Articles
Naaman the Syrian - 2 Kings 5
Naaman the Syrian - 2 Kings 5
A young preacher confronted an older preacher to complain about all the teaching on authority that the older men did. The young man: “You older preachers just go around with Nadab in one pocket and Naaman in the other!” The older preacher just responded: “At least we have scripture for what we teach.” End of story. “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.” (Peter).
Truly Naaman makes a great sermon on man learning to trust God and not himself in religious matters. How many sermons refer to verse ; “Behold, I Thought”! Yet, God’s answer remains the same: “8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Then, after being confronted by a servant girl, Naaman shows great character in accepting such reproof, he goes, he is immersed 7 times, and he is ‘saved’ from leprosy. Again, it is hard NOT to see the parallel with baptism. As the old preachers liked to say: What was in the water that cured Naaman was NAAMAN!
Yet, the New Testament does speak about Naaman – once. Jesus brought him up in Luke 4:27. There he pointed out that there were many lepers in Israel during the days Elisha, but the prophet only cleansed ONE – Naaman the SYRIAN. Not one Jew was healed! But a GENTILE was. God is not the God of Israel ONLY. He is God overall.
Now, with the coming of Jesus, the door of discipleship and salvation has been opened unto ALL NATIONS. Mark 16:15-16: “15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.”
Many people are like the beginning of Naaman’s story, ‘their thought’ is that there is nothing in the water. But like Naaman, as long as THEY are not ‘in the water’, there will be no cleansing. This cleansing is even more important than that of Naaman. His was of a temporal sickness with leprosy, but our is an ETERNAL PROBLEM: sin and eternal condemnation! Behold I thought… such will be on the lips of many people on the day of judgment! But their thinking will be just as wrong as Naaman’s was. What is in the water that can save us? US! Which part of Naaman’s life represents you?
Hugh DeLong
