A great cloud of witnesses are watching us

Elisha refuses to accept any material reward from Naaman and we see that this is another element of that process of confrontation and training, and testimony of how things are done in the Kingdom of God as opposed to how they are done in the world. .

God was, again, teaching us how we should handle the ministry, the life of Christian leadership, our behavior in the world, how we witness to unbelievers, and how we often misrepresent the Word of the Lord in them. times when we have many ministries that do not show that integrity that should be shown in the things of God.

It's interesting, I'm going to jump a little bit in the text because in my last meditation I'm going to go back a little bit, but since we are on this issue of moral and financial integrity. When Naaman returns to his country we see that Gehazi, who is the servant, we would say as Elisha's assistant shepherd, when Naaman already goes back to his country and goes with all his entourage, his chariots and his horses, and they are returning to Syria, Gehazi ponders inside his mind and says, wow, what a waste! Instead of choosing these presents that Naaman wants to give him, my lord rejected them, and here you are in need of certain things.

And then he devises a terrible plan that results in terrible loss to his life and without saying anything to Elisha, he sends a couple of men and these men tell Naaman that Elisha changed his mind, and that some young servants of the prophets came to his house, and if he could give him some changes of clothes and some money to give to them, and Naaman happy because he can finally show his appreciation for Elisha quickly agrees and says: look, take more still thinking that Gehazi is reflecting the words and desire, which is genuinely speaking on Elisha's side.

And Gehazi receives these presents, Naaman continues on his way and I imagine Gehazi must have thought: I got away with it, hey what can be done? You can't be too dumb in the ministry either, you work too hard and this man wanted to help us, and we took away the opportunity to do it, thus reasoning right? justifying their way of doing things. He hides the property and washes his hands, nobody saw anything, tremendous; I'm going to get on with my life and benefit from this profit, but God was watching. God sees the things we do in the dark and sooner or later we have to pay some consequence for our actions.

Many servants of God do improper things and we think as well, a little sin here, another there, that is nothing, we are human but how terrible! sooner or later there are consequences.

And when Gehazi returns to Elisha to talk to him, Elisha says to him: Gehazi, where have you been? He was not doing anything there and Eliseo says to him: listen to me, is it time to be worrying about money and material gains?

Elisha's question is very revealing. We live in times for example where humanity is in dire need of a powerful, upright, eloquent, living witness from the Church of Jesus Christ. Ministries and servants are needed completely consecrated to God and who are not getting involved as the apostle Paul says in things of the world. The soldier remains in his militia and does not get involved there selling things on a street corner or other things because he is a military man, he has only one commission to follow and that is how the servant of God should be.

He has to be focused on only one thing, he cannot be around distracted by things in the world and in business, and in making money as if he were any merchant, he has to be consecrated to his priesthood. And Gehazi lowered the height that God wanted to maintain in this episode, and brought a sense of shame to the Lord's Kingdom, and tainted this perfect miracle that God wanted to perform. And God was deeply offended, and that is why Elisha tells him: well, your consequence is going to be terrible. Naaman's leprosy is going to stick to you.

How serious are the things of the Kingdom of God brothers. We sometimes believe that God has changed His way of being and thank God for the mercy of Christ, and His Grace, and His forgiveness, and we can if we have offended the Lord, come to the feet of Christ and wash ourselves in the blood of the Lord. Lamb, and confess our sins; The Bible says that if we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive us. If we have offended God in any way in our leadership, in our ministry, in our moral behavior, let us find grace before the Lord but let's repent, let's not continue doing hidden things believing as God does not see.

In this case Gehazi made a serious mistake. God was moving in a terribly powerful way in this area and doing that was like a bomb, a grenade that exploded in his face, because the more powerful the Presence of God is, the more danger there is when we behave in a tacky and shameful way. . And so the consequence, Gehazi's punishment was terrible. He says that all his life he lived as a leper.

May the Lord take care of our lives and I am the first to raise my hands and ask the Lord for mercy, and to keep us, and to protect us when we walk into the Presence of the Lord, and God is doing things in our life. May God keep us from tarnishing or lowering the height in which we must walk as servants of the Lord in any dimension of our lives; to our children, our wife, the people we disciple and give testimonies to.

We have a great cloud of witnesses says the Word, who are watching us and are watching our behavior, and we have to be very careful how we walk in those moments. It is a sad story, but thank God that there is also the side of people like Eliseo who walked in integrity all their lives and that is why God blessed them so much. I want to be and I know that you also want to be part of the tribe of Elisha and not of Gehazi. God bless you and we will meet soon for our next meditation.