You really need to wonder at what he was thinking. Gehazi was Elisha’s servant . . . the prophet’s attendant . . . where Elisha was, you’d most likely find him too. As such, he had “artist’s circle seating” for most, if not all, of the mighty works performed through this man of God. He knew of the “business plan” Elisha had presented to the widow with no money, a lot of debt, and just a jar of oil . . . her sales of oil sufficient to pay off all her debt and to allow her and her two kids to live on the rest (2Kings 4:1-7). He had been there for the many visits to the Shunammite woman’s home . . . had slept on her roof . . . knew that Elisha had promised her a son in her old age as reward for her hospitality . . . and God delivered (and so did she).

Gehazi was the one who first met that same woman, years later, when she came to the prophet, in bitter grief, over the death of her toddler son. Gehazi had been the one sent to confirm the woman’s son was dead. I’m guessing he saw Elisha walk into the lifeless child’s room . . . and then was summoned by the man of God to go tell the grieving mother to come get her now very much alive son (2Kings 4:8-37). Can anyone say, “Awesome!”

And then, Gehazi was there when Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Syria, came to Elisha in hopes of being cured of his leprosy. At the word of the man of God (and some gentle persuading towards obedience by the commander’s God fearing servant) . . . along with a bit of water in the river Jordan, Naaman’s flesh is restored, “like the flesh of a little child” (2Kings 5:1-14). Can anyone say, “Amazing!”

So . . . what was Gehazi thinking when he determined he could fake out his boss?

Naaman offers to pay Elisha for “services rendered.” Though he has come to know “that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel” (5:15), the powerful commander of Syria’s army wants to somehow repay the man of God for the favor shown him. But grace doesn’t work that way . . . understandable, the desire to do something in return . . . but God’s free gift is . . . well, a free gift. Thanks, but no thanks, says Elisha, You head home with your money . . . “He said to him, ‘Go in peace.'” (5:19)

But Gehazi thinks not . . . “See, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not accepting from his hand what he brought. As the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something from him” (5:20). Despite all his time with the prophet . . . despite all he had seen of God’s power . . . despite all he should have known of God’s purposes . . . Elisha’s attendant thinks, “Uh, uh . . . no way. This guy should pay if he can pay. And I should be the bill collector.” And he does . . . Gehazi walking away with over 100 pounds of silver and two sets of “night on the town” type of clothing. But what’s really got my head scratching is how Gehazi think’s his master isn’t going to know. Hello! . . . this is Elisha . . . God’s mighty prophet . . . direct line to heaven itself . . . how did Gehazi think that he could deceive God’s man of God? But that’s what he thought . . . and that’s where I need to take heed.

It was less a plan about deceiving God than it was about a desire for wealth and status. The folly of trying to go clandestine before an omniscient God was lost in the coveting for some reward . . . the insanity of thinking he could hide from an omnipresent God was clouded by the desire for status . . . the nutsness (not a word, I’m pretty sure) of charging for God’s free gift probably wasn’t considered as he became fixed on personally profiting from the prophet.

And I need to know that a wayward heart can lead to some pretty muddled thinking . . . that setting my affections on something other than the God of heaven, and the heaven of God, can cloud what I know about how the kingdom operates . . . that desiring a reward now, and not waiting for the inheritance that awaits, can lead to some pretty goofy reasoning . . . and that all of it can lead me down a path I don’t want to go . . . can cost me more than I’m prepared to pay. Gehazi, the leper (5:26-27), is such a warning.

O’ to be faithful . . . and focused . . . and clear thinking . . . by His grace . . . for His glory . . .