The Last Thing To Go 2 Kings 5.1-14 September 22, 2013
Chester FBC Chester, IL Dr. Mike Fogerson, Speaker
A The prophet Elisha, who was Elijha’s apprentice, is only mentioned one time in the New Testament. (Elijah is mentioned 29 times!) Luke 4.27,
Luke 4:27 (NASB) "And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."
1 Primarily because Elisha had healed a Gentile/Syrian general named Naaman in 2 Kings 5 in the 9th century BC. (Naaman served under King Ben-Hadad II, King of Aram/Modern day Syria)
a 2 Kings 5:1-14 (NASB) 1 Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man with his master, and highly respected, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper. 2 Now the Arameans had gone out in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel; and she waited on Naaman's wife. 3 She said to her mistress, "I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy." 4 Naaman went in and told his master, saying, "Thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel." 5 Then the king of Aram said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." He departed and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes. 6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, "And now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy." 7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? But consider now, and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me." 8 It happened when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent word to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Now let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel." 9 So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean." 11 But Naaman was furious 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 wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.' 12 "Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. 13 Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, "My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?" 14 So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.
b In the 9th Century two kingdoms were fighting one another called the Syro-Assyrian wars. (Sometimes their battles bleed into Israel.)
aa Israel refused to pick a side or get involved.
bb The Arameans wanted Israel in the fight & would occasionally raid towns/villages to provoke them.
cc During one such raid into Israel, a teenage Israelite girl had fallen into the hands of King Ben-Hadad’s field marshall, Naaman.
b In 2 Kings 6, an all out assault on Israel did happen, but we the account in our message takes places before the nations are engaged in full out war.
2 In April of 2003, the Defense Intelligence Agency & U.S. Central Command in Iraq issued a deck of playing cards to our troops in Iraq. (http://www.militaryspot.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=593&size=big)
a Each card a picture of one of 52 most wanted Iraqi personalities: Most famous was Ace of Spades: Saddam Hussain. (Ace of Diamonds: Presidential Secretary/ Abid Hamid Mallmud Al-Tikriti)
b If there were an ancient deck of “Most Wanted” cards for the Syrian Army, Naaman would have been the Ace of Diamonds, seconds only behind the King of Syria, Ben-Hadad II.
aa Naaman would have been highly decorated, carried great authority (2nd only to the king.)
bb He was a man use to getting his way, respected, giving orders.
B Although Naaman was a brilliant commander officer, brilliant strategist, he suffered from a serious/incurable skin disease.
1 Underneath all his stars, strips, bars was the body of a doomed man.
a Under all the military regalia he earned for bravery on the field of battle was a leprous body.
b Leprosy to the ancients was a slow death sentence.
aa Leprosy varied somatically from white patches on the skin, to oozing sores, to loss of digits. (Some forms highly contagious, some treatable, all incurable/hopeless condition)
bb Leprosy typically started small and spread. (Sometimes slowly, other times aggressively: like cancer.)
cc Hebrews (Jews) saw leprosy as a malady that made one unfit (unclean) to worship God.
2 The little Jewish girl that came to live & work for Naaman’s family told his wife that there was hope in Israel for her husband (v.3) in the form of a prophet.
a (v.4) Naaman runs right to the Ace of Spades with the news he heard from the captured girl that has been taken from her family.
aa Naaman is desperate to be healed!
bb How desperate is he? Desperate enough to listen his war prisoner for advice.
b The Ace of Spades not wanting to lose his right hand man sends him to Israel with a government issued insurance card.
aa 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold ($4 Million), expensive clothes.
bb Remember, the Jewish girl only pointed them to the prophet (didn’t say a word about money, gold, treasure)
c Lost people know nothing about the things of the Lord. (They try to complicate the things that are so simple.)
aa 1 Corinthians 2:14 (NASB) But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
bb We are not saved by bringing God gifts, being good, but by receiving by faith His gift of eternal life.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
John 3:36 (NASB) 36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
Romans 6:23 (NASB) 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
C Naaman arrives at Elisha’s house to find his healing only instead feels humiliated.
1 Elisha, the man of God, won’t even come to the door.
a Both men knew who they were:
aa Naaman knew he was the ace of diamonds, only under the king in authority. (Full of self-pride)
bb Elisha knew he was the man of God and that he served a greater King than Naaman did.
b When Elisha sent word through his servant what God wanted Naaman to do, the general thought he was a quack, nut-job.
aa Baptize yourself seven times in the Jordan seven times, clean.
bb Naaman’s response was understandable coming from a man of his stature & status: Wave his hand over the place and heal my leprosy.
cc Perhaps Naaman’s leprosy had not spread over his whole body, it was one place on his body; localized.
c He got on his horse to ride back to Syria/Aram just as diseased as when he got there.
aa Naaman had leprosy, true. But before God would deal with his illness He would first deal with his pride.
bb His pride was rooted in his country (rivers of Damascus.)
cc Naaman’s servants knew his pride issues when they said, “If he asked you do something great, would you not have don it?” (Take that hill, kill that lion, skin that bear, give me your money)
dd If Elisha had asked him to do something it would have only increased his pride.
2 They talked him into it. “What’s it gonna hurt, Sir?” Goes to the river to do what Elisha had told him to do.
a I can see his men sitting on their horses in their uniforms. (Swords, shields, battle worn expressions)
aa (Scripture does not tell me, but common sense would direct me here) Naaman took off his regalia, ribbons, medals, bars, stripes, naked.
bb Wearing nothing but his nakedness and leprosy he entered the cold Jordan river, immersing himself seven times.
cc Upon breaking up from the waters the seventh time, his skin was a of a little child, and he was clean. (In the NT vernacular he was born again!)
b He came to Israel as a general but goes back to Syria/Aram as an Ambassador of the one true God of Israel.
II Application
A We need to examine our armor.
1 Just as Naaman proudly wore his medals, regalia, people can wear religious medals as symbols of self-pride.
a Joined church, baptized, started giving a little bit...
aa Raise hand, prophesy, pray in the Spirit, gifts... medal
bb Serve, sing, sacrifice... stripe/bar
b God don’t you SEE my stripes, medals... I’m somebody!
aa You should really listen to me...
bb Before Naaman lost his leprosy he’d lose his temper, & pride first... it works the same for us.
c God’s not impressed with our armor, medals we award ourselves... “Put on the full armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
aa We don’t get to heaven wearing our armor- but wearing His!
bb He’s got armor for everybody, everybody has the privilege of going to heaven God’s way or going to hell anyway they want.
2 We need to know about Under Armor.
a I believe Naaman could hide his leprosy for a moment, under his armor but soon everyone would know. (Nature of leprosy)
b Numbers 32:23 (NASB) 23 "But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.
aa Sin will not stay under the armor, dark, too long.
bb Further than you want to go, stay longer than you wanted to stay, pay more than you wanted to spend!
B When the Lord get’s ready, You gotta move.
1 Naaman had to trust the Lord to dip into the cold muddy waters of the Jordan.
a To follow the Lord we must be obedient to do what He calls, leads us to do in our lives.
b Our obedience shows we have faith in His promises... then healing comes.
c You can trust, believe God to have the ability to do something in you, but until you start living, speaking, acting like the promise is reality... you keep your armor on, stay on the bank!
2 He’s using our struggles to strengthen us!
a REFINING SAP TO MAPLE SYRUP
Dr. David Osborn at Denver Seminary says, "Too often we try to use God to change our circumstances, while He is using our circumstances to change us." (Compass, April 2003) You see, God is right now in the process of making us like Christ.
Think of the process of refining maple syrup. Maple trees are tapped with buckets hung under the taps, and out drips a sap which is thin and clear, like water. On a good day, 50 trees will yield 30-40 gallons of sap, but it is essentially useless at this point with only a hint of sweetness.
Then as the buckets fill, they are emptied into large bins that sit over an open fire. The sap comes to a slow boil; and as it boils, its water content is reduced and its sugars are concentrated. Hours later, it has developed a rich flavor and golden-brown color, but it must be strained several times to remove impurities before being reheated, bottled, and graded for quality. In the end, those 30-40 gallons of sap are reduced to one gallon of pure, delicious maple syrup, which is far better than the cheap, imitation, colored sugar-water that passes for maple syrup in the grocery store.
So it is when we come to faith in Christ. We start like raw, unfinished sap, which could have been tossed aside as worthless. But God knew what he could make of us. He sought and found us, and his skillful hands are transforming us into something precious, sweet and useful. The long and often painful refining process brings forth a pure, genuine disciple easily distinguished from cheap imitations.
(Michele Straubel, Red Lake, Minnesota. From a sermon by C. Philip Green, Our Living Hope, 4/26/2011)
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