Seven Times Down

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.