The Most Common Problem Affecting All Relationships

2 Kings 5:7
As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”

2 Kings 5:8
When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.”

Naaman had been told by his servant girl that there was a prophet in Israel who could heal his leprosy. As a part of the procedure, he went to his Assyrian boss to ask for permission to travel out of his country to Israel, 2 Kings 5:4-6. He was given a letter to introduce himself and his mission. This was procedural for a high-ranking military official to travel to another country.

It is always good to follow procedures. It is not against God’s will to follow laid down government procedures. Most times these procedures are for our own good. Follow procedures even at your workplace and even in your community and at home.

Naaman immediately traveled to Israel armed with a letter from his master. He went straight to the king of Israel and delivered the letter. Our Bible text today tells us that when the king of Israel read the letter, he immediately concluded that this letter was a provocation to war.

Leprosy was a common incurable disease. The letter from Assyria was a request for the king of Israel to heal Naaman of leprosy. Instead of seeking any clarification from those who gave him the letter, he jumped to a conclusion that this was a provocation for war. The king of Israel did not even consult his advisers and officials, he just jumped to a conclusion that Assyria was triggering a war.

The most common problem affecting all relationships is jumping to conclusions. Any relationship will seriously suffer if one party, one person jumps to conclusions. Teacher-student relationship. Pastor – members relationship. Business person – customer relationship. Government – citizens relationship. Employer – employees relationship. Husband-wife relationship. Girlfriend-boyfriend relationship.

Jumping to conclusions will negatively affect any and all relationships. To jump to conclusions means you make a paranoid conclusion on first instinct without clarification or consultation. Paranoid means you wrongly believe that everything and everyone does everything against you to harm you.

A paranoid person lacks faith in everyone and believes that they all seek to harm him or her. A paranoid person may be suffering from low self-esteem that they cover up by jumping to a conclusion. A paranoid person may be suffering from trauma. He or she was once hurt by someone or some people and now they believe that everyone seeks to harm them. A paranoid person could have a wrong spirit that leads them to jump to conclusions.

Those who jump to conclusions are always very dramatic. They do it loudly and even violently. The noise and drama are designed to hide their own weaknesses that cause them to jump to conclusions. Look at how noisy and dramatic the king of Israel is. He tears his clothes and makes extreme statements in a fit of rage until people who are far from the protected hidden palace hear about it, 2 Kings 5:8.

A person who jumps to conclusions will publicly humiliate others on an unconfirmed suspicion. Such a person would easily break the relationship, even fire a worker, or cause other damages based on their jumping to conclusions. If friends around them and officials around them are not wise they will support them in jumping to conclusions. Damage will be done and God holds all of them accountable.

When the person who jumps to conclusions realizes that they are wrong, they may rectify things quietly like the king of Israel did. Quietly yet the damage was done dramatically and publicly. Some will keep quiet with no apology and assume that everyone should move on and understand and accommodate their irrational behavior.

The worst kind of people who jump to conclusions are those who realize they are wrong but out of ego and Diabolic nature, they insist they were right. They now witch hunt their victims to prove that jumping to the conclusion was right. Any statement or action by their victims will quickly be connected to the conclusion they made earlier when they jumped to conclusions. This kind is unrepentant and strains all their relationships. May God save us from this kind!

All of us at one point in our various relationships have jumped to conclusions. We, later on, discovered we were wrong. What did we do after that? We should have prayed before jumping to conclusions. We should have consulted other people who would not support our thoughts but give us a different view of the same situation. But instead, we jumped to conclusions and now we hurt God’s people. What do we do after realizing we were wrong?

May God save us from people who jump to conclusions. May God give us patience and a forgiving spirit if we can’t avoid people who jump to conclusions. May God forgive us if we are guilty of jumping to conclusions and help us out of this situation and remove that spirit from us, in Jesus’s name, Amen!

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