Happy Mother’s Day to our mothers!

In the summer of 1985 we had a fire that threatened the community of Antelope.

I have heard, numerous times, that a crisis can bring people who normally are at odds with each other, together to fight the threat.  That may be true in some instances; it was not true in this community.

While the city lies between a number of hills it also has several wheat ranches adjoining the city limits.

It is not unusual to have fires in those wheat fields and they move fast, just like a prairie fire.  You have to get out in front of it before the winds sweep it too far out of control.

A friend of mine, an Oregon State University Extension agent, was in the area at the time, so he quickly drove over to see if he could help.  This story came from him:

This fire was coming from the north.  The locals started making a fire break just outside the city.  To do that you have to use a shovel like you were loading a furnace with coal – scoop the dirt and throw it.  Heavy equipment had not yet arrived.

The Rajneesh, however, had no idea how to combat a fire.  What few were on the fire line were separated from the other citizens.  Instead of scooping and throwing they were trying to dig into the dirt, lift it and throw it.  The agent showed them how.

The Rajneesh were in control of the city, so they had access to the one and only decade’s old fire truck.  One of them ran to the fire house and got the truck.

They drove the truck to a water pipe, used as a fire hydrant, relatively close to the fire.  So close that they stopped the truck over a burning bush.  It would have been destroyed if the agent hadn’t moved it.

The fire truck and personnel were not very effective. 

Eventually they produced a good fire break and the fire burned itself out right at the edge of the playground for the school house.

Lots of complaints from the locals about how the Rajneesh reacted to the fire, the most vehement complaint was about how the Rajneesh (who are vegetarians and, ironically in the light of the criminal charges, are not to kill anything) were trying to shoo away the grasshoppers rather than getting down to business.

There was no partnership created during or after the fire, the locals didn’t trust the Rajneesh and the Rajneesh continued their aggressive techniques to harass them and make them want to move.

2 Kings 5:9-14 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

¹⁰ And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

¹¹ But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

¹² Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

¹³ And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?

¹⁴ Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

The great and powerful Naaman.  The General, used to immediate obedience.  The General, used to being catered to by others.

Comes to the house of Elisha that he might be healed.  How wonderful that moment must have seen to him.  He was about to be cured of leprosy.

In his mind he knew how the healing would take place.  It would be a grand glorious moment, Elisha would come out and make grand gestures, calling on God to take away the leprosy.

Then Naaman would be healed.

But that is not how God chose to cure him.

Oh, how many times have we asked God to help us?  How many times have we unburdened out heart to Him, crying for relief – and then, telling Him how He should perform the work?

We know what needs to be done.  We expect God to get it done so we can go on with our life.  If He would just do as He was told we would be fine.

We look at Naaman and think how foolish he was to dictate to God how he was to be cured, but all too often we do the same thing.  It may not be in precise words, but our heart tells him what our expectations are; we trust Him, but somehow we seem to feel required to tell Him how to do His job.

One of the most frustrating things that I faced as the Sheriff was having citizens tell me how to do my job.  Now, there were those that understood the constraints and how I must maneuver in a legal manner – but there were many loud mouthed brutes that didn’t care and ‘they knew’ how it must be done, and some of those were people of influence.

None-the-less I went by – indeed HAD to go by - the law.  You have to learn to let those comments go.  It wasn’t and isn’t easy, many times those comments are hurtful and tie you up in knots.  Even today some come back to haunt me in the o-dark-thirty hours.

Elisha was doing what he was told by God.  He didn’t care about how powerful or menacing Naaman was, God was his Master and it was to Him he had to obey.

Elisha was not a shaman who made huge gestures to impress others, he was a man of God and did as God instructed, not as man expected.

Instead of coming out and performing the hocus pocus as Naaman had expected, Elisha didn’t even talk to him.  Here was a powerful man, a man who would not be denied, whose wishes and wants were met in haste – and Elisha did not even give him the courtesy to talk to him.

What an insult!  How dare this mere Jew treat him this way.

Instead of coming out Elisha sent out a servant.  A servant!  To tell him what to do?

And the cure?  Wash in the Israelite’s river?  That filthy Jordan River?  Lower myself to that level when our rivers are so much cleaner and better?  I won’t do it.

Just who does Elisha think he is?  In anger against Elisha he turned away and was going to return to his home, without the healing.

Sound familiar?  There are times we do the same thing, oh, it may not be in a fit of rage, but God tells us what to do and we get upset about it.  That isn’t the way we want it to be done, so we turn away and refuse to follow His commands.

In doing so we lose out on the blessing of God, what we ask of Him will not be done because of our stubbornness and we have driven ourselves a bit farther away from Him.

Now, Naaman was not a foolish man.  He was angry enough to not listen to Elisha, but he also was a man who did not surround himself with “yes” men. 

Not many men of his stature are willing to listen to someone who is telling him something he doesn’t want to hear – as a matter of fact it is one of the most destructive things a leader can do; to have only those that agree with him be allowed to address him.  When they cut off those that would give them pause to reconsider they inevitably come to a downfall.

Fortunately for Naaman, he allowed his people to talk to him and give him a different perspective:  “And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?”

Not only did he listen to the man, but he knew his comments were correct.  He calmed down and did as he was instructed, by the lowly servant.

AND not only was he healed, but he his skin was clear and subtle not like the flesh of an older man, but refreshed as if he were a young child!

Because he obeyed, not only was he healed, but he was given more than he had expected.

What a lesson that is for us.  It is so hard sometimes to do what we know God wants us to do.  We may feel it is demeaning, beneath our station in life – and even our station in our spiritual life – but God doesn’t look at, nor does He care, what we think our station in life is.

He is only concerned about our heart and what He can do to bring us closer to HIM AND have others see what He is doing and glorify His name.  He wants them to realize that He IS God and will turn to Him.

Sometimes it is hard to know what He wants and sometimes we know but just don’t want to lower ourselves to doing it.

May we remember that God is God; our allegiance is to Him and not to ourselves.  That when we think of ourselves as serving Him, then no task He orders us to do is beneath us.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again