It might be deemed only natural that the king of Syria, on hearing of a possible cure in the land of Israel for the leprosy of his servant, should address himself to the king of Israel, but he need not have ignored the prophet so entirely as to frustrate the mission, but for the over-ruling providence of God. Would not the king of Israel (if anybody) know all about it? And considering how recently Naaman had harassed Israel's land and people, a little diplomacy was, doubtless, called for. “A man's gift maketh way for him.” Certainly he did his best to get on good terms with the one whom he thought most likely to help him in the matter, and we cannot be surprised at this. The infidel spirit, however, shown by the king of Israel was inexcusable, but God is pitiful and was working in spite of hindrances. How many there are to-day who, in touch with the people of God and familiar, it may be, with truth in its outward expression, are found to be the greatest strangers to its power and reality. “They profess that they know God, while in works they deny him,” and are enemies of the cross of Christ. Here, in the case before us, is evidently set forth the present unbelieving state of the Jewish nation. God is owned in a way (“Am I God to kill and to make alive?”), but the witness and vessel of grace is ignored—Elisha was forgotten. The “poor man” who, by his wisdom, delivered the city, was not remembered by any one (Ecclesiastes 9:14, 16). The prophet's ministry stayed the hand of God in judgment, yet Israel's king ignored the prophet.
But the world was farther astray in regard to Christ than even Israel, for “the world by wisdom knew not God.” “He was in the world and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:10, 11). It is thus that the world in its wisdom has allied itself with a corrupted testimony, refusing the witness of grace and denying alike the disease and its remedy. The professing church responsible according to the grace now revealed has failed in its testimony of, and subjection to, Christ, the Son of the living God. Christendom, in its high-mindedness, is giving up faith, by which alone it can stand; and, not continuing in God's goodness, shall be cut off. “Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well, because of unbelief they were broken off; and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee; behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God; on them which fell, severity; but toward thee God's goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Romans 11:18-22).
In the Apocalyptic address to Laodicea, we see how a boastful, self-satisfied spirit had usurped the place of dependence. “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see” (Revelation 3:17, 18). Its judgment is thus already pronounced. Is not all this a stumbling block in the way of an exercised soul desiring blessing? The sin of Israel has been the sin of the church. The Lord Jesus scathingly denounced the hollow profession of the religious guides of the people in His day (Matthew 23:13-39). So also Stephen could charge against them, regardless of personal consequences, “Ye stiffnecked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy. Ghost; as your fathers did so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers; who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it” (Acts 7:51-53).
The sin of Elymas the sorcerer, with its judgment furnishes a striking illustration of Jewish infidelity and opposition to the grace of God; whilst in the record we meet with two expressions which aptly describe the poisonous nature and results of what we now know by the names of “The Higher Criticism” and “The New Theology.” “But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Paul... said, Oh, full of all subtlety and all mischief, son of the devil, enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord” (Acts 13:8-10)? The apostle Paul, notwithstanding his ardent love of his nation and desires foe their blessing, had to own that this obstinate refusal of mercy for themselves, and the persecution of those who were preaching to the Gentiles, was what would, in God's righteous government, bring upon them wrath to the uttermost. “For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway; for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost” (1 Thessalonians 14-16).
Although the king of Israel's words did not go so far as the attempt of Elymas “to turn away the deputy from the faith,” they were yet the outcome of the ceaseless activity of the devil in seeking to hinder souls from getting blessing. But Jehovah interfered by His servant Elisha, who “sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And 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 5:8-10). With the real or imaginary grievances of Israel Elisha had nothing to do. But he could not allow it to be said that Naaman, the leper, had come into the land of Israel asking blessing and cleansing, and had returned disappointed. It was not, however, the testimony for the moment that God dwelt in Israel, for Jeroboam, its first king after the division, had cast the God of Israel behind his back and discarded the priests of Jehovah. It remains for a yet future day for the testimony to go forth (to the terror of all enemies) that the name of the city shall be, from that day forth, “Jehovah is there.” Naaman should indeed own that (ver. 15), but the measured utterance of the prophet was, strictly speaking, more correct than the language of the one who had but just learned what it was to have to do with God in grace.
Jehovah had been cast out of Israel, and had not returned to the nation. He had not, however, cast away His people on that account. On the contrary, He had sent His servant in grace that it might be manifest that there was a prophet in Israel. Man's way had proved distinctly disappointing, but God graciously opened up a prospect of deliverance and blessing, just as despair had, for the moment, taken possession of Naaman. A like experience we see in the case of God's redeemed people at the beginning of their history (Exodus14), and indeed all the way through, as they will own in a future day in words especially prepared for their use in Psalm 107 (see Hosea 14:1, 2). The word of God through the prophet to the king, arrests Naaman in his perplexity, and—in its form of an invitation, “Let him come now to me” —is suggestive of the present invitations of grace, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink” (John 7:37). And in the closing book of revelation, “Let him that is athirst come; whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).
It is the more necessary to press these generous invitations at the present time since the god of this world is blinding the minds of them that believe not lest the glory of Him who invites, and their own deep need should be discerned. For the time is near when the leper will be left in all his uncleanness in the outside place, and the sinner who dies in his sins will be raised in order to appear before the great white throne for eternal judgment. “And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book; for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him he holy still. Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work is” (Revelation 22:10-12). “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before the throne; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (20:11-15).
Naaman responded to the gracious invitation in a very ungracious spirit, only to find that pride must be humbled. He might make a display of glory and self-importance at the king's palace, but it was altogether out of place at the door of the house of Elisha. He might be a “great man with his master, and honorable,” but Elisha was not affected by the display of this world's glory. He saw in him who stood at his gate an enemy of the people of Jehovah, an unclean leper to whom he could not come out seeing he was not a priest (Leviticus 14:3). And he had a sense of what was due to God, of what alone could he efficacious for the leper. It is only in God's presence, and in subjection to His word that we realize how completely sin separates us from God and from His people if faithful. The thoughts of man are all wrong, both in regard to sin and its remedy. The brief message of the prophet to Naaman was a disclosure of what his real condition was in God's eyes. “And 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.” Unclean, he needed to be cleansed. Up to this point everybody had spoken of “recovery” (vers. 3, 6, 7, 11; with Leviticus 13:45).
The thoughts of men to-day, and especially of religious men, are set upon recovery, improvement, reformation, whether by moral or scientific means. But the Christian has learned that the flesh cannot be improved. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” “The mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh by love.” “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new” (John 6; Romans 8:7; Galatians 5:6). How humiliating for the proud Syrian to hear the words, “Go and wash in Jordan seven times.” The remedy was simplicity itself-"Go and wash.” Yet did it imply that he was in his leprous condition unclean, so that the man of God could not tolerate him in his presence.
[G. S. B.]
(To be continued)