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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
Why Did Naaman Ask for Jars of Dirt?
II Kings 5
Introduction
Naaman the Syrian had it going on. A great job, a great reputation, all the money he needed- oh, and he had leprosy.
In those days, this was a death sentence.
In those days, a great job, a powerful position, favor with kings, all the money in the world, none of it meant anything if you had leprosy- because if you had leprosy, you were gonna die.
Desperate for an answer, Naaman travels to the land of Israel to meet with a certain miracle-worker named the prophet Elisha. But then, in one of the most amazing stories in the Bible, Naaman is totally cleansed and allowed to return home to Syria. He’s getting a second chance at life. And all he asks for after that are a couple of jars to take home some dirt with him.
Wait, what? Dirt?
I mean, we’ve all been souvenir shopping when we went somewhere special, or when we wanted to take a memory home with us. But why did Naaman request to take some dirt home with him?
I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn to II Kings 5, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
I’ve got a jar of dirt
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about why Naaman asked to take a jar of dirt home with him.
Two jars, actually. And to be honest, I’m not quite sure if they were jars. He asked for two mule-loads of dirt to take home with him. I assume he carried it in jars; could have been pots. Could have been a backpack. But I think I assume it was a jar because I have this Jack Sparrow quote burned into my mind.
[play clip: I’ve got a jar of diirrrttt.]
If you don’t know what’s so special about Jack Sparrow’s jar of dirt, you’ll need to watch Pirates of the Caribbean. If you don’t know what’s so special about Naaman’s jars of dirt, you’ll need to keep listening another 15 or 20 minutes.
But let’s start, as we always do, by understanding the full context:
II Kings 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.
That verse is a whole story all by itself. You get his bio, his accomplishments, his titles- and then it ends with these five words: but he was a leper.
In our days, leprosy is knowns as Hansen's disease. It’s a long-term infection by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae or Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Basically, it’s a skin disease that makes your flesh rot off. It numbs your skin so that you can’t feel anything, and your fingers and toes get gnawed away by accidentally burning or injuring them over time. You can also experience hair loss. Lesions open up in your skin, so you will likely die from an infection.
And you’re lucky this is an audio-only podcast or I’d gross you out with some pictures.
Leprosy is a death sentence. No cure.
And before we skip to the end and hear what Naaman’s dirt was all about, I want to explain what this story represents. Because this is actually one of my favorite miracle stories in the Bible. I want to explain why I say that.
Leprosy represents sin oftentimes in the Bible. We don’t have leprosy- and few do- but we all have a sickness much worse than leprosy. Much worse than a skin disease. We have the infection of sin. Every single human being who ever lived has contracted the disease of sin. (and it’s a death sentence)
So Naaman had an incredible job, incredible accomplishments, he was surely very wealthy, he was surely very famous in his country, his future looked bright- except for one thing. He had a leprosy problem that made everything else in his life worthless.
Guess what, guys, our sin problem makes all our other accomplishments worthless when it comes to our salvation.
It does not matter if you can discover the cure for cancer, become elected POTUS or build a rocket ship to the moon.
It doesn’t matter if you feed every poor person in the world, memorize the entire Bible and give every dollar you own to charity.
Jesus said it would not matter if you gained the whole world and yet lost your soul.
You have an incurable sin problem, and no amount of good works will every keep you out of hell.
So just like Naaman, our situation was hopeless. Naaman had no hospital he could go to, no hope, his only future was to flee from anybody he ever cared about and slowly die alone. And then he heard about a prophet named Elisha in the land of Israel.
II Kings 5:2-5
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. (Underline the word land) 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.” (Underline the word land again) 5 And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”
So Naaman’s first challenge will require a certain amount of humility. Israel and Syria don’t get along so well. Naaman’s going to have to humble himself before an enemy in enemy territory for help.
But as we see, his situation is desperate, and desperate times call for desperate measures. We’ll skip ahead to
Verse 9
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.
So Naaman is frustrated because he expected Elisha to wave his hands over his leprosy like a witch doctor and do some voodoomamajuju to make it go away. But Elisha instead tells him to go wash down by the river.
Naaman thinks that’s a stupid solution. He’d rather have something more magical happen. He’d rather have to complete some kind of challenge, or pay a certain amount of money, to get the healing he’s seeking from God. And instead, all he has to do is wash in a river.
This is too simple in Naaman’s eyes. It’s too easy. He thinks it’s stupid. He says in
Verse 12
12 Are not Abana 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.
So we also see some bigotry or prejudice against Israel in this. He thinks the rivers back in Syria are better. Why get in that Jewish water to get cleaned?
This story represents the Gospel. Just like Naaman has a leprosy problem that will kill him, all people have a sin problem that will kill them. And we all need a healing, or a cleansing, of our sin problem.
And the solution is simple: faith in Jesus Christ. Believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died for your sins and rose again. That’s the Gospel. That’s God’s plan of salvation.
But some people think it’s stupid. They want to take care of their sin problem their own way. They want to try and make themselves clean before God by being a good enough person, or accomplishing some great task for God, or something like that. They think salvation by faith is not good news, but a dumb idea.
“You mean someone can live an evil, wicked life taking advantage of others and then five minutes before they die, repent on their death bed and go to heaven?” YES! If they really mean it, if they’re really repentant for their sins, than yes, God will forgive them!
Or they don’t like Israel and Jews and the idea of a Jewish Messiah, so they reject it on that basis. They would rather work at justifying themselves. An impossible task.
Well thankfully, Naaman has someone in his life who can talk some sense into him.
II Kings 5:13-14
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.
What do you know: doing it God’s way actually works. It doesn’t matter how smart it sounds to you. It doesn’t matter if you think the water is better back home. If you do it God’s way, you do it right.
The Dirt
And Naaman is so overcome with gratitude when he has his life saved here, he starts asking if he can do anything to pay Elisha back. And then he makes his strange request for the dirt.
II Kings 5:15-19
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.”
So there are a couple of strange things at work here. One is that Naaman brings up that he is a man of an important influential position back in Syria, and he will be expected to attend worship in the house of a deity named Rimmon.
However, now Naaman knows that Rimmon is a false god. Rimmon couldn’t do anything for Naaman’s leprosy. However, the God of Israel could. Naaman says that when he goes into the House of Rimmon with his master- who is probably the King of Syria- that the master will grab his hand and force them to bow together to this false god. So Naaman requests that he be given grace in that, because he knows in his heart that there is a true God in Israel.
Surprisingly to me, Elisha says yes. That’s an oddity to me in my New Testament mindset, because I kinda feel like if this was the book of Acts, we’d be saying, “Don’t you dare bow to that idol statue. We fear God, not man!” But that’s not what Elisha says. Elisha is more like, “God knows your heart. It’s OK.” So that’s kind of interesting.
The second strange thing here is that Naaman wants to take home two mule loads of earth, or dirt. What is that all about?
Well this is going to call back to an episode I did about a month ago called “Territorial Spirits (and the Deuteronomy 32 Worldview).” In that episode, I discussed the concept of spirits being assigned to particular territories throughout the world. This is an idea frequent in the Bible, although you kind of have to be paying attention to notice it.
We learn that fallen angels and demons are assigned authority or influence over certain sectors of the world, and that these sectors correlate with the borders of nations. The land of Israel is God’s possession, and God has also placed an angel named Michael over Israel and the Jewish people. Other countries are under the jurisdiction of other spirits; generally speaking, probably evil spirits in rebellion to God.
So to bring this back to Naaman, he would be aware of this reality, because this was the worldview of ancient peoples in Old Testament times. And New Testament times, for that matter. It’s only we westernized modern people who have lost track of this idea.
Now Naaman recognizes that the gods back home are false gods. He says in
verse 15,
“I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.”
Underline those words “in Israel.” Naaman knows that this is the land that belongs to God, and that the land back home belongs to false gods or evil spiritual beings. So he has a bit of a dilemma here, because now that he’s all healed up, he’s going to be expected to go back into enemy territory, back into the jurisdiction of enemy territorial spirits.
So he asks to take some dirt home with him, because this is dirt of the land that belongs to God. To us, this sounds superstitious. We’d get out our Systematic Theology textbooks and push up our glasses on our nose and explain the concept of omnipresence to Naaman. That it doesn’t matter where you are, because God is everywhere.
But that’s not what Elisha does. Elisha understands the request, takes it seriously, and immediately grants it.
Theologian Michael Heiser explains it succinctly here: Naaman’s unusual request stems from the ancient—and biblical—conception that the earth is the locale for a cosmic turf war. Naaman wanted dirt from Israel because Israel was Yahweh’s territory. The dirt which is Yahweh’s domain is holy ground. The idea of “holy ground” is an important element of Israelite theology. This phrase is used when Moses is in the presence of the Angel of the Lord and the God of Israel at the burning bush (Exod 3:1–5) and when Joshua meets the Angel of the Lord (Josh 5:15).
That’s from an article on the Logos Bible Software website. He also mentions this: Elisha understood Naaman’s request and granted it without hesitation. He knew the request came from a sincere theological change of heart.
Housekeeping/Mailbag
Now what does this mean for us? We’ll discuss that as we close down in a minute.
Just a quick mailbag I’d like to make a note of. Thank you to Brew for his compliments on the Abraham’s Bosom episode from a couple weeks ago. He reached out to me on Twitter where I harass people as @WeirdBibleGuy.
Also, thank you to Nicholas and a Youtube user named McRoosty for their kind words as well. And recently, I asked you all to take a minute and leave 5-star reviews on any Apple devices where you’re listening, and you answered the call, and thanks so much for everyone who did that. Very sweet words from Chris and a reviewer named Chirp52. Also thank you to Tim at my church who allowed me to yank his phone out of his hand and give myself a 5-star review on it.
(I’m halfway kidding about that)
Next week I plan to do one last episode to tie up this series I’ve been doing on Demonology. If I can find enough research on what Jesus meant about a demon being cast out and then finding 7 demons more wicked than himself. That’s what I’ll be studying during this Thanksgiving week. So make sure you’re subscribed today so you can get that episode.
Closing Thoughts
In closing, what can we take away from Naaman’s story? Well, for one thing, I’d like to say that I love Naaman’s story because of how it pictures the Gospel. Many people reject the Gospel because they want to work out their own standing before God their own way. But that’s simply not possible. Just like Naaman had to wash himself and be cleansed God’s way, we have to wash ourselves and be cleansed God’s way, and that’s by the blood of Jesus washing away our sins.
But here would be the wrong takeaway from Naaman’s story: that we need to hope on a plane, fly to Israel, and get our own jar of dirt. That is not something we need to do as New Testament believers.
And it is not because the concept of territorial spirits has expired. There are still territorial spirits. The nations of the earth are still placed under the authority or jurisdiction of certain spiritual beings. And most of them are probably bad. That has not changed.
But the way we do battle against them has. In the Old Testament, salvation was found through a nation and through a land. That’s why Naaman wanted to take a piece of that land home with him. Salvation was tied to joining Israel. Even if you were a Gentile, you were allowed to be a follower of Israel’s God, but you followed Israel’s ways if you did that. The Mosaic Law in Leviticus and Deuteronomy makes this clear.
Now for some reason, Naaman gets a pass, but only because a man of God gave him a pass, and it’s suggested that even though Naaman is going back to Syria, God knows his heart.
But prior to Jesus coming to the earth and changing all this up, salvation was tied to one specific location and one nation on earth with the one specific Temple and one specific lineage of people who served as your priests.
In the New Testament, salvation is not tied to a specific territory or nationality. That’s because first and foremost, every believer is a citizen of the Kingdom of God. In whatever worldly nation you find yourself, you are an ambassador of God’s kingdom. When you walk into a room, the Kingdom of God is walking into that room.
We don’t have a physical temple anymore; Jesus is the final priest we needed, and your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
God’s presence is not tied to a physical location like He was in the Old Testament; He has placed His Spirit within each of us.
And wherever you place your feet is Holy Ground.
Naaman’s request for dirt was not weird. WE are weird, because we don’t know about territorial spirits and holy ground. But now we do. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.