Irredeemable
Naaman the Leper
The Servant Girl
Naaman's Wife
The King of Syria
The King of Israel
Elisha
Elisha's Servant
Naaman's Servants
Naaman the Cleansed
Naaman the Cleansed
We’ve already said a lot about Naaman, all of which can be
summed up that he was as great as the world could make him but the basest slave
in Syria would not change places with him. We’ve seen that he is in great need,
and that he’s a great man and he knows it. He has desperately been seeking a
cure from leprosy, but heretofore there is no indication that he has sought
salvation or a reprieve from sin or to know the living God.
Seven instruments in the hand of God have gotten him to
where he is now. A slave girl, his wife, his king, the King of Israel, Elisha,
Elisha’s servant, and his servants. Yet he is still without hope and without
God in the world, but he has received a great promise from heaven. Naaman could
have cut himself off from hope at this exact moment. He could have hardened his
heart and refused. But in a beautiful act of submission he obeys this gospel,
the gospel that God is near to the brokenhearted and saves us when we believe
on him.
So, to the Jordan we go. Muddy, murky, slow. Nothing
medicinally appealing. No waterfalls. No grandeur. Just a promise of cleansing.
Just a promise of cleansing!
Into the water Naaman goes, and he dunks once…and nothing.
Still as leprous as ever. No sign of improvement, no feeling of hope, no lights
nor doves from heaven. The temptation to give up must have been intense.
Naaman has surely been duped, made a fool of, misled,
humiliated. After all, leprosy is irredeemable and Naaman is doomed. Surely
Satan screams in his ear that this is all foolish. I imagine the temptation to
stomp out of that river must have increased with every dunk. The prize is not
for the one who starts the race, but to the one who wins the race. So Naaman
continues to trust God.
He dunks again, and no result. A third time, nothing.
Nothing. Nothing.
Seven Steps to Cleansing
God is working in the repeated dunks. It’s not God needs
seven steps to cleanse leprosy, it’s that God is working in Naaman’s heart.
S. M. Lockridge, preaching on Naaman, draws a line to
salvation that is seven steps long. I’ve bolded his words, the rest is my
commentary:
The first dunk is a willingness to consider
that Christ is king and is mighty to save; not believing it yet, but at least
considering.
The second dunk is humility, recognizing that
you cannot save yourself, and you need a better savior than what you can do for
yourself.
The third dunk is belief, realizing that Jesus
is who he says he is, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the suffering servant, the one who died but
yet lives, the one who is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to
him in faith.
The fourth dunk is faith, believing that Jesus
is who he says he is and his great friendship and healing can be applied to
your life, if you’ll only place your hope in him.
The fifth dunk is trust, not just believing in
Jesus or hoping in him, but relying on him. When we are weak, then God’s power
is displayed in us as his grace is sufficient; trust is declaring, “Therefore I
will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of
Christ may rest upon me… For when
I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10).
The sixth dunk is repentance, turning from
trusting in yourself to trusting in God. We’ll see in a few pages that Naaman
will renounce his false god to worship the Living God. Naaman has already
turned from his anger to humble himself in the Jordan River. It’s not enough to
turn from sin, we must turn towards the Saviour who is able to make us clean.
The seventh dunk is obedience. Consider this: Naaman
could have gone home to Syria without ever visiting the Jordan river all the
while loudly declaring, “If I’ll just go dunk seven times in the Jordan I’ll be
healed!” No matter how ecstatic he was, no matter how much he believed the
promise, it still had to be acted upon. It has been said that it is possible to
miss heaven by twelve inches.[1]
Naaman could have believed God’s promises, but the transformation occurred not
when Naaman believed it was possible, but when he submitted himself wholly to
the Lord.
Beloved, take a moment to reenact Naaman’s dunking seven
times. I’m sure you’ll be shocked at how long and embarrassing it feels. There
is nothing exalting in this act, it feels repetitive, and after six times it
feels futile, like it’s an absolute farce. I’m sure the first dunk was the
hardest, but after the first, I’d bet the seventh felt like just wasting his
time.
Full Atonement, Can it Be?
But he was not wasting his time. Naaman came out of that
water as good as new. His leprosy was washed away and his skin was like a
baby’s.
If anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ~ 2
Corinthians 5:17
Lew Wallace in his masterful work, Ben Hur: A Tale of the
Christ, does an excruciating and lengthy look at the horrors of leprosy and
how it isolates people from their friends and family and robs them of hope.
Near the end of the book (spoiler alert), a dear friend, Amrah, of one leprous
woman[2]
learns that Christ is actively healing lepers. Up to this point they have
spoken at great distances and Amrah, who is healthy, has delivered food that is
keeping this hopeless woman alive.
Upon learning of Christ, Amrah rushes in rapturous
excitement to her leprous friend and embraces her with true love and affection;
surely a death sentence if Christ were not in the story. She urgently explains
the hope that has been born within her, Christ in her the hope of glory. Together
they rush off to find him. They learn that he has left Bethany and is on his
way to Jerusalem. Wallace, in expert writing, introduces us to the fact that
there are two main roadways from Bethany to Jerusalem, so in desperation,
walking by faith and not by sight, they choose a path. By providence or their
good fortune, they encounter first a disciple, then a throng which turned
violent at them because leprosy was still a fearful ailment, but then over the
rise Jesus of Nazareth appears. As he promises healing, she believes. For a few
moments nothing happens but joy and expectation.
As the healing of the woman (and her daughter) commences,
Wallace takes poetic license to describe the event; this may be accurate, or
the actual healing of lepers may be much better, but regardless it brought
tears to my eyes at my first reading and even now in writing this. O soul,
meditate on the newfound hope and life that was poured out on that (fictional)
day, then consider how many actual souls have been healed of leprosy and far
worse,
There was first in the hearts of
the lepers a freshening of the blood; then it flowed faster and stronger,
thrilling their wasted bodies with an infinitely sweet sense of painless
healing. Each felt the scourge going from her; their strength revived; they
were returning to be themselves. Directly, as if to make the purification
complete, from body to spirit the quickening ran, exalting them to a very
fervor of ecstasy. The power possessing them to this good end was most nearly
that of a draught of swift and happy effect; yet it was unlike and superior in
that its healing and cleansing were absolute, and not merely a delicious
consciousness while in progress, but the planting, growing, and maturing all at
once of a recollection so singular and so holy that the simple thought of it
should be of itself ever after a formless yet perfect thanksgiving.
And so Naaman emerged from his seventh dip. A new man,
cleansed outwardly but much more importantly inwardly. And how do we know?
Because of how he responded.
The Free Gift of God is Eternal Life
Naaman got what he was looking for, and more. Truly God is
able to do more abundantly than we can ask or imagine. At this point Naaman
could have just gone home, after all, his leprosy was gone. But he chooses to
visit Elisha. And this time Elisha meets with him face to face. No cost was
required and no payment was set, but out of an abundance of gratitude in his
heart Naaman is ready to pay for his newfound salvation.
When Elisha refuses, Naaman insists, proving the proverb,
“Buy truth, and do not sell it…” (Proverbs 23:23), and showing that knowing God
and finding the treasure of Christ is worth giving up all you own. Beloved,
learn from these men, that to know Christ and to know him better is worth all
of your earthly wealth, and all that you have obtained should be freely given
to enrich others with the soul saving knowledge of Christ Jesus. After all,
isn’t his Bible written to make you wise for salvation in Christ Jesus? We’ll
speak more about the payment for salvation when we delve the tragic tale of
Gehazi.
Remember the Deeds of the Lord
Naaman, seeing that he cannot buy salvation, asks for two
muleloads of Israelite soil. First let’s state that this dirt is utterly
worthless, especially only two muleloads, so it wasn’t for monetary reasons. Scholars
are mixed on what this dirt means, so I’m going to confidently assert my
beliefs. Naaman had to travel to Israel to find a cure and declared, “Behold, I
know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel!” (2 Kings 5:15).
In so doing he did not yet have a firm grasp that the Lord is the God of all creation, in some way he must have
equated that God lived and was constrained to Israel. I surely hope that he had
a conversation with that little servant girl when he got home and she declared
that God had been with her in Syria just as he had been with him in Israel.
But, in bringing home that dirt he was bringing a sort of ebenezer as a
reminder that he was not just healed, he was healed by the only God in all the
earth.
What did he do with it? Matthew Henry thinks he built an
altar, others think he made a garden to watch grow with his faith. Whatever he
did with it, dear reader, you know that your God is in the heavens, he does
whatever he pleases, and he has given you a load of heaven to keep in your
life.
Here we have no lasting city, we seek the city that is to
come. This is why David could say, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life” (Psalm 23:6). Our prayer and our lives should be all
about, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven”
(Matthew 6:10). For truly a time has come where we don’t have to travel to
Jerusalem or Samaria to worship God, for we worship in spirit and in truth
(John 4:21–24).
Eternal Life is Knowing God
But Naaman had a conundrum, he was going home to his king
who was still actively worshipping the false god named Rimmon. Naaman already
knows that he himself will never again sacrifice to any God but the Lord, but he knows he has a job to do in
supporting his master.
He begs forgiveness from Elisha for this act and Elisha
grants it to him. This is a hard part of the story because only a few centuries
later Israelites in Babylon would be persecuted for refusing to bow to the
idols erected in that land. And later still Christians throughout the Roman
Empire would face the test of offering incense to Caesar.
The temptation is to say, “Bow, because you can pray to the
true God in front of a pagan statue,” and “It’s just incense, just don’t
believe Caesar is Lord.” But in both cases that great cloud of witnesses would not
submit, and many lost their lives while gaining eternity.
So, while I whole-heartedly believe that Naaman is
worshipping the Lord in heaven, I
believe this section of scripture is descriptive rather than prescriptive.
If you’re forced into a pagan temple, know that even there
you can find mercy and grace if you seek the Lord,
but beloved, I don’t think we should ever go there willingly, and I would never
encourage feigning false worship, even if you’re worshipping the true God in
your heart. When antichrist is revealed and the mark of the beast becomes a
test of faith, the Christian should adamantly oppose this pretender who sets
himself up against every god and object of worship (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4), no
matter what it costs (Revelation 13:10).
Naaman’s Legacy
We’re not done with Naaman yet, there is a legacy to
explore. Just a few weeks after this story, the Syrians sent a raiding party
into Israel (2 Kings 6), and Elisha saw the whole host of the armies of heaven
ready to destroy the Syrian band. Instead of destruction, the Syrians received
mercy when they were struck blind and led into Samaria.
King Jehoram panicked and asked Elisha if he should execute
these prisoners of war, and instead Elisha commanded a great show of grace, a
feast for the captured army. They were then released to return to Syria,
perhaps in some way Jehoram remembered when he was about to perish in the
wilderness and God spared him. Is that why he spared the Syrians?
I wish I could say that after their story and Naaman’s there
were no more hostilities between Syria and Israel, but that’s not how it
happened. But something did start to happen. First, when Ben-Hadad was sick he
was glad to see Elisha visit him; surely there had to have been some
connection.
Then, we can’t say for sure, but Syria and Assyria had a
complicated history, they are not one and the same, but there is some
intermingling. I’ll wait for heaven for a sure answer, but I can’t help but
wonder if Jonah’s revival in Nineveh some hundred years later wasn’t in some
way predicated by hearing of God’s power and mercy towards Israel’s enemies. Nearly
a millennia later the early church found a great foothold in Damascus and
Antioch; how many hearts were prepared by hearing of God’s power towards
Syrians who seemingly should have no part nor lot with the God of Syria’s
enemy? How many early Christians were baptized in Abana and Pharpar?
As a Baptist I love baptism, but not to the point that I
think a baptism in the Jordan is more holy or valuable than a water trough
baptism; but beloved, if I had the choice, I would have loved to have been
baptized in Abana…or maybe a Siberian lake…or maybe the Ganges…or maybe the
Limmat…or maybe the Chattahoochee…On second thought, every baptism is special
in declaring Christ’s ability to save!
Baptism does not
wash away sin. If you get baptized without saving faith in Jesus Christ, you
just go down a dry sinner and come up a wet sinner. Salvation is not by the
water of the baptistry; salvation is by the blood of Jesus Christ. ~ Adrian
Rogers
Each believer’s baptism declares the story of Christ’s power
to save. It’s not about the water! It’s about the Christ who writes his love on
human hearts washed in his blood. Every one of those stories includes other
instruments that God used to save souls and publish his peace to the world.
So while we don’t know exactly how Naaman prepared Syria to
follow Christ, I have little doubt that he did. If by some profound twist of
fate he had no impact on Syria, I know that Christians throughout the last two
thousand years have been deeply impacted by his story. Our goal is not to be remembered,
but to ensure that Christ is known.
In AD 1707 a pastor named Richard Davis said to a young man
of nine,
If you know Christ well, it is
no matter though you are ignorant of many other things; if you are ignorant of
Christ other knowledge will avail but little.
The memory of Richard Davis has been almost completely lost
to history, but that young man, John Gill, never forgot that advice.
He went on to become one of the most prolific Baptist
authors in history who discipled James Hervey, Augustus Toplady, John Rippon,
William Carey, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, JC Philpot, and Charles
Spurgeon, among innumerable others, including myself.
Likewise, Charles Spurgeon was converted by an unnamed
preacher during a blizzard when the regular pastor was snowed out.
Augustine’s mother Monica prayed for him continuously,
especially in the years he had outright rejected Christ; she was overjoyed when
he repented of his sins and put his trust in Christ. While we know relatively little about her, we
know that Augustine is still shaping the world today through his writings and
example. We would not have his legacy without Monica.
Go thy ways and God bless thee,
for it is not possible that the son of these tears should perish. ~ Ambrose to
Monica
Max Lucado points out that the thief on the cross probably
knew that Jesus was the claimed Messiah because of the simple sign that Pontius
Pilate had ordered to be nailed over his head, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the
Jews” (Luke 23:38–43). Beloved, you never know what God will do if you plant a
seed in someone’s heart, tell them the story, or proclaim the excellencies of
Christ; it very well may bring forth fruit a hundredfold.
I don’t know what God did with Naaman’s conversion afterwards, but I’m sure it was something powerful, and I’m excited to hear all about it in heaven, and I’m excited to hear your story as well!
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