FBC Morning Light – June 10, 2023

Naaman’s Leprosy and the Prophet in Samaria

Good Saturday morning, people of faith. We are in 2 Kings chapter 5 and we're going to be reading about the story of Naaman. Says in chapter 5 verse 1, Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king 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 a leper. And so Naaman, with all of his accomplishments, has a very serious health problem. He's a leper. And I don't know about you, but when I or a loved one, you know, like my wife or one of my children has a serious health problem, it becomes a very consuming thing that we want our loved one or ourself to be well.

And well, Naaman, in his different raids that he's done, has acquired a slave girl who is from Israel. And she says, If only my master, that is Naaman, were with the prophet who is in Samaria. That's talking about Elisha.

And so word gets back to Naaman that there's someone who can help in Israel, in Samaria, actually Elisha, the prophet. And so Naaman doesn't just drop everything and go straight to Elisha. He goes through some protocols here.

He goes first to his king and says, Hey, I want to get this done. So the king sends a letter to the king of Israel, the king of Israel gets the letter and he tears his clothes thinking that Syria is doing this because he can't help.

And so they're going to be upset and war is going to come about. And so then Elisha hears of this and says, Why is my king tearing his clothes like this? Send him to me. And so Naaman says, He departed and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothing.

So this is a lot of stuff. Ten changes of clothing. Don't think of don't think of that like, Oh, I've got two weeks worth of clothes. Ten changes of clothing. Clothing oftentimes in those days would last years and you would wear them multiple days.

This is not a we're not talking about a system of hygiene like we would today where we would regularly bathe on a daily or every other day basis. This is this is a situation where they would wear their clothes for many days at a time.

So ten changes of clothing is a lot. All right. So the king or I said the king had torn his clothes. And Elisha heard about it, tells him, tells the king, Hey, send Naaman to me. So in verse nine, it says,.

Naaman’s Pride and Elisha’s Command to Wash in the Jordan

Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha's house. All right. So Elisha has all of these things to give to or excuse me, Naaman has all these things to give to Elisha.

And he comes not just riding up on his horse, not just walking up to the door. He arrives in his chariot. He is going through all the pomp and circumstance to get this done the way he wants it done with giving the utmost respect to Elisha.

And Elisha doesn't even come to the door, but sends his servant out and tells him what to do. Go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh will be restored to you and you shall be clean. So Naaman is furious at how he's either how he's treated by Elisha not even coming to meet him or furious because it's just going to take a bath in cold water.

He's done this before. Why wouldn't the rivers in Syria have worked just fine? And so he leaves furious. And finally, one of his servants says to him, why not just go and do this? And so he does it. He goes and washes in the Jordan seven times.

He's cleaned and he comes back and tries to give things to Elisha and Elisha won't receive them. All right. So I want to focus for a minute in that story on Naaman's reaction. Why? Why get so upset? Why get so upset?

God’s Sovereignty Over Human Expectations

And I think of myself or others I've seen when God doesn't work the way we expect him to work. It's a loss of control. It's aggravating. It's frustrating. It's frustrating. God, I'm doing all the right things here, yet my health still fails me.

Or God, I'm doing all the right things here in the ministry and yet people aren't coming to church or you name it. When we think we've got this little scheme arranged where God has to respond, no, no, he doesn't.

He is still sovereign. He was sovereign in the servant girl being aware of who Elisha was and using that servant girl in her situation to inform Naaman of how to get healed. He was sovereign in how Naaman got healed by having to dip himself in the Jordan River seven times.

God remains sovereign over all of these things in your life, in my life, in Naaman's life and how he would or would not be healed. Now the end of the story with Naaman is that he did get healed and apparently became a believer at the same time.

And so understand this, in all of the things that we try and do, and yes, there are many things we should try and do for the Lord, God is sovereign and God will bring glory to himself. It may not be in the way you think it will be and it probably won't be, but today he will bring glory to himself.

Faithful Obedience and Prayer

Hopefully that is with us faithfully walking before him and following his precepts and his laws. Let's take a moment and pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the story of Naaman. May it be a blessing to us today and help us to understand your sovereignty just a little bit better through the story of Naaman.

It's in your son's name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.