Last Sunday, Pastor Kyle preached a “one off” message of transformation in the Old Testament. A story of a rival nation to Israel, because of a kidnapped captive Israelite little girl’s suggestion, sends an important military hero to Israel’s king to have a Prophet physically heal him of an incurable life-threatening disease and in the process is spiritually healed also to bring home in a fallen world. All the accomplishments and success in the world doesn’t mean anything when someone gets really sick. Getting better becomes the main focus at that point and money was no object.
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2 Kings 5:1-9 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.” And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.” But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
The king of Israel sees the letter from the king of Syria as an impossible request, stating: “Am I God, to kill and to make alive?”, as no mere moral could physically cure the leprosy for any price; only God by miraculous means. Do we ever leave God out of the equation when it comes to seeking healing in areas of our lives? The king of Israel figures that this must be a political ploy to pick a fight with some sort of trickery. Do we see any political positioning in our society and government today? Do we participate ourselves? But, the Prophet of God Elisha saw that the opportunity was from God for a bigger purpose.
2 Kings 5:9-12 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
Elisha wisely does not personally greet the great and renown Syrian Naaman or perform any elaborate ceremony or ritual with incantations and gyrations as he had envisioned. Not to mention that Leprosy was a highly contagious disease requiring social distancing for personal safety, Naaman had a few deeper itssues needing addressed and remedied at the moment. There was no celebrity Red Carpet treatment, just instructions, as ridiculous as they were, on exactly what was simply needed to do to physically cure his conditions. First, don’t you know who I am? Tradition dictates that foreign diplomates, the upper class and celebrities are to be treated extra special with fanfare. There was none and Naaman’s pride got to him. Second, was the implementation of the cure … just wash seven times in the Jordan? He could have done that in Syria and in much bigger and better rivers then Israel’s little creek. The simplicity and scale did not meet his expectations so was an insult, and Naaman rejected it and left in a furious rage. But, God was not there to meet his expectations. The seemingly ridiculous was miraculous in order to show him that it was not about man, or of man’s efforts, which tends to leave God out of the equations of life. Naaman didn't need a person to save his life; he needed his Creator. So the Prophet Elisha (the spokesman for God) wasn't present, but His Omnipresence God was. The healing that Naaman needed was supernaturally of God alone and though he came with the wrong intentions, he came to the "right" place. Naaman’s heart needed to experience God and be transformed, body, mind and spirit in the process. In Who do you put your trust?
Let's continue Pastor Kyle's message on the transformed heart in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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