2 Kings 5:25

2 Kings 5:25

There was a stern justice in the penalty which followed on Gehazi's lie. Naaman's leprosy should go along with his wealth. In grasping at the one, Gehazi had succeeded in inheriting the other. The justice of the punishment will be more apparent if we consider what it was in Gehazi's conduct that led up to his lie, and which, from his point of view, made it at the moment necessary for him to tell the lie. Gehazi's conduct involved: I. A violation of the trust which his master had reposed in him. Confidence is to society what cement is to a building; it holds all together. Gehazi was not merely Elisha's servant; he was also, to a great extent, a trusted companion; in a certain sense he was his partner. To use the great position which his relation to Elisha had secured to him for a purpose which he knew Elisha would disapprove was an act which even the pagans of Damascus in their better moments would have shrunk from doing.

II. Gehazi's act was so wrong in the eyes of Elisha because it involved a serious injury to the cause of true religion. Elisha had been careful to refuse the presents which Naaman offered because he did not wish the blessings which Naaman had received to be associated in his mind with the petty details- of a commercial transaction. Gehazi's act, as it must have presented itself to Naaman, had all the appearance of an afterthought on the part of the prophet, which would be fatal to his first and high idea of the prophet's disinterestedness.

III. Notice the blindness of sin, blindness in the midst of so much ingenuity, so much contrivance. No one knew better than Gehazi that Elisha knew a great deal that was going on beyond the range of his eyesight. Sin blinds men to the real circumstances with which they have to deal.

IV. Gehazi's fall teaches us three practical lessons: (1) to keep our desires in order if we mean to keep out of grave sin; (2) to remember that great religious advantages do not in themselves protect a man against grievous sins; (3) the priceless value of truthfulness in the soul's life.

H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit,No. 1122.

References: 2 Kings 5:25. E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons,vol. ii., p. 228; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 419. 2 Kings 5:25. G. B. Ryley, Christian World Pulpit,vol. v., p. 365. 2 Kings 5:26. R. Heber, Parish Sermons,vol. ii., p. 136. 2 Kings 5:27. J. Baines, Sermons,p. 186. 2 Kings 5 Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., pp. 78, 79; A. Macleod, The Gentle Heart,p. 131; A. Saphir, Found by the Good Shepherd,p. 351; H. Macmillan, Sunday Magazine,1873, p. 417. 2 Kings 6:1. Parker, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxix., p. 274.