The Ministry of Elisha: No. 18

Narrator: Chris Genthree
2 Kings 5:11‑14  •  8 min. read  •  grade level: 9
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“But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Ahana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned, and went away in a rage. And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? Hove much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash and he clean? Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean” (2 Kings 5:11-1411But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. 12Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. 13And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? 14Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. (2 Kings 5:11‑14)). It was not alone the simplicity or the brevity of the message sent out to Naaman which stumbled that “great and honorable” man, but Elisha refused to acknowledge the glory which distinguished him amongst men as of any account before God. His gifts, too, which would have made way for him in his own sphere, were altogether valueless in the presence of God.
It is a great and fundamental truth of the gospel, and that which staggers the pride of man, that “there is no difference, for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” As long as man keeps away from God differences can be made and maintained for whatever they are worth, but God has decreed that no flesh shall glory in His presence, and where a soul is consciously in the presence of God there is as little inclination as there is power to maintain the conventional distinctions of men. The light of God entering the soul gives it to bow to the truth of God's word and to own its authority. “Then Job answered Jehovah and said, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further” (Job 40:3-53Then Job answered the Lord, and said, 4Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. 5Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further. (Job 40:3‑5)). “Then Job answered Jehovah and said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (42:1-6).
Only in one of two positions can man stand in God's presence—either as a repentant sinner bowing to God's righteous judgment of him, or as a worshipping saint justified by faith. All attempts to establish a character or a righteousness to satisfy even oneself must break down. The instructions as to leprosy in Israel (Leviticus 14) illustrate this, as we have before seen, but what is so exceedingly important and interesting to notice in the cleansing of Naaman is that in the absence of all ritual God yet required that which signified the entire submission of the soul to death, and the obedience of faith. Israel has long ceased to be the executive of God's righteous government of man in the world, and it refuses the mercy and grace in which the blessed Son of God came to them. The present testimony is one of sovereign grace, and addresses itself to the whole world. “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: by whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name” (Romans 1:1-51Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2(Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 3Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: 5By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: (Romans 1:1‑5)).
But if God has rejected the fleshly confidences of Israel (Jeremiah 2:3737Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head: for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them. (Jeremiah 2:37)), still less could He regard with favor the boldness of religious profession which would ignore the difference between Israel and the Gentiles, and, taking advantage of the unbelief of the former, would at least claim equality with, if not superiority to, anything of which Israel could boast. Nothing amongst Gentiles had ever had the shadow of divine authority to plead in justification. The objection of Naaman witnessed that the carnal mind is indeed enmity against God, that it entertains nothing but contempt for what God may have established or for what meets with His approval upon earth. Naaman was disposed to prefer the waters of Syria to those of Israel. We may be sure there were no inherent qualities in either for cleansing from leprosy. All such virtue rested in the word of God, and this demands the obedience of faith.
The river Jordan doubtless had its typical import, but then was not the time to reveal it. We who now know something of the precious truth that in the death of Christ we have also our death to sin might be disposed to dwell, somewhat on this part of the history, but as the sixth of Romans has its typical counterpart, not here but, in Joshua 3; 4, we pass on, and would seek to learn the purpose of God in dealing thus with this Syrian leper. Do not the words of the leper himself supply the answer? “Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.” We here see how ready the human mind is to reason about the divinely simple but efficacious way of blessing for man's deep need, instead of bowing thereto in simple trust in God's unerring wisdom and gracious means. Naaman attached importance to his thoughts-how vain are the thoughts of man (Psalm 94:1111The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. (Psalm 94:11))-and did not disguise his contempt for the people and land of Israel. He betrayed the very same spirit which in an earlier day had brought the judgment of God upon his nation (see 1 Kings 20).
The mind of the flesh is enmity against God, and displays itself in this way-that, where obedience of faith is required, intellectualism is ready to question. But “God giveth not account of his matters.” The gospel is preached among all nations “for the obedience of faith,” and the simple and lowly receive it and get the blessing. So, in the case before us, it was the servants of Naaman who, by their remonstrance with him as he turned away, helped their master, and so, also, had the little captive maid been used of God at an earlier stage. The simple, cogent reasoning of the servants proved its superiority to the vain thoughts of Naaman, disclosing at the same time their affectionate solicitude for their master's welfare which was truly touching. They put before him how he had nothing to lose, but everything to gain, by complying with the prophet's instructions. The very simplicity of the gospel is what first stumbles the soul. The “Wash, and be clean” of this chapter strikingly point to the “Believe... and thou shalt be saved” of the New Testament. There is a kind of desperation of soul, the result of trying human schemes of reformation only to be disappointed, in which the Spirit of God works for the bringing of the soul to give up its own “thoughts,” and way, and unreservedly to cast itself upon the mercy of God. If not, indeed, faith of an exalted order, yet still it is faith. “If I perish, I perish,” said Esther; so similarly, the answer of the twelve apostles to the Lord's challenge exhibited the same character of faith. “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the holy One of God” (John 6:66-6966From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. 67Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? 68Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. 69And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. (John 6:66‑69)). Peter confessed his faith in Christ, and his love for Christ, but it was not knowledge or intelligence which held them. They could not better themselves elsewhere. “To whom shall we go?”
By whatever means the sinner is brought to believe in God and to cast himself upon Christ for salvation, the result is ever the same. It was not the healing virtues of the waters of Jordan which Naaman proved, but the virtue of the prophet's word, and that Israel's God was indeed a Savior God. “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good” (Numbers 23:1919God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? (Numbers 23:19))? “His flesh shall be fresher than a child's; he shall return to the days of his youth.” That which washed away the leprosy of Naaman cleansed his soul from its unbelieving utterance. Dipping “seven times in Jordan “his lowly submission was complete; so also was his cleansing. “His flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”
[G. S. B.]
(To be continued)