Go, Dip Again!
Scripture: 2 Kings 5:1-14
In an address to the Wisconsin State Agriculture Society in 1859, Abraham Lincoln illustrated the profound effect change can have on us. He told of an Eastern monarch who gave his counselors an assignment to come up with a truth that would apply to all times and all situations. After careful consideration they returned with this sentence. The one universal principal, good for all times and all situations, they said was, “And this too shall pass away.” Abraham Lincoln then suggested that this one statement provides discipline (or correction) in our hour of pride and consolation (or comfort) in our hour of affliction.
Centuries before that monarch gave his counselors that assignment, John made the same point. 1st John, 2:17 tells us that the world passes away, but he who does the will of God, will live forever.
And Centuries before John said those words, a little servant girl who had been taken captive by her enemies, initiated a whole series of events that would teach the commanding officer of a great army, that very same lesson. That the only abiding truth - the only thing that will last forever, is obedience to God’s will.
A husband and wife were discussing the possibility of taking a trip to the Holy Land and the husband said, “Wouldn’t it be fantastic to go to the Holy Land and stand and shout the Ten Commandments from on top of Mount Sinai. To which his wife gently replied, “Wouldn’t it be better if we stayed home and kept them?”
There’s no power in shouting the ten commandments - or anything else for that matter. Power comes from doing what God says.
Naaman learned the power of obedience and he learned it in very specific ways. If we review the story this morning we’ll notice first of all that Naaman learned that obedience requires humility.
Obedience requires absolute submission to the one whom we obey. But Naaman was a great man. He was used to having people submit to his authority. He was the commander of the king’s whole army. And notice, when Naaman arrived to get his cure for leprosy, Elisha didn’t even come out to greet him! So how did Naaman respond? Verse 12 - “So he turned and went off in a rage.”
(Ever do that? - Ad lib...)
Why? Why did Naaman go off in a huff? The answer is back in verse 11. Look back there with me. Verse 11 Naaman is speaking and he says, “I thought....” We can stop right there... And you know, this would be funny if it weren’t so sad. Naaman said, “I thought...” - Naaman heard about a cure for his leprosy and HE decided within himself how that cure would happen. See he says, “I thought: 1. He would come out and meet me.
2. Just wave his hand and heal me
Notice what Naaman was thinking meant no effort on his part - nothing HE had to do - he would just receive the healing. Elisha was the one who should greet him at the door and wave his hand over him.
Now I don’t know about you, but that’s just exactly what I do sometimes. I pray for God to do some great thing in my life and I ask him to take care of it for me, and then I start to figure out how it will all work. And usually I decide what God’s going to do. Ever been there? You know sometimes we pray and ask God for something and then we sit around waiting for him to do it, and all the while he’s waiting for us to do something.
Naaman’s servants said to him, “If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?”
Huh? :-) If God tells you to do some great thing, would you not do it? But what if He tells you to wash dishes? Or visit the sick? Or go to the nursing home? Or make a phone call? What if He asks you to do something that NOBODY is ever going to know about this side of heaven.
And even more than that. What if He asks you to do something that’s going to hurt. What if He asks you to do something that’s going to bring YOU pain, but will bring relief to someone else - like forgiving someone. Like forgetting a hurt. Like being nice to someone who isn’t nice to you.
Oh the problems we have when pride gets in the way of our obedience. Look at what Naaman goes through - you see this isn’t so much about his leprosy as it is about his pride.
First, his wife’s servant girl gives him direction to find a cure.
Then he arrives in all his pomp and circumstance and Elisha’s door, and the lowly prophet of God doesn’t even come out to personally receive this great man - he sends a messenger instead!
And then, then when he’s about to go off in a huff again, it’s servants that speak words of wisdom to him.
Do you notice a pattern here? The real words of wisdom come from humble servants.
It’s as true for us today as it was for Naaman. The real words of wisdom come from humble servants. When we simply hear God’s word and do it. There’s where the wisdom lies.
Are you wondering who to listen to - who to take advice from? Find a humble servant of God - listen to them.
Someone once said, “Where God puts a period, let’s not change it to a question mark.” See, that’s what Naaman did. He thought up his OWN plan even though he went to someone else for the cure. And when it didn’t work out HIS way, he got mad, and he questioned the advisor. Weren’t there other rivers in his own homeland that were clear and clean - not like the muddy Jordan - couldn’t he just wash in one of those and get the job done. See how he’s trying to save face, trying to keep his greatness in tact?
But what Naaman had to learn is that we’re all equal in God’s eyes. Elisha didn’t see the great commander and chief of the king’s army. He heard about a guy with leprosy. And notice - Elisha didn’t exalt himself by bowing to the protocol of the day. He simply saw a man with leprosy who needed to be healed and he offered him the way. And the way, was to dip in the Jordan’s muddy waters. And that’s the second significant thing about obedience.
Obedience sometimes (and I find it’s more often than not). Obedience, more often than not, simply doesn’t make sense. Naaman couldn’t understand it. This whole thing seemed to him like nonsense - like a stupid, futile effort to humiliate him. After all hadn’t he just been humiliated? Elisha wouldn’t come to the door.
I can almost hear me now if I got those instructions. Uhuh, not this girl - who does he think he is anyway - I’m not dipping myself in those muddy waters - that’s ridiculous!
The point is this: when we commit to doing God’s will and to obeying him completely, we’re not always going to understand why. If we always understood, there’d be no need to trust. And where there is no trust, God is no longer God in our lives. We have to trust. And even more than that, we have to be prepared to get dirty. When we obey him completely, we’re going to get our hands dirty, we might even get covered in mud. The Bible tells us John came not eating or drinking and they said he had a demon. Jesus came both eating and drinking and they called him a glutton and a wine-bibber.
And folks, when we get down to the nitty-gritty business of serving God in a cruddy, messed up, sinful world, we’re going to get dirty. And we’re going to get hurt, over and over and over again. And I don’t think I’m reading too much into it today to suggest to you that Naaman’s cure, hurt. Not only was his pride insulted, but I imagine those open leprous wounds on Naaman’s body probably stung a bit when he dipped in the muddy waters of the Jordan river. And he had to do it, not once, but seven times!
And don’t you think when he came up for the third and forth and fifth time and there was absolutely no change in his condition - in fact maybe he thought things were getting worse - don’t you think he found it hard to dip again? I do.
And I think when we go out into our world, and we become the obedient church God has called us to be right here among our little group, and we start serving and loving people the way God calls us to, I think we’re going to experience some pain. And I think we’re going to be misunderstood. And I think it’s going to be hard for us to keep on doing what God has called us to do.
Obedience costs. It could cost us our jobs, our reputation, our friends. But friends, obedience will never, ever cost us more than it’s worth.
Jesus said in John 17, his prayer to the Father was not that we be taken out of the world, but that we be protected from the evil one. In fact, he says, he has sent us into the world. Are the churches you know IN the world. Is this church IN the world? We’ll never make a difference in the world, if we’re not IN it.
If we’re going to be obedient to God’s will, we’ll have to wade a little deeper into the muddy water of our Jordan river. And I don’t know what that might mean for each of you here today. For some it might mean finding a non-Christian friend. For some of you, it’s going to mean stepping out of your comfort zone and being a little bolder about who you are in Christ. I don’t know what your muddy Jordan is, but you do. And if you don’t think you do, ask God, he’ll tell you. And when you know, remember, you might have to dip seven times.
And that’s the third and final thing we learn about obedience in the story of Naaman. Obedience knows no limits.
Naaman had to dip seven times. When God wants seven, six won’t do. I expect Naaman’s body looked absolutely no different when he came up out of the water the sixth time, then it did the previous five times. Why did Naaman have to dip seven times. Why not six, why not 8 or 10? The Psalmist gives us the answer.
“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes were on my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
He knows us. He knew us before the very foundation of the earth. And he knows exactly what our limits are, and exactly what is required for us to go beyond those limits to become an obedient, humble servant of the almighty God. He knows.
The Jordan river had no magic power in it for curing Naaman’s leprosy. There wasn’t anything particularly special about dipping seven times. The power came from being obedient to God’s instructions. And our obedience under God has to be limitless. It has to be willing to obey no matter what.
And if we’ll only go so far - if we set boundaries on our servanthood, and on the opportunities that God brings our way - then there will be no change. But - when our obedience is limitless, the result is limitless.
This is one of the best parts about the story of Naaman’s cure. He went to get healthy again. He simply wanted to get rid of the leprosy. But did you notice how he came up on the seventh time? “His flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy? Can you imagine it?
Naaman gets his nose out of joint when Elisha doesn’t come to greet him. Then he goes off in a huff when the cure is less than he expected. THEN..after he does obey, his skin is clean like that of a young boy!
Imagine! This rough, ready commander in chief of a huge army having baby soft skin!
You see, when we go beyond our limits, when we perfectly obey God’s instructions, God will always pour out a blessing which we would not believe if we had been told. We can count on that - whether it’s visible at the moment or not - we can trust God’s reward for even “a cup of cold water given in his name.”
This morning, if you’re feeling a little lost about the plan God has for you. If you feel like maybe you do a lot but nothing really happens. May I encourage you to take off the boundaries. Throw yourself fully into trusting him. Because as we heard from the start, John says, God’s will is the only thing that will abide forever. And Jesus said, “Not every one who says to me, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
If you’re wondering what’s going to happen to you. If you’re wondering what’s going to happen here at our church that you love so much. If you’re wondering if Jesus can take a ½ liter bottle of water, and turn it into great springs of living water of life, may I encourage you this morning.... take the boundaries off whatever it is you’re holding back from him, and GO! Dip again!
