The Evangelistic Little Girl and Naaman the War Hero — James Jennings

Reading 2 Kings 5 and Identifying the Characters

Go ahead and turn to 2 Kings 5. There are many ways I could title this message, but I'm going to call it the Evangelistic Little Girl and Our Powerful God. And what we're going to do is read the entire chapter just so it's all fresh in your minds.

And then we're going to go ahead and look at at least five characters in chronological order. And then in the end, I'm going to simply ask you a question. Which character most describes you this morning?

So let's read 2 Kings 5. Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and he was 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, he bespoke 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, 6 ,000 shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. They estimate that's at least a million bucks worth of stuff. 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 send word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.

But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king saying, Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.

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 he 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 Abnon and Parphar, 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. Then he returned to the man of God. He and all his company. And he came and he 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, Elisha, as the Lord lives before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. The 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.

In this matter, may the Lord pardon your servant. When my master goeth into the house of Rimnon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimnon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimnon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.

He said to him, go in peace. But when Naaman had gone from him a short distance, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said, see, my master spared this Naaman, the Syrian. And not accepting from his hand what he brought, as the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.

So Gehazi followed Naaman, and when Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and he said, is all well? And he said, all is well. My master has sent me to say, there have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets.

Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing. And Naaman said, be pleased to accept two talents. And he urged him and tied up two talents of silver and two bags with two changes of clothing and laid them on two of the servants.

And they carried them before Gehazi. And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand and put them in the house and he sent the men away and they departed. He went in and stood before his master.

And Elisha said to him, where have you been, Gehazi? And he said, your servant went nowhere. But he said to him, did not my heart go when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Was it a time to accept money and garments, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male servants and female servants?

Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever. So he went out from his presence a leper like snow. Let's pray. Father, please, would You help me to cover the material in the time we have.

Lord, give me grace. Be with my mouth, my mind. Lord, be with my hearers. We need You. Draw near to us. In Christ's name we seek Your help, Amen. So Naaman, the leper. And in the end, it's Gehazi, the leper.

Christ in the Story of Naaman

Luke 24 says our Old Testaments, Christ interpreted to His disciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. There are things in this chapter concerning Christ. Jeff, in the first hour, John 5 .46, Moses wrote of me.

This Old Testament has shadows and types that point to the fullness, the reality. And we want to gather from here some of those things. The Bible front to back is dealing with our relationship to God.

It's dealing with that. You go through the whole Bible, you find it's constantly dealing with our relationship to God. And in this chapter, we see characters introduced with things to imitate, things to flee from, and we see someone who is a leper get healed.

And in the same way, some of you here who don't know Christ this morning, you've got that leprosy of sin. You might not be going to Christ for some of the very same reasons Naaman gave. And I hope to tear those down that you will find cleansing today in the blood of the Lamb.

Naaman as the Lost Man

So first character we're going to look at is Naaman. And you could just say Naaman is the lost man. He is the lost man. And we see him in verse 1. How was this man viewed in the eyes of the world? Was he important?

Very, right? Great man with his Master. High favor. And was a mighty man of valor. He was great. But what was the one problem? What's the one but in his life? Everything would be perfect, but what? He's got leprosy.

He's a leper. And isn't that how it is in the world? You've got the Jeff Bezos who's the richest man in the world who's going through a divorce right now. You've got all these things, but there's this but.

But. Leprosy. But. Sin. Sin. And what's ironic is why was Naaman ultimately a great man? Who gave him victory in battle? The Lord! Look what it says. Because by Him, the Lord had given victory to Syria.

So the only reason He's even a great man is because the Lord took this man and gave Him victory. So even the great men in the world, the rich men, whoever is considered of high honor in the world, the only reason they're there is because God has set them there.

God has given them victory to put them in that position. As we know, nothing is perfect because of sin. Sin has entered the world. Death has entered the world. And here this man Naaman has leprosy. And just for a moment, let's think about leprosy.

It's called Hansen's disease today. But that leprosy in the Bible is a lot broader than what modern day leprosy is. And when we think about leprosy in the Bible, Leviticus 13, you'd see if a man was in Israel and he had disease, he was to walk around crying out what?

Unclean. Unclean. I mean, imagine leaving the building today and you see a guy walking through the parking lot in torn clothes. Torn clothes. The hair of his head is hanging loose. And he's covering his upper lip.

And he's saying, unclean, unclean, unclean. This is a shameful thing to have. We know of Uzziah, the king who disobeyed the Lord. He went in to offer incense and it says he was a leper and he lived in a separate house for he was excluded from the house of the Lord.

Leprosy excludes you. In leprosy, it damages the body. Answers in Genesis says some leprosy patients have had their fingers eaten by rats in their sleep because they were totally unaware of it happening.

The lack of pain receptors could not warn them of danger. It is a blessing to feel pain. I mean, imagine laying there at night and you don't have the pain receptors to feel that your hand is being eaten off by a rat.

But that's how every sinner is. They're laying there in their sin. Their conscience is being seared. They're losing sensitivity to what is right and wrong. False prophets are saying peace when there is no peace.

And they're just laying there being eaten by their sin and they don't even recognize it. What does leprosy point to? The physical, disfiguring, and rapid destructive power of leprosy is just a subtle picture of sin.

Just subtle. Sin is far more destructive. Sin's consequences is not the physical body dying. It's the body being cast into hell. So, Naaman was a great man, but he was a leper. And there are many men in the world who are great men, but they are sinners condemned by God, right?

And the healing of leprosy, what does that point to? We know Jesus said in Matthew 9 just about His healing, His miracles. He says, "...that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.".

He then said to the paralytic, rise, pick up your bed, and go home. As Jesus Christ came doing miracles, healing people, it's to tell this lost world Christ can do something greater than heal the body.

He can forgive you of all of your sin. And that is man's great problem, great leprosy. And we even see in v. 8 in our chapter, Elisha, the man of God, heard the king's words and his clothes. He sent to the king saying, why have you torn your clothes?

Let him come now to me that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel. So whether the Old Testament or the New Testament, it's about knowing that there is one true God and He has ultimately the power to heal of sin.

So, that's Naaman. We're going to look at him in a minute in another scene you could say. Naaman, this famous war hero, but he's a leper. What means does God use to lead to his leprosy being taken away?

How does He find out? How does He find out that you can even be healed of leprosy? A what? A little girl. What can a little girl do? Yeah, a lot more than you might expect. I was reading some book recently that was talking about a captain of a ship I think in the 1800's.

The boy was 12 years old. Twelve years old. This is amazing. Verse 2 is incredible. If you read it over, you miss the glory. So much glory is in verse 2. And I was telling my wife, we don't even know the little girl's name.

If we did, I said we would name a daughter after her. It doesn't get put there. Let's think of this little girl. I'm calling her the faith-filled evangelist. The faith-filled evangelist. How old is she?

I mean, the little there is not referring to height and stature. It seems referring to age. Some would say she's 10 years old. Look, whether she's 8, whether she's 10, whether she's 15, I can't tell you dogmatically, but she's a little girl.

Nonetheless, she's a little girl. A little damsel, as another version says. Now, let's look. How in God's providence did she end up at Naaman's house? How did she get there? Was it through a good event or a bad event?

Bad. Look at the text. The Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl. They had abducted a little girl. They kidnapped a little girl. I can't say these things dogmatically, but let's use our imagination for a moment.

Do you think this little girl was just out by herself? Or maybe one of these raids was upon a town she was in. I would suspect her being a little girl. She was around her family. What do you think happened to her family?

Probably killed. We've got to use our imagination. I don't know. Probably. They're doing these raids and killing and pillaging. And obviously, you take a little girl, what did she do? She became a servant.

Right? You don't take all the older people who are unmoldable. You kill them. You take the little ones who you can maybe mold and lead to go and worship your false gods, to comply. They can't defend themselves.

So this little girl was carried off, kidnapped, abducted. And John Piper has wrote a poem on this little girl. And it's chilling the imagination of how it could have went down. And again, we've got to use our imagination.

But I want to read what he wrote. This is written in the perspective of the little girl is now older and she's looking back and recalling the story to her granddaughter. I'm just going to read part of it.

Piper says this,. And then it came. They thundered through the eastern wilderness and slew. The men with swords, I saw your great-grandfather guard the little gate of our small house. It took ten men to bring my father down.

And then they burned the place. And one of them grabbed mother by the hair and him and threw her down the open well. They only wanted kids to sell for slaves, that's all. The rest they stabbed or chased away.

I kicked and bit and jabbed and broke loose long enough to yell and knocked the bucket down the well. Then something hit me on the head. I woke up in a Syrian bed. It's just one way to think about it.

It says this little girl was carried off. She was taken from her homeland to a foreign land. What a thing. What a thing. Now let's think about why we should be amazed about this little girl. I want to give you some reasons.

First is this, her faith survived a serious trial. And we see that. She's the one who tells Naaman about this prophet. That's it. Her faith is still there. Whatever happened, whether she lost her family or not, she's not there in the homeland.

She's been taken. And she still is believing in the Lord. And you know what makes this even more amazing? What was the general attitude in Israel at this point? Was it like a really stable generation of people believing God?

Just flip back to chapter 1. Look at chapter 1. It is dark. Verse 2, chapter 1. Now, Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria and lay sick. So he sent messengers telling them, go inquire of who?

Beelzebub! Not the Lord! The god of Ekron. Wait, what? Whether I shall recover from this sickness? But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, the Tishbite, arise, go up to meet the messengers of the city of Samaria and say to them, is it because there's no god in Israel that you're going to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron?

Now therefore, thus says the Lord, you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. Wow, that's the type of era she's in. So being in Israel really wouldn't have necessarily helped her faith because things are pretty dark there right now, right?

But here she's taken from that land, kidnapped, abducted, taken to a foreign land, and she's believing God. That is remarkable. Second, this little girl displays incredible love to her enemies. Naaman was the commander of the army of Syria.

Look, whether he was actually there when they carried her off, or whether it was his men on a raid carrying it off, he had some involvement. He's this commander. And obviously, he got her to be a servant in his house.

So he's got some connection. He's not some far distant person in the tragedy that this little girl endured to get all the way over to where she's at. And how did she treat Naaman? Did she hide the cure from Naaman?

She didn't. She loved her enemies. You could say it appears she's forgiven them. If she's sitting there with bitterness and unforgiveness towards Naaman for what had happened, do you think she's going to tell him about how to be cured of leprosy?

No way. So I think it's right to say there's forgiveness, not bitterness. And she didn't conceal this cure from Naaman. 1 Thessalonians 5 .15. See that you repay. No one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

Third thing about this little girl that should shock us. She as a servant, she had such a good testimony among the lost that they believed her words. She goes to Naaman's wife and she says about how to be cured of leprosy.

Go to Elisha, this prophet, and Naaman's wife doesn't look at her and say, oh, you foolish little girl. He actually takes heed to it, or she does, and goes to her husband. And how does the husband respond?

What an insult, honey! Why are you telling me what the little girl from Israel's saying? Does Naaman respond that way? No, he doesn't. He goes all the way to the king and he even mentions the little girl before the king.

So this girl's conduct among the Gentiles, as 1 Peter says, is pretty honorable. I think that's implied there. Think of this. Is what you say given that much credit? All you kids, there's stuff in here for you to think about.

Even as a little girl, can you go to someone else and say something and it be received with such credibility because of your life? A fourth thing, and this to me is the most remarkable. Don't miss this.

Don't miss this point, please. The fourth thing that should amaze us about this little girl is this. She confidently believed God to do a miracle of healing that had not occurred once in her entire generation.

Think of this. Were lepers being healed every month? No. You know how we know? Luke 4. Don't turn there. Let me read this. Luke 4 .27. And there were many lepers in Israel. So is it common? Are there many?

Yes. In the time of the prophet Elisha, there were many lepers. None of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. You catch that? The one single leper healed in this entire generation and era of Elisha was Naaman.

And what led to Naaman being cured was a little girl who had been kidnapped from Israel, endured the trial, believed God, and told Naaman confidently that he would be healed. Look at what she says. Verse 3, she said to her mistress, would that my Lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria.

Does it say he might cure him of his leprosy? He would. No hesitation. Utter confidence. And it wasn't like this was happening at all. That is incredible. Look, there are things in our generation that are not normative.

They're not happening on a normal pattern. Maybe whatever it is hasn't happened in the last 100 years. Well, that little girl's in the same spot. And she was in circumstances of a severe trial being taken from her family.

Her family probably killed. And she still believed God. And God heard her faith and healed this man. This is incredible. I was thinking about the testimony of Helen Rosevere. She was dealing with a dying premature baby who needed warmth.

But the hot water bottle they would have used to make a homespun incubator had burst. So they didn't have a hot water bottle. The girl's in trouble. A small girl at this orphanage prayed for God to send not only a hot water bottle, but a doll for the baby as well.

And what happened? A large partial arrived which had been sent from out of the country five months earlier. And it arrived on just the right day. And what did the girl ask? For a bottle? And that came a hot water bottle and she asked for a doll.

And guess what? A doll was in the bottom of that box as well. God heard that little girl and God heard this little girl. And isn't that so much of our problem? We're too mature for our own good and we lose the simplicity of faith in taking God at His Word.

God's Name, Mercy, and Use of the Weak

Now, I want to consider the next character and that is God. Think of this. Our God will act for His namesake. Imagine if Naaman went. Imagine if he went all the way to Syria and he gets to Elisha and Elisha just can't do anything.

And then Naaman goes all the way back and imagine that little girl standing there seeing him come back still a leper. How discouraging could that be? Does God put her to shame for believing Him? He doesn't.

The Lord, as it says in Matthew, He says, I will do it according to your faith. You believe God, He will act. As we see here. And for the sake of His name, the Lord is jealous for His namesake. Moses argued like that before the Lord.

Instead, this little girl who said He would cure him, at some point, she saw her Master come home, a cleansed man. And think of the encouragement of that for her faith. So, number one, our God will act for His namesake.

Number two, think of this, this shows our God is merciful. An Israelite of God's people was abducted by the Syrians. Her family no doubt slaughtered. And she is the one used of the Lord to not just lead Naaman to being healed of leprosy, but as I'm going to argue later, led to Naaman believing in the true God and worshiping Him.

That's merciful of the Lord. The Lord takes an Israelite, one of the chosen people as it is said there, and He takes them all the way over here to reach this lost person. Another thing we learn of our God, a third thing, is our God uses the weak.

The weak. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. Who gave the message to Naaman? A foreigner who was a little girl. Right? When Egypt is in dire trouble, who did they turn to? This famine is going to come upon.

They turned to a foreigner who was in prison. Right? Where's Christ come from? Jeff mentioned in the first hour, Christ growing up in Nazareth. What good is going to come from Nazareth? You see, the Lord uses the weak.

He uses the weak. But man and his pride is not... they're not listening. They're looking for other ways. So a fourth character, we've looked at Naaman, the lost man, the little girl, the evangelist. We've looked at our God.

Elisha as a Faithful Preacher

Now let's just consider Elisha the preacher. Elisha. In verses 8 -10, we've already read it. But when Elisha the man of God heard the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king saying, why have you torn your clothes?

Let him come to me that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel. Did Elisha have faith? He was not timid. Don't send the man here. God might not do something. He believed the Lord. Send him to me.

And why did you tear your clothes? Why, king, did you not point him to me initially? Did not the king know of Elisha? And he doesn't even direct him to him. Appears some unbelief there in this king. Both of these kings, they didn't have the answer.

Where did the answer come from? Did it come from the king of Israel? Did it come from the king of Syria? This little girl knew more than they did. Elisha was a very good preacher. Number one, he did not show this man special treatment and flatter his pride.

I mean, guys, imagine here. Look what it says. Okay, he took a million bucks basically. And where does it say it? In Chariots 7... no, 5? Where does it describe his entourage? I'm missing it. 9. Thank you.

So Naaman came with his horses. So horses, real expensive Escalades maybe. Chariots, limos. He stood at the door of Elisha's house. Just imagine with me here, you all who can see through that window, if you saw all these black painted cars, incredibly expensive, pulling up.

And then you saw this thing on the back with all these gold bricks. What would be our response? You know what Elisha's response is? Hey, Josh, can you go out there and just tell them, go to that river over there and wash and you'll be clean.

Didn't show special treatment. Didn't go out there and show honor to that man in any way different than he'd show honor to a little beggar. Because you know what? That would put a stumbling block before Naaman.

You go flatter a man's pride because he's important and he's coming to you for spiritual counsel, and you know about the money he has and you know about his position, and he showed up with this whole thing right there.

You don't want to get in the way. You want to be pointing people to the cure, to the Lord Jesus Christ, not get in the way. You know, the Bible, it shows us there's no special cases in the Bible. You could be the richest man in the world.

You could own the whole world. You're dead in your sins. There's one cure. You could own nothing in the world. There's one cure. Christ. That's it. And secondly, Elisha clearly was not seeing himself as important.

One problem people could have is when they're dealing with someone, they think they're an important factor of that person. No, we're just pointing to Christ. You think of the centurion. He said, Lord, I'm not worthy to have You come under my roof.

Only say the Word and my servant will be healed. And that's basically what Elisha did. He just said a word. Go down to the river and dip seven times and you will be cleansed. But how are some people? They're persistent.

You know, I've got to speak to Paul Washer. Paul Washer's got the answer. I've just got to get to him. I've got to see him face to face. And there that lesser known person is just telling them about Christ and they're not even hearing that person.

I've got to get to the big guys. If those big guys flatter that person because of how much they think they've got to get to them, it's going to hinder them from coming to Christ. They need to realize they're nothing.

They're not important. Elisha, thirdly, as mentioned, he didn't withhold healing from a foreigner. He was not like Jonah who didn't want the Ninevites to be saved. Fourth thing, Elisha displayed no greed and false motive.

That is very commendable. A man who probably was bringing a million bucks and did Elisha receive that? Multiple opportunities to do so and he rejected it each time. Elisha was not in this for the money.

Matthew 10, Jesus says, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, you receive without paying, give without pay. He did that. And Christ hadn't spoken those words, but he was in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ right there acting as Christ would.

A fifth thing, Elisha did not distort the message. Elisha saw, as we point out in verse 8, let him come now to me that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel. Elisha knew there's something more going on here than a man being healed of leprosy.

He needs to know that there's a prophet in Israel. He needs to see that our God is the true God. And Elisha didn't distort the message in that he did not change it based on Naaman being offended. Okay, let's move on here.

Time is racing by. Here a question is about Elisha. Last question about Elisha, this character. Why was Elisha this man of God that he was? What do you think? There's a verse in here, verse 16, look at this.

But he said, as the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none. Before whom I stand. We want to be men who live in the presence of God, the audience of one, realizing I'm always standing before God.

Look, God's in the room. You're not going to take money. And He's always there. He's omniscient. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere. He sees everything. This man was living in the fear of God. Just like Joseph in Genesis 39.

That's why he didn't sleep with Potiphar's wife. He knew God was there. That's why he didn't take the riches there. He knew God was there. He wanted to be pleasing to the Lord. So next character, Naaman.

Naaman's Pride and False Expectations

We're looking at Naaman again. And here he's the lost man who's got false views. Verses 9 -12, Naaman came with his horses, chariots. He stood at the door. And then we read what Elijah's servant says.

Verse 11, Naaman was angry. He went away. Look what he says. Verse 11. He says, Behold, I thought... I thought I was on my way there imagining how this all would fall out. How God would save. What the experience would look and feel like.

And guess what? I got there and it was different. And the feeling that I thought would come didn't come. Things didn't happen as I expected. This dramatic experience. Naaman had a false view of how God heals and saves.

Look, that's a big problem today. People have got a false view. They're like, Naaman, I thought it was going to look like this. I thought I was going to feel this. Holman Standard says, I was telling myself.

So Naaman is going there telling himself, this is how it's going to look. This is how it's going to feel. And when it didn't happen as he wanted it to happen, he went away angry in rage. Lost men have a plan that they expect God to save them by.

And when He doesn't do it their way, they refuse Him. You know, he brought money. He obviously was thinking about offering money. And then look at verse 12. It's like Naaman, he gets to the point where he recognizes, okay, I mean, I'm probably going to have to wash.

It's not going to be Elisha walking outside, waving his hand, but even there, verse 12, are not Abna and Pharphar, the rivers of Damascus, better? So he's thinking, all right, if I've got to wash, I'm not going to go in that river.

There's other rivers that are better. So it's like he still is stumbling over the message. This pride. What was it all rooted in? Pride. Proud man wants to share how they think God should save men and they want God to conform to their way.

Guess what? Is God going to conform to your way of salvation? Absolutely not. He's not going to. And men respond in anger and rage. I mean, you think of the rich young ruler. He went going before Christ, appearingly genuinely convicted, but Jesus said, one thing you lack, go sell all you have and follow Me.

And he went away sad. Why would he come to Him in the beginning? Probably he was thinking, maybe that won't be required of me. He had a thought. Maybe I won't have to forsake all to follow Jesus Christ.

And there are people in our generation who will tell you that. They can say you can hang on to all of the idols, love and worship them. Now I know some of you are thinking further on in this passage when I make that statement, but we'll look at that in a minute.

Pride. Jesus said, truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You've got to think simple-minded like a child. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11, I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led... your thoughts, that's what happened to Naaman, will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

The Gospel humbles pride. Man. It says Jesus says it's finished. He doesn't need you to do anything to add to the work of the atonement. He's done it all. The wedding feast, what does it say? Come, everything is what?

Ready, prepared. I don't need you to come and add something to it. It's all ready. Just come as you are. That's the Gospel call. And Christ will change you and you will not leave as you were. You will be new.

The way the ESV renders it, his servants say to him, has he actually said? Even as a Christian sometimes, let's just pause and think. Has Christ actually said? It's finished. I mean, that's incredible.

That is remarkable that it's all been done by our Messiah, the Chosen One, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see here in other characters, the servants of Naaman in v. 13. I mean, here Naaman turns away and goes enraged.

And it says his servants, not one, but it's plural. There's multiple servants. They came near and they said to him, my father, it is a great word that the prophet has spoken to you. Will you not do it?