II Kings 5:8  And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
9  So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
10  And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
11  But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
12  Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
13  And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
14  Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

God’s clock is ticking. Most of the world runs on a calendar that says tomorrow is the last day of this year. It has been an interesting year. The Middle East has dominated the news of the past year. The Russia/Ukraine war has continued on and the western alliance has poured millions of hard-earned tax dollars into a war that we had no business being involved in, yet that war was started due to NATO foolishness. Canada and the U.S. are both in a state of political limbo as far as accountability goes but in both countries the governments are intentionally destroying freedoms we once took for granted. The U.S. and many others, are thinking January 20th will be some spectacular day that will usher in a new level of freedom. Lost humanity is highly delusional. The danger is when those who are saved, refuse to accept the fact that all things are become new at salvation.
In our text we have a foreigner who has a major problem. Naaman was a well respected army commander in the Syrian nation. Naaman had a big problem. He was a leper. He did not get that because he was poor and malnourished. He would have been well looked after according to Syrian standards. Yet he was a leper. The Syrian medical profession had no way of dealing with this disease.
We know that God gave very detailed commands in the book of Leviticus to deal with leprosy. There was no medical instruction given there. It was separation and hard work to remove leprosy from a house. It was separation and constant warnings given for a person who was a leper. The priests had the authority to pronounce a person or a thing leprous and they had the power to pronounce a person or a thing free of leprosy. It does not appear to have been a dietary thing among the people. It was something under God’s control alone with no human intervention that could hasten the curing. As noted, it did not seem to be extremely contagious in that the priest could be close enough to examine the situation and make his pronouncement. Yet it was contagious to a degree because strict separation rules were necessary.
The Syrian government had been inflicting some pain upon the northern tribes of Israel. They had taken some captives. In this account, a Jewish slave girl gave some wise counsel to Naaman. The king of Syria was happy to entertain the suggestion given. The Syrians obviously had control over Israel at this time. The king wrote a letter to the king of Israel demanding that they heal Naaman. The king of Israel was an ungodly man and he took the letter as a threat of war. He knew he had no power to heal a leper. He had no access to God because he rejected Him. He did not believe God could help them anyway.
God had His man in place at this time. Even though Israel had rejected Him, He had not abandoned Israel. He was always working in different ways to remind Israel of the need to turn back to Him. He would also teach the Syrians an important lesson here.
In verse 9 of our text we read that Naaman arrived with his entourage, at Elisha’s house. Elisha was a man of God. He was not going to play the humanistic game of being nice to flatter others. He was not disrespectful to Naaman. He was not going to entertain his inflated view of himself. He sent a messenger to speak to Naaman. The messenger was told to tell Naaman to go and wash in Jordan 7 times and his flesh would be cleansed.
In verse 11 we read that Naaman was “wroth” at such a command. He needed help, but he was still too proud to take the help that was offered to him. He had an expectation and he was convinced that what he imagined needed to be carried out. We read that Naaman expected some spectacular action from Elisha. He expected him to call upon the name of the LORD God and strike his hand over the leprosy and it would be gone.
Naaman was used to paganism. He knew how the magicians and such like operated. They would be similar to the “witchdoctors” of our time. They would also be similar to the devilish “faith healers” of our time. They like to put on a show. They call special meetings and they have their “team” of assistants and at times they have cameras rolling to record the events. They have reports of people who claim to be healed. The devil is given certain power by God. He can “heal” people but his biggest trick is to deceive people into believing that they are being helped by God.
Some years ago I was a summer pastor in a northern Manitoba community between Bible School years. The Charismatics had discovered that town and they made regular fly-in trips up there to milk the people of their money. They would come in with spectacular stories and the gullible people of the town swallowed it up. They had great respect for the main man who made frequent trips up there. During the few short months that we were up there, there were a number of deaths and funerals. One was a suicide and others were from drunkenness and such like. The community was in a big spiritual mess. Even those who were more regular in attending the church there were plagued with problems. This “faith-healer” only came there to tell his lies and suggest things to the people. They were untaught and ready to grasp at anything. Natives are naturally heavily involved in spiritism. Our governments are using our tax dollars to promote that spiritism. It is dangerous and poison, but the government does not care.
Back in our text, Naaman protested that the rivers they had in Syria were better than the waters of Israel. If he was so sure of that, why did he bother to travel to Israel? Why did he not go to those waters and wash and be cleansed. He did not understand that it was not the water that mattered. What mattered is Who was controlling the water. The rivers of Syria were “blessed” by pagan doctors. They wanted to exalt their pagan deities. The waters of Israel were supposed to be under God’s control, even though Israel did not want to recognize the true God. God can take anything He has made and use it for His glory. He can also destroy anything He has made for His glory.
In verse 13, we read that Naaman’s servants were wiser than he was. His pride had blinded him. They were servants, and thus they had a sense of humility. They reminded him that if he had been called to do some great thing he would have done it right away. They knew him. They knew he loved the limelight. They challenged him to accept the command given to him on this occasion.
Naaman was smart enough to listen to his servants on this occasion. He went to the Jordan and he dipped himself in that water 7 times as commanded by Elisha. When he did so, his flesh came out clean. The text tells us it was like unto the flesh of a little child. The leprosy was gone! What an amazing thing.
Naaman came back to Elisha to report on what had just happened to him. He acknowledged there was no God like the God of Israel. He did not understand that the God of Israel was everywhere. He would need further teaching to understand the greatness of the true God. However, he was now convinced that the God of Israel had the power over leprosy. He wanted more of this God.
He also thought it was necessary to pay Elisha for what had taken place. His pagan training was still there. A person that gets saved does not automatically lose all their false teaching. They will have a desire to know the truth and they will be teachable, but without the teaching, they will be lacking understanding.
This account goes further than the verses we have given. The point is that Naaman came to Elisha with a worldly assumption. He acted upon what he had been trained as. What he had been trained as was a naturalistic, humanistic philosophy. He did not understand the power of God. He had witnessed spectacular showmanship at the hands of the pagan priests of the Syrians. He had seen them do their dances and maybe do fancy things with fire, etc. However, he had never witnessed the power of God before. Israel was supposed to be the people of God. They should have been a testimony to the greatness of God to the Syrians. However, God was punishing Israel because they had chosen to forsake God in favour of the emptiness of the Syrian false religion. The result was they became servants to the Syrians, rather than the true God.
God loved the Syrians and He wanted them to know Him. He did not use anything spectacular here to get Naaman’s attention. He used the water of Israel, and He used the command of a true servant of God, as well as the witness of a Jewish slave girl to help Naaman to see that his religion was nothing and he needed to believe in the true God.
Many today are caught up in the spectacular. Many do not think the plain, clear teaching of the Word of God is effective to the saving of souls. They want something more. Children are trained that sitting and listening to a clear Bible lesson is too dull. They are taught there needs to be action. They are being spoiled by things that are not helpful. God chooses many different ways to draw attention to Himself. In the Old Testament and until the completion of the Scriptures, He used signs and wonders at times to help authenticate His true servants. Since the completion of the Scriptures He has made preaching His Word the mainstay of reaching the lost and helping the saved. God can still heal. He does so for His glory. As we noted in the book of James, the main need of man is to be free from the spiritual leprosy that interferes with the soul. Saved people need to learn to walk humbly with the Lord. Lost people need to be saved and then learn to walk humbly with the Lord.
We do not need fancy programs to do God’s Work. We need faithful servants of God who will exalt Him.
Pastor Bartel