Being cleansed
This week is on 2 Kings 5:9-14:
I was reading these verses this morning and was struck by how similar they are to how God works with us in our fallen condition. Naaman was a leper who had no connection to God or his people. He heard he could go to God for healing, but the prophet he went to see sent a messenger to him telling him to wash himself. He was furious! He thought there'd be an earth shattering kaboom, some kind of spiritual experience that proved he'd be healed. Instead he was just told to clean himself.
Naaman had tried his whole life to clean himself. Leprosy is a nasty disease. I hope I never have to see a leper, let alone be one, because of how awful I've heard it is. You can't get clean. Lepers used to have to shout "Leper! Unclean!" when they went into town, because of how nasty it is. People would need warning so they wouldn't freak out or get too close. There was no earthly hope of a cure for leprosy back in Naaman's day. When you had it, you deteriorated until your body basically rotted away. You had to live separated from society. He was beyond redemption. Nothing any man could do to him would help him.
Naaman heard that God could cure him of his leprosy. He went through great lengths to seek out God's representative, only to have his messenger tell him to go away and clean himself. Naaman was so angry! He went through all of this trouble to get himself cured, and the advice was just to do what he already tried! Elisha didn't even see him! He just told him what to do and left him to do it. How many people probably already told Naaman to clean himself? It's not like he'd never tried!
Naaman's servants gave him some good perspective. In modern terms, they'd be like "If some doctor wanted $250,000 to perform an operation to cure you, with possible side-effects, you'd be all about it, wouldn't you? Dipping the water is free, and pretty harmless. Why not give it a try? You've got nothing to lose. It's not like it's going to give you more leprosy!" Naaman tried it, and it worked exactly as promised. He was cured, and not just cured but better than new.
We find ourselves in the same situation sometimes, as strangers who heard of God's power and came to find him ourselves. We end up running into his messengers, who tell us to change things about our lives, as though they were making the same sort of snap judgments those around us have made. Sometimes the things they tell us to do are things we've already tried. It makes us angry. We don't realize that God will help us to change. And we don't realize that God wants what is good for us, which is sometimes what people who don't know God but who care for us also want for us. "I should eat less? Seriously!? I've already tried that. It does nothing but make me hungry and miserable!"
God's yoke for us is surprisingly light. Sometimes we expect him to give us huge tasks, like having to fix our problems entirely on our own. Is someone going to cure themselves of mental illness or change their metabolism by sheer force of will? Those are huge tasks, and we'd expect a doctor to give us a burden like that, but sometimes God only asks that we do some simple thing, and trust him to do the rest.
Naaman was healed of one of the worst diseases known to man simply for dipping seven times in a river. Imagine if the worst of your problems, ones you had no hope for at all, could be fixed that easily! Even if the river was on the other side of the world, I think we'd still gladly do it. Instead of getting angry, we should give the simple things a try. Sometimes a small effort is all God asks to do great things.
So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”
But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.
Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
I was reading these verses this morning and was struck by how similar they are to how God works with us in our fallen condition. Naaman was a leper who had no connection to God or his people. He heard he could go to God for healing, but the prophet he went to see sent a messenger to him telling him to wash himself. He was furious! He thought there'd be an earth shattering kaboom, some kind of spiritual experience that proved he'd be healed. Instead he was just told to clean himself.
Naaman had tried his whole life to clean himself. Leprosy is a nasty disease. I hope I never have to see a leper, let alone be one, because of how awful I've heard it is. You can't get clean. Lepers used to have to shout "Leper! Unclean!" when they went into town, because of how nasty it is. People would need warning so they wouldn't freak out or get too close. There was no earthly hope of a cure for leprosy back in Naaman's day. When you had it, you deteriorated until your body basically rotted away. You had to live separated from society. He was beyond redemption. Nothing any man could do to him would help him.
Naaman heard that God could cure him of his leprosy. He went through great lengths to seek out God's representative, only to have his messenger tell him to go away and clean himself. Naaman was so angry! He went through all of this trouble to get himself cured, and the advice was just to do what he already tried! Elisha didn't even see him! He just told him what to do and left him to do it. How many people probably already told Naaman to clean himself? It's not like he'd never tried!
Naaman's servants gave him some good perspective. In modern terms, they'd be like "If some doctor wanted $250,000 to perform an operation to cure you, with possible side-effects, you'd be all about it, wouldn't you? Dipping the water is free, and pretty harmless. Why not give it a try? You've got nothing to lose. It's not like it's going to give you more leprosy!" Naaman tried it, and it worked exactly as promised. He was cured, and not just cured but better than new.
We find ourselves in the same situation sometimes, as strangers who heard of God's power and came to find him ourselves. We end up running into his messengers, who tell us to change things about our lives, as though they were making the same sort of snap judgments those around us have made. Sometimes the things they tell us to do are things we've already tried. It makes us angry. We don't realize that God will help us to change. And we don't realize that God wants what is good for us, which is sometimes what people who don't know God but who care for us also want for us. "I should eat less? Seriously!? I've already tried that. It does nothing but make me hungry and miserable!"
God's yoke for us is surprisingly light. Sometimes we expect him to give us huge tasks, like having to fix our problems entirely on our own. Is someone going to cure themselves of mental illness or change their metabolism by sheer force of will? Those are huge tasks, and we'd expect a doctor to give us a burden like that, but sometimes God only asks that we do some simple thing, and trust him to do the rest.
Naaman was healed of one of the worst diseases known to man simply for dipping seven times in a river. Imagine if the worst of your problems, ones you had no hope for at all, could be fixed that easily! Even if the river was on the other side of the world, I think we'd still gladly do it. Instead of getting angry, we should give the simple things a try. Sometimes a small effort is all God asks to do great things.
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