The imaginations of our heart do not cease when we are moving forward in our relationship with the Tree of Life. “But I thought,” is a common and unnerving experience in the unlearning of our affection for the knowledge of good and evil. During times of great expectation and promise, we can be moving along in a direction laid out by the Lord and suddenly we find ourselves facing something unexpected. Sadly, we often begin to use our knowledge of good and evil to play out how things will proceed. We may start out well but end in a mess of confusion.
But Naaman was furious 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 wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.’ “Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, “My father, had the prophet told you {to do some} great thing, would you not have done {it?} How much more {then,} when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 2 Kings 5:11-13
Naaman began well as he obeyed the first instructions that came from Elisha. 2 Kings 5:8-9. He went as instructed to see Elisha. We can put ourselves in Naaman’s shoes and see clearly that he had excitement and expectation of how his healing from leprosy would take place. As the captain of the host, he was used to making plans and moving in an imagined direction. But things didn’t go as he had imagined. First, Elisha didn’t greet him. How disrespectful! And worse, the instructions Elisha gave for healing didn’t even make good sense: the dirty river Jordan was not the place to go for healing! Nothing Naaman had imagined was happening and so he left in a rage.
The story about Naaman ends well. He puts aside his hurt pride and confusion and even listens to the advice of his servants. He follows Elisha’s illogical instructions and bathes in the Jordan seven times and is healed.
The treasures here and in our own experience are usually learned by painful experience. Eventually, we find it is easier to walk humbly with the Lord moment by moment than to let our knowledge of good and evil cause us to form assumptions of how His will should be accomplished. Let us be content to take what He has spoken for that day only and obey. Let us not imagine what the next day, week, month, or year will look like.