God has always revealed himself through children and still does. In fact, it is through children that God can be seen most effectively. Far from being marginal to the biblical story, children are usually at the centre of God’s plans, often key players in opening up the next phase in the story of his dealings with humans. The most radical contribution to Christian thought is the understanding that God literally became a child and more specifically grew up in a Middle-Eastern family, learning the cultures and ways of human insight. If we examine this thought seriously and scrutinise the scriptures, we notice children peeking out of many corners of the Bible. For example, have you spotted the ‘maid without a name’ whom we meet in 2 Kings 5?
God has always revealed himself through children and still does
Who was the ‘maid without a name’?
She lived in a time between when Elisha began his ministry (around 852 BC) and the death of King Jehoram, the King of Aram (around 840 BC). She was young, described by the Hebrew word ‘Qutar’ – a diminutive word that could refer both to her age and her status. The Hebrew word for girl is ‘Naarah’ and refers to a female aged between infancy and adolescence.
She had been a resident in Israel (the northern kingdom) which had separated from Judah in 931 BC, 80 years before. During this period there had been nine apostate kings, who had allowed other gods to be worshipped. She was abducted from Israel and taken to Syria: a slave girl to the people who had raided her town, presumably killing her parents.
The maid was a slave, either personally captured by Naaman or purchased for his household in a slave market. It was customary for prisoners of war to become slaves and her role was to serve Naaman’s wife. Her role was probably bathing and dressing her mistress, as well as performing household chores, leading a special relationship with Naaman’s wife, where she was able to make suggestions like a child would to a parent. The household of Naaman would have been wealthy due to a combination of the king’s regard and reward, and the fact that he would have had access to the looting of pillaged peoples.
How was the little maid effective as a missionary?
This young captive was loyal and compassionate. Despite the wrong that had been done to her, she was able to show a generosity of spirit to her captors. When a child is abducted, it is not unknown for them to transfer strong relationships onto their captors, if the captors are able to build such links. In this instance, we can presume that the little maid did so because of her own needs of survival, for personal engagement and attention, for food and clothing. However, this story allows us a glimpse into what is a very special relationship involving the child’s ability to adapt, to come to terms with a new environment and to make a new start.
Here we see the young girl showing empathy for her mistress’s husband. We can presume that the child’s access to the husband was via the mistress’s conversation concerning his ailments. Thus, she demonstrates considerable social capital, the emotional intelligence of one who can engage with others and care. In this instance, the child’s compassion was aroused because of leprosy and if someone had it (at this time leprosy wasn’t always fatal), he would need to be isolated until the priest deemed them clean.
Where is the gospel in this story?
We see God at work in this story which is hugely significant to the way in which the emergent Jewish faith was to be made known beyond the borders of Israel. In fact the story enlightens three elements of God’s strategy for the gospel:
• The gospel is transmitted within the culture of the day, by a girl whose influence came through the practice of taking slaves as plunder.
• Those who are vulnerable and powerless are raised up to be used by God.
• We also see the restorative nature of the gospel with the story embodying repentance, forgiveness and even an image of baptism.
