Humility and Obedience- The Story of Naaman: 2 Kings 5:1-19

Show Notes

Episode 615: 
In this episode, Chris and Jeff delve into the biblical story of Naaman from 2 Kings 5:1-19. Chris reads the passage, which tells the story of Naaman, a commander who suffers from leprosy and seeks healing from the prophet Elisha. The hosts explore Naaman's initial anger and pride when Elisha sends a messenger instead of coming out to meet him personally. They discuss the significance of Naaman's eventual obedience in dipping himself seven times in the Jordan River, emphasizing the themes of humility and complete obedience to God's commands.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Good morning, Vietnam. I don't know that. That's how this show starts. Did you ever see that movie with Rovin Williams. Yes, I'm aware of it. I'm not sure i've ever seen it. Yeah. Yeah, he did it very obnoxiously. I did it very quickly. He shuts it out. Good. Okay, So, but no, we are not in Vietnam. Although if you're listening and you're from Vietnam, welcome. Yeah. I don't know if we've had any listeners from Vietnam, but we might. Yeah, we might. Yeah, who knows, I don't know. We should check. That'll look it up. Oh yeah, you want to look it up. Now, let me see. Let's kee keep going, keep going. So, hey, listen, we first of all want to welcome you to the Bible guys. And we are Christ and Jeff and we are starting a segment now and it is called sports team draft lists. Okay, and here's how she how she wrote it. She said, it's Super Bowl weekend, so let's do a draft list of your all time favorite sports teams do rock paper scissors to see who gets the first draft pick and then go into you each have five teams. Five teams, which, by the way, because we're filming this a few weeks before the Super Bowl, who do you think is going to be in the Super Bowl? Wuldn't that be fun? Because everybody when they hear this, they're going to know, Yeah, I don't know, Chiefs. I hope not. I hope not. I hope it's the Bills. Bills. Yeah, that's what I'm hoping. And then who else on the other side, Well, it's. Either going to be the Eagles or the Commanders. Yeah, so pick, I think it'd be interesting to watch the Commanders play against the Bills. I think the Bills will kill him. But you think so, Yeah, yeah, I do. I do think the Bills are gonna make it. I do. And I think it's going to be the Eagles versus the Bills. Okay, that's what I think. That's what you think, And I pray to the Lord above. Oh no, that's. Because he cares, he cares about football games. That the Chiefs do not make it. That's just my selfish prok that that will probably not be honored. Well, he's up there thinking, I wonder who I'm going to make win the Super Bowl this year. He's just not he's contemplated. He's not caring. Do we have Vietnam? So I don't have record on the on the YouTube thing that we have anybody from Vietnam. But let me let me go over to the podcast. Okay, so we have to do rock paper Scissors and we're going to uh uh And by the way, uh do you believe that? Do you believe the whole like NFL rigged referees protecting mahomes? Do you believe all that? I think it's natural for people to be big fans of things, yep, right, and it's hard to not let your fandom cause you to be slightly biased. But I don't think it's rigged. Yeah, I don't think it's rigged, but I do think it's unfair, unfair, unfair. Correct, Well, life's not fair, Chris. Well, that is definitely true for sure. Yeah. I don't see any in Vietnam. Okay, we have we have a bunch in the area, but not. Give me another country. Hang on, hang on, this is Spain. We have we have twenty four from Spain. Okay, So you're. Ready in the last month, ready, good morning Spain, Taiwan. Taiwan's on, Singapore is on that. I've already chosen Spain. Okay, okay, Spain? Was it? Spain? Was it? Okay? All right, we gotta do rock paper sits. We had one hundred and thirty one last month from Taiwan. Oh that's really cool. Yeah, al ready. Rock paper scissors yep, one two three shoo oh shoot we get both had scissors one two three? Shoot oh I had rock Okay. I did papers. It's me first, it's your first. Okay, well, obviously I'm gonna go straight forward. The Lions this year. Twenty twenty four to twenty five Lions. That's correct, that is that is my first show. All time favorite team. It said, name five of your most favorite teams. Okay, but this is your favorite team, number one, number one. It's probably actually it's probably number one. Yeah, okay, okay. I think of all the teams that I've ever been obsessed with, there's a couple. One it would be the eighty four Tigers. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah when they won the World Series. Yeah for sure, Yeah, that was I was obsessed with them. I was only thirteen. That's great. It was a huge, huge season for me. So in like fashion, I'm going to choose the nineteen ninety five Atlanta Braves. Really were you living in Atlanta at the time. I was, Yeah, And in fact, I went to I went to that World Series. I was a World Series game. Wow. How many good team? How many people can say that? Hundreds of thousands? Yeah, right, but not billions? Not billions, Okay, and they actually defeated the Indians. And I'm from just south of Cleveland, so I was a little torn. But I never had total allegiance to Cleveland. But because I lived in Atlanta at the time and I went to constantly, I went to Braves games. I remember Greg Maddox and Smolts and all the those guys. I sat there and watched them and they won. I was there at Game six. So my whole life growing up, I can remember when I was I was about six years old. My dad's a big was a big sports guy. Loves sports. He still does love sports. He loves college sports, he loves pro sports. But my dad has a very strong sense of loyalty. So it's We're from Michigan, so we only root for Michigan teams. Wow, right, that's it. So I was like five or six, I'm like, which ones do we like? And he would point out, we like the ones in the blue and the gray. We like the ones in the blue and the red. We like the ones in the you know, navy blue and white. That's so it was a maze and blue. Right. So I only my favorite teams are only Michigan teams, Like I don't have everybody else's our enemy right in my mind. My whole life has been that way. So I would say my second favorite team that I got obsessed with was the eighty nine to ninety Pistons. Okay, bad boys, yep. Yeah, so Isaiah Thomas, Bill AMBIERR. Yeah, were and all those guys. Yeah, that's awesome, Joe do Mars. They just because they were so mean to everybody else, and they dethroned Larry Bird's rain and Magic Johnson's reign both. Wow. Right after that, neither one of them really dominated. They were great players after that, but up till then, we could never defeat them, and then after that we ushered in the Jordan era after that. Right right, right, right, Okay, I'm gonna choose the the nineteen eighty seven nineteen eighty eight Cleveland Browns. Wow, where they were in the AFC Championship. Yeah, it's commonly known as the fumble. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. They fumbled on. Like the two two yard line, Oh my gosh. Against the Denver Broncos yep and el Way just it was the drive. Then the fumble yep, yep, ye wow. So so anyway, but that those were great days, right, I mean, Browns almost. Almost made it. Yep. That was like us last year. We almost made it to the Super Bowl last year. Bernie Cozar Yeah wow, oh wow, I haven't heard that name in forever, but yeah, you're right. Okay, So then I think my next favorite team, my third favorite team would be I would say probably the twenty twelve Detroit Tigers. Okay, right, they went to the World Series. They lost in the World Series, but man, what a what a run there, you know with Verlander and it's such a great team. That's awesome. Miguel Cabrera, right those guys. Yeah, okay, I'm going to choose the nineteen ninety eight in nineteen ninety nine Atlanta Falcons. Oh wow, are you still in Atlanta? Then? Yes, yeah. I was in Atlanta till two thousand and four. Ok So they went to the Super. Bowl that year and they lost, but they went and they played the Broncos again. So the Browns lost against the Broncos. Awkwards loss against the Broncos. You hate the Broncos. I hate the Broncos. Hate the Broncos. And somebody on our staff is from Denver and that's thirteam, favorite team, and I can't stand the Broncos. Yep, and you know who you are. But I went, I went to go speak at a church up in Denver, and I remember being there and I saw a commercial by John Elway and he owns car dealerships. Now yeah, and he looked at the car he pulled up, look at the camera and he goes, Elway has the car for you. And then he points, he points, he points, Anyway, go ahead. Last one, okay, last one? Okay. I would say I loved playing on Landmark Baptist Temple softball team with my dad. Oh yeah, that would be my Yeah, Okay. We won a lot of games. I turned. I think my dad and I and my brother combined turned. We were trying to add it up. It's five or six double plays nice together, and that's kind of neat when you get through that with your brother, your dad. Hey, by the way, we were supposed to be five each. Weely four each. That's okay. We're running long. I know we're running long. But I have to say that I did win the championship of my baseball team, the nineteen eighty five Briggs and Jones team beat Ohio Carpet. Oh and so we did. Want a rivalry, by the way, I mean this in the storied This is a storied rivalry. Yes, and so I did. I did win that. So wow, how did you do? We won the championship? Yeah? Yeah, yeah that season. Yeah, that season. That's pretty impressive. Were you amazing in the game? No, I missed the game. They probably won because I wasn't there. But I brought them all the way. To the year. You got him there, You got him there. My dad told me I could either go on vacation with him and. Missed the chance to win, or stay behind and then missed the vacation, the family vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and then possibly not go to the championship. So I chose to go on vacation, and then they won any they won it without me. Well good you got him there though, Thank goodness. But I got him there. Thank you, Chris, You're welcome. Speaking of getting us there, Chris third base, you got us all the way to the healing of Nayman aried us all the way to this moment. It again successful. Terrible Second Kings, Chapter five, verse one through nineteen says the King of Aram had great admiration for naming the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories. But though Naman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy. At this time, Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to nam his wife as a maid. One day, the girl said to her mistress, I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy. So Naman told the king what the young girl from Israel had said, Go and visit the prophet. The King of Aram told him, I will send a letter of introduction for you to take to the King of Israel. So Nama started out carrying as gifts seven hundred fifty pounds of silver, one hundred fifty pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothing. The letter to the King of Israel said, with this letter, I present my servant Naman. I want you to heal him of his leprosy. When the King of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and Dismayn said, this man sends me a leopard to heal am I God that I can give life and take it away. I can see that he's just trying to pick a fight with me. But when Elijah, the man of God, heard that the King of Israel had torn his clothes and dismay, he sent this message to him, Why are you so upset? Send name it to me and he will learn that there is a true prophet here in Israel. So Namon went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisia's house. But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message, go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan river, and then your skin will be restored and you'll be healed of your leprosy. But Naman became angry and stalked away I thought he would certainly come out to meet me, he said, I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call in the name of the Lord is God and heal me. Aren't the rivers of Damascus, the Abana, and the far par better than any of the rivers of Israel, Why shouldn't I wash in them and be healed? So name In turned and went away in a rage. But his officers tried to reason with him, and said, Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn't you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says, simply go and wash and be cured. So Naman went down to the Jordan river and dipped himself seven times as the Man of God had instructed, and his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed. Then name And and his entire party went back to find the Man of God, and they stood before him. Namon said, now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel, So please accept a gift from your servant. But Elisha replied, as surely as the Lord lives whom I serve, I will not accept any gifts. And though Namon urged him to take the gift, Elisha refused. Then Namon said, all right, but please allow me to load two of my mules with earth from this place, and I will take it back home with me. From now on, I will never again offer burnt offerings or sacrifices to any other god except the Lord. However, may the Lord pardon me in this one thing. When my master, the King, goes into the temple of the Roman of the god Reiman to worship there and leans on my arm, may the Lord pardon me when I bow to go in peace? Elisha said, So Naman started home again. Well, wow, there you go. Yeah. And so he's acknowledging that he's gonna have to go home. And because he's under the authority of his king, he's going to bow to a false god. He says, he's gonna lean on my arm, he's going to require me to bow and uh. And he says, so, I'm probably gonna have to bow there. Out of respect for the king. Out of respect for the king, So please pardon me. And then and then Elijah, by the way, the Bible just says go in peace. It doesn't say he pardons right, there is no pardon. Yeah, yeah, I wonder how that? Yeah, how that is? It's interesting, isn't it? How? You know? Uh? His reaction is puzzling to me, right is it because? Is it because you know he wanted to see Elisha in person? That's probably it, isn't it. His reaction is, I'm not going to do go go dip myself. He said, I wanted the prophet to come out and at least meet me. I travel all this way, and you sent a servant. It's a respect thing, right, he's a commander. Right, And then you're only sending me to the to the this nasty old muddy river. Right. I get rivers at home that are better. Right it, Come and meet me as an equal, yeah right right, that's his thing. And then yep, this is dumb, right, right, this is dumb. Right. Yeah. You I expected you to wave a magic wand that's what he's said. I expect you. To wave over me in this miraculous, unbelievable, dramatic miracle. I've got this in my head. How I want you to do it and God to do it? Yeah? Yeah. But at the same time, he says, oh, I can just go and simply wash. And then then the advice is what did he say? But the officers tried to rease with them, so it was it was really the officers who were the voice of reason. Here. Listen, if you told you to do a million push ups, would you done a million push ups? Right? If you told you to climb the tallest mountain, would you have climb the tallest mountain? Right? Right? You would have done hard things? Right? Try it right? Do this easy thing? Yeah? Yeah, So he did it, and it's as soft as as a young child. He was healed. That's pretty amazing. And have you ever heard if you'd only dipped himself six times, it wouldn't have happened. Do you hear any preaching on that? Huh? Yeah? So when I was a teenager of Zetti Youth Conference and a pretty famous preacher preached this message and it had seven points and each of them was you know, and I don't remember the whole message. I just remember it was the seventh time it was complete obedience. It wasn't partial obedience. He didn't get healed for walking in the water. He didn't get healed for going down the second time. Yeah, it was you know, it took seven times. And so you talk about coming up out of the water, and nothing is different. Nothing was different at three, nothing was different at four. Everybody standing on the bank watching to see. And there's an expectation that maybe you'd be a little bit better at this time than last time. Right. Washing is a progressive thing. Yeah, yeah, And so you'd think it'd be better, and it wasn't. It wasn't better. So now it's getting embarrassing. This idiot didn't come out and treat you like a man. He didn't give you any respect. And now you're in this muddy and if you've seen the Jordan River, it's a muddy river. And we did baptisms in the in the Jordan River and it was gross, right, and so it's this muddy river, all this stuff. He's right, the beauty near Damascus in those rivers, versus this one. Number five, he comes out of the water, Nothing is different. Number six, he comes out of the water. Nothing is different. But it's God's it's complete obedience to God's word is what brings the miracles, right, complete obedience to what God said. And there was a humility in it. He was it was his own pride that was offended that Elisha wouldn't come out. It was his own pride that was offended that he had to go dip himself seven times in this dirty Jewish water, right, it was it was his own pride that was offended on every level. And then it would be particularly embarrassing after time, you know how it is. It's embarrassing to do a thing one time in front of a crowd, you know what I'm talking about. There's a because at this point everybody knows he doesn't want to do it right, and then it's embarrassing, and the crowd is just looking. And then you're looking and you're still covered in in your your your leprosy. Leprosy is one of those things that you know, people just get a little bit of ezema and they cover up completely. They don't want to be seen, right, And but leprosy. His body is rotting, is what's happening, right, Yeah, And and and he's got you know a lot of times it's swollen. They can lose body parts from it, They lose feeling, all that stuff. When you get wet, you get really exposed. And he didn't walk down in his armor, He didn't walk down, probably in all of his you know, heavy stuff. He probably walked down with his little clothes on as possible. Yeah, and then there's some embarrassment there coming out of the water completely soaked. No difference, everybody can see there's no difference. But the miracle happened when he completely fought. Which, by the way, seven is the number of perfection. Yeah, it's God's number. I remember when I was in my youth group, you know, as a teenager, we were filming these videos back in the days where you'd had videos on your shoulders, you know the roalge Goil wins right yeah, time cam quorders, yeah, big camp course, and we were creating videos for the youth group, and we were teaching some principles and one of course with teenagers, one big one is so big. Your parents, right yeah. And so we created three scenarios and so myself I was the I played the teenager, and then my buddy Jeff Miller played the parent and he had like a sweater around with these glasses and he goes take off the trash, right, and I had I had my cap on backwards, and I was probably only fourteenth the time, ye fifteen, sixteen, something like that, and so so I did it with attitude. So the first so I did three I did three different takes. The first time, I yelled, screamed, yelled at my dad, took out the track. I did it with attitude and came back. And then we paused the video and said, now is that obedience right? Because we did it, but we did it begrudgingly. We went through the actions, but it wasn't it wasn't true obedience because it wasn't you know, obedient, you know, with the intent of of you know, respect and authority and everything else. So that was the first one. The same case scenario was he said take up the trash, but I was playing a video game, and I said, okay, in a minute, and then he had to tell me to take up the trash like nineteen times, and then it was like an hour two hours later, we fast forward the clock and then I finally took up the trash, and so we paused. The video, said was that obedience right? So I eventually did it, but I didn't do it when the command was given, right, So what was that? Was that ob disobedience before the obedience? Right? That's right, that's right? And then The third scenario was I didn't obey. I didn't take up the trash. Actually I remember I actually took it in the backyard and then I chucked it over the fence in the neighbor's yard, right, So that was like right, So in other words, I just didn't obey. And then the fourth scenario was the right scenario where actually took it out. And so it's like which. One was obedience sounds like a riveting Well, I wonder why I've never seen this video. You know, you know what. I think it was good only to the people who knew. Jeff and I Yeah, sure, yeah, so they thought was funny. But the principle is sound. Sure yeah, right, yeah, I mean. All three, all three of those scenarios are actually a really good lesson. And it's exactly what you're saying seven times, right, So it's like you got to obey, you know what he says to do. You know how many times he has to say, you know, do it and follow God's instructions, and so you know, do it with a good attitude, do it right away, do exactly what he asks, and then just trust. And that's really the definition of obedience. So the message or the notes in the Life Application Study Bible for verse twelve says name and left in a rage because the cure for his disease seemed too simple. He was a hero, and he expected a heroic cure full of pride and self will. Name and could not accept the simple cure of faith. Sometimes people react to God's offer of forgiveness in the same way. Just to believe in Jesus somehow doesn't seem significant enough to bring eternal life. To obey God's commands doesn't seem heroic. What Naman had to do to have his leprosy washed away is similar to what we must do to have our sin washed away. Humbly accept God's mercy. Yeah, don't let your reaction to the way of faith keep you from the cure that you need the most. That's great. Yeah, that's great, And that was it. God's going to do it God's way. And then after this, after he's healed, Elisha goes, no, I'm not going to accept any money from you that you can't buy God's blessing, right right, I'm just gonna accept. I'm just gonna heal you. And then he goes, Okay, well, then let me take some dirt. I'm going to take it home just to remember. And do you ever do that, You ever grab a little sand or something from a vacation or something that you'd never want to forget or remember. I've got a little vile of water from the Jordan River. I've got sand from different places around the world world. I have Yeah, I have a garden garden against se many sand. Oh huh. And I have seave Galilee water. Oh yeah. Hey, you know what I always thought the dirt was. I always thought the. Dirt was because he implied that he was only going to sacrifice to the Lord God. I thought what he was going to do is do his offerings on that plot of land. Yeah maybe does what does he say, Please allow me to load two mules with dirt from this place, which seems like a pretty significant amount of dirt. Two mules, yeah worth and they can carry a lot. Right. I will go back and take it home with me, and from now on I will never again offer burnt offerings to any sacrifices to any other God except the Lord. See for me, it sounds like those things are connected. Yeah, Like I think there are two separate sentences for sure, But yeah, they could be connected. Yeah, so that's that's where I read it, Like, like, what are you gonna use that dirt for a buddy? You know, he's going to build an altar, right right? Maybe yeah? Yeah, maybe, yeah, that's pretty great. And then finally you get this, you know, help me. Let me give you one note here It says, when we talked about him asking for permission to bow, says, how could Naman be forgiven for bowing to a pagan idol? Namon was not asking for permission to worship the god remen the god at Damascus, but to do with civil duty by helping the king get down and up as he bowed. Oh, because he leaned on his arm, right, that's what he was meaning. Yeah, so hey, I'm not worshiping. I'm just helping the king up and down. That's my job. Oh right, Does that makes sense? Yeah? Because because he did say as the king leans on my arm, which is a weird sentence, right, because if the king was fully able, right, if he was an able bodied person pressing and leaning on somebody's arm, what even makes sense Unless what he's doing is he's forcing him to bow. I'm leaning on my arm. But that even even makes sense. No, no, no, no, he's helping the king. That's exactly He's helping the king. It's only he can. So he's trying to send the message. Hey, I'm just just forgive me if it looks like I'm bowing, because I'm not. That's what he's saying. That's awesome. Yeah. And then this other note that as you were reading that, this note says we must remember that number one, God's ways our best. Number two, God wants our obedience more than anything else. Number three, God can use anything to accomplish his purposes. Including dirty rivers, including dirty rivers. Yeat, that's great. Well, hey, I wouldn't have even noticed the or thought of that with Naman if it hadn't been for a study Bible. So get yourself a good study. Bye. I'm telling you they out of pass woralthies for promoting. I know they don't. But you can get a hardcover on Amazon for like twenty bucks. Yeah, they're not expensive. All right. We Hey, that is our time, and soepefully we will see you next week on the Bible. Guys,