and a leper. Further, as a result of raids, a captured Israelite girl is now servant of Naaman’s wife. An Israelite might hope and pray for the freeing of the slave girl through the defeat of Aram. The narrator sees differently.
First, we read of the captive girl, a person on the fringe, seemingly insignificant as a member of God’s people. Yet here shines an example of concern for the enemy that leads ultimately to his full participation in communal life. Surprising inversions of human expectations continue: an Aramean king is genuinely and generously open to the possibility of an Israelite prophet healing, while the king of Israel is fearfully concerned for his own security. Next we read how Elisha is not overawed by the importance and possible generosity of this foreign army commander, simply sending a message as to the way to wholeness. He later refuses a very large gift of thanks, sending Naaman away “in peace” (v. 19).
We might expect the story to end there, but the narrator turns to Gehazi, Elisha’s assistant. The principle that a laborer is worthy of their hire is biblical (Matt 10:10; 1 Tim 5:18), and prophets relied upon the gifts of people (e.g., 1 Sam 9:8). Like Paul much later (1 Thess 2:9), Elijah however knows that claiming personal rights and material advantage is not as important as seeing people grow in faith in the life-giving God. Gehazi thinks otherwise. He sees an opportunity to live much more comfortably. He may well have justified his actions (as have many since), but the use of a lie and asking for only some of the gift is a standard form of graft. Elisha pinpoints not only Gehazi’s deceit, but his self-seeking at a time of hardship for others (v. 26).
Gehazi’s attitude to Naaman is evident in his “Naaman, this Aramean” (v. 20). He fails to have the breadth of compassion of Elisha—and God. Further, “with the derogatory epithet, ‘this Aramean,’ Gehazi impugns the man who has declared his faith in YHWH and who is about to act on it.”38 Naaman’s seed of faith is belittled rather than nurtured. By branding Naaman as “this Aramean,” Gehazi lessens his responsibility to care for a fellow human being, also made in the image of God. Gehazi’s attitude is reflected in countless contexts of human relationships, the labelling of the other in a way that regards them as of less worth than one’s own kind. This becomes particularly relevant in times of conflict or hardship, when all too readily there is division between “us” and “them.”
The story of Naaman involves four members of God’s people. The Israelite king saw Naaman as a threatening enemy while Gehazi saw an outsider to be used for personal advantage. A servant girl and Elisha were agents of God’s compassion so bringing blessing. Here “the other” came to Elisha, while Elijah was sent to the widow of Zarephath. In both cases the result was wholeness, and the stories are told to shape the attitude and actions of exiles amongst the nations.
When Jesus highlighted the otherness of the widow of Zarephath and of Naaman the Syrian as recipients of God’s favor, the people in the synagogue of Nazareth were “furious” and wanted to throw Jesus off the cliff (Luke 4:28–29). To show compassion and understanding to those who are “different from us” is risky! If this is how Christ was treated, should we be surprised?
In Light of the Past, Living in the Present among the Nations
It is easy to say in abstract that God’s people are to be a means of blessing to the nations by doing what is right and just. Biblical narrative provides stories of success and failure in doing so in the complexities of daily life at personal, family, and community levels. As the exiles in Babylon struggled to make sense of their current position and sought a way forward, the Kings narrative was more than a reminder of the past. As the story was told of the golden period of Solomon’s reign hearers found their gaze was turned from the temple, magnificent buildings, wealth, and brilliant wisdom to look rather at the cost to the community of the failure to have at the center, obedience to God’s covenantal requirements. They also saw in other stories examples of how it was possible to show God’s compassion for those outside his people and of how they too might come to faith in him.
We have had occasion already to refer to Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, to which could be added other blocks of teaching in Matthew. Significantly, the final words in Matthew are Jesus’s commission to “make disciples of all nations,” linked with “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19–20). God’s purpose to bless all nations still places at the center his people’s priorities in living his way, showing in their lives his own character of compassion and justice.
Bibliography
Brueggemann, Walter. 1 and 2 Kings. Smyth and Helwys Bible Commentary. Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, 2000.
Cohn, Robert L. 2 Kings. Berit Olam. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2000.
Crane, Ashley. “Solomon and the Building of the Temple.” In Text and Task: Scripture and Mission, edited by Michael Parsons, 33–49. Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2005.
Gordon, Robert P. “A House Divided: Wisdom