2nd Kings 5:1-14 Hear, Believe, And Follow The Instructions

2ND KINGS 5:1-14 HEAR, BELIEVE, AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS 8-27-11

As we get into the message today, I want to point out that Leprosy in the Bible is a picture and type of sin; we have in the miracle of Naaman being healed of leprosy a picture of salvation through faith in God’s Word.

What Naaman had no doctor on earth could cure, he carried with him a death sentence, all lost sinners are in the same condemnation, if they die in their sin they’ll go to hell.

Eph 2:1- dead in trespasses and sins.

Leprosy was not just a simple surface eruption; it was deeper than the skin, the same way with sin. The problem is not on the surface, the problem lies in sinful human nature. The Bible has nothing good to say about the flesh (the old nature) because our sinful nature is the source of so many of our troubles. Sinners cannot be changed by shallow surface remedies; they need to have their hearts changed.

In Israel, lepers were not allowed to participate in the religious services. They were forced to mark themselves as lepers and to cry aloud, "Unclean! Unclean!" to warn the people around them. -- Anyone who touched a leper was also defiled.

This same truth applies to sin; it defiles the mind, the heart, the body, and all that it touches. One sinner can defile a whole household, no person was ever made cleaner because of sin, for sin is the great defiler of mankind.

• Listen as I began to read from 2nd Kgs.5: beginning with verse 1.

1Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.

I want us too notice that even the victories of heathen nations are decreed by God. Evidently lepers were not social outcasts in Syria as they were in Israel.

Naaman was a mighty man of valor, and if he should die from this horrible disease the Syrian armed forces would be at a great loss, so the king of Syria wanted desperately if possible to have him cured of this death sentence of leprosy, although the Syrians didn’t know any thing about the True and Living God; JEHOVAH.

2And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife.

Evidently she had grown to love her master Naaman and his wife; she was the hand maiden of Naamans wife. Let me say too, that we read no place where she complained, she was a very humble young lady, and she remembered that back in her home land of Israel there was a Prophet that could call on Jehovah God and through Gods power could heal her lord Naaman.

Naaman without a doubt had searched high and low looking to get a cure for his leprosy, how many lost sinners run from one person to another, searching for salvation, and all the while Christ is waiting to meet their need.

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3And she said unto her mistress, [Naamans wife] would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.

She said that she wished that her lord Naaman was with this prophet, (talking about Elisha.)

And she didn’t say that God might heal him of his leprosy but that he would recover him of his leprosy. She knew about the True and Living God opposed to the idol worshippers there in Syria.

Although she was far from home, she didn’t forget her God and she quickly witnessed of His great power. Had she not been a faithful worker in the house of Naaman she would not have been an effective witness, but because of her faithfulness, her witness was rewarded.

You and I that are saved, we are also in a strange land, this world is not our home, we are here as Ambassadors in behalf of our King yonder in Heaven our home, we need to be faithful witnesses to the lost, we must tell these people that they are dead in their trespasses and sins and that there is a cure for their sin disease, and that the cure is for them to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, for He is the only Way.

4And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.

Some one had heard what the young Israeli maiden had said and told Ben-ha-dad the king of Syria, and the king wanted Naaman to be cured of this leprosy, Naaman was the king’s great military leader, so promptly he send Naaman with a letter in hand along with many gifts, he valued Naaman his captain, and sent him to Samaria for his healing, thinking perhaps that the prophet was probably connected with the royal court.