YEILD TO BE HEALED
YOU’VE GOT TO YIELD TO BE HEALED.
2 Kings 5:1 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.
Naaman was the key military commander of Syria, an enemy army of Israel. He actually fought and won against Israel. The phrase “mighty man of valor” i used of Hebrew champions like Gideon, Jephthah, David, and Jeroboam, and Eliada but never a Gentile. Naaman was a bad dude. Not a believer. But a dude you would have thought of as a total monster. Wealth, fame, military honor, medals and accomplishment. Picture a big dude with a big house, who rides a harley, and has a lot of war stories. The only problem was he had leprosy, an incurable skin disease…
The Hebrew term used is צָרַעַת (tsara‘at), often translated “leprosy”. But it likely referred to a variety of skin-disfiguring conditions, not just what we call Hansen’s disease today.
CONTRAST:
2 Kings 5:2-5 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. [3] She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” [4] So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.” [5] And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”
This unnamed slave is an Israelite likely captured as a prisoner of war and made a slave. She has nothing, except she is the one with answers Naaman needs. She knows the God of the universe: YHWH. But think about this: she has no reason to give the answer to this man. She’s been captured and enslaved in his household. If I were her, I’d be thinking: “I hope you rot with your leprosy!” Yet, in an unbelievable act of mercy, though she’s been enslaved by Naaman’s wife, she is willing to offer him how to be healed. What kind of slave would seek to save their master? This girl does.
This girl was likely kidnapped during a Syrian raid — possibly saw family killed or her village destroyed — and is now a slave in the house of the general responsible.
And what does she do? She intercedes for his healing.
Her response isn’t vengeance but mercy. She doesn’t curse her captor; she seeks his restoration. She has the key truth that can set him free.
Who do you consider an enemy? Who has wronged you? I doubt they’ve ever taken you captive, tied you up, and enslaved you. Have you ever considered the fact that you have THE heart-changing truth that could change them? What if God used YOU to save them?
vv. 6-9 Naaman arrived in Israel loaded with wealth and a royal letter demanding his healing, which panicked the king—thinking it a political trap—until Elisha intervened, inviting Naaman to come so he would learn that there is a true prophet, and thus a living God, in Israel.
2 Kings 5:10-12 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.” [11] 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. [12] 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.
Naaman is angry. Why? He’s used to respect. Instead he’s dismissed to go do an extensive ritual in a dirty littler river.
v. 12 Abana and Pharpar are rivers flow through Damascus, Naaman’s home city in Syria They were beautiful, clean, and life-giving streams. By contrast, the Jordan River was small, muddy, and unimpressive — especially near Jericho or Samaria. He’s thinking, “This is beneath me!”
OUR PRIDE RESISTS GOD’S POWER.
How often do we think God’s commands and ways are beneath us?
We accuse God of:
Outdated Morality
Doubtful Mythology
A Belittling Crutch
Humiliating Surrender
Asking too much
Restrictive Rules
Inconvenient Interruptions
His PRIDE almost cost him healing and salvation!
Martin Luther: “The sin underneath all sin is pride”
Augustine: “Pride turned angels into devils; humility makes men as angels.”
Jonathan Edwards: “Pride is the main handle by which Satan holds the soul.”
Stephen Charnock: “Pride is a tumor in the soul that swells until it bursts repentance.”
Thomas Watson: “Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.”
His servants essentially argue: “what do you have to LOSE?!”
2 Kings 5:13 But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
I want to ask you that today! (Servants faithfulness were the ones lead him, faithful to preach.)
Pascal’s Wager is essentially a logical question asking what does the atheist stand to gain by rejecting God? It says every person is basically “betting” with their life on whether God exists. If you wager for God and He exists, you gain everything in Heaven; if He doesn’t, you lose nothing. If you wager against God and He exists, you lose everything in Hell; if He doesn’t, you still gain nothing!
You still have hope even if we’re deceived.
Naaman comes to his senses!
2 Kings 5:14 So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
YOU CAN BE TRULY HEALED.
God miraculously healed him! Like the flesh of a child.
I feel this. My wife has perfect skin. I’m aging like a lizard here in the valley!
G.K. Chesterton
“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
We’re in a culture that longs to be young again. We’re attempting to reverse time.
The skincare industry is a $100 Billion market
Cosmetic surgery and botox is growing yearly
Fitness Influencers Go viral teaching you to get healthy
Social media filters can make you look younger
Silicon Valley elites fund research to “upload consciousness” — digital immortality
Ancient peoples dreamed of finding a Fountain of Youth — a spring to cheat time and outrun decay. The Greeks told of ambrosia, drink of the gods, that made gods immortal. The Sumerians wrote of Gilgamesh searching for a plant that could make him live forever. The Chinese sought the elixir of life in alchemy and jade. Every culture whispered the same myth in a different accent: there must be a way to stay young forever. But every fable ends the same — man reaching for eternity and coming up empty. The longing is real; the fountain isn’t here.
Receiving the inner-healing that comes from surrendering to Jesus and being filled with the Holy Spirit is better than a fountain of youth!
God Can:
Heal the deepest ache of your heart.
Refill you with the joy you lost.
Restore your wasted years.
Give you a brand new life.
Awaken you from the dead
Get baptized! You’ve heard the Gospel. Now you need to respond to the Gospel.
I want you to notice the response of Naaman and mimic it:
YOU’VE GOT TO YIELD.
2 Kings 5:15 Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel;
Baptism declares there’s only ONE God–He ALONE saves.
I invite you to receive the ONLY salvation and stick it to the darkness in the waters of baptism today.
so accept now a present from your servant.”
We give all of our lives to Jesus after baptism. Not a one time event.
2 Kings 5:17-19 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. [18] In this matter may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon your servant in this matter.” [19] He said to him, “Go in peace.”
Watch this: In the ancient words the gods had territory. You would take the dirt of that god from his territory and bring it to where you live to worship him. Naaman is realizing all the earth belongs to YHWH. He’s asking to bring the territory of YHWH where he goes. He wanted Yahweh’s rule to touch Syrian soil.
When you get saved it extends to territory of the Kingdom of God. You too become a ground-taking Kingdom-expanding ambassador, forcefully advancing the good news of Jesus into the darkness!
Prayer Team