Not only had the young maiden’s testimony of faith created confidence in the commander of the Syrian hosts, but it also created a measure of faith in the heart of Syria’s king. Faith begets faith and love begets love. Faith is an ever-widening circle that goes out from heart to heart and from land to land, until it encompasses the globe. Only eternity can measure the results of that testimony of confidence in Israel’s God borne by the captive maid before her mistress in an alien land. Kings dealt with kings, and in offering his services to Naaman, Benhadad thought to make his contact through Israel’s king rather than deal directly with Elisha. The writing of letters was a common procedure in those days, many copies of such letters having come down to the present time.

Naaman was not asking for healing without being willing to pay. Not being acquainted with Israel’s prophet and Israel’s God, he brought with him sufficient treasure to make possible for the prophet a handsome reward. Little did he realize that the Lord would be willing to heal him, and wished neither silver nor gold in return. Little did he know that Elisha served God and his fellows, not from a spirit of wordly gain, but for the good that he might be able to do. In those days money was not coined, and bars or rings of gold and silver went by weight. A talent of silver was equivalent to about 75 lb. avoirdupois, or 34.8 kg. There were not 6,000 individual pieces of gold, but gold to the weight of 6,000 shekels, or 2 talents of gold. Such a weight of gold today would be worth about $55,272 in terms of the light shekel. It should be noted that these computations show only the worth of these metals today and give no idea of the buying power of this money in ancient times. The fact that Naaman brought with him such a large amount of treasure was an indication of the seriousness of the plight he knew himself to be in and of the intensity of his desire to be healed.