The scene changes. During the apostasy of the nation, Elisha is occupied with the Gentiles and becomes the means of their salvation and purification. If 2 Kings 2 is like the typical summary of all the future history of Israel, let us never lose sight of the fact that the following episodes, so full of present interest for our hearts and our consciences, are at the same time “prophetic writings” whose typical application is not to be neglected. At the proper time, when the Spirit of prophecy shall have regathered the faithful remnant of Israel around the name of the Messiah, the Gentiles, represented here by Naaman, will be forced to seek out the people of God whom they have oppressed. They will have no other resource than the God of Israel, in order to be healed of their leprosy and their uncleanness. The believers of the end times, these captives of the nations, like the little maid of Israel of whom our chapter speaks, will show them the way of healing, directing them to the prophet, to the oracles of God given to the people, causing them to know the Lord, the God of Israel, as their only means of salvation. This great prophetic event is presented to us in this type of one man —Naaman —just as previously, at the conquest of Jericho, one woman—Rahab—was the type of the Gentiles being taken up among the people of God. The reason for this is that this subject is still being unveiled but incidentally and mysteriously, so to speak, in the history of the people of Israel and its kings. Later the prophets will fully develop this subject. At the moment it is being interwoven into its place in the account of Elisha’s career. The future role of the Gentiles being but mentioned here, we will not further dwell upon it.
Now let us take up again in detail this history which is so often commented upon, so precious for presenting the gospel to our souls, but in which we shall apply ourselves to bringing out the truths which have struck us personally.
“And Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man before his master, and honorable, for by him Jehovah had given deliverance to Syria; and he was a mighty man of valor, but a leper.” Naaman was a hero by the world’s standards; his outstanding qualities had gained him a name among men. Men erect statues in honor of those who excel. He was highly esteemed by his king and enjoyed the respect of his people. His valor and strength were known by all; even more, he had been a providential instrument in the hands of the Lord as liberator of his nation. What did he lack? Nothing, the world would say; everything, replies the believer. Man’s most remarkable gifts, the highest position he can obtain, the greatest advantages to which he can aspire, are ruined, made void, by one single thing—sin. This man was a leper; his person bore evident uncleanness. What did the insignia of his dignity, all the outward glory of his power, serve to do, save to bring into relief the abject depth to which his illness had plunged him. Magnificent garments upon a cadaver only bring into relief the corruption they cover. Could he have a moment of satisfaction with the leprosy which was consuming his flesh and condemning him, in the end, to a sure death. Happy those who, like Naaman, are conscious of their state before God. Too often men are content to hide themselves from themselves and from others by covering their impurity with filthy rags, and thus they go on, closing their eyes to their condition as they press on to their inexorable fate.
What a contrast between the little maid of Israel (2 Kings 5:22And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. (2 Kings 5:2)) and this man! A poor, insignificant being in the eyes of the world, separated from those who by nature would support her, and from all the blessing belonging to God’s people, captive and a slave of Naaman’s wife, standing in this humble position before her mistress, whereas he could lift up his head with pride before his king! What did this child have then? The world says, Nothing; the believer answers, Everything. She knew the prophet and the power of the Word of God which was in His mouth. “Oh, would,” she says, “that my lord were before the prophet that is in Samaria!” Does she complain about her lot? She does not even think about it. She possesses a treasure which it is her happiness to communicate. Her faith knows no uncertainty. This is always the character of faith. If Naaman could be put into contact with the prophet, she knows “he would cure him of his leprosy?’ The child is a true evangelist. The evangelist cannot save a sinner, but he can show him the way of salvation; he interests himself in the sinner’s lot, and love is his motive in acting. He does not think of himself, however despised his own circumstances may be, but possessing a well-being he esteems above all else, he understands the misery of others and with thorough conviction offers them that which can make them blessed. “I would to God:” said the Apostle Paul to King Agrippa, “that... thou... should become such as I also am, except these bonds.”
Much more even than this little maid whom He was using, God Himself was interested in Naaman. Had He not used him even without his knowledge to accomplish His purposes? Only until now Naaman did not know God; therefore he will have everything to learn. But the child’s words found an echo in his heart, answering to his secret misery, awakening a desire of which he was perhaps barely aware, though not unaware of his condition. His first thought now is to address himself to his lord, who might know how to open the path of deliverance to him.
“Well! go, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel,” said the king of Syria. This monarch, a complete stranger to the divine resources, wants to treat the salvation of his servant as a matter between one king and another, a striking example of the world’s lack of intelligence. It does not ever occur to him that God can do something; as he is without God in the world, his only resource is men. The letter he writes to the king of Israel shows this: “Behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest cure him of his leprosy” (2 Kings 5:66And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. (2 Kings 5:6)).
Naaman himself is completely ignorant of the means by which he may be healed: “He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of raiment:” There is nothing astonishing in all this, coming from an idolatrous Gentile, but what shall we say of the king of Israel, as foreign as those of the nations to the resources within his reach in his kingdom? Jehoram, as we have seen, had a sort of national religion which, while it was not the religion of Baal, was worth little more than that was. The religion of the true God had no more hold upon his conscience than it had upon his colleague in Syria. Elisha paid no attention to him, and had let him know this at an earlier occasion (2 Kings 3:1414And Elisha said, As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. (2 Kings 3:14)). Jehoram reads the letter, rends his garments, and cries out: “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to cure a man of his leprosy?” God had His hand in this, and put into the mouth of this impious king the testimony that He who kills and who makes alive, God alone, can accomplish such a work. And really, what can man do against the power of death, or what can he do to give life? The proof that the Lord possessed both these powers had already been given in the midst of Israel: the Shunammite had come to know Him in these two characters by means of the great prophet Elisha. It is the same today. This world has been the theater of the power which has abolished death, the consequence of sin, and which has communicated life in resurrection by the Man sent from heaven for this purpose.
No more than the king of Syria, does this poor king of Israel know how to direct Naaman to the prophet who had done such great things in his own land. A little slave girl knows much more than he. She took an interest in Naaman, which Jehoram could not do; sympathizing with his miserable condition, to which the king was indifferent, she knew the resource, ignored by the king who nevertheless had it within his reach.
Elisha learns that the king had rent his clothes as a sign of his despair. It is then, and not before, that God intervenes, for in order to manifest His glory, He wants man’s helplessness to be undeniably established. “Why hast thou rent thy garments? let him come now to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel—a word suited to reach the king’s conscience and condemn him. Did he know to whom he should direct Naaman? Did he doubt that there was a prophet in Israel, and was he not responsible for this ignorance? His lifeless profession exposed him to the judgment of God more than did the ignorance of Syria’s idolatrous monarch. But the prophet’s word reaches another besides this king, giving the knowledge of the true God to an unhappy man who does not know Him and who will find salvation with Him. His word condemned the king of Israel and brought grace to Naaman. “He shall know;” said Elisha.
This great man knew nothing as yet. He comes to the prophet “with his horses and with his chariot;” witnesses to the power of man, and stands there “at the doorway of the house of Elisha,” expecting from the signs of that deference to which he was entitled according to the world. But neither his power nor his dignity nor his merits have any value when it comes to entering into relationship with God, and that is the first lesson he must learn.
“And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean”(2 Kings 5:1010And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. (2 Kings 5:10)). Instead of coming in person, the prophet sent a messenger to him; it is the same today with the written Word. This message is fully sufficient to heal the leper. The Word, being the revelation of all the thoughts of God, contains a thousand things other than this message; but this message, addressed to sinful man, contains but one thing, and that the most elementary —the remedy for sin —and there is no other. “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times:” This command reduces all Naaman’s thoughts down to nothing. He becomes angry and goes away—but a little more and he would have returned to his land as leprous as when he left it. He had thought that the prophet would do great things for the captain of the Syrian army: “He will certainly come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper.” How many consecutive acts would he not perform according to Naaman, in order to reach the desired result! Nothing of the kind; the message is one of greatest simplicity. The prophet does not need to come in person; his word has the same value as himself, for it is the Word of God. And much more, the remedy is not to be sought; it exists. It is the river of the land of Canaan, whose virtue is ever flowing without interruption, and which is at the disposal of a leper who goes down into it. Naaman thought, “The prophet will do”; Elisha sends to tell him, “God has done.” “Go and wash thyself.” He appeals to nothing but faith. Naaman must believe what God has told him. Is it because this thing is understandable? It is not. Because it is possible? No more so —but because God has said it! This overthrows men’s ideas about salvation. Was it not so when Jesus said to the man born blind, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam”?
What is this Jordan, then, in which one is purified, and where one acquires new birth, as it were? We have seen in the course of our meditations that Jordan is death, but death with Christ, through which we must pass to be delivered from sin. All the fullness of this death (washing seven times) must be applied to us to this end; we must find in it the end of ourselves, so that we can say with the apostle: “I am crucified with Christ.” Naaman wanted something else, but if God had done as Naaman had thought, He would have given credit to a leper. Behold then a salvation toward which ten talents of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, ten changes of raiment, and all the dignities that this great captain could bring had less value than a single mite —a salvation fully prepared, to acquire which only the obedience of faith was necessary.
Death! —but, says Naaman, there are the rivers of Damascus, the Abanah and the Pharpar; are they not better than the Jordan? No, death which does not flow in the land of God’s promises is powerless to purify the sinner. Far from being his deliverance, it would be his condemnation, for it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment. The Jordan is not a type of that death, but of the death of Christ, of our death borne by Him to deliver us, and which we will never have to undergo. And it is our death, too, for as we are united to Him in His death, so are we in His resurrection.
Only a bit more and this unhappy man’s fate would have been irremediably fixed. Scripture tells us twice that he turned and went away in anger. But God, who had directed everything up to this point, wanted to save him. He uses the exhortation of Naaman’s servants to this end. Their word is right: God might order us to do great things, and if we, like Naaman, have an ardent desire to be delivered, would we not do them? but these are of no value to Him. He is pleased to make Himself known by things that are base and despised, and things which are not, in order to bring to naught the things which are. This is the weakness of the cross, but it is the power of God!
As soon as Naaman had experienced this power by simple faith in the divine word, thankfulness brought him before the prophet. He is now put into direct relation, no longer with the work, but with the Person who has accomplished it; he is brought to God. “Behold,” he says, “I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.” He knows God, and let us observe, he knows Him at a time and in a sphere where all on man’s part is in ruin. Everything in Israel’s history had changed, but not God; His power and His resources are as intact as in the most prosperous times. Naaman’s faith recognizes the God of Israel when Israel itself is disregarding Him. He draws near and desires to give Him something, to offer Him a present. This is the devotion of a heart that understands that he owes everything to the God who has delivered him. But despite his insistence, the prophet refuses. In the beginning, Naaman had wanted to give in order to receive; now he wants to give because he has received, but that may not be. He must learn that when God gives, it is to give again, for His riches are inexhaustible. His work being entirely free, He does not allow anything which might even have the appearance of attributing another character to Himself. Naaman, enlightened by faith, understands this very quickly. “If not, then let there, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules’ burden of this earth; for thy servant will no more offer burnt-offering and sacrifice to other gods, but to Jehovah.” He requests a small thing, but one of great importance to himself, a gift well consistent with the one he had received, for God had proposed to him a little thing which had procured for him a great salvation! Being unable to remain in Canaan, he wants to carry away with him just enough of the land of promise to raise an altar for sacrifice and to establish the worship of the true God. In this “two mules’ burden” he takes Canaan with him and finds there a place for worship and adoration, for the world, far from God, does not offer him the least place where true worship may be rendered. Thus God will be as “a little sanctuary” to him. It is the same today for God’s children gathered at the Lord’s Table; although left in the world, they may realize heaven, their Canaan, their altar, the reminder of sacrifice, and they may worship. It was in this that Naaman could at least render something to God; it is in this that we offer the fruit of our lips, blessing His name.
Nevertheless Naaman is not yet delivered from his every question. “In this thing Jehovah pardon thy servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to bow down there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, Jehovah pardon Thy servant, I pray Thee, in this thing:” The believer’s life cannot be without progress nor work of the conscience; he rightly feels his weakness in reference to the world and how much he may dishonor God by his inconsistency and the difficulty of his position. We do not find great faith here, no doubt, but there is uprightness of heart in this new convert. He must learn that the difficulties he anticipates do not exist for God and, as far as his conduct is concerned, the Lord would watch over him, daily supplying him the light needed for every step. It is a matter of faith. God does not instruct us ahead of time concerning every difficulty we will meet. Often what seems an inevitable obstacle to us, disappears before us; it is for God to direct the circumstances, and there is not such circumstance that can overcome simple and dependent faith. “Go in peace, “ the prophet says to him. Do not preoccupy yourself with this matter; do not let yourself be robbed of your joy by the thought of what may happen to you. God is powerful to provide for everything. What is important today is that you go in peace, with no question between yourself and the God who has saved you. Leave tomorrow’s task to tomorrow. What divine wisdom, what comfort for the soul in this simple answer: “Go in peace:”
Scarcely has Naaman received salvation, the knowledge of the true God, and peace, than the enemy goes to work to destroy that which God has built. The instrument he uses is Gehazi, the prophet’s own servant. Odious character! This man, then, had learned nothing in his master’s school! This latter’s example had produced no fruit in his heart! He had accompanied Elisha just as Elisha had previously accompanied Elijah, rendering similar services to him. In this path of devotion and self-sacrifice Elisha had found communion with God, knowledge, power, and a double measure of the Holy Spirit. And Gehazi? Notwithstanding, his master had used him as an instrument for the blessing of the Shunammite, even introducing him to the intimacy of his counsel with regard to the good he desired to do to this woman; he had borne Elisha’s staff, had witnessed the child’s resurrection, had prepared the prophet’s feast, had served as an intermediary to feed the people, as later the disciples of Jesus also did. All this was forgotten for the same motives that impelled Judas to betray the Lord. The interests of the world, cupidity, avarice, had laid hold of him. Until then, as he had had to do mainly with the poor, his lusts had not been stirred up by the temptation of riches, but the sight of this high-ranking person and of the treasures he offered so freely became the starting-point, or rather the manifestation, of things until that day hidden in the recesses of his heart. To all the preceding blessings, and to those which would necessarily have followed these first ones, (for God never fails, when we are faithful, to grant us an overabundance of spiritual riches), to all these things he preferred money —riches —without for one moment thinking that his lust would draw down divine judgment upon himself.
But this is not even the most serious aspect of his conduct. He ventures to dishonor the character of God, whom the prophet represents in the eyes of this new believer, still inexperienced and overjoyed with his healing. Every Christian concerned for the glory of Christ will feel this aspect deeply as the most odious aspect of Gehazi’s act. It compromised the servant of the Lord and compromised also the free grace of God; it might, had it been the sole thing involved, have brought this newborn babe back to the legal thought of obligation, of a yoke of slavery, taking away from him the free joy of his salvation. Gehazi preferred the seduction of riches to the eternal well-being of a soul; he is one of those who offend one of these little ones and of whom it is said, “It were profitable for him that a great millstone had been hanged upon his neck and he be sunk in the depths of the sea.” Are we adequately considering that the worldliness of our walk may do irremediable harm to these little ones in the faith? How this thought should cause us to give heed to all our conduct!
“Behold, my master has spared Naaman, this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought; but as Jehovah liveth, I will run after him and take somewhat of him:” This wretched man calls upon the name of the Lord to possess himself of riches, using the very same words that his master had used (2 Kings 5:1616But he said, As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused. (2 Kings 5:16)) to refuse them. He lies in order to appropriate the goods of another. But should any doubt have been raised in Naaman’s heart as to Elisha’s personal selflessness or the free character of the gift of God, God shows that He is concerned about spiritual babes, and this disastrous result is not produced. Gehazi’s cupidity and lying, on the contrary, bring out the generosity of Naaman and his desire to serve the family of God, the sons of the prophets. “Consent to take two talents:” he says to Gehazi — more than twelve thousand United States dollars at the time of translation of this volume. Gehazi hides all these riches; this dissimulation before men is a result of a bad conscience engaged in a devious way, but will he succeed in hiding this before God?
Gehazi “entered in and stood before his master;” as Naaman had stood before Elisha (2 Kings 5:1515And 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. (2 Kings 5:15)), as Elisha himself stood before God (2 Kings 5:1616But he said, As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused. (2 Kings 5:16)). What audacity beyond description — if he was the least bit conscious that he was known and scrutinized by the Lord. He had neither felt nor realized that from a distance the prophet’s eyes had followed his every movement and observed his thoughts. And much more! Elisha’s heart had gone with him, “when the man turned again from his chariot.” What was more important than all else to the heart of the man of God was the danger run by the soul of the man who had just departed from him in peace. We may conclude that if his heart went with Gehazi, it was because he had ardently besought the Lord to preserve this newborn babe in the faith. His prayers had been answered.
And now, turning to Gehazi, he addresses these solemn words to him: “Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and bondmen, and bondwomen?” Yes, was it the time, amid the ruin of Israel, when already the final judgment hung suspended over the people; was it the time, at the eve of the destruction of this nation, to acquire something for oneself? Was that then the character which a servant of the Lord ought to be bearing? A solemn question which also addresses itself to our consciences, for today the ruin of Christendom corresponds to the time of the ruin of Israel. If we realize this fact, what manner of men will we be in holy conduct, selfless as Elisha, in order that the liberality of the gift of God be not diminished, and like him, knowing the times and not acquiring advantages in the world, because we know that the end of all things is at hand.
Gehazi’s judgment does not wait: “But the leprosy of Naaman shall fasten upon thee, and upon thy seed forever”(2 Kings 5:2727The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow. (2 Kings 5:27)). It is Naaman’s leprosy! The impurity of the flesh which had characterized that idolatrous man, stranger to God, is the same impurity which the Lord placed upon the prophet’s unfaithful servant. There is no difference between them. The horror of sin is not mitigated by the fact that one might belong to the people of Israel, that one might have a position of nearness and of special relationship with the Lord while being far from Him morally. It is the same for the lifeless Christian profession. Instead of blessing him, God marks him, so to speak, with his abhorrence, and all his seed is defiled thereby.