2 Kings 5:19b-27
"But when Naaman had gone from him a short distance, 20 Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “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.” 21 So Gehazi followed Naaman. And when Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and said, “Is all well?” 22 And he said, “All is well. My master has sent me to say, ‘There have just now come to me from the hill country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.’” 23 And Naaman said, “Be pleased to accept two talents.” And he urged him and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and laid them on two of his servants. And they carried them before Gehazi. 24 And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand and put them in the house, and he sent the men away, and they departed. 25 He went in and stood before his master, and Elisha said to him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” And he said, “Your servant went nowhere.” 26 But he said to him, “Did not my heart go when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Was it a time to accept money and garments, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male servants and female servants? 27 Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever.” So he went out from his presence a leper, like snow."
If we suspected Gehazi's spirituality in the previous chapter, this passage shows our sus- picions to have been well founded. It is an unlovely story of a man's covetousness and greed, and it is all the more so by virtue of his association with the holy Elisha. It is a measure of how little Gehazi understood his master or knew his powers of discernment that he could ever have believed, even for a moment, that his deceit would escape his notice. This is one of the amazing 'blind spots' in hypocrites and evil men that they should blithely assume that they could pull wool over the eyes of the spiritually discerning. This is doubtless in part due to the idea - shared seemingly by numbers of Christian people, unfortunately - that to be a Christian means thinking that everybody is 'nice'. This is rubbish. A Christian loves, but loving does not mean pretending people are nice if in fact they are obnoxious or crooked and deceitful, as many people are. Indeed, a true believer with the gift of discernment can sense the duplicity of the heart, and see through insincerity and hypocrisy wherever it may be. This Gehazi learned to his cost, and he paid dearly for his covetousness and for his deceit. We should learn from this that it does not pay to entertain forbidden desires in the secret of our hearts when in the company of the discerning servants of God. They see too much, and too deeply, for comfort!