2Kings
5:1 ¶ Now Naaman, captain of the host of
the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by
him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in
valour, but he was a leper. 2 And
the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the
land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. 3 And she said unto her mistress, Would God my
lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would
recover him of his leprosy. 4 And one
went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is
of the land of Israel. 5 And the king of
Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he
departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces
of gold, and ten changes of raiment. 6
And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this
letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my
servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. 7 And it came to pass, when the king of Israel
had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to
kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his
leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel
against me. 8 And it was so, when
Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes,
that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him
come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
Naaman is
the general in charge of Syria’s armies and held in very high esteem by his
king, most likely Benhadad, because of his success in battle over Ahab, Jewish
authorities believed, as per John Gill. See 1Kings, chapter 22.
Leprosy has
been a bane to humanity since ancient times, reported in Ancient China, India,
and Egypt. It is thought to be a skin disease when it is really a disease of
the nervous system because the bacteria attacks the nerves. Sufferers’ features
distort and their ability to feel pain is greatly diminished leading them to
injure themselves. It was a life-changing disaster and was believed to be
visited upon a person because of their sin. It has been called Hansen’s Disease
since 1873 when the bacteria was identified. With the inability to feel pain
and disfiguration was added the shunning of society. The word, leprosy, in the
Bible covers a multitude of skin conditions, though, and not just the modern
definition of the disease. It is, like sin, healed by Christ in the New
Testament. This general, if not suffering the effects of Hansen’s Disease,
clearly has some horrid skin disease that he is willing to go to Israel to get
help for.
Please
read my comments on Leviticus, chapter 13;
“Leprosy in early modern English, the language of the King
James era, included many malignant skin diseases. Neither the Hebrews of 3,000
BC nor the translators of the King James era of 1600 would have restricted it
to what it is called today, Hansen’s Disease, named after the Norwegian doctor,
Gerhard Hansen, who identified the bacterial
agent that causes it in 1873. But, don’t read that back into the Bible. Leprosy
would have been a much broader umbrella in 1611 as well as in the millennia
before that. In the 1600s even Elephantiasis, caused by a parasite, was
regarded as a type of Leprosy.
So, modernists should
stop criticizing the Bible by saying that this or that is not a symptom of
Leprosy but of some other illness. Just think malignant, perhaps contagious,
skin disease like they would have thought.
Matthew
Henry, in his commentary on Leviticus 13, made two very interesting points. The
first was, “Concerning
the plague of leprosy we may observe in general, 1. That it was rather an
uncleanness than a disease; or, at least, so the law considered it, and
therefore employed not the physicians but the priests about it.” He also wrote
about this Leprosy in the Bible as being different than what we consider
Leprosy in modern times, “That it is a plague not now known in the world; what
is commonly called the leprosy is of a quite different nature. This seems to
have been reserved as a particular scourge for the sinners of those times and
places.”
The priests here are doing double-duty, as diviners of ritually
clean and unclean as well as public health workers. Egypt, from whence the
Hebrews had escaped, had priests who were also doctors mixing magic and
medicine although certainly not all Egyptian priests were physicians. Many
sources report that Leprosy is first mentioned in an Egyptian papyrus
manuscript from around 1550BC. The Hebrews probably picked up the potential for
Leprosy from their stay in Egypt.
Deuteronomy 28:27 The LORD will smite thee with the botch of
Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou
canst not be healed.
But, the potential for Leprosy, the presence of bacterium or
parasites, does not mean that everyone will get it or everyone would. There is
a reason why some contract a disease that many others were exposed to but
didn’t contract. Was it a punishment for sin or was this, like Job’s
affliction, allowed for reasons we cannot know in this life but simply must
trust God in regard? This Leprosy underscores that there is a discrimination, a
judgment between clean and unclean.”
The king of Israel is terrified that the king of Syria is trying
to create an excuse to attack him as this request seems very extreme. But,
Elisha states that he is going to use this incident to show, not his own power,
but the power of the God of Israel, of whom he is a prophet. Some people
mistake this as Elisha trumpeting himself rather than God.
2Kings
5:9 ¶ So Naaman came with his horses and
with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. 10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying,
Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and
thou shalt be clean. 11 But Naaman was
wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to
me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand
over the place, and recover the leper. 12
Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all
the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and
went away in a rage. 13 And his servants
came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had
bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how
much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? 14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven
times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came
again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
Like with
many of us, Naaman’s pride almost kept him from a great blessing. He was
offended that he should be told to baptize himself in the Jordan considering,
in his mind, the superiority of the Syrian rivers. The Abana River is now known
as the Barada. The Pharpar River might be the modern day Taura River, according
to sources I read.
Naaman’s
more moderate reasoning is appealed to by his servants in a like what’s the big
deal sort of thing. Naaman must have been a good man with his servants
expressing concern for him as they did, first with the slave girl, and then
with these servants, or perhaps they too were afflicted by the shame that
leprosy presented in their master and hoped for a miracle as well.
The power
here wasn’t in the Jordan or in Elisha, but in God, as delivered to Naaman by
his reluctant obedience, as it often is in our lives and in the pages of the
Bible. Many characters in life today and in the Bible receive a blessing but
only after they expressed doubt or reluctance. There is so much more to life we
could have if we just believed and obeyed God.
2Kings
5:15 ¶ And he returned to the man of
God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said,
Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel:
now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. 16 But he said, As the LORD liveth,
before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it;
but he refused. 17 And Naaman said,
Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules’ burden of
earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor
sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD. 18 In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, that
when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth
on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in
the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing. 19 And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he
departed from him a little way.
Naaman is
grateful and wants to reward Elisha, who refuses compensation. Naaman pleads
for some earth from Israel to make himself a sort of shrine to God. However, he
is, like many of us, still going to live in the culture and the religion of his
people to “go along to get along.” I witnessed to a woman once who trusted
Christ as her Saviour but told me that she still was going to go to the church
that had never taught her about salvation through faith in Christ because
that’s where her family and friends went to church. She became a believer but
was unwilling to walk away from everything she knew. Naaman is an important man
in his country and to keep his position he feels he must make this compromise,
in spite of what God has done for him. He will only worship God but will blend
in with those idolaters of his own country who worship other gods. Elisha
didn’t preach at him. It is what it is. Christ calls us to follow Him and
sometimes that means leaving what is comfortable behind, including status and
approval of others. Naaman is not that strong. It is a sad situation, I think. God
has done wonderful things for us but we are afraid of the opinions of others
and the consequences of being true to our faith in work, family, school, or in
other environments.
Rimmon, I
read, was a storm god in Syria and Assyria.
2Kings
5:20 ¶ But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha
the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not
receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, as the LORD liveth, I
will run after him, and take somewhat of him. 21 So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when
Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to
meet him, and said, Is all well? 22
And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold,
even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of
the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of
garments. 23 And Naaman said, Be
content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in
two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his
servants; and they bare them before him. 24 And when he came to the tower, he took them
from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go,
and they departed. 25 But he went in,
and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou,
Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither. 26 And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with
thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it
a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and
vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants? 27 The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave
unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a
leper as white as snow.
Remarkably,
Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, engages in a bit of corruption and dishonesty like a
modern politician, take the reward from Naaman that Elisha refused. For his
chicanery he is cursed with leprosy which hardly made the money and the fine
clothing worth it. There have been sermons about being content with one’s wages
and being honest in one’s dealings from this passage, among other things.
