The Healing of Naaman 2 Kings 5:1-17
An Irishman with a bad leg hobbled into a restaurant one afternoon. He painfully sat down at a booth and asked the waitress for a cup of coffee. Then the Irishman looked across the restaurant and asked, "Is that the faith healer over there?" The waitress nodded so the Irishman told her to give him a cup of coffee too.
The next person to come in was an Englishman and he had a hunched back. He shuffled over to a booth and asked the waitress for a glass of hot tea. He also glanced across the restaurant and asked "Is that the faith healer over there?" The waitress nodded so the Englishman said to give him a cup of hot tea too.
The third man to come into the restaurant was from Cape Breton. He went over to a booth, sat down and hollered "Hey there sweet thing, how about getting me a cold glass of Coke!" and then he looked across the restaurant and asked "Is that the faith healer over there?" And the waitress nodded so the Cape Bretoner said, “Give him a cold glass of coke too.
As the faith healer got up to leave he passed by the Irishman and touched him and said "For your kindness, you are healed." The Irishman felt the strength come back into his leg and got up and danced a jig all the way out the door. Then he passed by the Englishman and touched him and said, "For your kindness, you are healed." The English man felt his back straightening up and he raised his hands, and did a series of back flips all the way out the door. But as he walked towards the Cape Bretoner he jumped up and yelled, "Hey don’t touch me, I’m on full disability!"
You’d have to actually grow up in Cape Breton to understand it but I remember one day there was going to be a strike vote in the coal mine and there were 150 men injured the day before the vote. They all fell in the company shower house.
Well, this morning I’m going to try to live up to the five “B,s” of preaching. “Be brief, brother, be brief.”
“Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper. And 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. And she said unto her mistress, would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in, and told his lord, saying, thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.
And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.
And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, my father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
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. 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. 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.”
Here is a story about two people in the Old Testament and yet we really only get to know one of them. There’s Naaman who is a powerful military leader who is also a leper and a young girl who was a captured slave.
So, first we begin with Naaman and he’s referred to as the captain of the host of the king of Syria and that simply means that Naaman is the head of the entire Syrian army and not only is he a great and powerful military leader but the Bible also tells us that he was a personal friend of the king and then it goes on to say that he was honorable or honored by all the people because the LORD had used him to deliver Syria from their enemies. And on top of that, he was also referred to as a mighty man of valor or a courageous warrior. You know, he was the type of guy who wouldn’t back down from anybody, anywhere, anytime; but; he was also a leper.
Don’t you hate that? You’re just getting into a story and reality messes it up. It’s like reading a book that begins; “She was the most beautiful girl in town, her grandfather left her a legacy of two million dollars and her dynamic personality opened many doors that had been closed to others, if only she didn’t have that inoperable brain tumor.”
Or, “As he drove along the highway in his new Corvette thinking about his promotion; how was he to know that a truckload of dynamite was about to tip over on top of him.”
So, Naaman was a man who had the world by the tail but he also had leprosy which was the most feared disease of his day. We’re very fortunate today because most of the kinds of leprosy have simply been eradicated by isolating the lepers and the few that still exist can be treated with inexpensive medication. But, in Naaman’s day there were actually three different kinds of leprosy and there was no such thing as a treatment or a cure.
The first one was called, nodular leprosy. It began with feeling tired all the time with pains in your joints. The skin around the cheeks, nose, lips and forehead would form little nodules of thick skin, like hard blisters and soon the person looked more like a lion than a human. As the nodules grew larger they’d ulcerate and give off a foul smell. The eyebrows would fall out and the person’s voice would become very hoarse. The average course of this kind of leprosy was around nine years and it ended with the person experiencing mental illness, a coma and then finally death.
When I was young and attended the United Church they took us to hear Dr. Robert McClure who later became the moderator of the United Church but back then he had just returned from a medical mission to India and he spoke about his work with lepers and he said that whenever he got on a bus he always looked everyone right in the nose because that was where the leprosy began.
And then second, there was an anesthetic type of leprosy and this kind affected the nerve trunks. The first sign was a loss of feeling in the body’s extremities such as the nose, the fingers and the toes. This also affected the eyes and eyelids and since the person didn’t blink their eyes would dry out or they could get dust in their eyes and wouldn’t know it and it would cause infection and result in various stages of blindness.
The leper wouldn’t even notice himself doing it but he’d accidentally cut or burn himself, and because he couldn’t feel it, he wouldn’t treat it and infection would set in. Most people with this type of leprosy would lose fingers and toes through simple accidents and they say their life expectancy was somewhere around thirty years. In other words, it was a long slow death.
Leprosy is a great picture of sin because in the beginning it’s not something that hurts, it just discolors the skin and flakes off like dandruff but eventually it permeates the flesh and kills its victim. And sin does the same thing because we can look and act like we’re as good as gold but eventually sin always leads to death.
And then the most common kind of leprosy was a mixture of these two. And leprosy back then is like cancer today, it can strike anybody anytime. Kings such as Uzziah were lepers and so was Gehaziah the servant of Elijah and here we even see it infected a successful soldier like Naaman.
The Jews only had one rule for lepers and that was quarantine, since other than the divine intervention of God; there was no such thing as a cure. If you were declared a leper you were run out of town and even your family wouldn’t have anything to do with you.
During the Middle Ages lepers had to wear distinctive clothing so people could see what they were from a distance and they were also forced to live outside the city in a separated area. They were considered to be unclean and sinful and they were often accused of being sexual deviants. It was very much like AIDS today where people assume that everybody who is affected got it through immorality and yet we know there are some who contacted the virus through blood transfusions and even in the states there was a case of a dentist who knowingly affected several of his patients with the virus.
Obviously the Syrians didn’t regulate lepers the way the Jews did but that didn’t stop the repulsive nature of the disease or even how lepers were viewed by those around them.
We have no idea what Naaman had tried but I’m sure he had done everything and anything he possibly could. I mean, he’d probably eat anything that was suggested, soak in any solution that was available and try every magical portion that was recommended but he soon found out that his leprosy was a living death sentence and there was no reprieve. It just kept getting worse.
And then second, we see a slave girl from Israel and this girl wasn’t important as far as the Syrians or even Naaman’s household was concerned; as a matter of fact, she was probably one of dozens of slaves from the various countries that had been attacked by the Syrians. The scripture doesn’t tell us about her background but I’m sure if her family were still alive they probably thought she was either dead or enslaved and in either case they wouldn’t expect to see or hear from her again.
You see, slaves in those days weren’t like servants today who work their forty hours and then do their own thing but slaves were nothing more than human equipment and they did everything and anything they were told to do. Some of them worked the fields, some prepared and served the food, some worked in weaving rooms, in the army as soldiers, in construction as laborers, as sculptors and artists or anything else their masters told them to do. They were considered to be less than human and like a horse or a mule they were only kept alive while they were useful.
In Roman times a writer named Cato was giving a friend who had just bought a farm some advice and he said, “Look over the livestock and hold a sale. Sell your oil, if the price is satisfactory and sell the surplus of your wine and grain. Sell worn out oxen, blemished cattle, blemished sheep, wool, hides, an old wagon, old tools, an old slave, a sickly slave and whatever else is superfluous.” And superfluous meant useless. Aristotle said, “There can never be friendship between master and slave for a slave is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave.” And we’re told that during the Roman Empire there were sixty million slaves.
And so, this girl may have been one of many slaves and she even seems insignificant in the sense that we’re not even told her name; but in scripture; God is constantly using those who are considered to be insignificant in the eyes of the world to work out His plans.
For instance, in the story of Joseph, you remember how he was sent by his father to go see his brothers; to find out how they were doing. The Bible says when he couldn’t find them he met a man and this man told him where his brothers had gone. This might seem insignificant to you but finding his brothers at this time literally transformed his life. Remember, they threw him into a hole and told his father he was dead but they had sold him to some foreigners, who sold him to the Egyptians and then his bosses wife had him imprisoned on false charges of immorality and yet twenty years later we find Joseph is second in charge to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And all this began with an unknown man telling Joseph where to find his brothers and yet, we don’t even know his name. And you might say, he was insignificant but the fact is, the whole story turns on him. I mean, if Joseph hadn’t met this man he might have gone back home and told his father he couldn’t find his brothers and that would have been the end of the story. So, everything turns on the one man who gave Joseph directions but we don’t even know who he was. He was like this girl who was insignificant in the eyes of the world and yet very significant in the will of God.
Well, this young girl who was probably around the age of twelve and we know this because verse 2 says “she was a little maid” and it also says she had been taken captive by the Syrians during one of their raids on Israel. And then we’re told that she served Naaman’s wife and that means she was either helping with household chores like cleaning and cooking or she may have been responsible to assist her in her bath and getting dressed.
In any case, she seemed to have had a special relationship to this woman in the sense that she felt free to make conversation about her husband; and she said, “Would God, my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.” And somehow she had heard about the power of God working through Elisha.
Elisha had done twice as many miracles as Elijah. He had divided the waters of the Jordan with Elijah’s cloak after Elijah was taken up to heaven. He had purified the waters of Jericho with salt. He called down a curse on a mob of ignorant kids and 42 of them were mauled by bears. He had prophesied the way of victory over Moab. He made oil flow for the widow to pay her debts. He raised the son of the Shunamite woman from the dead and he purified the poisoned pot of stew and many more. So, as far as this little girl was concerned; what was a case of leprosy to him?
As we read about what she said, we wonder how she came to have such a strong faith in God and it’s assumed she came from an orthodox religious home where she learned the scriptures and may have had the opportunity to attend the temple where she had heard men like Elisha preach the word.
And somehow her faith was real because it was a faith that stuck; in spite of the fact that she had been carried away and made a slave. Her circumstances didn’t eradicate her faith, if anything it gave her a place to let her faith shine.
Listen; there are people who’ve met Jesus at their bedside with their parents or in church at an invitation but there are also those who’ve met Him in a concentration camp or even in a cancer ward. And if they were truly saved they’ll remain in the faith. Now, that doesn’t mean that we can’t or won’t fall down but it does mean that we won’t stay down.
There are three theological terms to explain the means of salvation. First, there is revelation and that’s where God spoke this world into being and He revealed Himself in doing so. As Paul said in Romans 1:19 and 20, “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Did you get that? Man has no excuse because as he looks at the world around him it’s obvious there is a God who created it.
And then second, there’s inspiration where God inspired all kinds of men from intellectuals like the apostle Paul to fisherman like Peter to write down His words and now we have the Bible which simply means the book of books. Inspiration literally means God breathed.
And then, third, we have illumination and that’s where God makes the Bible come alive to us. And somehow this little girl had heard and believed the word of God and believed that He was the One who empowered the prophet to do the miraculous.
As I said, Naaman was second only to the king himself when it came to wealth and power and so he’d really be rich. He not only had personal money and pay from the king’s treasury but he’d also get a share of everything they took from those they conquered and so, it says that when he went to visit Elisha he took with him a letter from the king and he also brought a gift of “ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing.” And listen; all this was worth somewhere around 3.8 million dollars. And besides this, verse 8 says he owned many horses and chariots and verse 13 tells us he had many servants traveling with him.
So, first we see Naaman who is all powerful but he’s got a problem that no one can solve and then we see a slave who has a solution for his problem even though she has plenty of problems of her own; because after all, she’s still a slave; but in spite of who or what she was, she told Naaman’s wife that the prophet could take care of his leprosy and his wife told Naaman who told the king.
Now, the king assumed the nation of Israel was run like his own with all the prophets on the kings payroll and all he’d have to do was send the king a letter that said, “Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.”
Now, that seems like a simple request but look at the kings reaction in verse 6-7, “And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.” And I’m sure he thought the King of Syria was asking him to do the impossible so that he’d feel justified in killing him for refusing.
It’s kind of ironic that helpless Naaman went to a hopeless king looking for help but where the king could only see a problem the prophet saw an opportunity and he told the king, just send him to me. And then we see that Naaman’s problem with leprosy was actually compounded by his problem with pride.
Verse 9 says, “So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.” Now, imagine the scene, Naaman and all his entourage are standing in front of Elisha’s house at perfect attention, everybody’s lined up just right, the chariots are glistening and every horse is as clean and perfect as possible. It would have been very impressive and intimidating except for one thing. Nobody came out. Elisha just sent out a messenger and said, “Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.”
We sing about the mighty rolling Jordan and about the joys of crossing Jordon to conquer the promised land and we get the impression that’s it’s crystal clear, wide and deep but the Jordan river is nothing more than a muddy stream that’s about forty feet wide most of the year. And I can understand why Naaman didn’t want to get his clothes dirty in the Jordan but I don’t think that’s what really bothered him. Look at his response. It says he was angry because the prophet didn’t show him any respect and he really thought he deserved it. I mean, Elisha didn’t even bother coming out of the house. How rude!
After all, Naaman probably thought, I’m second in command of the Syrian army and I’ve been on horseback for several days and the least he can do is come out, but, he didn’t do anything! I mean, he didn’t put on a little show, he didn’t lay hands on him and he didn’t pray or do anything else. And talk about foolish advice, he said, go take a bath in the dirty Jordan, well Naaman knew he wasn’t just dirty, he was a leper! And if he needed a bath he could go home where the rivers are clean and you’ll know that you’re clean when you’re finished. And not only did the prophet not do anything but he didn’t ask Naaman to do anything but to humiliate myself by dipping seven times in a filthy river.
You see, Naaman thought, you’ve got to give something to God to get something from God. God’s not going to give you something for just being obedient to His word, is He?
Listen, this man was looking death in the face and he was getting sicker every day but he still had enough pride to keep him from following God. And we might wonder; why wouldn’t he do it? I think he was afraid that the people with him only cared for him because he was a successful and courageous general and if they could see that he was as weak as they were they wouldn’t respect him anymore.
But, how wrong he was; his servants loved him and it says in verse 13, “And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, my father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, wash, and be clean?” They were saying, if he told you to do some great thing like going on a long religious pilgrimage or making a huge and expensive sacrifice, wouldn’t you do it? Well then, why not take this simple step of obedience.
Listen, if salvation is so easy, if it’s just a question of acknowledging your sinfulness and accepting God’s forgiveness then why don’t more people get saved? I think for some, it’s too easy and they feel like they have to do something to earn it or deserve it. And the problem is, as soon as you do anything for it, you don’t have it. We are either saved by the grace of God or we’re not saved at all.
There was an article in the Daily Bread a number of years ago that told about an instant cake mix that was a total disaster. The instructions said that all you had to do was add water and bake and you had a cake. The company couldn’t understand why it didn’t sell and they did some research and discovered what the problem was; only to find out that people really felt uneasy about a cake mix that only required water. They thought it was too easy. So the company changed the formula and the directions and they said you have to add an egg to the mix in addition to the water. The idea worked and sales jumped dramatically.
And that’s how some people react to the plan of salvation. To them it sounds too easy and too simple but the Bible says, “By grace you have been saved through faith...; it is the gift of God, not of works.” In other words, God has done all there is to do and we have to do is accept it.
So Naaman went down into the water and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of Elisha and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child. I’m sure he felt kind of stupid during the first six dips but when he came up after the seventh he was completely healed. And all he had to do was listen, believe and act on the word of God.
And when he got up out of the water and saw he was healed he went back to Elisha and said, “Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel; so please take a present from your servant now.” And then verse 16 says, “But he said, as the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will take nothing.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused.
These verses provide us with an illustration of the first fruits of salvation. First, he confessed and acknowledged his faith in the Lord when he said, I know there is no God in all the earth but in Israel” and then secondly he wanted express his appreciation for what God had done. But Elisha, carefully and wisely refused. And we wonder why? After all, Elisha had accepted help from the Shunammite woman and her husband, and the scripture teaches us that it’s right for those who are taught the Word to share all good things with those who teach. So why does Elisha refuse this gift? I think the issue of salvation would have been compromised if he had received a gift from Naaman.
You see, he wanted Naaman and all those watching to know he was a servant of God and he wasn’t like all the greedy priests who served Baal back in Naaman’s hometown. He also wanted them to know that salvation and all of God’s blessings are free and they can’t be bought or earned. Elisha was careful to make sure that nothing he did would compromise the word of God.
Close
So, first, we see God using a young slave girl to give Naaman the message and then He used the prophet to tell him where to go and what to do and when he was reluctant to obey He even used his men to encourage him to be obedient to the word of God. Listen; God had a lot of people working on Naaman’s life just as He has a lot of people working on you and I.
And then after he was healed of this deadly disease and knew he had a relationship with the living God I’m sure he still had problems until the day he died. Remember, he was healed but he wasn’t perfect. And even though we’re saved none of us are going to be perfect until we stand in the presence of God.
On the other hand we see this young girl who also had faith and had come from Israel and went into slavery where her faith was tested. She probably had good reasons to hate all these Syrians but her faith caused her to point Naaman to Elisha where he was not only healed but saved as well. And in essence, she repaid evil with good.
And the interesting thing is; in the end of the story it doesn’t say she was released from slavery, got a big reward or married the man of her dreams and then went back to join her family and the reason it doesn’t say this is because her reward like ours and it doesn’t come in this life but in eternity. So, Naaman trusted God because of his circumstances but she trusted God in spite of her circumstances.
And then the second thing I want to point out is that God is still at work today and He still wants to lead sinners to Himself and He still wants to use; the least of us to do it. The problem is; most of us think God is looking for the next Billy Graham or the next Jerry Falwell but the fact is, He still uses individuals and small churches to reach people and then bring them to spiritual maturity. And He’s not concerned about our education or our personal abilities or inabilities and He’s not concerned with how good our facilities are or what programs we have; what He’s concerned about is whether or not we’re surrendered to Him.
The apostle Paul told the believers at Corinth, "Think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth...He chose the lowly things of this world." Listen, God accomplishes His plans through ordinary people like you and I; if we are willing to be used by Him.
