Insight for Living

Guest (Male): Have you ever worked alongside someone more successful than you? Someone whose reputation opened doors that you could never have opened yourself? The temptations of borrowed popularity can be subtle and devastating.

Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll explores one of history's most cautionary tales. It's from our series called Fascinating Stories of Forgotten Lives. Today, we'll meet Gehazi, a trusted servant who had everything to gain and everything to lose. His story reveals how secret greed can destroy even the most privileged position. And Chuck's message will challenge anyone who's ever rationalized taking what isn't theirs.

Chuck Swindoll: We're involved in a series on great stories from the Old Testament in our days together around God's Word. And this evening, I would like for us to focus attention on the helper who got greedy. Before we look at 2 Kings chapter 5 together, I want to say some words that will set the stage for this tragic story of this particular man. Among the unruly and untamable monsters of our minds is secret greed. It's bad enough to do battle with overt demonstrations of greed, but it is almost unbearable to squelch the smoldering embers of secret greed.

The deception of it is that it is secret. It is not something one talks about. We don't look greedy very often, and we certainly do not hear many people stand to their feet and confess, "I am a greedy woman" or "I am a greedy man." Let me go back many years in my life when I was first getting underway in ministry. It was my choice privilege to work alongside a very gifted man of God. He was all the things I was not. He was scholarly, he was well-versed in the scriptures, he was seasoned as a preacher, and profound as a teacher. He was a man who was therefore in great demand.

His popularity was strong. Wherever he went, it seems there were crowds, though I never once knew him to deliberately attempt to draw a crowd. His reputation had earned the respect of the public. Christians and interestingly non-Christians alike would come to places where he would minister, and most often to the church that he pastored where I worked alongside him. I was on his staff, and mine was an enviable position as his assistant and as his helper. I had access to him and was given virtual carte blanche entrance into his life. We on occasion traveled together, and it was always my privilege to be near him and to serve him.

I might add, it was a heady opportunity. For example, when I would preach in his absence, I enjoyed crowds that his reputation had earned, not mine. When I would be in small groups where various things were shared about ministry, the fact that I was on his staff and assisting him gave me entrance into people's lives that I would otherwise not have had. He was a prolific writer and a profound thinker. Mine was a borrowed popularity in those days, and I enjoyed the blessings of serving alongside this man as a ministry partner, and I never lost this sense of gratitude, which I have to this day.

But I remind you, it was a heady opportunity and privilege. I'll never forget the occasion when a layman who loved me enough to talk to me in words of truth gave me a warning. He watched us work in tandem with each other, and he saw how my senior colleague loved me and trusted me. And he saw our relationship, which was healthy and wholesome. And he told me privately on an occasion when we were in his car that I should watch out for the enemy. He said that I should guard myself against name-dropping, against attempting to gain attention because of the man that I had been selected to work with.

Mine was a privileged position, he reminded me, and I should never take it for granted or ever take unfair advantage of it. Very wise and pointed counsel. It wasn't said to me with suspicion. In fact, he said to me as he began talking so honestly with me, he said, "I have no reason to think that those things have happened or will happen. I just want you to know as an onlooker, as an officer in the church and as a friend of both of you, yours is the more precarious of the two. You enjoy many of the benefits that you have not earned over the years. He has earned them, and his is the role of significance. Yours is a role of assistant." And again, he didn't mean that to put me down. It was a wise, necessary, and reliable piece of counsel. What he was concerned about was secret greed.

What do I mean by greed? Let's analyze the word. We toss it around. We see a lot of it written about it in our yuppie generation, but what exactly is greed? Greed is covetousness. It is an inordinate desire to acquire more and more. It is an eagerness to have something now, whether or not I have spent the time to earn it. It is always in a hurry. It knows little of patience or integrity or appropriateness. It is seldom admitted, and it is often rationalized. I'll say more about that in a moment.

Now, having identified it, let's discuss manners in which it is expressed. How does it come out in our lives? As I analyze greed both in Scripture and in life, I find there are four very common areas where greed evidences itself. First, and perhaps most obvious, is in the realm of money. Color greed green. More money, excessive amounts of money, in whatever possible manner to have more, a sense of discontentment with what one earns, a greed for more. We see and it's now common to hear about it, we see in the world of professional athletes a never-ending upward spiral toward more and more to where an individual can play a game of baseball or football or basketball making multiple millions of dollars a year because of that unique skill of being able to hit a ball or run with a ball or drop a ball through a hoop. The greed for more money.

Second is in the area of things. Tied in close with money is the greed for things. Like the license plate bracket that always brings a chill up your spine and mine: "He who dies with the most toys wins." That's a greed for things, wanting more and more. Nothing is wrong with having things. Greed occurs when things have us. And things have us when what we have never satisfies. We must always acquire more toys, more things.

Third is greed for fame. This is an inordinate desire to be known, to be quoted, to be seen, to be recognized in public, to be popular, influential, powerful, to have one's name in the news, to have one's picture sought, one's autograph sought. A desire for fame, a greed to be known. I know a young man who cannot rest until he is in the political scene. He can hardly rest and wait for the Lord to open the doors. So driven is he to be in a place of political and governmental influence. He has to watch for the greed for fame.

Fourth is the greed for pleasure. In certain parts of the country, this realm of greed knows no bounds. Southern California is perhaps the worst. The desire for satisfying one's sensual delights in the hedonistic category. It can be described in Hugh Hefner's lifestyle, in the Playboy philosophy. Wine, women, song, the whole glitzy surface, but it evidences itself in the emptiness that follows the greed for pleasure.

Now, let me caution all of us at this point. There is perhaps no more subtle temptation than secret greed. It's easy to feel smug when you hear my words and to think, "Well, that's not me. Well, I'm not there. Well, I certainly will never make millions knocking a ball out of the park. I'm doing good to play catch with my son. I won't have to worry about greed for money." But watch for secret greed where we entertain excessive and inordinate desires for the good things of life because of another's achievement.

And now I want to get specific and address a small group of people who listen right now. I realize it's a smaller group, but it's a group of people and in our vast United States and around the world, there's a larger number of people, of course. I'm speaking especially to you who assist, to you who work alongside as I did for a number of years in my own past. You who serve as helpers, as vice presidents, as associates, as assistants, as managers, as foremen, or whatever. You work alongside a person who has made the work what it is, and yours is a supportive role. Yours is a servant role.

I never forgot counsel that I received from one of my mentors who heard of my taking the position that I took for several years. He told me, "You have one job, and that is to help make that man you serve far more successful than he ever would be without you. Your purpose is to make him successful." And I remembered that. That was wise counsel. I deliberately worked against attempting to draw a following or break the loyalty that he had cultivated and earned over the years.

Now, with all of that in mind, I want you to look at a story that appears at the end of 2 Kings chapter 5. It is an account of a helper who got greedy. It's a wonderful chapter, this fifth chapter. We've looked at the early part of it in days past. The early part of the chapter is the story of a man who was cleansed of leprosy. His name is Naaman. He was a captain of the Syrian host and a high-ranking military officer who lived with the dread disease of leprosy. And through a series of very interesting events, he finally wound up dipping himself seven times in the river Jordan and coming up the last time experiencing a miracle.

In fact, you will see in verse 14, he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan according to the word of the man of God. That's a reference to Elisha the prophet, the man of God. And Naaman's flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Magnificent miracle. The leprosy was gone, and he had the flesh like a little baby. And the chapter doesn't stop there, nor does the story. The man doesn't simply look at himself and look up into heaven and say, "Thank God," and then go on his way. Of course not. He returns to the individual who had told him what to do, Elisha, the man of God.

And let me show you what he did. No need to spend a lot of time in verses 15 to 19, but it does give us a little bit of a historical backdrop. He returned to the man of God with all his company. He had brought with him, you remember, several in this entourage of powerful people from Syria. And he came and stood before Elisha and he said, "Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. So please, take a present from your servant now." In case you wonder what the present was, you'll have to go back to verse 5, because earlier he had thought he could buy his cleansing, and he brought with him 10 talents of silver and 6,000 shekels of gold.

Probably not a person in shouting distance who could tell you how much that was worth because we don't deal in talents and shekels today. So let me translate it for you: about 4 million dollars in silver and gold, and 10 new suits of clothes, in today's language. Not bad for a quiet, obscure man of God who lives in the distance away from the city. He brought him these things and he said, "Here." Now back to verse 15. "Take a present from your servant now." He calls himself Elisha's servant. He said, "Here, I've got something I want you to have." Meant nothing to Naaman. He had plenty of those things. Silver and gold meant nothing to him. Suits of clothes and new robes, I'm sure, were as common as they could be in the world in which he traveled.

But when you've been living on a prophet's salary, that's enough to make your eyes bug out of their sockets. You look and you see 4 million dollars worth of silver and gold and all of these beautiful garments, and if you're not careful, you could be tempted. I mean, why not pick and choose? No need to take everything the man brought, but there's no crime in taking him up on his offer. He said, "Take a present." You see, that's how all of this starts. Look at Elisha's answer. Verse 16. He said, "As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will take nothing."

Now, why he said that we are not told. Probably lest the man think in some way he could buy what God gives as a gift. Lest he leave some impression that behind the scenes, hidden away from the surface, was a desire to make something out of this deal. When he came for cleansing, perhaps the man on his way back, though he had plenty, could think, "Interesting, Elisha took a couple of the very best suits. Isn't it interesting that he did take the offer of gold? I wonder if all along he didn't want that." So Elisha, to keep it clean, said, "Nope, I don't want any of it."

And look, there's a little bit of a bantering. Naaman urged him to take it, but he refused. "Come on, come on, man. Look at this. Take whatever you want. I'm cleansed. I'm a new man. This means nothing to me. I want you to know how much I appreciate it." "No, I won't take it." Secret greed starts at this point. It becomes a mental playground. And Elisha turns it away, turns it off, and says, verse 19, "Go in peace. Shalom." So he departed. He left.

But Gehazi, the servant. Now, here the plot thickens. Here the story takes a turn. Standing alongside Elisha through this whole series of events is a servant, a man who has been working alongside Elisha for who knows how long. He's said nothing. In fact, none of the words were ever addressed to him. He's working in the limelight created by Elisha's fantastic, godly ministry. His is a borrowed popularity. His is significant because Elisha's anointing was so powerful. Miracles flowed from him. But now Gehazi begins to reason in his mind. His imagination begins to take over.

Verse 20. Gehazi thought. He thought. "Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian by not receiving from his hands what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him." I'm interested especially in the phrase "as the Lord lives," aren't you? I mean, maybe my master wasn't led to take some of that, but I think the Lord is leading me to take some of that. Rationalization runs down several paths. Track with me for a moment because we have all been there, even though all of us look pretty pious right now in this message.

"My goodness, the man's been cleansed of leprosy. He simply wants to say thank you. Not to accept his gift could seem discourteous. He even urged us. We could seem ungrateful." Here's another rationalization. "The man has millions. Now, if he didn't have plenty, he wouldn't offer such lavish gifts. It's only right that we accept something of what he brought. He had to carry it all the way here. That much money is heavy. He doesn't need to carry it all back."

Third, "It's amazing how God leads. Who would have ever thought that such abundance could come through the hands of a Syrian? Or my master has plenty, but I have virtually nothing. And Elisha hasn't given me a raise for years. I've served him faithfully and diligently. Maybe he doesn't have a need for these presents, but my family and I do." See how it works? None of it could be called wrong thinking. That is rationalization, however. It makes plausible wrong conduct. It removes the guilt, it takes away the integrity of the soul, and it gives you permission to move inappropriately. And you have nothing to confess after all. What's wrong with accepting someone's offer?

What's wrong here? First of all, Gehazi was never offered the presents. The man of God was offered the presents. The joy that came from the cleansing was returned to the man who brought the cleansing, humanly speaking. Furthermore, Elisha had deliberately chosen not to accept it, which was a lesson to be learned by the assistant. You follow suit. You work alongside a person, he sets the pace, you follow along. When you cannot, you become someone else's servant. Furthermore, Gehazi deliberately chose not to discuss it with his superior. Do you find it interesting as I do that he doesn't pull Elisha aside and say, "Master, I have thoughts regarding this offer. Would it be possible, would it be permissible for me to follow up and ask if I could take something from his offer? What is your feeling on that?"

You see, the tragedy here is that it is all in the mind. It's secret. There's not an accountability between the two. Now the result is a study in tragedy. It looks so plain, it looks so shameful, it looks so obvious on paper, but it is acted out probably every day of our lives in someone's heart. Track with me. Watch Gehazi as he convinces himself that it's worth the risk. Look at verse 20. "Gehazi thought." Verse 21. "So Gehazi pursued." That's how it works. That's how greed reveals itself. It's a smoldering secret, only to surface as a result of rationalization.

Bill Meyer: Step by step, Gehazi is walking down a path of rationalization, and it's not taking him anywhere good. Stay with us to hear how this story unfolds. You're listening to Insight for Living, and we're midway through a message from Chuck Swindoll titled "Gehazi: The Servant Who Got Greedy." Gehazi is just one of the characters we're getting to know in this popular collection of 14 Bible stories. It's called Fascinating Stories of Forgotten Lives. In this hallmark study, Chuck examines several often-overlooked characters from Scripture. These are ordinary people, all of them flawed. Some of them are outright foolish. Some of them are courageous, but all of them show us how we can follow God's prescription for a purposeful life.

To explore these men and women more fully, visit insight.org/offer. There you'll find a range of resources designed to help you dig deeper. And while you're on our website, be sure to look for our Searching the Scriptures Bible studies. We offer a spiral-bound Bible study workbook so you can take notes and record your personal observations. And there's a full-length book that Chuck's written for this series as well.

At insight.org, there's a lot to check out. We spend a lot of time developing resources for you because growing in the Lord is the highest calling. Some of our resources are available in audio formats so you can listen to Chuck whenever and wherever you like. Some are in a journal format, such as our Bible study workbooks, and others are full-length books and commentaries teaching you how to apply God's Word to your life. So take a look at our website today. It's possible your walk with God aligns with some of these characters, and we'd love to hear your story. To send a letter to our team, write to us at Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas, 75034.

I'm Bill Meyer. Chuck Swindoll tells the fascinating story about Gehazi, the servant who got greedy, tomorrow on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, "Gehazi: The Servant Who Got Greedy," was copyrighted in 1990, 1992, 2006, 2012, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.