Text: 2 Kings 5:1-27
Setting:
Ahab and Jezebel were dead. Their son Ahaziah came to the throne but died within a year. Since he was childless, his brother Jehoram took the throne in his place. Jehoram was an evil king but was not as bad as his father and mother had been. 2nd kings 3:2 says that he put away the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made. But he held onto the calf worship that Jereboam had put in place at Dan and Bethel and perpetuated that false imitation of proper temple worship.
His sister Athaliah was married to the king of Judah. It is a bit confusing, but this king was also called Jehoram. He was the son of Jehoshaphat.
To give you some idea of the kind of family this was…when her husband died and their only son also died…Athaliah killed all of Jehoram’s other children (by his other wives) so that she could take the throne. She got all of them except Joash…who was rescued by his aunt. Joash would come to the throne at the age of seven under the sponsorship of his uncle Jehoiada who was also the high priest.
Athaliah is the only woman ever to sit on an Israelite throne and she proved to worse than her mother Jezebel. It is her brother Jehoram who was king in Israel as this story in 2nd Kings 5 begins.
Jehoram of Israel lived an ungodly life and his kingdom was given over, piece by piece to his enemies. First the Moabites rebelled against him and then God struck the land with another famine. The Syrians constantly raided his northern and eastern borders and he lived in something close to a state of siege.
Naaman the Syrian was just one of many thorns in his side, but nothing about him was ordinary. He had risen to the top. The text says that he was Captain of the Syrian army. He was a ‘great man with his master’ who trusted him implicitly and consulted with him at the highest level
He was respected at home and feared abroad. Men sought his presence and felt honored to be received. He was a valiant warrior, a decorated hero and a national symbol of power and success. And then the Bible adds this explanation: “Because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram”. (5:1)
Unknown to Naaman, God was working through him. He had not succeeded because of his military prowess or superior tactics. Israel had made themselves enemies of God…and God was using Syria against them. Were it not for the last phrase of verse one, there would be no story.
He was living the dream…except for one thing. He was a leper.
I don’t know if Syria treated lepers the way that Israel did, but it seems probable that some form of social stigma attached itself to the disease. Perhaps he could not come into close personal contact with the king. It may have meant that he could not hold his wife or hug his kids. It affected his quality of life and pulled the props out from under his success. The prognosis was not good, for there was no known cure.
Into this world of Kings and Generals steps a captured girl. In the story, she is nameless. We don’t know which town she was from…only that she was an Israelite. She may have been captured from a border town in Bashan or Gilead. We are also not told if her family had been captured or killed, or just how much violence she had seen. Young girls, especially virgins, along with young boys, were often taken as spoils of war. They became slaves, sometimes serving as concubines and eunuchs. Exactly which category she fell into is hard to say.
But what we do know is this: She was now separated from her family and friends and a prisoner in a foreign country. She was a slave with the future of a slave and in the home of the man most responsible for her pain and sorrow.
All of that makes her attitude that much more amazing. After all, if it was you or me, what would we do? Would we resent or even hate Naaman? Would we ask God to have him fall in battle? Would we at least…secretly wish him ill? Or would we take comfort in the fact that he was leper and feel that it served him right?
Returning evil for evil seems like the right thing to do, but that is not what she did. She wanted nothing but the best for her master. Through all of this, she retained her faith in God and that made the difference. Most of us know Christians who have ‘walked away’ from their faith over much smaller things. But her faith was as strong as ever.
That’s why she spoke up and with confidence. She believed in God and trusted that God through his prophet in Samaria could and would cure Naaman. I may be reading between the lines, but it seems to me that she must have forgiven Naaman. She did not use her knowledge as a bargaining chip. She didn’t say, “if you will set me free, I will tell you how to find a cure”. There were no strings attached or trailing obligations. She was quite literally not thinking about herself.
May God make us a heart like hers. With hearts like hers, every congregation of the Lord’s people would be changed. Years later, Jesus taught his disciples to love their enemies, but she was already there. This Godly principle preceded Christianity.
Before we move on from her, there is one more thing. Just before the people of Nazareth tried to throw Jesus off the cliff at the edge of town, he said to them: “And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian” Luke 4:27. Naaman was the only leper ever cured by Elisha. So how did this girl come to the conclusion that Elisha could do it or even would? No one did her thinking for her. There was no precedent in the work of Elisha. In her day, both the fact of her faith and what she believed were without parallel.
To his credit, Naaman took her advice seriously. Perhaps this is a testimony to her reputation in the household, though it may also indicate that he was desperate. At any rate, he went to king to get permission. The king wrote him a letter of introduction to Jehoram and sent him on his way.
For Naaman, money was no object. He took along 10 talents of silver – 6000 shekels of gold and ten changes of clothing. Thomas Holdcroft says that this would be about 340 kilograms (roughly 750 lbs) of silver and about 70 kilograms (or 150 lbs) of gold. It’s a little hard to translate weight measurements into our currency and especially the buying power of that wealth in our own economy. But a person could live out their life in luxury on what Naaman brought.
Of course, Naaman traveled with an armed guard and arrived with horses, chariots and personal servants. Among the more revealing passages is the one describing the king of Israel. He arrived and handed the letter from Ben-Hadad to Jehoram and that letter went like this: “And now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you that you may cure him of his leprosy” (vs. 6)
It seems to me that one of two responses is possible for Jehoram. On the one hand, he could say something like this:
- What an incredible compliment. Thank you for coming to honour Yahweh, the one true God. For the God of Israel is also the one and only divine ruler of the whole world. Nothing is too difficult for Him
- The hand of God has brought you here. And once you are well, let’s talk about peace between our two nations.
- But let me just say that you have to the right place because “My God is able”.
But there was a problem. Jehoram did not believe in God. He was an idol worshiper for whom this request was impossible. So he tore his clothes in distress. What he actually said was: “Am I God to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy?
When he heard what Naaman asked for, he turned to his court and for the record said: “but consider now and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me”. This is just a pretext for war. Naaman is here to pick a fight.
Here is the irony. What was possible for a slave girl in a foreign land was impossible for the king of all Israel. But then, God’s work has always been distressing to those lacking faith. The king was right about one thing…he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t do it nor could any of his priests or prophets. And because he did not believe in God, he did not ask for God’s help. So he was stuck, stuck between his unfaithfulness to God and the armies of Syria. On the horns of a dilemma, he couldn’t say ‘Yes’ and he dared not say ‘No’.
What Jehoram did not understand was that this was not really about him, it was about Naaman. Naaman was a man in search of the prophet of God. Jehoram just got caught in the middle. After all, an unbeliever can do little to help someone who is seeking God. How embarrassing, to have a real prophet of God in your own kingdom, when you don’t even believe in God.
Well, its Elisha to the rescue. He sent a message to the king asking: “why have you torn your clothes?” In other words, ”what’s the problem?” “let him come to me, and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel”.
I love that answer…don’t you? Here is an open door, a chance to testify before the mighty. So, “Jehoram…get out of the way and send the man to me!” “And get out of those torn clothes”.
The king sent Naaman to Elisha. He arrived with horses and chariots, dust and noise, at Elisha’s front door. The doorbell rang and out comes the butler – actually Gehazi, the servant of Elisha with a message. “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean.”
I can just picture Gehazi turning and going back into the house, closing the door and leaving Naaman and his entourage looking at each other. Naaman was furious, he was outraged. But why? Was it because the answer was “No”? Did the prophet say, too bad so sad – but we don’t heal Syrians here? Did he insult the man and tell him to crawl back into the hole he came out of? Did he say that “God is punishing you and that’s why you are a leper?”
The answer is No to all of the above. What the prophet said was “yes”. He said “YES”. So why was Naaman so angry? He was angry because he did not get his own way!
He was a man who made kings tremble. The simple truth is that his pride was hurt. He deserved better than that and perhaps humiliated in front of his servants. And if he didn’t do something, the next thing you know, even they would be treating him like that.
The real problem was not that he wanted to get well, but that he wanted to get well on his own terms. He hadn’t come begging. He had close to ½ ton of precious metal and designer clothes to boot.
Let me suggest, that he made the same mistake that men have made down through the years. He thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money.
Not only that, he did not recognize that this was not between him and Elisha. He was dealing with almighty God, and no one dictates terms to God. So he turned and drove away in a rage.
Pride always has its reasons…and these were Naaman’s:
- The prophet sent for me and then refused to see me.
- There was no pomp and ceremony, no diplomacy or protocol. No respect at all.
- This is not at all what I had in mind. I thought he would come out and wave his hand over the place and heal me.
- What a stupid command. I’m not going to dip in that dirty river. Ours are upstream in Syria and if I was going to do any dipping, I’d do it there.
So Naaman chose to keep his pride and his leprosy…because in order to be healthy he would have to first be humble.
Naaman failed. He refused to take God at his word. He did not see past the prophet to the God for whom the prophet spoke. He let his feeling about the messenger blind him to the message. But most importantly…he just didn’t get it. He wasn’t listening. He was so ready to argue and so unwilling to listen. The Answer was Yes…God said Yes. Though you are an enemy of my people…I am saying “Yes”. So look no further, you have succeeded. God is ready to bless you and make you well. But understand this: the gift of God is not for sale. You can’t buy it, earn it or pay me back.
In order to be well, you will be from this day forward, in God’s debt. He will not change his mind. You are going to have to change yours, for God has spoken. And get this through your head…the prophets of God are not for hire. God is their only master.
This has always been so. At the moment when a prophet’s pay equals the value of message…at that very moment he has stopped speaking for God. You can support a prophet and in that way participate in his work. But if you ever succeed in making him your employee, then you’ll only get what you pay for…and it is not worth having.
I really admire Naaman’s servants, because Naaman was furious. He was in a towering rage. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to reason with someone like that. But the servants know two things: They know that the real problem is pride. Naaman’s pride is hurt. And they also know that the prophet said yes. They heard it clear as day.
The question is: would you and I talk to Naaman? As he drives along in a rage…would you interrupt him? Or would you say to the guy next to you…”hey man, I have a wife and kids…you talk to him”
It comes down to motives doesn’t it? Confronting Naaman is dangerous and they have a lot to lose. careers are on the line and maybe even their lives. The easiest thing to do is to agree with him and commiserate a little.
- You know what, that prophet was wrong…what a lout.
- You have every right to be mad…he insulted you
- Let’s get the troops and teach these guys some manners.
But what do you do if you are Naaman’s friend? Do you sacrifice the truth in the name of peace or unity? If you do, then there is no cure for Naaman and he will go to his grave as a leper. His disease is now on your head. Or do you risk it all and remind him of the truth. Do you push him in the direction of truth?
Telling the truth, especially the truth from God has always been unpopular and often risky. It was then and it is now, and especially when human wisdom protects our pride. The question really comes down to “How much do you really care about the soul of another?
Well, it turns out that they did care and appealed to Naaman with gentleness and respect. They said: “We know that you would not refuse to do any great thing”. We know the kind of stuff that you’re made of and you don’t have to prove anything to us. But sir…the prophet said yes. He said Yes. And what he asked you do is such a simple thing. We know that you would do a great thing – then why not do an easy thing? And the fact is, that you have to do it, if you’re ever going to get well.
Pray that your fellow Christians will be like the servants of Naaman. People of courage, of truth and honor who stand up for the word of God and speak it without compromise. That they are people who do it out of love, knowing what is at stake. Our world is full of folks who want to argue, even though God has plainly told us how to be saved from sin and how to live Godly lives. May we be like the servants of Naaman and speak the truth in love.
If you have never read this story before, it has a surprise ending. Actually the ending has two surprises.
The first one is that Naaman listened to reason. Just when you have the impression that he is a lost cause, he changed his mind. He swallowed his pride and humbled himself. He quit arguing with God and just did as he was told. Many of our theological problems would go away if we all did that.
So God cured him, it was just as simple as that. His flesh was like that of a little child. He came up out of the water a changed man, confessing: “Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel”.
Naaman had become a believer. He was now an ally and a friend to God’s people. When he went back to Elisha, the gifts that he offered were out of gratitude, for he had stopped trying to buy the gift of God and was happy just to say “thank you Lord”.
And he made a commitment. He said “I will sacrifice to no other God but to the Lord”.He asked for two mule loads of earth from Israel so that he could build a proper altar to God and worship him acceptably. And he asked Elisha to understand that even though his official duties had him go with the king into the house of Rimmon, he personally would not be worshiping there.
Naaman went home a new man. He was bodily cured and spiritually reborn…now a servant of God.
The other surprise is Gehazi. He was a trusted servant of Elisha, who must have been to Elisha what Elisha had been to Elijah. It was Gehazi who had suggested that the Shunammite woman should be given a son. Gehazi had been present when that boy was brought back from the dead and he seems in every way to have been the prophet’s right hand man.
But this time was different. He saw Naaman’s cleansing and witnessed his conversion. But he did not fall to his knees in prayer and thank God because:
- A believer had been born
- An enemy had become a friend
- A sick man had been healed.
- Or because God’s name was glorified and would be glorified in Syria
Instead…this is what he did. He coveted Naaman’s wealth. He got out his calculator and started to figure out how much this new convert could put on the collection plate. He saw a rich believer who felt indebted to him and would give anything that he asked.
So he came up with a plan. I’ll just wait until Naaman is out of sight and on his way home, that way Elisha won’t know. I will meet Naaman in secret, accept the money and keep it for myself. That’s just what he did.
Of course, he had to come up with a lie to explain this new willingness to accept money. So he told Naaman that two prophets from Ephraim had come unexpectedly to Elisha who was now asking for a talent of silver and two changes of clothes. To which Naaman responded: “take two talents instead along with the clothes”. Gehazi went home and put these away in the house before going to see Elisha.
Now let’s think about this for a minute: Consider the impact of all of this on Naaman, a new convert who knows only a little about God. What he does know comes from Elisha and from being healed. How might this latest exchange alter his understanding of God? Gehazi implied that something happened that God did not foresee. Elisha would have accepted a gift earlier if only he had known that visitors were coming. So perhaps God’s knowledge is limited. And it seems too that God is a God who changes his mind on the spur of the moment.
It turns out that the gift of God is not really free after all. The prophets of God actually are for hire, and sooner or later they will name their price. And then there is the cynical thought that “this is after all what you expected when you came…that’s why you brought the money’.
And finally…since the cleansing worked, I guess it is safe to get paid. Now we know that it can’t fail. Maybe Naaman went home thinking, they didn’t know if it would really work and that’s why they did not want the money up front.
Well, Gehazi came and stood in front of Elisha who asked “where have you been?” After all those years with the prophets…Gehazi had to know better. But he lied and said “Your servant went nowhere”. He was unrepentant and forgot that there are no secrets from God or from the prophet of God. Elisha proceeded to tell him where he went, what he did and even what he intended to spend the money on. He wanted the good life – money, clothes, olive groves, vineyards, sheep and oxen, even male and female servants. He had the money already spent.
There is a kind of justice in what happened next. You see, Gehazi already had what Naaman came to get. Naaman went home with more than he had dreamed of…a man with a whole body and a soul belonging to God. But this man of God who did not know what he had, traded it, becoming a poor imitation of his beneficiary. So God put Naaman’s leprosy upon Gehazi, for abandoning his faith and exchanging the truth of God for a lie, all for the sake of money.
Summing up
In the history of the world, there are no little people. Every step that we take, and every word we speak makes a difference. An eternal difference. So let us be like the slave girl who loved her enemy and sent him to find God. May we be like the servants of Naaman who spoke the truth in love despite the risk. May we be like Elisha who could not be bought and who shared God’s gift without cost. And may we be like Naaman, who humbled himself and obeyed God so that God might bless him.