2 Kings 5:1-19 Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable… 1. There is not a man or woman living, however happy or prosperous, in whose description sooner or later we do not come to a "but." There is always some drawback here, some drop in every cup that needs extraction, some thorn in every path to be removed. And even though this "but" were not in our health and circumstances, it is always in our nature. Leprosy is God's one great disease in the Bible to represent sin. It meant exclusion from the camp and distance from our fellowmen. Hideous and revolting in itself, it poisoned the springs of man's existence. Hence it strikingly represents that sin which is in man, and, in the absence of everything else, is the terrible "but" which mars and spoils the fairest earthly picture. Like man by nature, Naaman carried within him that disease which none but God could heal. 2. Contrast with this great man and honourable, the little maid. Torn away from her home and friends by rude hands, and probably amid the bitter tears of parental affection, she had been taken captive and sold as a slave. But amid all these discouraging circumstances she possessed a secret to which Naaman, with all his greatness, was a stranger. She knew of God and God's healing grace. Naaman felt the disease, she knew the healing. This made all the difference between her and Naaman. This makes all the difference between a Christian and one who is not. This makes the mighty difference between one man and another. 3. God disposes each lot in life. Naaman has his own peculiar sorrow, and so has the little maid hers. They are widely different. Yet God measures out to each one their position and circumstances, their blessings and afflictions, as will best show forth His glory. God had been leading her, through that strange way, to do for this great man and honourable what he could not do for himself, nor any one in the royal court of Benhadad. "The Lord had need of her" for this His great work. Before passing on, notice another truth. Nanman's heavy trial had no power to subdue his haughty spirit. Sorrow of itself can never sanctify. Men may pass through God's hottest furnaces and only come out harder than ever. It is only when the Holy Spirit uses our sorrows — when we put them into His hands to use — that they will ever be made a blessing to us. Let us learn again, from the difference between Naaman and this little maid, that inequalities of social position are divine, and are means of blessing. We have seen two characters here, both of them representative — Naaman and the little maid. Let us now look at a third — Benhadad, King of Syria. In him we have man in his loftiness and arrogance. Nothing can be done, he feels, but through him. He prepares his litter, his gold and silver and raiment. All this is worldly religion — man's proud thoughts about God's ways. And yet all he does is but "labour lost." There is yet another character — Joram, King of Israel. Here is a man who knows about the true God, knows the revelation of His will, knows of the true Elisha at his very door, and yet, with all this knowledge, unable to take his true place and act God's part in directing the poor leper to the healer in Israel. Here is the man of religion, of true religion, of many privileges above others around him, yet all lost, and he utterly unable to direct the diseased one to the saviour prophet! 4. Let us now turn to the saviour prophet, Elisha, and his dealing with the poor leper. The King of Syria prepares a great price — £7500 value of our money. Naaman sets out with it on his journey, and King Jehoram acquiesces m it. Thus the idea of each is that the healing is to be obtained by a price. It is the latent thought of every man by nature. "Without money and without price" is God's Word, and this narrative of the healing of Naaman, and Elisha's dealings with him, are an illustration of this. And what is Elisha's message? "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean." How simple, how plain! Then what am I to do with the £7500 and the raiment? Has it no value? None whatever in the eyes of Elisha. None whatever before God. Take it back with thee as the dregs of the sinner's righteousness, and learn that all thou art to receive, all that is to set thee free from sin and death and make thee a new creature in Christ Jesus, is of the free sovereign grace of God. Thus we see the pride of the natural heart. "Are not Abana and Pharpar better?" Here is the leper taking his own way of healing, and regarding it as better than God's. "He turned and went away in a rage." Here is the despising of God s remedy and the enmity of the natural heart showing itself. And Naaman was right. Abana's waters were clear and beautiful. Jordan's were clayey and muddy. There was nothing for Sight in all this. It was only for faith. It was God choosing the base things of this world to bring to nought the mighty. Is it not so still? "What is this blood of Christ?" the sinner says. "What! are all my prayers, my good deeds, my sacraments, all my honest efforts to do my best and to please God to go for nothing? But the grace that can provide for a leprous soul can plead with a reluctant heart. It can use a ministry as well as open a fountain; and this ministry is, like the remedy, simple and artless, and exactly suited to its end, for one is divine as the other. Like the "little maid" before, it is the "servants" now, for such are God's means at all times. Human righteousness and greatness, and all nature's fond conceits are set aside completely. 5. Observe the effects of the healing. the form in which it was manifested: "his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child." This is the new birth. It is put before us m this form in other parts of Scripture: "if there be a Mediator with him, the One above the thousands of angels to show man (God's) righteousness, then He is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found the ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth" (Job 33:23, 24). Here the same truth is brought before us. Again we have it in the New Testament: "Except a man be born from above he cannot enter the kingdom of God." "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new." 6. Observe, in the next place, the manifestation of this new nature in the conduct of Naaman. From this point it is seen there is a great change in him. His spirit, his tone, his language, his whole bearing seems from this moment to form a striking contrast to all that has gone before, so much so that, had his name not been mentioned, we should have said it could not possibly be the same man. "And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him, and he said: Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant." Observe the fruits of the new nature here, in their order. Naaman stands with all his company before Elisha. It is not now the proud and haughty Naaman, but the subdued and humbled one. Here is the first-fruit of the Holy Spirit in his character. He was humble because he was washed. Secondly, he makes a goodly confession of the one and only God. He had learnt the true God through the virtue of His grace exerted on himself — through the health and salvation he had received from Him. This is the only way the soul can ever learn Him. Thirdly, he presses his gifts upon Elisha, not now to purchase the healing, but because he has been healed. He has been forgiven much, therefore he loves much. Fourthly, he "will henceforth know no other God." To this end he seeks materials to raise an altar to the true God. And fifthly, he has now a renewed conscience, quick and sensitive about any, even apparent, departure from the God who had so blessed him. (F. Whitfield, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. |
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