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Elijah and Elisha 22.
I generally preach for around 40 minutes; about 35 minutes in I am getting around to making my big point.
Today, I am going to make the big point first, then you can sleep through the next 35 minutes of padding.
Here it is: [P] [James 4:6 But He gives a greater grace.
Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”]
We now come to a well-known and well-loved story; you will recall it from your Sunday-school days.
Like all stories of Elisha, it is a story about salvation [P].
It says in: [Ephesians 2:8–9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.]
Twice in James 4:6 we read that “grace is given”.
Salvation is by grace.
WE NEED GRACE!
Grace is given, but only to the humble; boasting, pride is excluded.
Humility is the prerequisite for receiving the grace that God gives; it is essential for salvation.
This is a delightful story and with great significance – I am sure that I cannot do it justice – it is the story of Naaman, found in 2 Kings chapter 5 [P].
Now, as we read through the account together, I want you to take special note of two contrasting things: 1/ the great, the mighty, the exalted, the proud; and 2/ the exact opposite the humble, the lowly, the insignificant.
Because the theme of this contrast between pride and humility runs all through this story that we know so well: [2 Kings 5:1–14 Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram, [P] (Syria, the country to the north – Israel’s enemy!) was a great man with his master, and highly respected, (why?
How had he come to this prominence and power?) because by him יהוה had given victory to Aram.
(It was יהוה’s doing!
He, in His sovereignty, had brought this man to this place.
Israel was being defeated because יהוה was empowering their enemies to do it!)
The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper.
[P] (He had a problem!
Great man though he was; this is something that he totally could not deal with!
He had no solution.
He had a terminal disease that he could do nothing about.)
Now the Arameans had gone out in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel; [P] (notice, in this story, the interplay between the great and the insignificant, between pride and humility – it runs right the way through) and she waited on Naaman’s wife.
[P] (He was a man, a commander; she was female, small, a slave, she served – she was nothing, nobody, beneath even noticing.
But where does the deliverance come from?)
She said to her mistress, “I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria!
Then he would cure him of his leprosy.”
(it is the power of witness!
You don’t have to be great or significant, but you can testify to the reality, the truth, that you know.
Here she was, with every reason to resent her situation: taken away captive, subject to slavery, far from home and family – yet she showed love for her mistress and master.
She could have rejoiced that he was suffering: serve him right for all the suffering he had caused her and her people.
But no, she was concerned for him.
Her desire was for him to be well.
She knew the way for him to be saved, delivered from his disease.
There is a world out there dying from the terminal disease of sin – and we know where to go to be healed!
We may be little and nobodies, but we can share the word that can bring life!) Naaman went in and told his master, [P] saying, “Thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel.”
(great and mighty man that he was, he listened to the voice of a little girl, a slave, a captive, a foreigner.
I guess when you are desperate you will cling to that which you would normally not take any notice of.
But he doesn’t say, “I have heard that there is a prophet in Israel”.
He acknowledges that it is the testimony of “the girl from the land of Israel”) Then the king of Aram said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”
(you deal with the mighty, the important, the head of the nation) He departed [P] and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes.
(You use power (a letter from the king) influence, wealth – these are the means men use to get what they want – but, actually, they accomplished nothing!)
He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, “And now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.”
(king to king, that is the way to get things done.
Funny thing is that neither of these kings could do anything to resolve the situation) [P] 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 is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy?
But consider now, and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me.”
(He just saw it as a diplomatic ruse to stir up trouble) It happened when Elisha the man of God heard [P] that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, (Elisha knew, Jesus knows) that he sent word to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes?
Now let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
So Naaman came with his horses [P] and his chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha.
[P] (just stood there, waiting be noticed, waiting to be attended to) Elisha sent a messenger to him, (here is this great man, used to being respected, obeyed, people cow-towing to him; but this prophet doesn’t even deign to come out to him!
He just sent a servant!
How humiliating, degrading, insulting!)
saying, [P] “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean.”
(here was the word that would bring him life!
But Naaman rejected it because of the form in which it came.
He almost missed out!
How often we miss out on God’s message that can bring us life because of the messenger through whom he sends it.
That Paul I find really irritating, who does he think he is pontificating up the front?) [P] But Naaman was furious [P] and went away [P] (he almost missed out on the blessing of God, having his dire need dealt with.
Why? His pride was offended!
He had a preconceived notion of how God had to do it – let me tell you, very seldom, if ever, does God act the way that I expect Him to!) and said, “Behold, I thought, [P] ‘He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of יהוה his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.’
“Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?
(funny, we can come up with a better solution, a better way, to God’s!
We have our own ideas – but they are totally ineffective.
They may be cleaner, nicer rivers, than the muddy Jordan; but they won’t do anything for his leprosy.
And we have our means and methods – only problem is …they don’t work!) Could I not wash in them and be clean?”
(Pride, superiority, arrogance, preconceived ideas – they block you receiving anything from God.
The solution was so simple; but his pride prevented him from seeing it.
We don’t want it to be easy, simple.
We want it to be impressive, difficult to attain, deep to understand,) So he turned and went away in a rage.
[P] (he almost missed it!)
Then his servants came near and spoke to him [P] (once again, wisdom comes though the mouth of servants.
Undoubtedly pride was a stumbling block for this great and important man.
Yes, Naaman was proud; but he also had a streak of humility.
He listened to the lowly – and it was his salvation!
If he had stuck solely to his pride, he would have died a leper.
But for a second time, he takes the advice of a nobody) and said, “My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?
(we don’t balk at extreme demands of religion, we can then take pride in our religious devotion.
But to accept the simple?!
I have seen a woman crawling on her hands and knees up the steps to St Peters as an act of penance; trying to do something to pay for forgiveness.
People don’t mind doing something hard; but cannot simply accept what is freely given to those who humbly confess their need.)
How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
(it is so easy – you just have to submit, to obey, to believe what God says and act in accordance with it!
WHY DO WE FIND IT SO HARD?!!! It’s that “P” word again: PRIDE!)
So he went down and dipped himself [P] seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; (you tell the story to little kids: “he dipped in once, was he clean?
[P], the chorus comes back: “No!”
He dipped in twice, was he clean?”
[P] and you carry on until the seventh time: “was he clean?”
Back comes the chorus: “Yes!!” [P] – unfortunately, you are not quite so responsive!) and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.
[P]] His besetting, unsolvable problem was gone!
Hallelujah!
He was CLEAN!
He simply humbled himself; believed the message from God, acted on it – and he was delivered from his leprosy.
He was saved!
Hallelujah!
Remember, I said every Elisha story has salvation in it?
Naaman is pre-eminently a story of salvation.
Naaman was delivered from the disease of leprosy.
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