As fall is here, our church family is examining the life of Elisha. Elisha shows us how to remain faithful during challenging times. Our God always leaves His light for us even in the most troubling of times. Elisha’s life is the story of God’s bright light in the darkest of skies.
I invite you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Kings 5. Elisha’s life would make for a great “airport read.” When you string together all that Elisha does in his life, he’s really impressive. Elisha helps the city of Jericho by curing their water supply (2 Kings 2:19-22). He takes on some young hooligans who insult him and have no respect for God (2 Kings 2:23-24). He advises kings on how to trap rains from flash floods to provide water for their armies (2 Kings 3:14-20).
God uses him to resurrect a woman’s son and pay off the debts of a prophet’s widow (2 Kings 4).
Again, if all his stories were packed together into one book, you’d pick it up at the airport bookstore, where you’d read page after page before you even landed! Today, we will witness him insult Israel’s enemy before God uses him to miraculously heal him. Elisha delays his entrance into today’s story. And while his appearance is delayed, it’s worth the wait.
Today’s Scripture
“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 were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.’ So Naaman went in and told his lord, ‘Thus 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, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten 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, 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’” (2 Kings 5:1-7).
Ripped from the Headlines
When you consider a young girl abducted from her home, you wonder if you are reading a headline off social media today. Yes, our story could have been ripped from the headlines over the past few weeks. In recent days, a terrorist group called Hamas brutally killed more than 1,000, wounded around 2,400, and taken Israeli hostages to boot.1
Again, our story is seemingly ripped from the headlines. Today, so many hostages have been abducted. One particularly poignant story that has emerged in recent weeks is a music festival in the Israeli desert. In the midst of the music and the dancing, people noticed parachutes descending from the sky. This was followed shortly by armed men arriving in trucks. As people began to flee to their cars, Hamas shot these concert-goers point blank as they waited for them in ambush by their cars. This was the highest number of deaths among the Jewish people since the Holocaust nearly a century ago.2
And just like today, “a little girl” was abducted in our story. In fact, it is a Syrian raiding party that carries her off from her home (2 Kings 5:2). Can you imagine that? Can you imagine the hurt and helplessness her family felt? Their little girl gone, and “God, only knows what happened to her!” Now, she is gone so long that she settles into this enemy territory to make it home.
Cynthia Ann Parker
As I reflected on this story, I thought of Cynthia Ann Parker in the USA who was abducted when she was but 9 or 10 years old by the Comanche Indians. Parker would go on to marry a Comanche chief and have three children with him before she was rescued by the Texas Rangers.3 But she was not happily rescued – not at all. She wanted to remain among the Comanche Indian people she told the Rangers. She was forced to live among white people at her uncle’s farm here in Birdville, present-day Haltom City.
Back to our little girl in the Bible. We have to suspend our horror of how she arrived at her station in life for a moment in order to see how the Lord uses her even in this tragic situation. She begins to work for a Syrian army commander’s wife. She is a nobody, a slave, and a servant to great people. And while the world doesn’t pay attention to her, our God does.
Next, we are introduced to a Syrian military officer, named Naaman. I want you to pay attention to 3 things with our general friend. First, he has connections to the top people, the king, and others. Secondly, he has a lot of money. Yes, he is an extraordinarily wealthy man. Thirdly, he has power. So, putting the 3 together … we have a man who has connections to the top, he has money, and lastly, here is a man of tremendous influence. Can you see them?
Imagine him with all those metals on his chest. Every woman reaches out to touch him as he goes down the street. But every dad lifts up his son to say, “There he is. There goes Captain Naaman. One day son, I hope you can be like him.”4 Naaman is loved and respected by all. He’s even called “a mighty man of valor…” (2 Kings 5:1b).
But his connections, power, and money cannot help him in one respect. He suffers from this wasting disease – a condition the Bible calls leprosy (2 Kings 5:1). Now, the term leprosy can describe a variety of skin conditions (Leviticus 13–14). It could have been something far less severe where his skin itched severely, and it flaked off continually. But in general, leprosy is a dreaded affliction that mutilates and causes horrible disfigurement and is believed to be highly contagious. In biblical times, it may have been a life-threatening, limb-destroying disease called Hanson’s disease.
Even in the past century, the disease has carried a stigma. One father demanded his daughter break off her engagement to a man who treated lepers. Stretchers are thrown away after carrying these patients.5 Some have even called the condition “living death.”
Naaman has leprosy. Here was a man who was at the end of his rope.
Look back at our slave girl. Our young servant girl speaks up with a possible solution: “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy” (2 Kings 5:3b). Now, it’s remarkable she speaks up. First, she’s a member of the dreaded Hebrew race. Second, she’s a slave. Third and lastly, she’s a girl in a man’s world who didn’t really want to hear from women, much less girls. She had no home, no freedom, no experience, no power, and no identity. She was the lowest person on the social scale. Compared to Naaman, therefore, she counted for nothing.6 Had her mother been near, she would have put her hand over the girl’s mouth at the first utterance of sound from her mouth. Had any brother and sisters been near her, they would have elbowed her to silence. But she did speak up and because she spoke up, she is one of the most heroic children in the Bible.
Naaman hears this little girl’s counsel and approaches the king of Syria (2 Kings 5:4). What happened next would have been hard to believe for the servant girl. The next thing you know, the king of Syria tells Naaman to go before the King of Israel. Naaman comes before the King of Israel with a letter written by the Syrian king.
Only Naaman didn’t just come with a letter in hand, did he? He came with “ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing” (2 Kings 5:5b). Some may see this as a tremendous opportunity with all this money possibly given to your coffers. The King of Israel sees it as a tremendous noose around his neck. When the Israeli king heard what his dreaded enemies were asking him to do, he probably thought it was a trick. Imagine if an American general shows up in Iran with bags full of money saying, “I hear you have a guy who can cure cancer.” “And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, ‘Am I God’” (2 Kings 5:7a).
It’s interesting to note this: the little slave girl in enemy territory had more faith in God than the Hebrew king. She’s confident in what God can do while the Israeli king is looking for a place to escape.
Enter Elisha. Elisha hears that the king is upset and says effectively, “Send the guy my way.”
Pick up reading the story with me in verse 9: “So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. 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.” 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. 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. 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’?” 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” (2 Kings 5:9-14).
Now, Naaman feels slighted. When the important Naaman knocks on the door of the prophet, Elisha, and the prophet will not even come to the door to speak to this powerful, important man. Instead, his assistant, Gehazi, answers the door, which sends this “important man” into a rage (2 Kings 5:12). Naaman might have expected to only see the king’s ambassador but surely, some two-bit prophet could come out to meet him! His pride is slighted because the prophet sent his assistant to the door to greet him. After all, prophets don’t live in mansions. The general had gone to the “trailer park” of Israel and this two-bit prophet couldn’t even walk across his tiny shack of a house to get the door. He sent his assistant! It’s not as if Elisha’s house was so large that he couldn’t hear the doorbell ring. He was probably no more than just a few feet away when Gehazi told the general where to go for a solution. Kings have assistants; prophets don’t have assistants!
Naaman’s grammar in verse 11 shows that Elisha had aggravated him: “But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, ‘Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me…’” (2 Kings 5:11a). After going off in a huff Naaman shouted, “Look, I thought ‘He will certainly come out to me …’” The last two words are emphatic in the Hebrew text - to me. Plus, he had better rivers back home than the muddy Jordan. These clear rivers around Damascus were of legendary beauty and made the ancient city of Damascus a beautiful oasis in the minds of many. The clear rivers in Damascus flowed from snow-covered mountains. The Arabs called it the Garden of the World.7
In a rage, Naaman turns on his heels and starts home. Now, for the second time, a servant speaks to the mighty Naaman and tries to reason with him (2 Kings 5:13). For all of Naaman’s pride, he does listen. Naaman listens to his servants, and Naaman’s wife listens to the slave girl.
“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” (2 Kings 5:14).
I wish there was a YouTube video of Naaman going into the Jordan River that day! His servants speak up, “Mr. General, had this prophet asked you to do something really difficult, you would have done it. Why not just go do what he asks when he says, ‘Wash and be clean’? He came out of the river clean – no more leprosy! His skin is healed! The slave girl’s faith in God paid off after all! Now, watch the change in this man, will you?
“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.” 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 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.” He said to him, “Go in peace” (2 Kings 5:15-19).
Naaman is a changed man. His pride is gone. Even more astonishing, Elisha says, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant.” (2 Kings 5:16b). God’s grace not only heals Naaman but he’s now a faithful and fearful worshiper of the Lord, our God! The military commander has changed his gods to worship the only true God.
Elisha refuses Naaman’s generous gift. Naaman even takes dirt home with him to build an altar to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You make think that’s weird but a bunch of you have taken rocks from your trips to the Holy Land. Elisha tells him to go in shalom, to go in peace (2 Kings 5:19).
Why is this story in our Bibles? What does God want us to learn from the story of Naaman’s healing?
1. Friends and Faith
“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 were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy’” (2 Kings 5:2-3).
Look at Naaman with me now that you know the story. How did Naaman find the Lord? What led him to say those immortal words in verse 15, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant”?
1.1 People Who Loved Him
As difficult as it is to imagine, the reason Naaman found the Lord was because of the slave girl. The slave girl’s advice is essentially, “Find Elisha if you want to be healed.” And while the text doesn’t say, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that Naaman’s wife convinced him to go. The reason Naaman believed the slave girl was because he believed his wife.
And then, Naaman almost turned around to come back home before yet another slave said, “We’ve come all this way. Shouldn’t we at least try what the prophet says?”
Naaman would be dead without his friends.
Naaman is continually going off the rails in one direction or another. His family and friends keep getting him back on.8 And just like Naaman, so many people have met God because of their friends and family.
1.2 He Listened to People Who Were “Beneath” Him
Naaman lived because he reluctantly listened to people who were “beneath” him. He left Syria to find the king of Israel because of a captured slave who kindly told his wife where to find healing. He wanted to speak to Israel's king, then Israel’s prophet, but even then, it was a prophet’s assistant who told him where to go for healing. And he stayed in Israel to dip himself in the river Jordan because he listened to another servant. Servants directed Naaman at every step of the way in our story.
Here was a man whose chest was full of ribbons and medals listening to people who achieved nothing. He was “set for life,” but took counsel from people who scrounged for their next meal. Here was a man who had slaves, a wealthy commander of men. When he entered the room, men stood at attention everywhere he went.
1.3 Seeing a Moose in Jackson, WY
Several years ago, when the boys were small, we made a one-day visit to Jackson, Wyoming. We had been to Yellowstone and Glacier National Park for a long summer break. We had seen bears, elk, wolves, and bison on that trip. But we wanted to see a moose before we went home to Texas. We ate Mexican food in Jackson (rule #1 in traveling: never eat Mexican food outside of Texas) and we asked the waitress who served us, “Where can find a moose?” She said, “Go so and so distance out of town, turn up such and such road, until you find a small lake. Park and get out of your car because moose hang out there all the time among the reeds.” We left a healthy tip, got in our car, and did exactly as she told us. No sooner had we showed up at the lake, but a moose was standing there waiting on us! There were people all around. We had so much fun! One of the boys said, “Can’t we find a bull moose with antlers?” I said, “Just be happy we saw a moose.”
Do you listen to people outside of your “class?” Would you listen to spiritual advice from people “below” you? It’s fascinating that once Naaman bows his knees to God, he refers to himself as a servant.
Five times – count them – Naaman calls himself the servant of Elisha five times! If Naaman hadn’t listened to people who were beneath him, he wouldn’t be alive. And he wouldn’t be changed. There may be spiritually sensitive people around you right now. You may be here today because a “kooky” friend has invited you ?. Don’t let your pride get in the way of bowing your knee to Jesus in worship.
1. Friends and Faith
2. Go-Funded God
“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 shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing’” (2 Kings 5:5).
When he sets out to find God’s man for healing, he brings some cash, doesn’t he? In fact, he doesn’t just bring some cash; he brings a lot of cash!
2.1 The Gold and Silver
He came with “ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing” (2 Kings 5:5b).
A talent was approximately 70.4 pounds. In all, it’s around 750 lbs. of silver and 150 lbs. of gold! Besides this being a lot to carry, there’s a lot of money here. Silver is around $21 per ounce which would make the price of the silver alone around $185,000.“Six thousand shekels of gold,” then, would be about 2,400 ounces of gold. As gold is hovering around $1,860 per ounce, the king of Israel is looking at nearly $4.5 million in gold before him. Naaman has around $4.5 million with him as he is before the king of Israel.
2.2 Where Did the Money Come From?
Many of the commentators say that would have represented like a quarter to a third of maybe the net worth of an entire kingdom. There’s no way one person is that wealthy. Maybe the king is that wealthy, but a military commander? Where would he have gotten that money? It wasn’t just his own money. I imagine he was so popular, he was so respected, he was so loved and such a good person that they likely did an ancient version of a “Go fund me” page. Like a plastic jar at a bar, people gave because people liked this guy. Biker gangs and senior adult Bible groups might have all given because of this man’s greatness. They funded his “Go fund me” because they respected him so greatly.
2.3 Mary Lou Retton
For people of a certain age, the name Mary Lou Retton makes us smile. The small girl flipping her way to gold medal fame at the Summer Olympics in LA in 1984, alongside some silver and bronze medals. Retton was the first American woman to win the all-around gold medal in Olympic gymnastics. Her smile lit up TV back then and she was one of the most popular athletes in the United States as that time. All this when she was just a sophomore in high school! But she was back in the news recently, when the now 55-year-old fell seriously ill from a rare form of pneumonia. The gold medalist was unable to breathe on her own and had been “fighting for her life” in the ICU for over a week. While she was in the ICU, money came pouring in to pay for medical bills. Even Houston’s Mattress Mack and his wife, Linda, donated $50,000 to her medical bills. Around $450,000 was raised for Mary Lou’s medical bills as she is one of the millions of Americans without medical insurance.9
I am not saying Naaman had the winning smile that Mary Lou Retton had, but I think you get the idea.
2.4 Deserved to be Healed?
When Naaman showed up on Elisha’s doorstep, he had money and a wonderful life. Everyone thought he would be an excellent candidate for God to heal. Shoot, even Naaman felt that same thing deep in his bones. Naaman thought he could pay for his healing. One of you recently told me about a man who grew up going to church but was a sniper in the military. When he was asked, “Where do you go to church,” he said, “I can’t go to church. I’ve killed too many people.” You see, people think it’s about worth that gets God to turn His head in our direction.
2.5 Naaman Is Healed
I’d love to see ol’ Naaman pull up that chariot there, and off comes that magnificent uniform. All those metals are stripped from his chest. I want you to notice he did all this publicly. At this point, he didn’t care who was there to see. He went down into the muddy Jordan - one time, two times, three times, four times, five times, six times, seven times he went under (Leviticus 14:7–9). In the end, it wasn’t anything about his worth or his lack of it that saved him. In the end, it was faith in God. He did exactly what God told him to do, and his life was transformed by grace.
You may have a ton of good deeds or a ton of money – either way, your good life won’t save you. Conversely, your actions may be so terrible that you feel the roof of the church is going to fall in just because you are here. It doesn’t work that way.
When your sin adds up, God multiples His grace (Romans 5:20). Our God shows grace to people who don’t deserve it. Just like Naaman and just like me.
2.6 Invitation Time
Would you bow your head as we pray? You need to ask for the Lord’s grace. You need to experience salvation from God.
Endnotes
1 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-readies-for-all-out-war-in-gaza-ef1899c3; accessed October 10, 2023.
2 https://www.wsj.com/articles/tribe-of-nova-music-festival-massacre-israel-gaza-hamas-war-e21e95ea?mod=hp_opin_pos_5#cxrecs_s; accessed October 10, 2023.
3 https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cynthia-ann-parker-is-kidnapped; accessed October 10, 2023.
4 I owe this language to Adrian Rogers.
5 Tang Yue, “Story of Inspiration from a Group of Once Shunned,” China Daily, January 30, 2013.
6 Philip Graham Ryken, 2 Kings, eds. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Iain M. Duguid, Reformed Expository Commentary. (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2019), 96.
7 Russell Dilday and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, 1, 2 Kings, The Preacher’s Commentary Series. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1987), 288.
8 Timothy J. Keller, “The Lepers Are Cleansed,” The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).
9 https://news.yahoo.com/mary-lou-retton-daughter-says-103732646.html; accessed October 17, 2023.
