Lesson 72 - Elementary

Memory Verse

"Pray  one  for  another”  (James 5:16).

Notes

Carried Away from Home

Long ago, it often happened that when an army won a battle they carried away the men, or the women, or the children to make them work for them as slaves.  Sometimes they were kind to those people, and sometimes they were very cruel.

During the past war, thousands of children were separated from their parents and were without homes, food, or clothes to keep them warm.  How thankful the children of our country should be to God for being kind and letting them have their homes and their parents and plenty to eat, and clothes to keep them warm!  There are many children who are not taught to pray, to be saved, and to love God.  But we thank God for those who have Christian parents and are brought up to love the Bible and do what it tells them to do.

A Girl Who Loved God

A little girl had been carried away from her home and parents.  She must have been very sad when she was taken away, but God gave her a chance to do something for Him.  She was taken into the home of a captain, and she waited on his wife.

The Captain Who Had Leprosy

The captain's name was Naaman, and he was a great man, but he was a leper.  When a person has leprosy he often has terrible sores on his body.  Such people are sent to a place to live that is far away from other people, so that the disease will not be given to others.  There is a place in Carveille, Louisiana, where lepers may go and be taken care of.  There are many in that place now.

Witnessing for Jesus

The little girl, no doubt, had heard of the miracles which Elisha had performed through the power of God.  One day while in that home, she told her mistress that the captain would be healed of his leprosy if he went to the man of God in her country.  Naaman took a letter and many fine presents and went to the king in the land of Israel.  But the little girl did not say that the king could heal him;; she said the man of God would heal him.  Elisha heard about it and told Naaman to come to him.  So Naaman came with his horses and chariot to Elisha's house.  Elisha sent his servant out to say to the captain,  "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.”  That meant that he would be healed.

Healed through Obedience

Naaman did not want to dip in that muddy river; he said there were better rivers than the river Jordan.  But he finally decided to go and do it anyway.  He dipped once; perhaps he looked at himself and saw that he was still a leper.  It may have been a hard thing for him to keep on going down into that water so many times.  If he had dipped only six times instead of seven, he would have remained a leper, but when he did exactly as he had been told – dip seven times – he was healed of that terrible disease.  We learn from this story that we must do exactly as God tell us to do if we expect to have His help.  We should also do exactly what our mothers tell us to do, and not something else.

The Wicked Servant

Naaman was very happy to be healed and wanted to give a gift to Elisha.  But Elisha refused to accept any present; he did not want a reward for doing something for God.  But his wicked servant wanted the presents.  So he went after the captain and received the gifts.  God sees everything and He saw this, and told Elisha what the servant had done.  One sin usually brings another.  After he had done a wrong thing in going after Naaman and asking for the presents, he did another wrong thing in telling a lie about it.  The Lord punished him for it by sending the leprosy of Naaman upon him, and upon his whole family.  The captain obeyed God and was healed, but the wicked servant lied, and became a leper.

A Sunbeam for Jesus

The little maid had let her light shine for Jesus, even though she was a captive and far away from her home.  She was a means through which the captain and, no doubt, many others learned to know about the true God.

Where They Did Not Know God

A little girl was reared by parents who did not believe in God.  She was saved when just a young woman and became a great religious leader.  She often testified for Jesus.  Many of us remember hearing her give this touching experience:  "When I was a little girl, before my feet could touch the floor from the chair, noted infidel lecturers would be entertained at our home.  My father and mother did not believe in God.  And while the unbelievers would sit at the table and would say there was no God and that Jesus was only a man, I used to shake my feet against the chair, and something way down in my heart would say, ‘I know there is a God.'  God would not let me believe what they said.

"Once when I was in Southern California and not saved but very hungry for God, one of the infidels came to the place where I was, having been a friend of the family.  He asked me if I would play and sing for them that night at the lecture.  I told him I would if he would let me sing what I wanted to sing.  He patted me on the shoulder and said I could sing just whatever I wanted to.

"That night the place was filled with people that came to hear him prove there was no God.  When he asked me to play, I sat down and played and sang:

‘Jesus, Lover of my soul,

    Let me to Thy bosom fly,

While the nearer waters roll,

    While the tempest still is high!

Hide me, O my Saviour, hide,

    Till the storm of life is past;

Safe into the haven guide,

    Oh, receive my soul at last.'

"People began to cry.  Handkerchiefs began to come out, and a death silence fell on the place after I was through.  There was a different spirit there and the infidel could hardly talk.  It spoiled his lecture and its effect on the people.”

Although this incident happened before she was ever saved, this young girl had a hunger in her heart for God. Later she was wonderfully saved and called to follow Jesus and to work for Him.  Her father and mother and others in her family were saved, and she became a witness through whose efforts the Gospel has been spread throughout the world.  A great many souls have been saved through her faithfulness in her work for God.  Today she is singing around the Throne, but her memory is still loved by all who knew her and by many who never met her.  The work, which she founded, is going on and on, and will continue to grow until Jesus comes.

God can and will use even little children to tell people about Him if they let God save them so that He can use them.  Sometimes little children tell their parents who are not Christians about Jesus.

Questions

1. What kind of work did the little maid do in Naaman's home? [2KG:5:2].

2. What did she say to her mistress? [2KG:5:3].

3. What did Elisha say for Naaman to do? [2KG:5:10].

4. Did Naaman obey immediately? [2KG:5:11-12].

5. What happened when he did obey? [2KG:5:14].