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 in Old Testament Narrative Traditions.” In Wisdom in Ancient Israel, edited John Day, Robert P. Gordon, and H. G. M. Williamson, 94–105. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Keller, Tim. Counterfeit Gods. New York: Dutton Adult, 2009.
Konkel, August H. 1 and 2 Kings. NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006.
Marshall, I. Howard. Acts. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Leicester: Inter-Varsity, 1980.
Olley, John W. The Message of Kings. The Bible Speaks Today. Nottingham: Inter-Varsity, 2011.
———. “Pharaoh’s Daughter, Solomon’s Palace and the Temple: Another Look at the Structure of 1 Kings 1–11.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 27 (2003) 355–69.
———. “‘You are Light of the World’: A Missiological Focus for the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew.” Mission Studies 20, no. 1 (2003) 9–28.
Veblen, Thorstein. The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Macmillan, 1899.
Wiseman, Donald J. 1 and 2 Kings. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Leicester: InterVarsity, 1993.
9. Gen 12:3; mišpāḥôt “extended families, clans” is also in the table of nations, 10:5, 18, 20, 31, 32, and the description of creatures that came out of the ark, 8:19 (NIV “peoples,” “clans,” and “kind” respectively). ‘ădāmāh “earth, ground” features prominently throughout Gen 1–11 (28 times), echoing the commonality of all people as ‘ādām, more basic than any family or ethnic identity. Bible quotations are from the NIV unless otherwise specified.
10. Gen 18:18–19; here the terminology is the more common “nations” (gôyim) and “earth, land” (‘ereṣ).
11. Gen 11:1–9; English versions transliterate the Hebrew bābel only in v. 9, elsewhere using the later Greek form “Babylon.”
12. Gen 12:2; 15:1.
13. While recognizing incorporation of earlier material, implying selection and editing, our attention is the context of recipients of the present form of the books: what is the writer/editor communicating in that setting?
14. In Olley, Message of Kings, I explore several ways in which Kings shines light into current faith and lifestyle issues.
15. Keller, Counterfeit Gods.
16. So NIV. The verb hiśkîl may also be translated “be successful” (as in Josh 1:7–8) or “understand, gain insight” (so LXX; cf. Gen 3:6). Success and wisdom, along with prosperity, flow from trusting obedience.
17. My translation; NIV’s “right and wrong” obscures the echoes of the narrative of Genesis 3 and the “tree of the knowledge of good and bad,” with its fruit “desirable for gaining wisdom” (hiśkîl).
18. Gordon, “A House Divided,” 94–105. Gordon notes also that the last recorded activity of Solomon is seeking the life of his rival Jeroboam (11:40). The narrator there pointedly says ‘the Lord raised up adversaries’ (11:14, 21).
19. Crane, “Solomon,” 34, 40.
20.
