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.
5And 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.
I want us too notice that the king of Syria as well as Naaman was ignorant of the meaning of grace, for he brought with him a great deal of wealth. Many of a lost sinner tries to purchase salvation or earn it, but this is impossible.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
We see even today on our TV’s these so called evangelist conning gullible people out of their money, they’ll read some scripture and then try to say that it shows that they need to plant a seed, send him your money and the Lord is going to greatly increase the return, you would think that after a while people would get wise to these crooks, I‘d hate to be in their shoes when they stand before Jesus the Judge in the by and by. The very heart beat of Christ is to win souls, not finances.
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6And 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.”
7And 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.
Naaman and his letter arrived before Jehoram the king of Israel who was greatly insulted after reading the letter to think that Ben-ha-dad would so subtly expose his human frailties in asking him to heal a leper, he felt as though the king of Syria was implying that he was an ignorant man, he thought Ben-ha-dad was attempting to instigate a war.
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8And 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.
9So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
Because of his prominence Naaman expected a greater reception from Elisha, he thought that by him being a great man of valor in the Army of the Syrians that Elisha would come running out to his chariot and show great respect to him. But Naamon didn’t impress Elisha at all.
Elisha sends for him, and then doesn’t even bother to come out and perform some big, religious ritual of curing him.
Naamon is the one with the death sentence abiding on him, there was no cure for what Naaman had as for as man was concerned.
Naaman could not save himself even if he was a captain. He certainly was a commander, but he was a leper.” He needed salvation.
He was a great man. But, great men must be saved just like any other.
He was a good & honorable man. He was respected in his community. Yet good men and
respected men must be saved like any other.
He was a mighty man, brave, courageous, strong, noble, and yet; even these people need to be saved too.
So often people of means think that salvation is good for the down and out, and for those that need it. Ted Turner said that Christianity was a crutch for weak people, he said he did need any thing.
The truth is the millionaires, banker, movie stars, athletes, politicians; all must be saved the
same way as the poor man - by faith in Jesus Christ.
Everyone has needs. Naaman was successful, but he had leprosy. In spite of his accomplishments his disease left him frustrated, so he searched for a cure.
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10And 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.
11But 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.
12Are 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.
There’s a lot of people that just can’t get a hold of the fact that getting saved is so easy, they think that surely there must be some thing that they must add too this becoming saved, they are determined too add works to Jesus finished work on the cross, when you get to thinking about it, it’s really an insult to God, it’s like saying that the death of Jesus on the cross in paying for all our sins is just not enough.
1 John 1:7-- and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
We don’t find a single word hear saying that “the blood of Jesus Christ plus this or that cleanses from all sin”, case closed.
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13And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, “My father, (or my lord) 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?”
Naaman’s servants reasoned with him, notice it say’s servant’s (plural) all of the servants realized the simplicity of Elishas’s advice and rationalized with Naaman that if he had been directed to do some great thing that would be appropriate with his position and status in life, that he would have complied readily.
Naaman was the kind of man that did things that was often complicated and difficult to accomplish, he was a military man with much experience. What Elisha had directed him to do was just too simple.
But as his servants had pointed these truths out to him, he complied with this simple thing, and he was cleansed of the Leprosy.
14Then 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.
If Naamon had said well I’m in a hurry I’ll just dip 4 or 5 times his condition would have remained the same.
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
People not only need too confess with their mouth the Lord Jesus,---notice what else the verse say’s; and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Jesus said in John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
15And 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.
16But he said, As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.
By Naaman continuing to urge Elisha to take the gift reveals that Naaman was not at all acquainted with the meaning of grace, he was a babe in the things of God, in time as he grew in the knowledge of God he would understand more, and that applies to us today as well.
God’s miracles are not bought, and to refuse to accept a gift on Elisha’s part might confirm that belief in Naaman.
Elisha has clearly showed Naaman that the God of Israel was indeed the One and only True God, Naaman had learned a great and valuable lesson and he would never be the same again.
17And 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.
Naaman requested a burden of earth, the amount two mules could carry. He still associated Jehovah with the land of Israel and believed that to worship Him in a foreign land some Israelite soil was necessary. This showed heathen ignorance, but it also showed Naaman’s sincerity in seeking God.
his conversion was genuine is evidenced two ways: (1) His decision to sacrifice only to Jehovah; and (2) his concern that he might be regarded as an idolater when he returned to Syria and assisted his king as his servant in worshiping his god, Rimmon. Therefore, he asked the Lord’s pardon.
18In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing.
19And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.
Go in peace. He left with Elisha’s blessing, showing that Naama’s request was heard and granted.
