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2 Kings 5:1-19
5:1 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.1 2 Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” 4 So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.” 5 And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”
So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels2 of gold, and ten changes of clothing. 6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” 7 And 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 sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.”
8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” 9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” 11 But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. 12 Are not Abana3 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 But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said 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.
15 Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant.” 16 But he said, “As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused. 17 Then Naaman said, “If not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the LORD. 18 In this matter may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon your servant in this matter.” 19 He said to him, “Go in peace.”
But when Naaman had gone from him a short distance,
[1] 5:1
[2] 5:5
[3] 5:12
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you would, open your bibles to 2nd Kings chapter 5. 2nd Kings chapter 5. Beginning next week, we're going to spend the next 20 weeks or so, going through the book of Genesis. But before we start this next series, I thought it'd be good to remind us of our calling as a church, especially with it being our covenant renewal Sunday. And so I would thought I thought I'd look at a somewhat unique story in 2nd Kings chapter 5 that clearly shows us the gospel and how we are to take this gospel to others.
Joel Brooks:2nd Kings 5 verse 1. Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him, the lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians, on one of their raids, had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, would that my lord, or would the prophet who is in Samaria, He would cure him of his leprosy?
Joel Brooks:So Naaman went in and told his lord, thus and, and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. So he went and taking with him 10 talents of silver, 6 1,000 shekels of gold, and 10 changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, when this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman, my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy. And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, am I God to kill and to make alive?
Joel Brooks:That this man sends word to me to cure a man of leprosy? Only consider and see how he is seeking to quarrel with me. But when Elisha, the man of god, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king saying, why have he torn your clothes? Let him come now to me that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house.
Joel Brooks:And Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, go and wash in the Jordan 7 times and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean. But Naaman was angry and went away saying, behold, I thought he would surely come out to me, and stand, and call upon the name of the lord his god, and and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper. Are not Abama and Phapar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? But his servants came near and said to him, my father, it it is a great word that the prophet has spoken to you. Will you not do it?
Joel Brooks:Has he actually said to you, wash and be clean? So he went down and dipped himself 7 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. Then he returned to the man of god and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, behold, I know that there is no god in all the earth but in Israel. So accept now a present from your servant.
Joel Brooks:But he said, as the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. Then Naaman said, if not, please let there be given to your servant 2 mules load of earth. For from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifices to any god, but the Lord. In this matter, may the lord pardon your servant when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon.
Joel Brooks:When I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the lord pardon your servant in this matter. He said to him, go in peace. In Luke 427, Jesus says, and there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. Pray with me. Lord, I'm aware that I will fail in preaching this.
Joel Brooks:This your word is too glorious. There there is so many deep truths, Life changing truths there that no, no man can communicate that. So, god, we are in desperate need of your spirit to to take these feeble words, to make them clear, to drive them into our hearts. So God, right now, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away, but Lord, may your words remain and may they hit their mark. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. The story begins with a man named Naaman, who was a general or a prime minister of Syria. Syria was the dominant power of the day. Syria was already knocking on the door of Israel. They've successfully raided Israel many times.
Joel Brooks:Naaman was one of the ones who was in charge of the armies that did these raids. And he is described as a great man, a man who held high favor with the King. Verse 2 says he was a mighty man of valor. So this was a man with power. This was a man who was used to having his own way both at his home and abroad.
Joel Brooks:He had won many wars. He had conquered many people. And one of the things that's kinda startling about this text that the author wants us to see is that the lord is the one who's actually been giving him those victories. Naaman is not an Israelite. He's been killing, he's been enslaving Jewish people.
Joel Brooks:He lives in a pagan country. He very well might have never even heard of the Lord. And yet, we find out that the Lord is the one who is causing him to have all of those victories. The Lord's responsible for his success. And so right at the start, we see that God is not limited to only working among his people.
Joel Brooks:He's the sovereign Lord over all of the nations. He's always working. He's always accomplishing his purpose. Even when at first you don't see it and you don't initially see it here. What is there to say about the situation which you would think, ah, the Lord is at work, but he is even if he's at unwork, he's at work unknowingly to Naaman.
Joel Brooks:What he's doing is he's preparing his life for conversion. That's what he's doing. Now by every account, we would consider Naaman to be a insider. He's a political insider. He's a wealthy insider.
Joel Brooks:He is a famous insider. He is the in crowd in every kind of circle of life, in every society. He's one of those people that you would like to be. Except another twist. He has this horrific skin disease.
Joel Brooks:He has leprosy. Leprosy is more than a disease. It's considered a sign of uncleanliness. He would have been seen as unclean. To have any kind of skin disease made you an outcast in society.
Joel Brooks:And although Naaman's disease probably hasn't been full blown, it hasn't come out in all of its fury because he's still working for the king, and he would not have been allowed to have that. He knows his days are numbered. He knows it's only gonna get worse. He knows eventually life as he knows it is going to be over. He will lose his job.
Joel Brooks:He will, he will lose his high standing in society. All of that will be gone in a matter of time. And so despite all of his achievements, all of his valor, all of his wealth, all of his fame, he is an outcast. But remember, God is at work, working in his life, even though he doesn't see it. Working in his house at this time is a servant girl who was taken in one of the raids of Israel.
Joel Brooks:Likely, this girl, her parents have been slaughtered, likely. She has been kidnapped, taken to this foreign country in Syria. She's away from the culture she knows and loves. And now she's actually serving the commander of the army that would lead the raids that ripped her from her life. And so you would expect that when she sees Naaman covered up in leprosy, she is thinking, yes, Justice.
Joel Brooks:Finally. I hope he burns in hell. I mean, you would think that's what she would be thinking. But then you find another twist. This story is full of so many surprises.
Joel Brooks:Her attitude is completely different. Even though all that has happened to her, she shows grace. And she says, go, go to Samaria. There's a prophet there. Certainly he will heal you.
Joel Brooks:And I don't know about you, but just in reading this text, I find it terribly convicting. Perhaps at work, if somebody else takes credit for a project you did, immediately do you do you just think, wow, I hope that goes really well for that person? Are you just thinking, or are you just hoping for that person's demise? And you tell yourself, I'm just wanting justice. You're not wanting justice.
Joel Brooks:You're wanting revenge. That's what you want. If some other parent, some other mom, you know, or dad comes up to me and criticizes my parenting technique, I rejoice when their child has a tantrum. I try to secretly rejoice quietly, but you will probably see a smirk. I I don't say, oh, that's just bad.
Joel Brooks:I wonder if there's anything I could do to help. I don't think that way. Grace hasn't so permeated my life yet. When, when we are wronged, we rejoice in the down fall of others. Those who have wronged us.
Joel Brooks:And it's not because of justice. We want revenge. We want to be proven, right? We want glory for us. And when that happens, we need to look in the mirror and realize we are no different than them.
Joel Brooks:They want glory, just like we want glory. Their hearts are evil just like ours are. But if we've received grace, if we realize that every good gift we have is from the Lord, every good gift that we've never done anything to deserve those good gifts, then we can never exalt ourselves over anyone. Even those who hurt us. And then once that grace has been poured into our lives, the natural outcome of that is to pour it into the lives of others.
Joel Brooks:And we see that in this little girl, which is one of the reasons I believe this story is in here. God is at work through this girl. Well, he, Naaman tells the King about this and the king says, go, go see this man. And he gets a little confused. At first, he thinks he's supposed to go to the king of Israel, but he, he packs Naaman down with, you know, carts of gold, 10 fancy suits, you know, just all these things that he could take to give for his healing.
Joel Brooks:Go with me to verse 9. This is when he arrives at Elisha's door, says Naaman came with his horses and chariots. That's his his entourage is with him and stood at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, go and wash in the Jordan 7 times and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean. But Naaman was angry.
Joel Brooks:Now, and Naaman shows up at Elisha's door with all of his entourage, you know, and he he knocks on the door waiting for Elisha to come, and Elisha doesn't even come. Here he is a great man of importance, but Elisha just sends his servant with a simple little message. Elisha says, you're supposed to go into the dirty river over there and dip yourself 7 times. You'll be okay. And so Naaman is furious.
Joel Brooks:This is the equivalent. If you had a terminal disease and you went to go see the doctor, And as you, they call your name after you've been in the waiting room for a long time and and and you get into that other waiting room, instead of the doctor, just an assistant comes and says, hey, here's 2 aspirin. Take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning. Okay? That's what this is.
Joel Brooks:Everybody knows that 2 aspirins is not gonna cure this. And everybody knows that taking a bath in the Jordan River is not gonna get rid of poison ivy, let alone leprosy. And you you think he was just blowing them off. So Naaman is furious. It's full of pride and he goes off in a rage.
Joel Brooks:And this is what's going on in this story. Naaman thought he could earn his salvation just like he has earned everything in his life. He wanted to get his salvation just like he got his status. He wanted to work for it. He want, he was willing to pay a tremendous price for it.
Joel Brooks:He had carts load of money. He had all those new suits. He was he was ready to do great tasks. I mean, he understands how these things work. When when you want something great, you have to give something great, but now his entire world is crashing in.
Joel Brooks:Because he's realizing that everything that he has to offer is worthless. You know, he's gotta be thinking when he comes to him. He's gonna give me some kind of, you know, great task and he's probably hoping for it. So he could show his worth, you know, go, go and get me the, the broom of the, the wicked witch of the west. You know, bring that back, show me your worth Or let Hercules capture the Cretan bull or kill the 9 headed hydra.
Joel Brooks:Do something like that. Show. Prove your worth before I give you anything. That's what he wants. But instead, he's just told to go to the Jordan River and bathe.
Joel Brooks:He is told to do what a prostitute could do. He is told to do what a poor, uneducated person could do. He's told to do what a coward could do. To go and bathe in the Jordan river is to acknowledge that you are no different than anyone else. He'd have to acknowledge that everything he has is worthless.
Joel Brooks:The only thing that he brings to this, to this occasion here is his leprosy. That's it. That's all he brings is his leprosy. He can't say, Elisha, do you know who I am? I'm this, this, this.
Joel Brooks:Elisha will say, I know who you are. You're a leper. You're an outcast. That's who you are. Do you know how hard it is to acknowledge that?
Joel Brooks:I don't know about you, but I find it really hard to acknowledge at times that I'm no better than anyone else. You know, every time you look down on somebody's sin, you look down on them, and you think that you are better, it just shows you don't understand grace. Every every time you use the word sinner to describe others but not yourself, you know, look at that sinner. When I whenever you say that, means you don't understand grace. You're making the same mistake as naming.
Joel Brooks:Every time, you know, you crack a Bill Clinton joke. You know, as if, look, Bill Clinton, you know, sinner, not like me. Every time on the news there's some celebrity or some politician who's fallen, and you can mock that as if you were somehow up on a pedestal, and they were somehow down there, you don't understand grace. It hasn't permeated you. Every time you see that you should say, I am no different.
Joel Brooks:No different. Nobody is on a pedestal before the cross. All of us are humble. All of us are sinners before him. That's what God is teaching name in here.
Joel Brooks:It doesn't matter if you've gone to church your whole life and done every good moral deed. You're saved by grace. It doesn't matter if you're a pimp, you know, that lives about a quarter mile that way you're going to be saved by grace. Naaman, thankfully has some good servants who go back to him and say, please, please don't, don't run away. Come back.
Joel Brooks:Come back. Come on. Just, just do it. And they talk him into doing it and he humbles himself and he dips himself in the Jordan. And I love verse 14.
Joel Brooks:Says, so he went down and dipped himself 7 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. And a very real sense. You could say he was born again. He was renewed, he was regenerated. And so he goes back to Elisha and immediately he wants to repay him, which is understandable.
Joel Brooks:I mean, he's a brand new convert here. He doesn't really get how things go that well. And so once again, you know, he gets grace and then he forgets it. And so Elisha comes down with some very hard words in verse 15. Says 15 and 16, it says, then he returned to the man of god and all the company.
Joel Brooks:And he came and stood before him, and he said, behold, I know that there is no god in all the earth, but in Israel. So accept now a present from your servant. But he said, listen to these firm words. As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused.
Joel Brooks:Now after understanding grace, he wasn't gonna let him fall back into thinking he could somehow earn that gift of salvation. It's only by grace that we are saved. Now, I've listened to a number of sermons on this text, and it's interesting. Most sermons end there and then pick up later around verse 20 and do a separate sermon, usually on greed because this Elisha servant comes back and says, you know, actually Elisha changed his mind. Give me the money.
Joel Brooks:You know, it's all about greed. And so usually there's this middle part here that's been left out. I didn't find a single sermon that dealt with this, this little left, left out part here, verses 17 through 19. Let's look at this because I think it's a tragedy that this is left out because what's here is tremendous. Then Naaman said, if not, please let there be given to your servant 2 mules load of earth for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offerings or sacrifice to any God, but the Lord In this matter, may the Lord pardon your servant.
Joel Brooks:When my master goes into the house of Reman to worship there, leaning on my arm, Leaning on my arm just means I'm his right hand man. And I bow myself in the house of Reman. When I bow myself in the house of Reman, the lord, pardon your servant in this matter. And he said to him, go in peace. Alright.
Joel Brooks:What the heck is going on here? I mean, it's just it's bizarre. You can see why some people skip over it. Now and Naaman, why is he asking for 2 mule loads of earth to be taken back home? And what is this about him now going to a pagan worship service and bowing down right after he's just been converted?
Joel Brooks:There's, there's a lot of questions here. The problem for Naaman is this, he's the right hand man of the king. He's the prime minister of Syria. And part of his duties are to accompany the king into pagan worship. It's part of his duties.
Joel Brooks:To bow yourself in the house of Reman. And so, Nain is thinking, well, what do I do? His options are this. I, I can, I guess, quit my job? Just stay here.
Joel Brooks:I'll, you know, go in hiding with you guys. That way I'll have a community of faith. You know, I could go to corporate worship services. I can learn more about the Bible. I can, I can just be with you guys in my little holy huddle here?
Joel Brooks:Or I could go back to my old job and it's going to get really, really awkward. He decides to go back to his job, realizing that he's gonna be put in a tough spot. Because he's going to be now put in a place where there's no community of faith. There's no public worship. There's no public prayers.
Joel Brooks:All that's around him is pagan idolatry. And beyond all of this, now he has to go into the temple with the King who's going to bow down to Remen. And when Elisha hears this here, here's the astounding thing. Elisha does not say, don't do it. That's a mistake.
Joel Brooks:You can't do it. What he says is, go in peace. He says, Shalom go in Shalom. And I've read several commentaries that have tried to really soften Elisha's words here, say that Elisha is being non committal. The problem is everywhere else in scripture that you see, go in peace or shalom, it's very committal.
Joel Brooks:It's acknowledging a covenant relationship with the other person, with the Lord. And it's saying, the Lord bless you. May the Lord keep you. May, may the Lord, you know, go with you. Shalom.
Joel Brooks:There's nothing that's vague about this, but it does raise a number of questions. How in the world can Elisha possibly bless him? Why is it that he wants to go back? I believe that Naaman wants to go back. For 1, because he finally, he understands grace.
Joel Brooks:And when you understand grace, everything in your life changes. He can now look at the people of Israel and the God that they worship, but the people are sinners. Just like His people back home in Syria are sinners. There's nothing special about the people of Israel. They're all sinners.
Joel Brooks:And so it's not like he's staying with this this special people. No. Everybody's on the same ground before the Lord. I think he understands that. And then I think once he's been given grace, your natural desire is to go and share grace.
Joel Brooks:When Naaman asked for this bizarre request, 2 mule loads of dirt, what he's doing, he's actually bringing back with him a way to share the gospel. That's what he's doing. He's bringing back with him a way to share the gospel. He's going to use that dirt. He's going to build himself an altar.
Joel Brooks:In that day, especially in Syria, people thought that gods were tied to the earth. Naaman understands that's not the case, but he uses that belief to bring dirt from Israel over there. And so when he kneels on this dirt, when he offers sacrifices on this altar that's built with this 2 mule loads of dirt, people will know he's not sacrificing to their gods, which he said, I will not do. He is sacrificing and offer praise and prayer to this God of Israel. And so he's bringing in a way that he can effectively share his faith.
Joel Brooks:It is not a perfect way, but it's a way. I bet that this is a situation that many of you can identify with, which is one of the reasons I love that this is here. How many of you are in a work environment that is hostile to the gospel? How how many of you are in a work environment in which there is a lot of people sacrificing to idols? You know, how many of you medical students or doctors know people who who make sacrifices to the idol of greed and to money?
Joel Brooks:That's what they're there for. How many of you, accountants, lawyers, investors, same idol? Money. That's what they're doing. That's, that's what they're living their life for is that.
Joel Brooks:It's a pagan environment. What are you gonna do? Are you going to retreat? Are you going to just say, well, pagan profession. No, can't be a lawyer.
Joel Brooks:I can't be an account. I can't do that. I've got to, to somehow, you know, only work at a homeless shelter. That's safe, isn't it? What are we supposed to do as Christians?
Joel Brooks:I think from this story and for many others, we're supposed to go into those environments and be salt and light. We find Jesus saying that in Matthew chapter 5, when he tells his disciples that they were the salt of the earth, And he's not saying that you're the spice of life. You keep, you keep things interesting. He's not saying anything like that. What he is saying is you act as a preservative.
Joel Brooks:You go to places that will rot unless you were present and you so work yourself into their lives, into that job, into that culture as salt, that you keep it from decaying, that you keep it from rotting. Is it easy? No. Does it put you in some gray areas? Yes.
Joel Brooks:It does. But that's what we're called to do. That's a hard calling because it's really easy to just withdraw. Naaman could have just withdraw and said, no. I'm just gonna stay here with you guys, get my holy huddle.
Joel Brooks:Or he could have just gone back and fully assimilated and said, no, I'm just going to give myself back to my old culture. And both of those are easy and both of those are wrong. Instead he says, I'm gonna keep my job, keep that influence, somehow creatively try to find a way to work redemption in it. Somehow try to bring the gospel in there. Is it awkward?
Joel Brooks:Yeah. Is it gonna be hard? Yeah. And Elisha says, go in peace, which is the same words that Jeremiah says to the exiles in a similar situation when he says, seek the welfare of the city or seek the Shalom of the city. Don't stay in your holy huddles.
Joel Brooks:How do we do this? How do we practically find a way to let people know that we're worshiping a different God? I think one of the ways is you have to realize in every business or in every home and every pagan business and home where there's idolatry, you have to realize every idol demands a sacrifice. Everyone. And so if the idol is money, often there's going to be the sacrifice of your family, the sacrifice of your marriage.
Joel Brooks:That's a sacrifice. Don't make those sacrifices. Don't do it. If power or position are the idols in your workplace, often the sacrifice is going to be your morality, your ethics, sacrifice those things so you could get the power, so you could get the position. Don't make those sacrifices.
Joel Brooks:If your children are your idols, you might have to sacrifice your marriage. Don't make those sacrifices. Don't bow down to those idols. Ask God, through his spirit, to show you how you can redeem your profession. You can redeem your household.
Joel Brooks:And if you ever, or if you never feel in your life that you're being in a gray area, if you never feel that you're, like, caught between a rock and a hard place in a gray area, it's likely because you have completely withdrawn from the world, or you've completely assimilated and you're not fulfilling your calling as a church and as salt and light. You've got to work yourself into areas that will rot without you. And my desire for us as a church is that we would see this and that we would go with the Shalom, with the blessing of God into those places that we would seek the Shalom of our neighbors. We would seek the Shalom of our coworkers. We would seek the Shalom of our family and our city.
Joel Brooks:This can only be done when we begin to understand grace more and more in the natural outflow of that as that it goes out into others. Let me pray that for us right now. God, through the power of your spirit, equip the people here to go and redeem their professions, to seek the welfare of their home and their neighbors, their neighborhood, the city where they work, may they not sacrifice to pagan gods. May they bring your gospel to them. Lord, when I look at this text, I I it puts a smile on my face because I know Naaman returns, and the only person, the only person that he now resonates with, identifies with is that servant girl in his house.
Joel Brooks:And now you have this powerless little servant girl and you have one of the most powerful men in Syria, and they are brothers and sisters, saved by grace. That's their community. And together, they can be salt and light where they're at. I pray that for us here, that no matter what our backgrounds up, no matter what our positions are, that you would so unite us together that we can be salt and light in this world. Do that for us, Father.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.