In Every Bad Experience

Now I know that is no God in all the earth, except in Israel. - 2 Kings 5:15


When I rear-ended a truck with my nearly new car, positive thoughts did not immediately come to mind. I was thinking primarily of the cost, the incovenience, and the injury to my ego. But I did find some hope in this thought, which I often share with other writers: "In every bad experience, there's a good illustration."

Finding the good can be a challenge, but Scripture confirms that God uses bad circumstances for good purposes.

In 2 Kings 5, we find two people who had bad things happen to them. First is a young girl from Israel who was taken captive by the Syrian army. Second is Naaman, the commander of the army, who had leprosy. Even though the girl had good reason to desire bad things for her captors, she offered a help instead. Israel's prophet Elisha, she said, could heal Naaman. Eager to be cured, Naaman went to Israel. However, he was reluctant to follow Elisha's humiliating directions. When he finally did, he was healed, which caused him to proclaim that Israel's God is the only God (v.15).

God used two bad things - a kidnapping and a deadly disease - to change Israel's enemy into a friend. Even when we don't know why something bad has happened, we know that God has the power to use it for good. - Julie Ackerman Link


His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bad may have a bitter taste
But sweet will be the flower. - Cowper

God is the master of turning burdens into blessings.

^.^ ... ^.^ ... ^.^ ... ^.^ ... ^.^ ... ^.^ ... ^.^ ... ^.^ ... ^.^ ... ^.^ ... ^.^ ... ^.^ ... ^.^

2 Kings 5:1-15

Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Yahweh had given victory to Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, a leper.

The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, Would that my lord were with the prophet who is Samaria! then would he recover him of his leprosy.

One went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maiden who is of the land of Israel. The king of Syria said, Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. He departed, and took him ten talents of silver, and six thousand of gold, and ten changes of clothing. He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may recover him of his leprosy.

It happened, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he tore his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man does send to me to recover a man of his leprosy? but consider, I pray you, and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.

It was so, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Why have you torn your clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.

So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean.

But Naaman was angry, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

Aren't Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better that all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. His servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid you do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? how much rather then, when he says to you, Wash, and be clean?

Then went he down, and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh came again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him; and he said, See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, please take a present from your servant.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...