The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon.

“Then his servants approached and spoke to him [Naaman], saying, ‘My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, “Wash, and be clean”?’”

—2 Kings 5:13

Naaman was the commander of armies, and even the king considered him a mighty man and warrior. But Naaman was afflicted with leprosy and went to Elisha for healing.

Elisha sent instructions for Naaman to wash in the Jordan River seven times. 

Naaman was furious; he felt this was beneath the honor of his station. He should’ve been given some great deed or sacrifice to show himself worthy of his healing; there isn’t anything special about dipping yourself in a river. 

How often do people come to God and leave angry because he simply says, “Believe in me, and be cleansed” (John 6:28–29)? They want something that makes them feel good about themselves—some reason to say, “Look, the Lord forgave me because of this worthy deed!”

But all of us come to God unclean in sin as Naaman came to Elisha in leprosy. No great position in this world gives us a different route to his forgiveness. 

And after our cleansing, he tells us not to go and receive honor, but to go and disciple (Matthew 28:19–20), to go and wash feet (John 13:14–15), to go and die (John 12:24–26). In all things, we are to be servants.

Many of us resist God’s call because it has us serving in the low places rather than earning prestige in the show places, but if we come to him in humility, we will be cleansed like little children just as Naaman was (2 Kings 5:14; Matthew 18:3–4).

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