(Read 2 Kings 5)
THE lessons we may learn from this chapter are endless, but one point I draw your attention to is this—the way in which God regards the actions of men. Here you have, in contrast, a faithful, disinterested little maid-servant, and a selfish, lying man-servant. The little maid-servant was used of God in blessing to her master; but the lying, grasping Gehazi—that dared, in God’s name, to traffic in money, and play with the things of God, for his own advantage—goes out under the curse of God.
The action of the little servant maid is very beautiful, and ought to encourage any young converted servant. I hear such a one perhaps say, “I live with an unconverted master.” Win him for God. You have the opportunity. She got her master blessed, and his case was very bad. Her interest in him eventually led to the king’s command which resulted in
NAAMAN’S FIRST VISIT TO JORDAN.
He was a splendid man, Nauman, and was, as men would say, commander-in-chief of the armies of Syria. We read, “Now Nauman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valor; but he was a leper” (vs. 1). He was a grand, all-round man of the world, had got to the top of the tree, and doubtless scores of people envied him the place he had with his master, but there was something that spoiled it all. That little “but”— how much it contained. “But he was a leper.”
Now, my reader, whatever you have, whatever you may be in this world, if you are still in the condition which, all through Scripture, is most strikingly typified by leprosy, your case is very similar. You may have been fortune’s favorite, but that is only for time, is all transient and passing, and does not satisfy. The only satisfied heart is the one that has Christ. He does satisfy to the very full the heart that knows Him. But you will never get satisfied with Christ till you learn who He is, and what He has done. He came here to make God known, and to bring the love of God into men’s hearts. He could not do that, however, save through the cross—i.e., His death—of which Jordan is the figure, in one aspect.
Leprosy is an awful and a very repulsive disease; it eats up its victim bit by bit. It is a canker that spoils everything. There is only one disease worse on God’s earth, and that is SIN. Forget not that you are a sinner; sin has cut you off from God; sin has put you at a distance from Him; and sin will yet put you into the lake of fire, if it be not cleansed away. No matter what your outward life may have been, if the question of your sin is not settled, according to the claims of God’s righteous and holy nature, yours is a sad case. I implore you to get it settled without delay. If you are serious you will.
God be thanked if you have begun to think seriously of your condition as a sinner. If you have not, the day is coming, and coming quickly, when you will think, but alas, too late, because if you do not now, in the day of God’s grace and salvation, face the truth of your lost estate, you will find it out when too late to get your condition met and amended. You possibly think that you have a long life before you. Are you ready if God snapped the thread of your life this night? Where would you spend eternity?
First of all, face the fact that you are a sinner, that sentence of death is upon you, and after death comes judgment. That means the lake of fire for any one who dies in his sins, for he can by no possibility get rid of them then. Nothing will meet your case but the blood of Christ. You must know Him, therefore face the fact that you are spiritually a leper before God.
Sin is the creature doing his own will, and there is no one but must confess, I have done my own will; hence I have sinned, and “the wages of sin is death.” God always pays sin’s wages to the last farthing. “Then there is no hope for me,” you say. Indeed there is, thank God. You can get blessing in the same way I got it. The wages due to me have been paid to another, and I am free, and what I have I want to share with you. There is nothing like the knowledge of Christ. Oh, that you might know Him now! If you have been burdened with your sin all the better.
You very likely will say, “People cannot get saved in a hurry; I do not believe in sudden conversion.” No, because you are not converted. If you are anxious you will get saved. Naaman wanted to be cured, but he did not know how. He tried all sorts of doctors, I have no doubt, and spent a lot of money trying to get himself healed. That he was in downright earnest to get cured of his malady there is no doubt, for he took a very long journey under a burning sun, and carried, as a fee for his cure, thousands of gold, besides silver and raiment. He was in downright, red-hot earnest to get cured. Would to God you were. If you had only half the earnestness Naaman had, you would get cured also.
There was another earnest person in Naaman’s house—the little captive maid. God records of her: “And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy” (vs. 3). She was a captive, not one who could give up her place at will. She belonged to Naaman and his wife, and manifestly she took a deep interest in her master and mistress. There was something about this man that won the solicitude of the little maid, and she is not content till her master is healed. She knew he was all wrong. God knows you are all wrong; the devil knows you are all wrong; perhaps you scarcely admit it to yourself. Tell me, would you not like to be all right? Only Jesus Himself can put you right—will you come to Him?
The little maid said, I know the person who can cure my master, and I ‘know the place where he can be found too. “Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy” (vs. 3). She was certain of the result of a visit to Elisha. I too know the Person who can save and heal you. His name is Jesus. Where now is God’s Prophet? He is not in Somalia. He is in the Father’s house, and in Acts 3 from the lips of Peter, and in Acts 7 from the lips of Stephen, there comes the testimony that Moses said, “A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people” (Acts 3:22, 2322For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. 23And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. (Acts 3:22‑23)). “This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear” (7:37). God has put His Prophet—Jesus—into heaven, and declares absolutely that the person that will not listen to His Prophet shall be destroyed. You say, That is very serious. You are right, but, thank God, I can tell you something more—if you come to and listen to that blessed Jesus now, you will find that He is not only a Prophet, but a Saviour, who can meet your case, blot out your sins, and save your soul just where you are this very hour. I wish with all my heart I could get you to the feet of Jesus. Faith will carry you where He is The gospel the little maid preached in Naaman’s house went abroad—it leaked out, and someone told the king. The maid told the mistress, and the mistress, you may be sure, told her husband, the master. Then the king hears the good news, for we read“ And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel” (vs. 4). And then the king gave Naaman a push-off. I wish I could give you one. Who would have thought the little lassie’s testimony about God’s prophet was going to reach the court and the palace Go on, young Christian girls, let your testimony for Christ go out; you cannot tell where it is going to end. She only told her mistress, but it went to the highest place in the land. “And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel” (vs. 5), i.e., I will help you, Naaman, I will give you something to recommend you.
Here is a mistake many make. The girl had said “The prophet that is in Samaria,” was the one Naaman must reach. The king ignored the prophet and said, “We will go to headquarters, we will send him to the king.”
People round you today would like to help you, but most of them will send you the wrong road. Some will say, You have just to go direct to God and pass Jesus by. Such leave out the atonement the death of Christ the blood of Christ.
My reader, you will never get to God that way. “He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him” (John 5:2323That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. (John 5:23)). We live in a day of bloodless theology, when the atonement is pooh-poohed; when Jesus, to whom God has sworn He will make every knee bow, is despised and set aside. Beware, lest you hurry on, thinking you are all right, and that you can finally get to God without turning to the Lord Jesus, the crucified, the despised Nazarene. No, you must bow to Jesus. In Joseph’s day people who were hungry went to Pharaoh, but he said, “Go to Joseph.” Today, God says, “Go to Jesus.” You had better get to Him now. Do not tell me you cannot. You may, and you will if you are in earnest.
Well, Naaman was in earnest, and without further delay made up his mind to seek God’s prophet, so we read— “And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment” (vs. 5). He took those immense sums of money, for he thought he had to buy his cure. That is just what we all thought—that we must bring something to God. You are wrong. Leave everything else behind, and just bring yourself. What had the money and changes of raiment to do with Naaman’s healing? Nothing.
A good bit of his journey was over when Naaman reached the fords of Jordan. As he crossed and viewed it, he evidently formed a very contemptuous opinion of the river. It was vastly inferior to Abana and Pharpar—rivers of Damascus (see vs. 12). Just so do sinners, when they first hear of the cross of Jesus and of the value of His atoning blood, esteem Him lightly, and think slightingly of His sacrifice. “When we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him.... He was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isa. 53:2, 32For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:2‑3)).
As Naaman despised Jordan, have you, dear reader, similarly despised Jesus?
W. T. P. W.
(To be continued.)