June 24, 2012
So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha's house. But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: "Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy." But Naaman became angry and stalked away. "I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!" he said. "I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me! Aren't the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn't I wash in them and be healed?" So Naaman turned and went away in a rage . -- 2Kings 5: 9-12 (NLT)
God desires faith and obedience. He is not about showy displays. He is not about the drama men like to invent. Faith and obedience. The story of Naaman is fascinating in that it displays for us our frailties in how we approach God, what we expect from God, and our understanding of who God is. Naaman was a mighty warrior for the King of Aram; the head of his armies. Unfortunately, he suffered from leprosy as well. He was convinced by a servant to have the Prophet Elisha heal him. That is where we pick up the key verses.
Let's start by examining the expectations of Naaman. He first of all expected the Prophet to at least come out and greet him. Naaman thought quite a bit about himself. He approached the man of God in a very prideful manner. We too can often go to God in a prideful manner if we do not keep a tight check on our Spirit. The truth is that we should not approach God with personal expectations. We should only approach God seeking His will within our situations. Far too often we have reached a conclusion we would prefer and we go to God to ask for our conclusion to come to fruition. That is not how prayer is supposed to work. The issue is not our will but God's. Why? Because of this promise:
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. -- Romans 8: 28 (NLT)
Well if we believe that God is already working everything out for our good, why would we want to interject our own desires upon the perfect plan of God? Additionally here we see that Naaman expected some grandiose show -- he expected Elisha to wave his hand and call on God and voila! Leprosy gone! We too can approach God in a very showy fashion, which is once again lacking humility. We see it in churches where people feel compelled to pray louder than everyone else to show their super-spiritual credentials. Or they will lapse into false tongues in the middle of prayer to draw attention unto themselves. Naaman's expectations certainly would have been more dramatic. It would have made for better television. But it would have required nothing from Naaman. Throughout the healings of Jesus we see that God requires a seed of faith to produce a harvest of healing. Naaman would be no different. God knew this was a prideful man. He knew that He had to break him down before He could build him back up.
This leads us to the plan of God in this story. It was not showy or dramatic. It was actually quite simple and devoid of the normal logic of man. Quite frankly it didn't make a whole lot of sense. The Jordan River was not a particularly clean river to begin with and why did he need to wash seven times? The point beloved was not the washing. It was not the seven times. It was whether or not Naaman could humble himself before God and be obedient. This modus operandi for God is consistent throughout the Bible. First let us remember Gideon. Facing an army of 120,000 enemies with only 32,000 of his own -- God tells him to send home all but 300 men. Can you imagine that? Does that make any sense in the temporal world at all? But the Bible says that Gideon simply obeyed and of course God delivered the enemies into the hands of the 300. What about Joshua? Considered one of the most brilliant war strategists ever, Joshua is told by God how to defeat Jericho and its impenetrable walls.
But the Lord said to Joshua, "I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors. You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram's horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams' horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town." -- Joshua 6: 2-5 (NLT)
March around the city seven days and on the last day march around seven times and then have everyone shout. Huh? That's the plan? I think that Joshua only concentrated on the beginning of this directive from the Lord where God assures him -- "I have given you Jericho-- The rest is irrelevant. As a strategic battle plan it was silly. In human terms it was silly. But God is God and His ways are so far above our ways. His ways were so far above Joshua's ways, Gideon's ways, and Naaman's ways. All He requires is our faith and obedience.
Lastly, let us look at the reaction of Naaman. Joshua and Gideon did not skip a beat in their obedience to God and as a result the 120,000 were defeated and the walls of Jericho came tumbling down. Naaman however approached God with deep-seeded pride and when he heard the directions from God he didn't even consider them. Immediately he starts trying to explain away with human reasoning why the plan of God would not work. Can you imagine? Standing there and using human rationales to excuse not following the will of God -- and it was you who asked for His will to be revealed to you! Truth is that we can have a tendency to do just that in our walks as well. God does not want us to evaluate His plan. He does not want us to critique it. He wants us to have faith in who he is and follow it in obedience -- period! God didn't care if the waters of Damascus are better than the rivers of Israel. That was not the point. The point was humility, faith and obedience. Naaman fails the test miserably and storms off in his pride. Thankfully for him his servant convinced him to follow the instructions and he was healed instantly. When we see Naaman go back to the Prophet, we see a different man:
Then Naaman and his entire party went back to find the man of God. They stood before him, and Naaman said, "Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant." -- 2Kings 5: 15 (NLT)
Approaching God is not a difficult undertaking. He is an open and receptive God who desires a real relationship with us. But we need to make sure that we come before the Creator of Heaven and Earth with humility and only seeking His will. Our expectations just muddy the picture for us. We need to realize that His answer to us may only be a test of our faith before the deliverance we seek. God's ways are so far above our ways beloved. Lastly, we need to react favorably always to a God who we know is always working things out for our own good according to His grand plan. Amen.
Rev. Anthony
