Bishop’s Message
She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.”
2 Kings 5:3-4
We don’t even know her name, but I’m sure God does.
And God has put her story of faithfulness in the Bible as an example for us to consider how we too might be faithful witnesses of God’s love in our places of work. Do we sometimes find ourselves in departments or work situations that we would much rather not have been assigned to? This little girl almost certainly would have preferred to be assigned elsewhere. She was taken away (perhaps even kidnapped) by Syrian soldiers who had invaded her country and home in Israel (2 Kings 5:2). She was made to serve the wife of the commander of the Syrian army that had successfully invaded and plundered Israel.
In what way might she show her devotion and faithfulness to her own God and country? Perhaps she would do it by plotting to contaminate or poison the morning tea of her mistress, or by courageously refusing to lift a finger to serve the Syrian commander who orchestrated the attack against her own people. This would probably lead to her being flogged and consigned to a dark dungeon, but at least her defiance would have made clear where her loyalties lay.
But no, this is not how she demonstrates faithfulness to God and God’s people. We see her, instead, offering a prayer and a wish that her captor, the Syrian commander, would seek help from Israel’s prophet for his ailment, some form of skin disease. This little girl, somehow, by her conduct and character, has forged a positive relationship with her boss, positive enough that she felt able to suggest a recommendation to her mistress (2 Kings 5:3). The positive relationship must have been mutual because her mistress does not dismiss the suggestion as senseless or sinister. She raises the little girl’s proposal to her husband who also considers it.
To cut the scriptural story short, this girl’s faithfulness in a far from ideal work situation played a most significant part in the process by which Naaman, the Syrian commander, came to place his faith in the God whom this little girl worshipped and trusted in. “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel” (2 Kings 5:15 NIV).
May the faithfulness by which we do our work and build positive relationships with our colleagues and commanders play a positive part in the way people come to trust in the God whom we love, the same God who loves Israelites, Syrians and every nation on earth.
Bishop Dr Gordon Wong was elected Bishop of The Methodist Church in Singapore in 2020.
He served as President of the Trinity Annual Conference from 2012-2020.