Holy Ground as Pay Dirt!

2 Kings 5

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, July 11.

 

During the California Gold Rush of the mid-1800s, when a miner found ground rich with gold, they would say that they had hit “pay dirt.” Today, to hit pay dirt is to have success through a profitable endeavor or opportune discovery.

 

In 2 Kings 5:1, Naaman is introduced to us as the “captain of the army of the king of Aram, a great man with his master, and highly respected, … a valiant warrior, but he was a leper.” He was an influential person with direct access to his king, and favor with Rimmon, the god in whose name he conquered, but no amount of money, power, or influence could cure him of his leprosy, a terminal disease at that time.

Naaman hit pay dirt when Elisha, the prophet of Israel, healed him of his leprosy. At the word of an Israelite slave girl, this mighty general journeyed to Israel and humbled himself before the king. He submitted to the Word of God, as given to him by Elisha, and he was healed (1-14). What had been impossible for Rimmon, was possible for Yahweh! In verse 15, he declared a powerful statement of faith,

 

“Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.”

 

Shockingly, Naaman then asked Elisha if he could take the literal dirt back home (17-19). Why? Because Naaman’s true pay dirt was that he had found holy ground – an encounter with the one true God! Just as Moses had encountered Yahweh in Exodus 3:5 and Joshua the Angel of Yahweh in Joshua 5:15 – “for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Naaman’s request for dirt was a declaration of faith that he would worship Yahweh as God from that day forward.

 

Seize the moment and hit pay dirt for your life by worshiping Jesus, for whom nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37; 18:27).

 

God bless you!

 

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If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.

Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.