Today we are in 2 Kings 5. Before we dig into our Scripture for today I want to provide some context. Context always helps doesn’t it? My wife tells me that I don’t provide enough context all the time and I assume people know what I’m talking about when I’m usually the only who knows what I am actually talking about. Like I’ll start a conversation with my wife about something I saw or read and she’d look at me funny and ask, “what are you talking about?” because there is no context. From her perspective, it’s probably frustrating at best to get a glimpse into a partial conversation. From my point of view, it’s draining because I could have had a richer conversation if I had just provided some context to what I was saying.

Today we’re going to get a lot of context to a passage of scripture with a simple point:  

God’s ways demonstrate he alone is God!

Here’s some context to where we are in scripture today. We are in the book of 2 kings, where Elijah is taken home on chariots of fire and Elisha picks up the ministry of being the prophet of God in Israel. In chapter three and four we find various stories of how God uses Elisha to provide grace to his people. Now in chapter five, we find God providing grace to a gentile through the prophet. The way he does it though demonstrates he alone is God. We’re going to look at verses 1 through 15 in chapter five in two segments: context in verses 1 through 6 and then in God’s demonstration of his power in verses 7-15. Let’s go 2 Kings 5:1.

¹Naaman, 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. (2 Kings 5:1 ESV)

First thing, Naaman is a big deal. He’s THE commander of the army of THE king of Syria. Military man with strong political presence given his rank and position and achievements. Notice that it was the “Lord” who placed favor on Naaman as a military leader to give Syria victory. That’s important context because the writer throws in a big fat BUT to the end of that verse. He was also a leper. The conclusion that we need to make here is this: Naaman was successful despite his handicap. Now, Naaman probably didn’t have crippling leprosy where his body parts were falling off, because you know, it’s hard to go to war with no body parts, but we do know that it was a problem, otherwise there’d be no point to this story. Verse 2.

²Now 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.” (2 Kings 5:2-4 ESV)

You thought Naaman was impressive? Verse 2 introduces us to a new person — a “little girl” who was “carried off.” Call it enslaved, human trafficking, kidnapping, whatever. Here’s the bottom line – she was ripped away from her family, and everything she knew, but had enough wits about herself, despite the pain and hurt that isn’t described at all, to be a witness to her God. She does this despite the fact that it may not have felt like her God was with her. After all, how could she trust in a God that allowed her enslavement? Isn’t it amazing how one person’s pain often leads to another person’s salvation?

Verses 1 and 2 show us that we have a part in God’s story despite our weaknesses, shortcomings and current dispositions. Don’t you dare use inadequacies or place in life to justify a hesitancy to step up in faith? We may count ourselves out; but, God doesn’t. Yes, we are handicapped, sinful, hurt, and in pain, but that’s exactly the type of people God uses to demonstrate he alone is God. Verse 5.

 ⁵ And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. ⁶ And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” (2 Kings 5:5-6 ESV)

Let me translate how much money Naaman brings: a lot! That’s 750 pounds of silver and 250 pounds of gold and a diplomatic letter to make bureaucratic red tape disappear. Now we have the context to Naaman’s story. The way God is working in Naaman’s life is unmistakable and we’re going to see three truths about God’s ways in verses 7 through 15 which we’re going to breakdown. So now we have the context to how God will provide grace to Naaman.

There are three truths about God’s ways in this event that we need to be aware to understand how God’s ways in our lives show that he alone is God. Let’s verses 7 through 15 together now.

⁷ And 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 sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.” 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 that there is a prophet in Israel.” ⁹ So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰ 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. 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’?” 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. 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…” (2 Kings 5:7-15 ESV)

My first point today:

1.  God’s ways are humanly impossible

The king of Israel read the letter and then tore his clothes off in verse 7. He didn’t consult anybody, he just reacted. In fact, you can say that he overreacted. The king couldn’t see past the situation. In fact, he acted all pathetic. That is not the type of behavior you want to see in a king. Doesn’t this often mirror our own lives? We just jump into despair mode and we start making decisions and doing things that are unbecoming of who we were created to be?

Let’s contrast the difference in attitude between the king and slave girl from verse 2 that started this journey for Naaman. The king despairs while the slave girl was full of confidence. The king has every reason to believe in God—his life was blessed. He was the head of a theocracy. The king of Israel could have casted all his anxieties about this impossible situation onto God. He obviously knew the capabilities of God. But he couldn’t get past the impossible.

Family, I want us to have the same attitude as the slave girl. No, I don’t necessarily want us to be broken, poor, and removed from the places we’re familiar with or the people we love, but I want us to have a confidence in a God who is alive and well despite the circumstances in our lives. That’s what a life marked by faith is.

Maybe on the outside we look like kings, but don’t act like it when it matters. God’s ways are humanly impossible. Recognize that and live into the fact that our impossibilities are God’s realities. You can be healed, your relationships can be restored, this is not the end of your story, it is just an opportunity for you to enter into God’s ways. I love what Peter writes to the persecuted believers in the first century, this is from 1 Peter 5:7: cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Let’s go to verse 8.

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 that there is a prophet in Israel.” ⁹ So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. (2 Kings 5:8-9 ESV)

Did you catch where a potential international crisis is going to be resolved: Yes, Elisha’s bungalow styled house. It’s not the palace of Israel or the home of an influential businessman. It’s some random house in some random neighborhood far away from the power seat. When we recognize that our impossibilities are God’s possibilities, we find God working His ways in everyday places. Your neighborhood, house, kitchen table can be the place God makes impossible possible.

Here’s the second truth about God’s ways we learn from Naaman’s story:

2.  God’s ways humble our pride

Let’s go to verse 10.

¹⁰ 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. (2 Kings 10-12 ESV)

Elisha didn’t go out to meet Naaman, his messenger did. Not really a good way to start international relations for Elisha, at least not from Naaman’s perspective. He doesn’t even bother greeting Naaman at the door. That’s just the beginning of Naaman’s humbling. He brought an army carrying 750 pounds of silver and 250 pounds of gold along with the 10 hottest outfits BC fashionistas could want as payment and the dude that was supposed to heal him didn’t even bother coming to the door.

Naaman had this notion in his mind as to how God should operate. Elisha would come out, say a really loud prayer, wave his hands up and down, left and right, maybe dance a little. He knew exactly how God should heal him, but none of it happened. I get why Naaman is mad. Don’t you? He had this idea of how God will heal him, and it contradicted the way God actually does what He does. Naaman is enraged because he already has this horrible skin condition, and now to be healed he’s got to go bathe in the Jordan! For those of us who have never bathed in the Jordan, I want you to imagine a cloudy, muddy river where things pass by your legs and feet that you can’t see. A respected general was supposed to bathe in that. The Abana and Pharpar, on the other hand, they are mountain springs—clear and clean, and you can see the bottom.  

So two Sundays ago, at like 4AM, our daughter Kate starts crying. At 4AM, I know God gave Michelle and I a baby to teach us humility. One month old and already God is using her to teach us about His grace and mercy. So she’s crying and I don’t know how to fix it, so I’m doing everything I can right? I’m in her room changing her diaper and getting ready to feed her and looking for my phone so I can play sleepy music, and it’s not going well. Kate’s crying hysterically, kicking her legs, swinging her arms, and I’m saying, “God why?!!!” because I had just dropped her dirty diaper on the floor. Then Kate stops crying. “Hallelujah! God heard my prayers and He is being merciful! Thank you Jesus, right? Then our neighbor’s dogs start barking, and a smell fills the air…. No it wasn’t just baby’s poop on the floor. You see Kate’s cries startled a skunk that was foraging in our yard and it sprayed our house. If you’ve ever had your house sprayed by skunk you know, that smell lingers and there’s nothing you can do to get it out. Of course, after the skunk sprayed the house, Kate goes right back to bed like nothing happened and only the adults in the house are awake dealing with the aftermath of it. Michelle says to me: “you should just take a shower now and go to church now, God’s calling you.”

The lesson here cannot be lost on us: God’s ways humble us. God wanted to show me that I am dependent on Him to empower my witness and teaching because we know smelling like a skunk doesn’t help meeting guests for the first time. God is far more powerful than my sleep-deprived mind or the smells emanating from my clothes. His ways humble me so I can point to Him.

Just look at the way He saves us—by faith. None of us earned our own salvation. Jesus had to die broken, homeless, and thirsty on cross for sins he didn’t commit so that if we believed we could be saved. That’s humbling for us — we couldn’t do anything to help ourselves or save ourselves and it required God to rescue us? There was nothing that we could contribute or earn.

Here’s the third truth we learn from Naaman’s story.

3.  God’s ways require simple obedience

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’?” 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. 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; (2 Kings 5:13-15 ESV)

God’s ways require simple obedience. Simple obedience isn’t always so simple though, is it? It requires us to kill our own ambitions and preconceived notions and reframe that with common sense. Again, Naaman doesn’t come to his senses alone. It required more humbling.

His servants had to encourage him to throw out those preconceived notions of how God would operate. The JKwon translation of verse 13 would be like this, “yo boss, you brought all this money and stuff so you can do whatever it takes to be healed and you won’t go swimming in a muddy river, come on buddy?” A general had to be taught that God’s ways is not his ways by his servants. Talk about managing up and influencing people who had no business being influenced.

So Naaman, convinced of his need to obey the command of God to get onboard with the ways of God, washed in the Jordan 7 times and his lifetime of physical embarrassment and disability was wiped away, he was clean. It’s interesting to see how God healed Naaman only after he obeyed.

When we obey God’s command and get onboard with His way, like Naaman, we will realize God’s ways demonstrate he alone is God. He says it in verse 15, there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. That’s the point of this story folks. God’s ways demonstrate he alone is God!  

It’s the same with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When you believe Jesus came to save you by living on earth blameless, being punished by death on the cross like the worst of all criminals, and then resurrected three days later to demonstrate he conquered sin and death in our lives—it demonstrates that God alone is God. In the story of Jesus, God’s ways are humanly impossible. His ways humble our pride. His ways always require our simple obedience.

It’s absurd that we put our trust and faith in a man executed on a cross two-thousand years ago to be saved, yet that’s God’s way. It was the only way to show that He alone is God and He only can rescue. Look at how the Apostle Paul phrases it to the church in Corinth ¹⁸ For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1^st Corinthians 1:18 ESV)

Naaman’s story illustrates what Paul was describing to the church in Corinth: God’s ways doesn’t always fit your notion of things, but they demonstrate He alone is God. If you forgot what obedience in God’s ways look like, put down those preconceived notions of the ways of God operates and allow God to do things His way in your life.

If you’re here today because you are broken and need healing, need help, need God, then put your trust in him and obey his calling. Place your trust in Him and on His ways. Invite him into your heart right now.

As a church family, we want to walk beside you if you’re making this act of simple obedience today. Fill out the connect card in your bulletins or at the connect desk and stick it in the basket because we would love to walk with you and help you take the next steps living in God’s ways.