It's no wonder that Naaman's story is one of the more well-loved stories in the Old Testament. It's got everything you could want: interesting characters, drama, mystery, irony, and a touch of humor.

Naaman was a great general in the army of the king of Aram, a land to the north, but he had a problem. He had contracted leprosy. Significantly, the Bible tells us that his success in battle against Israel was given to him by the Lord, but it says nothing of why he has leprosy. We encounter Naaman not on the battlefield but at home, where a Hebrew slave girl serving his wife takes pity on the great general. How ironic that a slave girl, separated by this general from her land and family, should act to help him, and that the cure is to be found in the land he has conquered.

Naaman is desperate, and goes to the king to find the prophet in Israel who can cure him, offering a huge reward. The king of Aram sends a letter to the king of Israel, demanding that he heal his general. Note how the king of Aram assumed that kings are in charge of this sort of thing. The king of Israel is flummoxed by the demand. "How can I cure this man? Am I God?" he rages.

Elisha, "the man of God," hears of the commotion and instructs the king to send Naaman to him. Soon, Naaman arrives at his door with his entire entourage of horses and chariots and soldiers. Instead of going out himself to meet this honored guest, Elisha sends a servant to meet the visiting dignitary with a message: "Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored. . . ."

Naaman is flabbergasted, and he stalks away in anger. He had imagined exactly how it would take place, with the prophet laying hands on him while invoking the God of Israel. But now he's supposed to wash himself in that muddy stream called the Jordan? How humiliating! It's only when his servants (again) calm him down that he does what Elisha had told him to do. And he's cured!

Again he shows up at Elisha's door, now in gratitude, and he wants to give Elisha a gift. Elisha refuses the offer, but then Naaman makes a strange request. He asks for some dirt from the land of Israel to take back with him (to make an altar?) and vows that from now on he will offer sacrifices only to the God of Israel. But there's one strange and humorous exception. When he's with his master, the king of Aram, at the temple of Rimmon, the king will bow in worship, and Naaman will have to bow too. For this he asks for forgiveness in advance, which Elisha grants, telling the man of war to "go in peace."

Jesus himself refers to this story in Luke 4:27. The Pharisees taunt him to do his miracles on demand, but Jesus replies, "Prophets are not accepted in their hometowns." He then recalls the story of Elijah, who miraculously fed the widow in Zerephath, and Naaman. "There were many in Israel with leprosy . . . yet not one of them was cleansed---only Naaman the Syrian." As often happens in the Bible, insiders end up outside, and outsiders inside, but all the power belongs to God.