“But Naaman became furious and went away and said, “indeed, I said to myself, He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy’ ” (2 Kings 5:11).
It is easy for humans to forget that God is different from us—He does not think the same way, He does not have the same attitude toward things or even life itself, and He does not act in the same way as we do.
That was the problem Naaman, commander of the army of the King of Syria, had when he found himself with the dreaded disease of leprosy. Based on the recommendation of a serving girl, he sought out a prophet of God, Elisha, to cure his disease.
When the prophet told him to dip himself seven times in the dirty Jordan River in Israel, Naaman reacted as is recorded in this verse. He expected that Elisha would demonstrate the power of his God by performing some public spectacle and pronounce him healed. When that did not happen, he was irate.
People of every generation are not really that different. Many expect to find God in the spectacular—they think a powerful God will heal the ills of society, will make Himself known through emotionalism in mega-churches, or will give them some spine-tingling experience that will transport them into a world of their perception of spirituality.
These actions do not describe the God of heaven. His main concern for mankind centers on the preparation of the soul for eternity. He cares about every aspect of our being, but his primary concern is that we follow His word in living our lives so that we can come to be with Him after this life is over.