For lent 2022, I’m writing six duologues between Samuel and other people in the Bible, all on the theme of living with conflict. The prophet Samuel, now deceased, converses with a series of guests in paradise, reflecting on their past experiences and what it was to live with conflict.
In this, the first scene, he meets Ronit who (when she was alive) prompted Naaman, commander of an enemy army, to seek healing from the prophet Elisha. The story is recorded in 2 Kings 5.
The girl is unnamed in the biblical account; rather than calling her “Naaman’s wife’s slave”, I’ve referred to her as “the young girl from Israel”. However, she is no child when she meets Samuel, having long grown up and died. I decided to name her Ronit.
Ronit shares her perspectives with Samuel: her motivations, what happened after Naaman was healed, how she wrestles with feelings of failure but ultimately wants to choose obedience over bitterness.
An excerpt from the script is below.
Length: 3,000 words
Actors: 1 adult male, 1 adult female
Advisory notice: Includes references to slavery, warfare and rape.
SAMUEL:
So… you didn’t tell Naaman to see Elisha because you wanted him to get better?
RONIT:
Well… (SIGHS) It was something the Holy Spirit said to me. I was about 12 years old. She said, ‘You know how bad things have happened to you even though you didn’t deserve them? I want to do the opposite. I want to give good things for people who don’t deserve them. Not as a reward. But as a mercy. So that they can become better people.’ And then the Spirit asked, ‘Will you help me?’
SAMUEL:
And that’s when you said, ‘I wish that my master could come before the prophet who lives in Samaria. He would cure him of his skin disease.’
RONIT:
I didn’t tell him directly, of course. To be honest, I didn’t think his wife would pass it on. But she did. And then he repeated it to his king. I mean, no pressure!
SAMUEL:
And then the king sent him off with ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.
RONIT:
I know! And I’m sitting there thinking, ‘What is he going to do to me if he comes back humiliated?’ (PAUSE) The Spirit told me not to be afraid, but that’s easier said than done.
SAMUEL:
And then he came back.
RONIT:
Yes.
SAMUEL:
Did he reward you?
RONIT:
No.
SAMUEL:
Seriously?
RONIT:
Seriously. But hey, I didn’t care. I was still alive. And they stopped arguing. And he got rid of his gods.
SAMUEL:
And everything else just… carried on the way it did before?
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