Today’s story is a very interesting story. It is a very famous story that involves some very famous people - General Naaman, the Commander of the Aramean army (2 Kings 5:1); Elisha, the prophet of God (2 Kings 1:3,8) and a couple of less famous characters: Naaman’s wife’s servant girl and Gehazi, Elisha’s servant. I invite you to read the whole story of Naaman as it is recorded in 2 Kings 5. Today, however, we are just going to look at the story as it relates to person of Naaman and the effect that the events recorded in the first few verses of Chapter 5 had on Joram, the King of Israel.
The story today opens up by introducing us to General Naaman: Verse 1, “Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram….”
Aram (Syria)
There are a few interesting things in this first verse that we have just read. One is that Naaman is a general, a commander of an army from Aram. Now the Arameans are on-again, off-again foes and allies of Israel (cf. 2 Kings 6:8, 24-7:20). They have had many conflicts over the years. You might remember some very dramatic scenes from the scriptures: In the early 14th century BC, much of Israel was under Aramean rule for about eight years (Judges 3) until they were liberated by Othniel, Caleb’s son-in-law. King Joram shortly after the episode we are looking at today (2 Kings 5) will wisely spare the lives of the Aramean soldiers that Elisha captures (2 Kings 6:8-23) and King Ahab not too many years before the events of today’s story unwisely spares the life of Aram’s king, Ben-Hadad (after capturing him in battle 1 Kings 20:31ff) only to be ironically killed in battle against the Aramean foe (1 Kings 22:29-38).
These two countries – Israel and Aram (Syria) - have quite a history and at this point in their history the Superpower of the day (Assyria) has its eyes on the Near East and a ‘coalition of the willing’ is being formed to try to withstand Assyria’s onslaught. Among other things, Israel’s inconsistent support for the resistance sometimes provokes raids from Aram and in one of these raids a young Israelite girl is captured and she becomes General Naaman’s wife’s servant.[1]
Leprosy
It is this captured slave girl who, as recorded in verse 2 of our text, tells her master how he can be cured of his ailment. Naaman, verse one tells us, has leprosy. The word translated as ‘leprosy’ here probably does not refer to Hanson's Disease, which is what we generally think of if we speak of leprosy.[2]
Theologians R. D. Patterson and Hermann J. Austel say of the Hebrew word here that, “obviously the term is of wider dimension, being used not only of true leprosy (e.g., of Azariah, 2 Kings 15:5 q.v.), but of serious skin conditions (Lev 13:1-46) and of fungi in clothing (Lev 13:47-56) and houses (Lev 14:33-59).[3] David P. Wright and Choon-Leong Seow agree that Naaman’s social involvement and status (the fact that he is a powerful person and that he is not living in isolation) make it very unlikely that he suffered from Hanson's Disease, which again is what we generally think of when we hear the word ‘leprosy’ today.
Nonetheless, this condition that Naaman has is not a pleasant disease and just like Canadians with money in our day and age will try to jump surgery queues by paying a lot of money and taking extra risks to go the USA for a speedy operation, Naaman, as a man of privilege is willing to do the same in the story before us today. Verses 4-6:
Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. "By all means, go," the king of Aram replied. "I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: "With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy."
International Intrigue?
There is even more than this though. It is not as if Naaman is just a wealthy man going off to a country that either controls his or has been allied with his own country for a hundred years or so (like a Canadian heading to the US). Naaman is a man of privilege and a soldier from a foreign country. Naaman is even more than just a privileged soldier: he is a general. Naaman is even more than just a general: he is the commander of Aram’s forces.[4] He is to the Aramean King, as Joab was to David or as Sisera was to Jabin (Judges 4).[5] He is the leader of the Aram’s military and Aram has been a war with Israel and Naaman himself has probably even gained some of his status by fighting successfully against Israel in the past. There is even an extra-Biblical tradition that says that it was Naaman’s arrow that struck down the disguised King Ahab of Israel in his war chariot (1 Kings 22, 2 Chronicles 18).[6] And now Namaan has approached the King of Aram to ask permission to visit Israel, a country that he has most certainly led military raids against. He has asked to go to Israel to see if he can get some help for his skin condition.
Think about this for a moment. Can you imagine if the leader of the US forces in Afghanistan (even during a break in the fighting) asked for special permission to go to be healed of some illness by the Taliban (whom the US has at times sponsored and at other times warred against and whom the US is often involved in raids against their towns). It would be much the same I think.
The King of Israel certainly seems to react the way we would expect of Mullah Omar if a high-profile American showed up at his door asking him to cure him of some seemingly incurable disease. The King of Israel says, verse 7, “…Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”
Naaman is sincere but the King of Israel is insecure; he is afraid. As we have seen, there are some very good reasons why one might be afraid – if one doesn’t have absolute faith in the absolute faithfulness of God and the King hasn’t the faith or knowledge yet that God can and will heal Namaan. He thinks that this is merely a political move on the part of his sometimes enemies. He seemingly forgets that God is sovereign. He forgets that God is in control and instead he just thinks that the King of Aram is trying to pick a fight to him and he gets so upset about it that he even – verse 7 – tears his royal robes. He has this fear of man where instead he should have faith in God.
What about us?
When we are unexpectedly met with some challenge, do we ever have this very same fear in the place that should be occupied with faith?
When the economy is going down, when more than one cabinet minister leaves important files with biker gangs or a media outlet that has just had a judge condemn it for a lack of ethics, when it seems that our financial and political masters may be either incompetent or (as the conspiracy theorist would say) out to get us, are we tempted have a fear of man or circumstance in the place of faith in God? Do we have fear in the place of faith? In our own lives when things are seemingly going wrong and people or circumstances appear to be trying to pick a quarrel with us, do we have fear in the place of faith?
This is the King of Israel’s problem. This isn’t Naaman’s problem: Namaan is boldly marching down to Israel. And this isn’t God’s problem or the prophet Elisha’s problem. God, through Elisha rebukes and comforts King Joram of Israel with these words – verse 7, he says, “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
When things in our life seem like they are out-of-control; when we have the impression that people or life itself might be ganging up on us; when it doesn’t seem like we can win for losing; when we just want to tear our clothes, tear our hair out, or cry because (like the King of Israel) all we can see is the mounting pressure and impending crises…when all this happens, we should remember these words of comfort: "Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel." In other words, calm down, be at peace, bring your problems before the Lord and then we will all see that indeed God is in this place.
Let us pray.
---
[1]R. D. Patterson and Hermann J. Austel. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:2 Kings/Exposition of Second Kings/6. The eras of Jehoram of the northern kingdom and Jehoram and Ahaziah of the southern kingdom (2:1-9:37)/c. Elisha's miracles (4:1-6:7)/(4) The restoration of Naaman (5:1-27), Book Version: 4.0.2
[2] Cf. G.J. Wenham, The Book of Leviticus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), pp. 189-214 and David P. Wright and Richard N. Jones, “Leprosy” in ABD, 4:277-82.
[3] R. D. Patterson and Hermann J. Austel. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:2 Kings/Notes to Second Kings/Second Kings 5 Notes/Second Kings Note 5:1, Book Version: 4.0.2
[4] Choon-Leong Seow. The First and Second Book of Kings. (NIB III: Abigdon Press, Nashville, 1999), p. 193.
[5] R. D. Patterson and Hermann J. Austel. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:2 Kings/Exposition of Second Kings/6. The eras of Jehoram of the northern kingdom and Jehoram and Ahaziah of the southern kingdom (2:1-9:37)/c. Elisha's miracles (4:1-6:7)/(4) The restoration of Naaman (5:1-27), Book Version: 4.0.2
[6] Cf. Josephus. Antiquities of the Jews 15.5 and Targum on 2 Chronicles 18. Cited from Choon-Leong Seow. The First and Second Book of Kings. (NIB III: Abigdon Press, Nashville, 1999), p. 193.
Posts
