Leprosy is a terrible disease, but especially so in ages past. It could start out as something as seemingly insignificant as a white spot or scab but gradually spread until a large tract or even the entire body was covered with its tell-tale whiteness. It could eat holes in the eye-lids and lips, bleach the hair snow-white, cover the body with a mass of ash-covered scales, eat the nails away, swell the fingers with knots that are crusted with red secretion. I have seen lepers in India with body parts missing. Slowly, steadily but surely, the disease brings death.
Naaman was a great and honourable man but he was a leper. He was a mighty man of valour (2 Kings 5:1) and it appears the disease was in the early stages as v.11 refers to the place of the leprosy, or its spot, and considering he was still in full active duty it seems it was still localized in a part of his body. Regardless, he knew that whatever his accomplishments, whatever his relationship with the royalty of the Syrian nation, whatever exploits he had accrued to his name, at the end of the day he was a leper. Not even his king could change that and provided he didn’t die in battle or by other such cause, leprosy would have the last word.
There is a parallel between Naaman and all people of the world. It matters not what accomplishments a man may achieve in life, how much wealth he may accrue, how much fame he may attain, he must come back to the bottom line that he is a sinner and unless he can find the cure for sin it will kill him and have the last word (Matt.8:36,37). Morality will not save (Acts 10:1,2 cf 11:13,14: Eph 2:8,9). There is only one remedy for sin and that is the gospel (Rom. 1:16).
When Naaman was told what the cure was for his leprosy he reacted angrily. He came prepared to pay a king’s ransom for a cure: Ten talents of silver, 6000 shekels of gold and 10 festal garments. But that was not the price of the cure. One would imagine that a man would be overjoyed to hear the prophet’s prescription – one would expect that Naaman would have the attitude that in effect said, Anything, anything, I’ll do anything – I’ll even walk to the Gulf (a commonly-used expression of my mother’s). But when the prophet issued the command to go and dip 7 times in the Jordan, the thought of it was too much for the army commander. The sin of pride is a terrible thing in this respect, and the more he thought about it the angrier he became until he left in a rage. Pride results in anger in a vain attempt to change the facts (cf. Gen. 4:3-7). Naaman had a choice: he could keep his pride and along with it his leprosy or he could pay up with his pride and be cleansed. Who would pay for the proud anger? Not Elisha, but Naaman. And if pride was given up, who would be the winner? Naaman! Smashing the scales will not change your weight and neither will breaking the mirror change your looks. Stephen preached (Acts 7:52-54), they killed him, but it did not change the things he said!
Many react angrily to the plan of salvation that God has authored, but rejecting it and being angry with it does not change the truth of it or the necessity of obedience to it (cf. 2 Tim. 2:12,13).
The reason for Naaman’s anger was his presupposition (v.11). Behold, I thought! But as my mother often told me when I used that same expression in my youth, Thought planted feathers in the ground and thought chickens would grow. Apparently, Naaman thought that his leprosy would be prayed for with the prophet waving his arms over the affected region with due religiosity, but man’s thoughts aren’t always right (Isa. 55:8,9; Prov. 14:12). 2 Cor. 5:7 says that we live by faith, and this faith in a religious practice is founded upon God’s authority for it, so that the faith then is in the Giver of the religious practice, not in the religious practice itself (Rom. 10:17). The waters of Jordan have no therapeutic value today, and didn’t then. What God commanded was the crucial issue. Just as Naaman was cleansed by the obedience of faith, even so today man is cleansed from his sin through the obedience of faith (Heb. 5:8,9; Rom. 6:17,18 cf. Acts 2 :38). Prayer alone will not save – Prov. 28:9).
Naaman believed a substitute would suffice (v.12) – Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Syria were in some respects better than the Jordan, renowned for its frequent muddiness. But they were not as good as Jordan in that God had commanded Jordan! Many things in life are more convenient than others, but that doesn’t make them right. Somebody made a movie entitled An Inconvenient Truth, and regardless of the content of that movie, that statement of that movie is often true. One could make a case and successfully defend it, that it’s more convenient to sprinkle water on a person’s head than immerse them into Christ. (I’ve baptized people in wheel chairs and others with ailments that made immersion difficult, but if God says immerse, then immerse it is). God said Jordan, not Abana or Pharpar. Naaman knew there was a distinction.
His servants’ great question (v.13). Who this servant was we do not know. I suggest he was a man of courage to try and reason with an angry man, and also a clear thinker. Naaman was privileged to have such a servant. What he didn’t need was a fawning servant to pamper his pride by saying, Yes, great Master, you do well to be angry. The Jordan is indeed a muddy little river. If he had had such a servant he would have returned home as he came – a leper. And after he had dipped in resentment seven times in the Abana or Pharpar on his return home he would have remained a leper. Then, most probably, he would have blamed the prophet and said, I knew it wouldn’t work anyhow – nobody can cure leprosy! Pride is the robber that takes from us the wholeness God wants to give. Things don’t work out exactly the way we want them to, we don’t hear the words we expected; we take a bit of anger, heat it along with pride and cut ourselves off from spiritual growth.
So often man either takes away from what God has spoken, or adds to it. Some make the way of God hard when it is simple and uncomplicated. Others eliminate things that God has commanded. Just as there was water in God’s plan for Naaman to be made whole, even so there is water in the plan for our wholeness today. We must believe, repent, confess and be immersed into Christ unto the remission of sins. Many today upon hearing that will say, Behold, I thought, because they have heard many false doctrines which declare that one does not need to be immersed into Christ. Is baptism an inconvenient truth? Jesus walked many miles from Galilee down to the Jordan to stand in a line of sinners to be baptized of John. If God says wash and be clean, (Acts 22:16), not do some great thing, why not wash and be clean?
