Many years ago, I attended Shoutfest, which is a Christian music festival held in Somerset, Kentucky; and I heard a new band perform called “Seven Times Down,” which I thought was really good. The band got its name from the passage of Scripture that we’re going to look at this morning. I liked their name so much that I’m using it for the title of this morning’s message, which I’m calling “Seven Times Down.” This message touches on the topic of obedience to the Lord’s commands, and of choosing to follow God’s expectations over our own; and I believe that we’re going to be greatly challenged this morning.
Seeking Help from God (vv. 1-3, 9)
1 Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper. 2 And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman’s wife. 3 Then she said to her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy” . . . 9 Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house.
We read here of Naaman, who was the commander of the Syrian army. The Scripture says that he was “a great and honorable man.” He was attributed here with being used by God to grant Syria victory, but in whose eyes was he great and honorable; in God’s eyes or his master’s eyes? According to verse 1, he was great in his master’s eyes, or the eyes of the king; or rather, he was great in the eyes of the world. His prestige and honor came from the world, but the power of the world couldn’t help him with his one big weakness.
What was Naaman’s weakness; or should I be more specific, and say his “physical” weakness? He was a leper. It could very well be that Naaman’s leprosy was similar to Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” that we read about in 2 Corinthians 12:7. Paul said that he was given his affliction so that he wouldn’t “be exalted above measure,” meaning it was to keep him humble and dependent on God. Naaman’s leprosy would teach him a lesson about his true source of strength, and about his need to be dependent on the Lord.
We also read here that Naaman had a young servant girl in his household who waited on his wife, and she informed him that there was a prophet of the Lord in Samaria who could heal him of his leprosy. I think we all realize that a prophet, or any other person for that matter, can’t heal someone in and of himself, but that he’s only an instrument through whom God works in order to perform His miracles. This prophet in Samaria, which was Elisha, was sometimes used as the Lord’s instrument of healing.
It’s important to realize the true source of healing and the true source of strength for which Naaman needed to search after with all his heart. And what, or should I say Who, was to be Naaman’s source of strength? It was God! We read in Psalm 121:1-2, “From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” In verse 9, when Naaman made his journey to the prophet Elisha’s house, he had arrived at a point in his life where he was willing to seek help from the Lord.
Sadly, for Naaman and for many of us, we tend to seek after God only when we come to a point of desperation; when nothing in this world seems to be working. There’s a well-known story in the gospels about a woman who was healed just by touching the hem of Jesus’ garment. We often talk about how great her faith must have been, but did you know that Jesus was her last resort for healing?
The Scripture says in Luke 8:43-44, “Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.” Did you hear that? She had spent all of her money on doctors “first” before she came to Jesus.
So many times, we have to exhaust all of our human solutions before we’ll ever lean on the Lord. This applies not only to healing, but in seeking God’s guidance and direction for any area of our life. Thankfully, many of us do arrive at a place of seeking help from the Lord.
My Way or the Highway (vv. 10-12)
10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” 11 But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘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 heal the leprosy.’ 12 Are not the Abanah and the 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.
After Naaman arrived at the door of Elisha’s house, we see that Elisha didn’t go out to greet him, but he sent a messenger instead. This wasn’t rudeness, but it was part of a test that God had devised for Naaman. We’re about to discover that Elisha, through the Lord’s leading, was going to challenge Naaman’s “expectations” of God. You’ve no doubt heard that you can’t put God in a box, right? Well, this expression pertains to our expectations of God, and Naaman’s expectations were way off base!
Any time that we measure what God can do by our own expectations, we limit His power in our life, because the Lord is able to do far above and beyond what we’re able to imagine. The apostle Paul said of God, in Galatians 2:20, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.” The Lord said in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways . . . For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Naaman was someone who measured God by his own thoughts and preconceived notions, and he needed to be shown a better way.
The lesson he was taught began by not being allowed to see the prophet Elisha. He probably assumed that if this prophet were going to be used by God to heal him, that he had to see him face to face so he could lay hands on him. Next, we see that he was told how he would be healed if he washed in the Jordan River seven times. The Scripture tells us that “Naaman became furious,” and it tells us why; he wanted Elisha to stand before him and wave his hand over the place of his leprosy for his healing. He was also insulted when he was told to wash in this foreign river, which he thought wasn’t as good as the ones of his own country.
Do you see the problem here? Naaman had preconceived ideas of how God was supposed to work. He also had pride issues that became a hindrance to the Lord’s working in his life. The Scripture tells us that he walked off, or he drove off in his chariot, in a rage. And was he healed? As we continue reading, I think we can see that he wasn’t healed until he became obedient to do what God asked of him.
Naaman’s rule that he lived by was “my way or the highway.” I guess he felt that God was supposed to be some magic genie in a bottle, and that God would do things his way and answer any request that he had. And if he didn’t get his way, then he didn’t want anything to do with the Lord. Think about it for just a moment; we could be suffering from some illness and ask God to heal us, and He might respond by asking us to stop participating in a certain sinful activity, which is an answer that might not be to our liking.
The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 that “many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep [or die]” (v. 30), because they have failed to “examine” themselves concerning sin before coming into God’s presence, and partaking of the Lord’s Supper (v. 28).
God might tell us that we have to first stop living in sin before He will ever heal us, but we keep on committing that sin. We then wonder why we’re not healed, and then we become angry at the Lord for not healing us; and we go astray in our faith, when really it was our fault for failing to repent. Like Naaman, when the Lord doesn’t work through our own expectations, we sometimes give up on God and storm off in a rage.
What might be another way that “our expectations” can hinder God’s power and working in our life? Well, as an example, suppose God told you to become a missionary at a certain location, and then you say to Him, “Well, I’ll go if it’s a full-time paid opportunity through a mission agency.” However, “God’s expectation” is for you rely wholly on Him in faith and go anyhow, even though the money might not be there. God might desire for you to raise your own financial support; but then you determine that you won’t go unless you have full support already in place.
Therefore, you refuse to go, and then you end up out of God’s will and missing the blessings He had in store for you. You might even go into a spiritual wilderness because of your disobedience, and then you’ll likely ask the Lord, “Why have you allowed this to happen to me?” Then, there’s a good chance that you’ll blame God for your trials, when really it’s your fault.
Following “your own expectations” over “God’s expectations” will only result in broken fellowship with the Lord. We must learn obedience to God’s commands, God’s desires, God’s expectations and God’s will; and we discover what He desires by maintaining a close and intimate relationship with Him. This relationship is made strong through prayer, the reading of the Bible, and through fellowship with other believers in the body of Christ.
Help Comes through Submission (vv. 13-14)
13 And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, 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 seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
I find it interesting that Naaman’s servants were the ones who possessed wisdom at that moment. It’s also interesting that Naaman was such a proud man, and the Lord used these lowly servants in order to correct him. Think of how much pride Naaman had to swallow in order to listen to his servants; and what hard-hitting truth did they tell him? They said that if Naaman had been told to do something great in the eyes of men, or something that appeared as spectacular and glorious, then he probably would have done it without any complaint; and they reasoned, “If you were willing to do something really big; then why not be willing to do something small that doesn’t take as much effort?” This seems to be some pretty good advice.
I want you to think about something for a moment. When it comes to accepting salvation through Jesus Christ, how many times do we reason within ourselves, “I can’t come to Christ unless I do some grand and glorious work for God?” But, you know what? You can’t do something glorious enough to enter the kingdom of heaven. That’s our idea, not God’s. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Earning salvation is “our way,” and it doesn’t work. “God’s way,” and the simple way, is that salvation is a free gift, and all we have to do is simply receive it.
Naaman was commanded to dip in the Jordan River seven times, and we see that he finally did so; and when he did, he was healed of his leprosy. I want to ask you, was it the work or the process of dipping that resulted in Naaman’s healing? Was it the number of times he dipped that healed him? Many of us realize that seven is the perfect number, or God’s number. Well, I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but it was none of these things that resulted in his healing.
Dipping in this foreign river, and doing so for seven times was simply a matter of “God said so.” It was a matter of obedience, and the attitude that led to his obedience was an attitude of submission. Naaman had to let go of his pride and his own expectations in order to dip in the Jordan River seven times, and this action revealed his newfound attitude of submission before God. The Lord was pleased and honored by this attitude, and He healed him because of his obedience.
I should also point out that it wasn’t just his obedience that God was pleased with. It also took an element of faith and trust in order to believe that he could be healed through these seemingly ridiculous actions. If it were his obedience alone that resulted in his healing, then he would have been healed by a work; the work or act of obedience. However, it was ultimately his faith. Remember, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” Nevertheless, even though he was healed by faith, I still must emphasize how we need to learn submission and obedience to God’s expectations, and we need to let go of our own.
Time of Reflection
I want to ask you this morning: Is there any area of your life that you need to surrender, in order to be obedient to God’s desires? Are there any expectations that you have of God, or of the church, that are your expectations and yours alone; expectations you need to let go of, in order to meet the Lord’s expectations? If so, then please let go of these things right now. Trade in your own faulty plans for God’s perfect will.
If you’re here this morning and you’ve never accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior before, because “you believe” you must earn God’s favor by being good, or by becoming perfect before you come to the Lord, then please let go of what “you believe.” The idea that you believe is keeping you from accepting the correct way to salvation. It’s keeping you from simply receiving the free gift of God’s one and only Son, whom He sent and gave to die in your place for your sins.
Remember, we’re saved only by having the faith to believe that Jesus died for our sins, and that He rose again from the grave in order to conquer sin and death in our life. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
