Observe what a vast work the Lord had wrought upon the heart of this Syrian! The leprosy of his skin was not only washed away, but the leprosy and unbelief of his soul, he is at once convinced that the God of Israel must be the true God, and that there can be no other. Observe, moreover, how his heart was affected in wishing now for Elisha to take this blessing, as he called it, not any longer as the price of his cure, but as the token of his love. And observe how precious the very earth of Israel was to his view, who before this had despised her sacred river. Such, Reader will ever be the blessed effects of a change of heart, and the real conversion of the soul to God. Poor man! he feared indeed, that he should be obliged to dissemble his religion when the king, his master, on his return to Syria, made him attend him to his idol worship. And here he strikingly represents the case of many a young convert in the first opening of his renewed life. Timid and apprehensive lest carnal friends should mock or ill treat them, many there are, like this Syrian, or like Nicodemus, who in their first awakenings, visit Jesus by night. John 3:1-2.
2 Kings 5:15-19
15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.
16 But he said, As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.
17 And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD.
18 In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing.
19 And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a littlee way.