Here’s
a readers’ theatre setting of 2 Kings 5: 1-14.
It is set for three voices.
Readers’ Theatre: 2 Kings 5: 1-14
One: The king of Aram had great admiration for
Naaman,
the commander of his army,
because through him the Lord had
given Aram great victories.
But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he
suffered from leprosy.
At this time Aramean raiders had invaded the
land of Israel,
and among their captives was a young girl
who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a
maid.
One day the girl said to her mistress,
“I wish my master would go to see the prophet
in Samaria.
He would heal him of his leprosy.”
So Naaman told the king what the young girl
from Israel had said.
“Go and visit the prophet,” the king of Aram
told him.
“I will send a letter of introduction for you
to take to the king of Israel.”
So Naaman started out,
carrying as gifts 750 pounds of silver, 150
pounds of gold,
and ten sets of clothing.
The letter to the king of Israel said:
“With this letter I present my servant
Naaman.
I want you to heal him of his leprosy.”
When the king of Israel read the letter,
he tore his clothes in dismay and said,
“This man sends me a leper to heal!
Am I God, that I can give life and take it
away?
I can see that he’s just trying to pick a
fight with me.”
But when Elisha, the man of God,
heard that the king of Israel had torn his
clothes in dismay,
he sent this message to him:
Two: Why are you so upset?
Send Naaman to me,
and he will learn that there is a true
prophet here in Israel.
One: So Naaman went with his horses and chariots
and waited at the door of Elisha’s
house.
But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with
this message:
Two: Go and wash yourself seven times in the
Jordan River.
Then your skin will be restored,
and you will be healed of your leprosy.
One: But Naaman became angry and stalked away.
Three: I thought he would certainly come out to meet
me!
I expected him to wave his hand over the
leprosy
and call on the name of
the Lord his God and heal me!
Aren’t the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and
the Pharpar,
better than any of the rivers of Israel?
Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?
One: So Naaman turned and went away in a rage.
But his officers tried to reason with him and
said,
“Sir, if the prophet had told you to do
something very difficult,
wouldn’t you have done it?
So you should certainly obey him when he says
simply,
‘Go and wash and be cured!’”
So Naaman went down to the Jordan River
and dipped himself seven times,
as the man of God had instructed him.
And his skin became as healthy as the skin of
a young child’s,
and he was healed!
