But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said to himself, “My master should not have let this Aramean get away without accepting any of his gifts. As surely as the Lord lives, I will chase after him and get something from him.” – 2 Kings 5:20
Some people are entrepreneurial to the point where they never let an opportunity get away without seizing it. I supposed that sometimes that works, but probably more often it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, they have to cut their losses.
Behind the scenes, something more the entrepreneurial nature can kick in. We’re sinful after all, right? Perhaps some opportunities should be left alone.
Today we’re breaking our six month rule to share a devotional with you from Pastor Jack Jacob, who writes at Meanderings of a Minister. Click the link in the title below to read this where it first appeared. (There’s a movie monster pic waiting for you if you do!) You’ll also find a link to listen to the devotional on Spotify. We’ve linked a recommended second article if you’d like to read more of his writing.
If you’re unfamiliar with today’s story, or just want to dig deeper, as I did this morning, it’s from 2 Kings 5.
The Monster Within
I used to really enjoy the old monster movies as a young boy. No, not the Dracula, Frankenstein or Mummy movies. I enjoyed the old Godzilla movies and others that were imported from Japan and badly dubbed. I am not sure what I liked about watching them as they were usually cheaply made, badly acted and the mouths never lined up with the words, but I did. Looking back psychoanalytically, I guess it might have been the fact that the monster supposedly came from a little normal looking creature and, after exposure to nuclear waste, high voltage, chemicals or a volcano (depending on the movie), they turned into an incredibly powerful monster that was super-powerful and mostly misunderstood. I mean, Godzilla didn’t MEAN to crush the tiny model cars, he just couldn’t see them! He couldn’t even turn his head without turning his whole body. But I digress.
As I was reading 2 Kings 5:20-26, I began to think about how this same situation lies within all of us. No, we will probably not grow to tower over a fake Tokyo, but there lies within all of us a monster that would love to get out and wreak havoc on our world. How did I get that from 2 Kings 5:20-26? Glad you asked.
Gehazi was the servant of Elisha. Elisha had just passed God’s healing along to the commander of the forces of Israel’s enemy, Aram. The man’s name was Naaman. Naaman came back after being healed of leprosy and offered to pay Elisha, but Elisha refused to accept payment because it was God Who healed and not Elisha. That is when the monsters within Gehazi started to rise.
First was the monster of pride. Gehazi even refers to Naaman as “this Aramean”. Gehazi’s pride rose up and was upset that Elisha did not make this foreigner pay, so he went after him to make some money for himself. The monster not only leads Gehazi to look down on Naaman, but also causes Gehazi to invoke the Name of the Lord in a way that takes that Name in vain. Gehazi didn’t care that he was doing wrong because the monster of pride was large and in charge.
Next, the monster of deception began to rise. Fueled by the monster of pride’s success, the monster of deception next became active. Gehazi ran after Naaman expending more energy to deceive than it would have taken to trust God to provide for him as he continued to serve Elisha. This monster arose in Gehazi’s heart and caused him to not only leave his station of service, but to lie as well.
Next, the monster of relative morality reared its ugly head. Seeing the other two monsters had been successful, relative morality became active. The nuclear waste of sin caused him to grow. What is relative morality? It is when we feel like others should do right, but we feel free to define what that is based upon what we perceive we are entitled to or need. In this case, Gehazi lied, deceived, stole, left his post and said, “All is well!”
We are not finished with these monsters yet. The last monster to arise was hardness of heart. Being called on the carpet for his actions, Gehazi, instead of confessing to his wrongdoing, felt so justified in his actions that he then lied to Elisha. The thing about this monster is its ability to cause us to forget what we know and become ignorant. Gehazi had seen Elisha raise the dead, heal the sick, call down the armies of heaven and had even been witness to Elisha being able to read the minds of foreign kings. Normally, Gehazi would have known he would be found out, but this monster had grown so rapidly that he had been left in a moral stupor.
The story ends with Gehazi being given the leprosy that had been removed from Naaman. A foreigner is healed and changed and a person that should have known better is cursed and made sick. That is how these monsters work.
How about you? Are any of these monsters being fed in your life? If so, why not turn away from that, confess your wrongdoing to God and ask Him to help you to put them to rest? He will listen and He will help.
Second Helping:
Originally, this article, Godly Wisdom vs. Worldly Wisdom was my first choice from Jack Jacob for today. It reminds of two key scripture passages, and gets into the more 201-oriented issue of “ministry envy;” or being jealous of someone else in ministry. But I decided to go with the story of Gehazi, despite the absence of embedded scriptures, because I thought some might be less familiar with the passage after Naaman is healed. Now that you know that, I encourage you to read Godly Wisdom.
Christianity 201 
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