Naaman's Gospel, Leprosy to Healing: Part 1

So the title of my sermon today is Naaman's gospel leprosy to healing part one. I know we've been talking at least at least this year as I've been doing. I've been going through Matthew 11 Holy violence, but today this I'm just gonna take a this is a quick break.

We'll have a I'm gonna do one or two more in this. It's gonna be a series. So Please turn to my text daily second Kings 5 so go ahead. Please turn there. So how many of you are familiar with the condition known as savant syndrome.

I'm not sure if that's something a lot of people have heard of. Savant syndrome is a very rare condition. It's a physiological disorder where a person actually has an imbalance in their brain. And so what this leads to is if people have extreme brilliance in certain areas and in other areas, they have serious very serious handicaps.

People this condition often have photographic memories and a lot of people say they have a photographic memory. But savant people actually do have photographic memories. They've I've watched a few documentaries.

They've been able to like, you know, they'll play a piece of music once and the person play it back perfectly, right? They can this one person master language in a week. So there's you know, the this one TV show I watched as PBS this guy went to Iceland.

It's a very difficult language. They gave him one week there at the end of a week. He gave an interview in Icelandic on if it was fluent in it, right? So that's as I mean, that's really incredible. There was another man that and that this is one I've heard of if you told him a date anytime forward or backward.

He could tell you instantly what day of the week it was whether it was the 1900s or day. He just had that memorized the most famous one. There's a man named Kim Peake. He's an American from Salt Lake City.

He spent he can speed read books in a few hours. He can recall any line from any of the 12 ,000 books he's ever read in his life. If you ask him what's on this page, which in this chapter he will read it out to you.

That's how good his brain is, right? But what's interesting about these people is people with this condition. They often need a caretaker for their entire life. They struggle with very simple tasks. A lot of them can't feed themselves.

A lot of them can't, you know, go to the bathroom unassisted. They have to have help shower. They like it. So they have extreme brilliance and they have an extreme handicap. This is as you can imagine it spawned the juxtaposition or combination of extreme intellect and serious handicaps.

This is really fascinating researchers for years. There's many articles and videos out there. If you go search savant syndrome, you'll see a lot about there. In the Old Testament, we see the story of the man who was a brilliant commander and an honorable man.

But his life was marred by a serious handicap namely namely leprosy and so we're gonna focus on that today. The story of Naaman in the Old Testament as I was looking at it. There's many similarities I believe with this his life in the process of justification believers life in my sermon today I want to catalog these similarities and uncover the gospel message that's being preached this narrative.

Something I've noticed I think and I there's a there's a book called the old became new or something or the the word became fresh. That talks with the Old Testament. Historical near historical books like Kings and Samuel I think are often the hardest to preach from.

I mean It's very easy to at least for me to preach from Romans or for second Peter when you get to the historical narrative. It's like how do I preach from this? It's a story. Law is easy to preach from poetry Gospels and the epistles, but when you get down to a historical narrative It's like what is the Lord trying to teach us here?

It really is. I really I struggle with it. I'm not sure. I'm sure other pastors do as well. You know the applications or commands in these books. They're not like they're given indirectly. It's not like where Roman says do not steal.

You know Hebrew says do not forsake assembling yourself together like the other books about was are clear. Historical books are a narrative and you have to draw biblical truth out of them. However, the narrative in the Old Testament.

They are just as important because the Bible says all the Bible is important for teaching preaching teaching reproof. Correction and training and righteousness. You have to put in more diligence to dig through the Old Testament narrative to find the application there but when you do God will reward you so there is the reward is equivalent like whether you read the Philippians and get something out quickly or the Old Testament have to dig more and it's still reward.

So don't give up on the historical books. Let's turn to second Kings 5. And I'm gonna read verses 1 through 12. Sorry. Oh, yes I think he's 5 starting in verse 1 in the read through 12 now Naaman captain of the army the king of Aram was a great man with his master and Highly respected because the by him the Lord had given victory to Aram.

This man was also a valiant warrior. But he was a leper. Now the Arameans had gone out in bands and taking captive a little girl from the land of Israel and she waited on name his wife. She said to her mistress.

I wish that my master were with the prophet who was in Samaria. Then he would cure him of leprosy. Naaman went in and she told and told his master saying thus thus and thus spoke the girl who's from the land of Israel.

The king of Aram said go now and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. He departed and took with him ten talents of silver six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes. He brought the letter to the king of Israel saying and now as this letter comes to you behold I have said name in my servant to you that you may cure him of his leprosy.

When the king of Israel heard this he tore his clothes and said I'm I God to kill and make alive. This man is sending word to cure a man of leprosy, but consider now he is seeking a quarrel against me.

It happened when Elijah the man of God heard the king of Israel had torn his clothes. He sent words the king saying why have you turned your clothes now? Let him come to me and he shall know there's a prophet in Israel.

So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elijah. Elisha sent a messenger a lot sent a messenger to him saying go and wash her in the Jordan seven times and your flesh will be Restored to you be clean.

But Naaman was furious and went away and said behold I thought surely he will come out to me and stand and call in the name of his God and wave his hand over me and cure me. Are Not the Abenash and the par for the rivers 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 my first point I'm gonna talk about today is number one is an intrepid soldier. Second Kings 5 1 says now Naaman commander of the army of Syria was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master.

Because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. In this first verse of second Kings We learned many important facts about Naaman. Naaman was a Syrian who commanded the army of the army of Syria.

The nation of Syria should not be confused with the Assyrians who conquered the northern kingdom in 721 BC the Assyrian Emperor the Assyrian Empire included Syria because they took over the world. They took over Syria, but Assyria the nation and Syria the nation are totally distinct.

The Assyrians came from modern-day Iraq while the nation of Syria. So if you think of the Assyrians you think of modern-day Iraq, that's the Assyrians the Syrians. Is a Canaanite nation that still exists the border of Israel like if you this capital Syria is still Damascus.

It's still right there. Switching back to our protagonists Naaman had experienced great success in battle. Which made him popular with his subordinates and the king. The Bible uses the superlatives great and honorable.

Which indicates that he was not just a man of X. He wasn't just an excellent leader. But he was a man of character as well. This is a rare combination in the pages as the pages of Scripture are Replete or there's many examples of leaders that had only one or two of these qualities.

Let's consider the case of David's general Joab, right? He was a superb military leader. Very good. But he was also rebellious and treacherous. He defied a direct order of David to kill Absalom and he deceitfully murdered his rival Emesa.

Because he thought he'd be a threat. He said well, I'm not gonna be replaced by a Mesa. So he killed him as well. On his deathbed David actually commanded Solomon. He said go back and kill Joab for what he did.

So he was a good commander. He was not a horrible man. Turning book to the book of Judges we find a military officer who was the antithesis of Joab. So Barack was a righteous man yet his refusal to go to battle without Deborah cost him a chance at greatness.

His courage rests on the presence of a woman. He wasn't just Deborah said God will go with you. That wasn't enough for him. He said I'll send Deborah with me. This flaw cost him a chance at greatness as God allowed JL to kill Sisera as punishment for his unbelief and cowardice.

And if you remember what Deborah says in that chapter She says I will go with you but because you're because of this the glory is gonna go to a woman which was a curse on him. The glory doesn't go to The commander.

The glory goes to woman because you didn't trust God. The author of Kings most likely Samuel most people say it. Samuel indicated the Lord had given Syria victory by him. The scriptures are not clear.

I don't think it's very clear here if this means by name and skill. Because he was a very talented general because the Lord was showing him favor. Because you know when God gives when God says the Babylon King I've given these people to your hands.

It doesn't matter how skillful they are. So either the Lord was with Naaman or he was a good commander or a combination of both. Regardless of God's reason though. It's clear that Naaman's military successes had greatly benefited his country and made him a favorite of the king.

Our verse said he found favor in the eyes of his master. This same language is frequently attributed to God throughout the pages of Scripture. Proverbs 15 3 says the eyes of the Lord are in every place keeping watch on the evil and good.

2nd Chronicles 69 says the eyes of the Lord roam through the earth so that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his. It's a great gift to be celebrated by the God-ordained leaders of your country.

That's that's quite a gift. However, finding favor in the eyes of God of universe is infinitely superior to that. God's favor is unalterable. It's everlasting and unlike the favor of men God's favor persists beyond the grave once Naaman died.

That was it but God's favor will fall you into eternity. God's favor is the only sure foundation for our souls like that is the foundation we're on. Finally Naaman. He was known as a man of valor. This was not a leader that cowered in the baggage while his men went out to fight.

He had gained the respect of his subordinates because he was a very intrepid man in the heat of battle. You know people lead by examples. If you think about you know famous generals throughout history, especially in the olden times.

They would be out there in the front leading Alexander great. He fought in front of his men. They said fight in the back. He said no I fight in the front. So he was a very brave man as well. He had a lot of advantages, but he had a very significant weakness.

He had a highly contagious skin disease called leprosy. Leprosy resulted to suffer being isolated or permanently separated from his friends and family. While the king of Syria could mitigate or solve some of the consequences of having leprosy.

The king of Syria could not cure the infection because leprosy is a disease only God can cure. My first application though is Sin is an incurable disease. Right, that's because that's how we apply this to us.

Leprosy was Naaman's condition. Sin is our condition. The word leprosy in the Old Testament actually did not refer to a single disease. But a collection of diseases, right? So if you read the Old Testament like Leviticus where they talk about the leprosy.

There's a lot of different symptoms because it's actually collection, right? But the main leprosy if you look at like how modern medicine defines leprosy, it's also called Hansen's disease. It's much more narrowly than that.

Leprosy is a specific strain of bacterial infection that attacks the patient's nervous system. So if you if you have leprosy, you'll lose feeling in your hands. You'll lose it in your feet all over. Without the ability to sense or feel pain.

You're gonna be susceptible to repeated injuries or unnoticed wind wounds. So lepers don't really die of their disease. Leprosy kills their nerves and they kill themselves. They cut off their finger without feeling it.

They burn their hand without knowing it because they don't have pain receptors anymore. You know you think of every time you have a wound or a cut you feel it. You don't pull away if you don't if you have leprosy you wouldn't.

This catching this disease in Old Testament times is basically a death sentence. Because there's no cure and the social isolation was inevitable since people would not associate the leper. They just wouldn't associate it.

The Mosaic law had very strict requirements that quarantine leprous people off from the rest of society. So numbers 5 -2 says command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and every Having a discharge and everyone who is unclean because of a dead person numbers 5 -2.

They said if you have a leper get out of the camp. Additionally when the leper was cleansed from his defilement He was required to be inspected by the priest and they had to make a series of offerings.

He had to make a grain offering had to make a burnt offering. He had to make a wave offering and then a sin offering to be pronounced clean. These instructions are all laid out in Leviticus 19 when Jesus cleansed the lepers in the Gospels.

What do you say? He said go show yourselves the priest and fulfill these Mosaic laws. Leviticus 19 says the priest shall make a sin offering and make atonement and then he shall kill the burnt offering and after that he shall Make a burnt offering the grain offer in the altar.

So the priest shall make an atonement for him. He shall be clean. It was not an easy process to be pronounced clean from leprosy. Verse 1 of 2nd Kings 5 ends with this phrase. It says but he was a leper.

That little little clause there pretty puts everything else in perspective. All these great accomplishments He had but he was a lover. This is an apt description of man's fallen nature. Sin has disfigured or deterpated destroyed the image of God a man to kind.

There's a wall between God and man and it's poisoned every relationship on this earth. This same thing could be written of every man and woman who's ever lived on this earth. She was an excellent wife and mother, but she was a sinner.

He was the smartest scientist in his field, but he was sinful Hurt his charity and kindness were an unmatched, but he could not achieve perfect righteousness. That's that's all of us. Sin is a you know, there's a word malediction.

Which means curse. Sin is just a curse it on all of us and it mars every faculty every faculty. We have all of our thoughts and feelings are marred by sin. The writer of Ecclesiastes in Hebrew. They call him the Cole if which can be translated the collector of sayings if you look at older commentaries.

They'll say the Cole of says so the word there means he collects a he's got him in a book. Here's a saying from his collection. He says dead flies putrefy the perfumers ointment and it causes it to give off a foul odor.

Sin sin is the dead fly that destroys the ointment of human endeavors. It just does if you throw the fly away. I mean if a fly touches your ointment and then you throw it away and pretend it didn't touch the ointment.

It doesn't erase the defilement that the fly was there and it matters not, you know in the same way. Sin affects everything we do. It doesn't matter if you're if your achievement is secular or sacred whether you become a pastor.

Whether you you know do stuff at home for your family. Everything you touch is defiled and the same way lepers the same way with lepers everything they touch. They'd spread their disease. That's why the Lord was so strict about them not touching stuff.

Our fallenness is like poisonous gourds. If you think later on in the book of Kings and Samuel the prophets are having a stew and someone throws poisonous gourds in that. Poisonous gourd poison that whole pot right.

And when it touches the pot the whole stew is corrupted whether your motive is good or bad. Death is still the result. Like if you if you think about those gourds in the pot you eat that stew you're gonna die unless the Lord saves you.

It's the Same for sin. Sin is mixing everything we do without a miracle from God. You're dead. This but the phenomenon, you know of sin mixing with everything is very vexing to God. Saints, you know I know you know this and I do too weren't able to worship God without constantly being harried or tempted.

Harried or tempted by the enemy within. I like this the Puritan prayer from the valley of vision. I forgot the title of this prayer, but I like this what it says here. It says this should be. I think this should be the heart cry of every true Christian.

He says I need to repent of my repentance. I need my tears to be washed. I have no robe to bring to cover my sin no loom to weave my own righteousness. I am always standing clothed in filthy garments and by grace.

I'm always receiving change of raiment for you always justify the ungodly. That's on page 136 and 47. If you look at how the scriptures are complete are complete. One complete message. Paul says something very similar in the epistles the Romans.

He says Oh wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death. That's the connection, you know going back and forth across the Bible our Internal corruption and leprosy they both have a dudded deadening or dulling effect on us.

Leprosy deadens the physical nerves which alerts us to pain or danger and an unrepentant sin. Stifles our conscience which warns us of eternal peril. It's the same way. It's imperative that we keep short accounts with God and we confess each day sin before it fades from our memory.

We should every day seek to confess the sins. We've sinned against God Jesus what Jesus said work in the daytime for a night is coming when no man can work. He said that in first in John 9 for in a similar manner We must form a habit of constant confession because the eternal age is almost upon us.

In the age that's to come. Confession is no longer needed. You don't need confession in heaven. You're fixed. Let the righteous be righteous still let the wicked be wicked still. There's no more need for that.

So now is the day of confession now is the day of repentance and Christians should be habitually repenting. Finally, you should avoid presumptuous sin against at all costs. Like we should really strive against those if you sin.

If you sin in ignorance or haste against God you sin against his law. But if you sin presumptuously against God you both sin against his law and you trample God's mercy under his feet. We should heed the test New Testament examples of Ananias and Sapphira.

Whose premeditated sin was met with instant judgment from God. JC Ryle says nothing darkens the eyes of the mind and nothing deadens the conscience more than a loud sin. That's what JC Ryle says. My second point is an unexpected.

Hope we're gonna go. Let's proceed to 2nd Kings 5. We'll read verses 2 and 3 again. And the Syrians had gone out on raids and brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman's wife.

Then she said to her mistress if only my master were with the Prophet who was in Samaria for he would heal him of his leprosy the capital of Syria Damascus. It only lies a hundred and thirty five one hundred and thirty four miles northeast of Jerusalem.

So in our terms, it's probably the distance from here to make it it's not that far. It's inevitable that conflict would spring up between these two nations because they're close. They're right next to each other.

Naaman's wife had slaves and she had servants. She was a woman who was married to a high-ranking officer. That was very common. You know Potiphar's wife also had slaves and servants. So as the lady of the most important general in the army, she would have lots of attendance.

The Bible records that one slave was a Jewish girl who had been captured in the Syrian raids on Israel as Commander of the army of Syria name was either directly or indirectly responsible for this girl's enslavement.

The Bible doesn't say, you know. Well the raid that separated the girl from her family or killed them it could have been led by Naaman. It could have been planned by Naaman or it received his approval for it started.

It's highly unlikely that He had no knowledge or input in this raid given his position the army of Syria when you plan an operation. It goes up to the highest level and the general sign off and then it goes down.

So name it had knowledge of the raid if maybe you didn't lead the raid himself, but he signed off on it, right? It would be this is not necessarily noteworthy that Naaman knew about it. But what is noteworthy is the girl showed a keen interest in the welfare of her mistress and master.

It would be very natural for her to harbor bitterness toward her captors or even celebrate the fact that he was afflicted with leprosy. I mean if you were in the girl's shoes, it would be very tempting for me.

I'd be like, well, he's got leprosy good. He deserves it. I'm a slave, right? But instead she felt compassion for Naaman and offered advice on how it could be cleansed from this infirmary infirmity. Most Bible translations.

They use the word Raiders bands of Raiders marauding bands in second Kings 5 Verse 2 to describe the guerrilla warfare that was waged by the Syrians against Israel. These units seem to have practiced what's called hit-and-run tactics.

It wasn't like they're marching full-scale force in Israel. They'd send small bands in raid take stuff and then leave. If you think about the Vikings the Vikings did something very similar. They come ashore steal a bunch of stuff, you know murder people take slaves and get out of there.

They never held land, right? Smaller units the reason they do that smaller units can escape the attention of the Israelites and would be less likely to provoke an all-out.

Outright war.

So if you send a small unit in a couple small units of the Vikings would you can say to them? Well, it wasn't us. It was these small bands. It wasn't like we declared war on you. These people just went right so.

The government of Syria could even disavow the acts of these bands it while secretly supporting their actions. So they could support them and let him go in there in Israel complained about it. Say well, I was a small band.

They're just robbers. They're not like necessarily fighters. As a fallen archangel Satan is incredibly intelligent and habitually he uses the exact same tactics against us in a Christian walk. Satan knows that a large temptation would provoke a visceral or immediate response from a justified soul.

So he's not gonna throw a large way if he knows you're being holy in your walk and you're really following God. He's not gonna send something larger way. He'll send a little small temptations to us because he knows maybe this one will slip under the radar and escape our notice.

If by God's grace we managed to intercept these bands then Satan starts in them and increasingly large numbers hoping to wear us down. What he tries to do is like he tries to cut you, you know, you've heard death by a thousand cuts.

That's what Satan does. I know it is this big temptation not going to take him if I send a thousand small ones that'll take him down. To be victorious over these small bands of sin. We must keep a continual watch over our souls with God's help.

We need wisdom and strength from above. We really do to discern these external temptations and effectively resist them when they assault us on mass. So we need the Lord's help to resist these small these small sins.

What was the root of the great relationship between a man's family and the slave girl? The first verse of the chapter states that the king viewed Naaman as an honorable man. Respected people I've noticed this in my life are usually characterized by an even-handedness.

They treat both their superiors and subordinates with kindness. So great leaders. They don't treat people below them terribly and people above them with deference. They treat everyone there. They're no respecter of persons.

God doesn't respect persons either should we? Certainly, this is a possible explanation here. But I don't think that's the main reason I believe the primary reason this slave girl. Well, she wasn't just ethnically Jewish.

I believe she was a child of God. That's why I think she felt this way toward him. Most Jewish people at that time were very familiar with Elisha and his ability to perform miracles. Fewer Jewish people would think that Elisha would have any interest in healing and in circumcised Idolater whose nation was a sworn enemy of Israel only a small minority of Israelites would tell their master about Elisha.

After being enslaved by Syria and forced to serve Naaman's family. That's a very small group of people this slave girl not only knew the abundant loving kindness of God. But her life shone with the mercy of God as the moon reflects the Sun.

She was separated from it separated by many generations. I believe this girl could still echo the words of her ancestor Joseph Joseph told his brothers in Genesis 50, but as for you you meant evil against me.

But God meant it for good and that's what was happening here as well. Although this slave girl lived before the New Testament era her heart upheld the same New Testament commands that were given regarding slave master relationships.

Thankfully, none of us are slaves today. That era is over. It's gone. That's good. I'm glad that but however, we are still commanded to show the same honor and respect to the earthly bosses which God places over us.

Colossians 3 says bond servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. Not with I service as man pleasers, but in sincerity of heart fearing God, that's Colossians 3 22. Second Timothy 6 says let as many in our bond servants under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor.

So the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemes. Also, it doesn't just talk about servants. It has the following to say about masters. It says in you masters do the same thing giving up threatening.

Knowing that you haven't your own master in heaven and there is no partiality with him. That's Ephesians 6 9. There's an organic continuity in the hearts of God's people that can be traced from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

That's the that's one of the you know, Jesus connects the Old New Testaments, but you can see the hearts of people as well. We don't we don't follow the Old Testament civil and ceremonial law anymore.

God abrogated that we don't have to go to the priest for leprosy. We don't have to you know participate in the temple feast anymore. But and we see our redemption clearly they saw it darkly. But we all must swim against the currents of a sinful world.

That's the same struggle we have just like the little girl the the slave girl had name is a we have the same thing as well loving our enemies practicing self-control putting pride to death. Praising God in trial and desiring eternal rewards over uncertain riches.

These are all hallmarks of God's elect. You will not have these in your life if you don't love the Lord, you know. The non-christian may fake them once in a while, but they're not going to keep this up their whole life.

The mask will drop someday because someday there will be a bigger idol than God and these things go by the wayside. Only a true Christian will persist in that the Bible is clear about that. That's how we know them by their fruits.

The natural man he cannot understand this frame of heart his heart is focused on the temporal horizon.

You know.

The temporal horizon is if you look out in the distance you see the spot where you can't see anymore. It's just a line. That's that's where they stop. They does not go beyond that, right? God's children will always be aliens in this world because the behaviors we practice go against their own self-interest.

People say why do you do that? That's not in your self-interest. Why do you do this? Why do you give time to God? Why do you keep away from this? There's nothing wrong with it. But because we don't we're not looking to the horizon.

We're looking past it. They're just looking here. When a heavenly mindset becomes your earthly culture. At that point, you know for certain that you have passed from death to life. That's how you tell.

I like what the the Puritan divine similar Rutherford said. He said if you were not strangers here, the hounds of this world would not bark at you, you know. You're a strange, you know dogs to bark. We don't know the dogs of this world.

They bark at Christians because you're not from here. They don't recognize you. The second application I want to talk about is undeserved favor. Presumably all of you would agree with me that this slave girl.

So it showed name in favor. That was not deserved. I mean if he did not deserve the favor to sleep. Grace is the theological term we use here. It's used to describe either a merited kindness or a merited favor.

God shows common grace every day to both believers and non-believers. When he sustains us when he provides for us when he protects us from harm. However, Naaman and his slave girl were both sinners who started out separated from God due to their sinful nature and actions.

How much greater is the favor that God has showed us though that are believers in the incarnation and death of his son Jesus Christ. Paul writes this in the letter to the Romans. He says for when we were still without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly for scarcely for a righteous man one will one die yet perhaps for a good woman man.

Someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners. Christ died for us this Jewish girl. She probably saw name as an honorable man who deserved to be healed from his leprosy.

Or she at least had some affinity for him or you know, she took time on him. But Jesus saw nothing lovely in us. There was nothing lovely in us to make God to bring our favor that way and yet he still became incarnate.

He lived a perfect life and he died for our redemption. Naaman's healing could bring this slave girl freedom riches and powerful connections. If he she got healed they could benefit her. She had nothing to lose and everything to gain when she made the suggestion.

However, when Jesus became incarnate he had everything to lose and he had nothing to gain. There's nothing Jesus gained from becoming incarnate as Almighty God. Jesus is self-sufficient. He doesn't gain anything from redeeming us from the slavery of sin his communion with the Trinity and the praise from the angels.

It negates the belief like he doesn't need our I mean, he likes our praises, but he's got people praising an alternative. He doesn't need that right imagine name and leaving his position his family. Home in Syria to go die in Israel that his slave girl might be free from leprosy.

Naaman's great sacrifice would just be a grain of sand on the everlasting seashore of Christ atonement. That's just one grain if they were to do that, which is a really strange thing to do. That's a single grain on the shore of the atonement that Christ did for us.

Name and desert desire to be healed from leprosy and was grateful for the advice from his slave. Jesus came to earth to die for those who were his enemies and they were how they treat Jesus. Gift apathy.

Idle curiosity. Outright hostility, right. Paul put this inspired truth in chapter 5 of his epistles to Romans. He said for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son much more.

Having been reconciled we shall be saved by his life. That's Romans 5 10. Finally this slave girl sought to save Damon's physical life from the scourge of leprosy. That's a worthy goal, right? But it's really all for naught if a healthy name in Returns to idolatry dies in his sin and which sentenced to eternal punishment hell.