2 Kings 5
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man yesterday was a wonderful day you know my my sweet daughter Elliot she made me promise to remind you guys of something very important this morning and that it's it's John Hamilton my best friend's birthday which means as you're present I'm only going to mention the fact that Louisville defeated, in fact, obliterated the Kentucky Wildcats 41 to 14 yesterday. Come on.
No, no, don't applaud. Don't applaud. But the problem is, it's actually also Ethan Sproul's birthday today, who's the biggest Louisville Cardinal fan I know. So we'll see if I keep that promise. You know, finally, I know many of you don't care about sports. Some of us do care about sports. We'd lost to those guys for like seven straight years. And so finally, the reversal of fortune that we've long awaited has happened. Now, no matter which side you're on, we all love stories that describe a reversal of fortune, from poor to rich, from servant to king.
The orphaned Harry Potter is the boy who was promised. The baby in the manger is the savior of the world. What magnificent chain of events. We love stories when the low are lifted high. They're inspiring. Now, we also love stories that run the opposite way, right? From rich to poor, where the tyrant king gets his just desserts, when the boastful and stuck up become humbled and desperate. Icarus flies too close to the sun. His wings melt, and he falls to his death.
When Voldemort gets his comeuppance, when Alabama loses to Vanderbilt, when Satan, described as a roaming lion looking for someone to devour, the prince of darkness, the prince of this present world, when he gets hurled into the sea. No, I said I would only mention it once. Our passage this morning gives us such a story.
Open your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 5. What we have this morning are two reversals of fortune, low to high, high to low. So, what we also have before us, I hope that you'll see, is an invitation and a warning. We're plopping down into a new book, 2 Kings, for only one week, so let me just briefly describe the terrain. the books of 1st and 2nd Kings track the slow descent of God's people Israel from special to exiled, from lifted up to kicked out. You might say from high to low. They've already at this point in our story, 2nd Kings chapter 5, they've already split in two. Israel in the north, Judah in the south. We're going to focus primarily on events in the north in Israel. And this passage assumes we already know who a few characters are, so let me just briefly get us up to speed. First is the king
of Israel. The king of Israel is a guy named Jehoram. Jehoram's dad was a guy named Ahab, and Ahab was awful. Now, Ahab, by this point, is dead. You can read about that in 1 Kings 22. He gets struck by a random arrow. He pierces him in the heart. According to the word of the Lord, he is judged exactly as God promised. Jehoram's mom is Jezebel. She is also awful. She is alive at this point and very, very, very excited about Israel's nationwide slide into pagan, babble, blasphemous worship.
That's the king of Israel, Jehoram. There's also Elisha. Elisha is the prophet of God. He's often called in this passage, the man of God. Now, here's the thing. Though Israel is sort of steadily declining into just awfulness, but because the Lord is still so kind, he gives to his people prophets. These prophets, you might say, are kind of like, they're like smelling salts to wake the people of Israel up. Stop doing what you're doing. It's through the prophets that the Lord speaks.
He reminds them of his love for them. He reminds them of his promise to judge them should they persist in their sin, to speak God's truth clearly amidst the static of their sin. That is a prophet's job. Again, the prophet's name is Elisha. We'll meet a few other people along the way, but let's get started. Here's what I want to convince you of this morning, which I believe is the burden of the passage that we're going to spend time in. So here's what I'm going to convince you of, and I have two versions of this. You might say one is the sort of didactic, more ESV version, and ones like the message version, okay? So feel free to write one or both or none down. So here's the longer version. True lasting success doesn't come from high status or more stuff, but humble trust in God's Word. True lasting success doesn't come from high status or more stuff, but humble trust in God's Word. Here's the shorter version, which basically says
the same thing. Forget your status and your stuff. Trust God instead. I think that's what this passage wants to persuade us of this morning. The outline of the sermon this morning is just going to track those two reversals of fortune. So the first one is reversal of fortune number one is a guy named Naaman. And you could describe this as high to low. You could describe this as from sick to saved. Naaman, from high to low, from sick to saved.
Open your Bibles again to 2 Kings chapter 5. We're going to read starting in verse 1. 2 Kings chapter 5, beginning in verse 1. 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 okay let's stop for a moment the author brags about this guy Naaman he he sort of strings along a bunch of his successes he's a commander he's a great man his boss loves him because he's good at his job at winning battles and we're thinking wow, wow, wow, man, this guy's awesome. And then there's the final detail. You saw it. He's a leper. Now, Naaman is not an Israelite, so don't immediately sort of attach all the things the Bible often attaches to leprosy to this guy. He's not an Israelite, so it's a medically unfortunate situation, painful, difficult to cure, but it's not the social catastrophe it would be if he were
an Israelite. The rest of this section, all the way down to verse 14, is how Naaman seeks to get this sickness reversed. Let's keep reading. Verse 2. 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's in Samaria? He would cure him of his leprosy. So, Naaman went in and told his lord, which is probably the king of Syria. Thus and so spoke the Lord from the land of Israel, and the king of Syria said, go now, I'll send a letter to the king of Israel. Okay, something to note just from the jump, okay? The Bible teaches the total, complete, if we had more time, I could continue just stacking up synonymous adjectives. Utter, whatever you want to say, sovereignty of God. Total, complete, utter, absolute,
Everything. I've had the privilege of teaching the membership class for the first time this month. In our Statement of Faith class, we spent some time saying this. We believe that God from eternity decrees or permits all things that come to pass and perpetually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and all events. That so is not in any way to be the author or approver of sin, nor to destroy the free will and responsibility of intelligent creatures. Now, mercifully, this sermon is not on that, but we do believe it. I don't speak that way. That's from our statement of faith. It's like 17th century lingo. Christians have always believed it. We, members of Third Avenue Baptist Church, believe this. It's in our statement of faith. We believe this because the Bible teaches it. We've already seen it in 2 Kings 5. I mean, look back at verse 1. The Lord… look back at verse 1. It's in the Bible. Yeah, look back at verse 1. The Lord
had given victory to Syria. In those days, it was common for militaries to ascribe their victories or their failures to their local deity. So if the Canaanites won a battle or enjoyed a fertile season or had a baby, they would praise Baal or Ashram or some Canaanite deity. The author of 2 Kings, he's kind of taking a dig at that worldview.
He says, you know who gave Naaman victory in this battle who made him so popular with his boss and probably his countrymen? Well, the Lord, the Lord gave him that victory. Naaman, not an Israelite, not a worshiper of Yahweh, enjoyed something from Yahweh, and he didn't even know it. Surely some of you this morning aren't followers of Jesus.
And you are enjoying lots of things. High status, a nice job, wonderful family. And you may have your whole life ascribed you having those things to yourself. Your hard work, your sacrifice, your integrity. And I'm not denying those things are good. But all of the things you have, whether you know it or not, it's like Naaman's victories in war.
they're from the Lord the question is what are you going to do with them friend I hope you believe whether you're a member of this church or not I hope you believe in the total sovereignty of God because the Bible teaches it over and over and over again in fact I think I'm comfortable saying the Bible almost takes it for granted of course of course the creator of all things is in control of all things. It is impossible for the God of the universe to be ignorant. Now, at the end of the day, I think most Christians, and maybe even non-Christians, kind of instinctively get this. Well, of course, if God is real, then he must be in charge. Otherwise, what is the point? I think the question that follows on the heels of that is do we trust the one who's in control?
In the following verses, we see that God's sovereignty over this situation leads to some surprising thing. So a little girl from Israel gets uprooted from her home and transplanted into the house of Naaman. She's his servant. Now, this passage is not about sort of just war theory or the morality of various ancient Near Eastern battle tactics or rules of engagement. Simply put, we're not given enough information to kind of make a judgment on what happened exactly to get her here.
We simply know what the text says, that when she gets there, this woman who was plucked out of Israel and put into Naaman's house, she wants her master to be healed, and she knows precisely how that can happen. she thinks back to her hometown there's a prophet there's a man of god he'll he can heal him she's she's sure of it and so she tells Naaman's wife and and before we know it Naaman gets a letter from his boss and he's on his way to see Jehoram the awful king of Israel now I have just asserted that he's awful. Now we get to see why he's awful. Let's keep reading verse 5.
So Naaman went, taking with him ten talents of silver, that's 750 pounds, 6,000 shekels of gold, that's 150 pounds, and ten changes of clothing. That's like an undisciplined trip to Target. Okay, so why is he doing this? Well, they've had battles before, so I think the king is coming and kind of making it clear, like, look, I'm not here to fight. I need your help. Verse 6, he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, when this letter reaches you, know that I've sent you, Naaman, my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy. When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes. He 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 this, see how this man is making a quarrel with me. Again, Jehoram. Awful guy. He sees Naaman coming and he thinks to himself, it's a trap. There's no other explanation. And so he asked Naaman, I wonder if you caught the question, he asked Naaman, listen, your request is ridiculous. Am I God?
To kill? To make alive? The author of Kings, he's subtle at this moment, but he wants us to hear this question and in our minds have a very unambiguous, clear response to that question, which is simply, no, no, Jehoram, of course you're not God. But God is God, and you are the king of his people.
You're meant to represent God to their people. And this God who says of himself, See now, this is God speaking, that I, even I, am he, and there is no God beside me. Listen to this phrase. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal. And there is none that can deliver out of my hand. Brothers and sisters, I just read to you Deuteronomy 32, 29. What's Deuteronomy 32, 29? That doesn't mean much to me.
That's okay. It's the extended edition, you might say, of Israel's Song of Moses. which they sang after the Lord plucked them out of Egypt and into the promised land. Okay, what's going on here? What is the king's job? According to Deuteronomy 17 and other passages, the king's primary job is to have a copy of God's word at his bedside table that he meditates on day and night. He's supposed to, again, represent God to his people. He's supposed to be a student of Yahweh, a studier of his word, a believer in his character.
This king is supposed to do all of these things. He doesn't even know the words to God's people's favorite song. If he knew, if he read the Bible, if he did his job, he would know precisely that God is the one who kills and makes alive, and he can do something about it. No, Jehoram is not God. But he knows God, and he should know better. and so he should know what to do with this request.
He should act like the little girl who says, oh, yeah, I got a guy who can fix this. That's prophet in Samaria. Thankfully, I'm not sure how Elisha got the news. Maybe somebody, you know, posted it on the wall somewhere and read it. I'm not sure. maybe the Lord just gave it to him. Verse 8, 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 there's a prophet in Israel. In other words, listen dude, you should have known better. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and he stood at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, go, wash in the Jordan seven times.
Your flesh shall be restored. You shall be clean. But Naaman was angry. He went away saying, behold, I thought 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 Farpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than the waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash in them and be clean? So he turned away and went in a rage. I love how the Bible tells real stories of stories about real people, because people are complicated and mixed up, right? So, you might
think that we're reading a story about, well, here's Jehoram, this awful guy, and here's Naaman, this, you know, this foreign guy who's perfectly righteous and uncomplicated, and he just absolutely, perfectly, immediately knows that Yahweh is the key to unlock all his problems. He just knows all that. This is what the story tells, and then we get here, and we're like, hold on, what? I thought Naaman was desperate. I mean, he gave him all the silver and gold and clothes, but he leaves in a rage. What's going on? I think there are at least two reasons Naaman responds this way. The first, I think it's pretty obvious. First is that he expects special treatment. Verse 9, he shows up, Elisha's doorstep, and he knocks. Here I am, commander of the Syrian army, and I don't have weapons or soldiers behind me this time. You should be thankful about that.
I've paid my dues, and I'm here to be healed. My status earns me this. The stuff I paid earns me this. What's Elisha do? He doesn't even get up from his couch. He sends a messenger. He's like, yeah, just tell him what to do. No face-to-face. He doesn't meet Naaman's unspoken expectations. Man, how often do our unmet, unspoken expectations hurl us into needless rage?
How often do we huff and puff because we don't get what we want? Even when the thing we want was never promised to us in the first place. I've paid my dues. I've earned a hearing. Doesn't she know who I am? How dare he not fill in the blank? There's another reason he gets mad.
Naaman expects not only some special treatment, but some spectacle. So Elisha's messenger gives Naaman some curious counsel. He says, go wash in the Jordan seven times and you will be clean. That's the final straw for Naaman. He says, that's not enough. The healing of a spectacular man requires a spectacle. I mean, this guy basically told me to go take a bath in this dirty local watering hole, but the water where I'm from, well, it's much nicer.
And so if we're just, like, it seems pretty obvious, so I'm going to clean myself. I should probably do it in the nice water, not this dirty water. But friends, again, I hope you see that Naaman is enraged because he doesn't understand. He's looking for a cure, and he thinks Elisha's middleman is offering him something less, something temporary, like a cleansing. And again, Naaman, he's not an Israelite. He does not need to be cleansed to stand before a God that he doesn't believe in.
So he's just not interested in it. But if we've paid attention, hopefully we see that Naaman's missed something. Look down at verse 13. He's turned off in a rage. Verse 13. But his servants came near. And they said to him, My father, it's a great word the prophet has spoken to you. Will you not do it? Has he actually and only said to you, wash and be clean?
Here's what these servants are doing. They're telling their boss, basically, listen, stop whining and listen closely. I think we should take their advice. Let's compare. Let's look to verse 10 again. What does the message actually say? It says, go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean. Click down to verse 13. Naaman seems to be implying that the messenger only said, wash and be clean.
So I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do this, but let me ask, what phrase does Naaman leave out? Or his messengers leave out in reporting to Naaman? What phrase does he leave out? Yeah, your flesh shall be restored. Thank you, Brett. Excellent. Naaman didn't listen. He just didn't listen. Maybe he's too busy looking for a spectacle. He expected some abracadabra, alakazam. He'd wave his arms and go and call on the God to do something. After all, he's an important man. He's going to do something. And he didn't get that. Instead, he got a middleman coming to him with a message that says, hey, just listen to this and do it.
Seems kind of inconsequential, kind of strange. So he thinks to himself, no, this doesn't add up. I'm not going to do that. He wants something else. Maybe he doesn't listen because he's too annoyed that he's talking to the middleman in the first place. I don't care what this guy says. I'm a general. I don't talk to middle management. You ever felt that way? Naaman didn't listen. Too busy looking for a spectacle.
Too proud to listen to someone that he deemed below him. He didn't listen closely to God's word. And so he almost misses out on a blessing from God that was even better than what he wanted in the first place. Maybe you're new to Christianity. Or maybe you're not new to Christianity.
Maybe actually Christianity is kind of old hat to you. You've been around it your whole life. And you're kind of thinking to yourself, is that it? Is this really all they do? Sing weird songs and talk about ancient history? I don't quite understand. Maybe you're intrigued by Christianity. Maybe you're bored by Christianity. Maybe you're here because it's the tail end of a holiday weekend and your family dragged you one last thing because you've got to go to lunch after. Whatever your story is, we're so glad that you're here.
My encouragement to you, whether Christianity is new or old, interesting but uncertain or boring and old hat, don't make the same mistake as Naaman. Don't do it. Don't think that for your skepticism to be reversed, you need some kind of spectacle before your eyes. Don't think that for God to be real, he needs to do some kind of magic show in front of you to prove himself to you.
Instead, man, you've heard this before, especially if you're on Christianity, but it's true. You should simply trust His Word. You should believe His Word. You should listen closely to His Word. You should hear in every word of God an invitation to trust Him. Friend, you need to put simple faith in the real God who really exists.
He has bestowed on you incomparable status. You are made in His image. He has shown you remarkable attention. He has given you His word. What else could you possibly want from Him? Listen to him. This word tells a story of how he has saved a people for himself through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God's son.
Even this story we're in this morning, 2 Kings 5, is another link in the chain. It's another addition to the chorus of Scripture that screams the same song from beginning to end, which is simply that God is trustworthy. He always keeps His promises, and we should live for Him. Earlier this week, we were driving in the car as a family, listening to Paul Rogers and Bob Valvano, as they called the Louisville basketball game, on the radio. My son Johnny was in the back of the van, and he recognizes, you know, he has an antenna for this kind of thing, he recognizes sports. Basketball. So he calls up from the back of the van. He exclaims, Dad! Dad, I want to see.
I want to see the game. I say, Johnny, sorry, but the game's not on TV. It's on the radio. He looks at me like I'm speaking another language. He has no idea what the radio is. Apparently, someone watches games on their phone in the car. I'm not sure who. Johnny I'm sorry buddy there's nothing to see we're just listening he kind of checked out friends it is much much much harder to listen when there's nothing to see Christianity calls you to listen and by listening you might see Now, I'm not saying Christianity has nothing for you to see.
In a moment, we're going to take the Lord's Supper. That is a thing to see. This church is a thing to see. It's a seeable gathering of Christians that is meant to reflect God's character to the watching world. I'm not saying there's nothing to see. But the things we are supposed to see are signs to the things that we are supposed to not see yet. Jesus Christ. Friends, we walk by faith, not by sight, for now. Friends, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
And if I may be so bold to edit Scripture or add to Scripture, things not seen yet. We will see. But for now, we listen. Elisha sent his messenger to Naaman. Would Naaman trust the Lord? verse 14 so he went down and he dipped himself seven times in the Jordan this phrase is not a throw away the author of Kings wants you to know why he did it according to the word of the man of God he listened to the word and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean then he returned to the man of god he and all his company and he came and he stood before him and he said behold i know that there is no god in all the earth but israel so now accept a present
from your servant oh the general has become a servant he trusted his servant he trusted god's word through through the prophet despite his spasm of pride he humbled himself i love it Naaman showed up looking for a medical miracle, but he got something so much better. He went from sick to saved. What a reversal of fortune. True, lasting success does not come from high status or more stuff, but humble trust in God's word.
And his path to true and lasting success did not come from his high status as commander of an army. But humble trust in God's word. He forgot his status. He trusted God instead. But did you notice? In order to get all this, he had to go from high to low.
The king, he's awful. He can't help him. he can't help himself. But you know who can help him? The little girl who has trust in Yahweh. The great man's flesh became like a little child because the great man's heart had become like the little child.
Full of faith. Our story's not over yet. There's a second reversal of fortune, so we're going to talk about that as we conclude. Reversal of fortune number two is this guy, Gehazi. You might say it's from low to high, or from safe to sick. Let's look down at verse 16. Verse 16.
But he said, as the Lord lives, again, Naaman's offering him all this stuff, before whom I stand, I will receive none. He urged him to take it, but he refused. Then Naaman said, if not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth. For from now on, your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any God but the Lord. In this matter, may the Lord pardon your servant when my master goes into the house of Ramon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Ramon.
When I bow myself in the house of Ramon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter. Elisha said to him, go in peace. What we see here is that what has happened to Elisha is not merely a superficial change. It's a life-changing event. That's why he wants to take the earth from Israel with him. He's a follower of Yahweh now, so much so that he must take a chunk of Israel with him so we can have a promised land.
Should we go back to the promised land? So Naaman has a job to get back to, and that job might require him to enter a false temple. Again, where the king should lean on his arm, where he may even bow down according to local customs. This is why Naaman faces a dilemma. His job will require him to do things that will discount the legitimacy of his conversion. So if you're facing something similar, you're like, I feel like my job causes me to do something like that. I would encourage you to do exactly what Naaman does, which is simply to get counsel. You should talk to someone. All right, so let's look down at verse 19. Naaman is off to his new life. He's spurred on by the blessings of Elisha.
Let's see what happens next. Verse 19. But when Naaman had gone from him a short distance, Gehazi, we've not met him before, but he's a servant of Elisha, said, see, my master has spared this name in the Syrian and not accepting from his hand what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him. Again, he's greedy. So Gehazi followed Naaman. And when Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and said, Is all well?
He said, All is well. That was a lie. My master has sent me to say, There have just now come to me from the hill country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of prophet, Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing. And Naaman said, Be pleased to accept two talents. And he urged him and tied up two talents of silver in two bags with two changes of clothing and laid them on two of his servants. And they carried them before Gehazi. And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand and put them in the house, and he sent them in away, and they departed.
He went in, stood before his master, and Elisha said to him, Where have you been, Gehazi? And he said, Your servant went nowhere. But Elisha said to him, Did not my heart go when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Was it a time to accept money and garments, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male servants and female servants? Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever.
And so he went out from his presence, a leper like snow. Friends, Christianity is a religion full of surprising reversals. Our victory comes through Jesus' suffering and death. Jesus says, the first shall be last. The last shall be first. Those who serve like Jesus will one day be celebrated by Jesus. We've already seen a foreign general who is struck with leprosy can become a worshiper of Yahweh. Now I told you at the beginning of this sermon that this passage offers both an invitation and a warning.
Hopefully you've heard the invitation in Naaman's childlike faith. And hopefully you see the warning in the life of Gehazi. This guy, this prophet, this right-hand man, was a front-row witness, even a participant, if you read the previous chapter, to the resurrecting power of God. But he didn't believe in Him. Friend, church, brothers and sisters, Gehazi's life is a neon sign on how not to follow the Lord.
It doesn't matter how close he was to the miraculous. He never tasted God's mercy. Did you know we can notice God's power in others and not experience it ourselves? Faith doesn't just see, it believes. Naaman becomes like the little girl as a result of his faith. His flesh becomes healed. He comes from sick to saved.
By the end of the passage, it becomes clear that Naaman is the true servant of Yahweh. And then, again, this passage is reversal of fortune. Gehazi becomes exactly like Naaman, not because of his faith, but because of his faithlessness. His skin becomes scaled and scarred. He was low, and he wanted to be higher. But he didn't realize that there's no higher status than serving the Lord. Friends, brothers and sisters, this passage tells the story of two surprising reversals of fortune.
It also offers to all of us an invitation and a warning. I pray that we would all respond appropriately to both. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is living and active. We ask that we would listen to it above all else. that we would forsake the selfish pursuit of stuff and status and instead pursue you for all of our lives. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.