In II Kings 5 we have the story of Naaman. His story has been told since Sunday school and daily vacation bible school days. Yet within this familiar story are the principles of humility that are vital to understand how God desires us to respond to, not only Himself, but also to others.
We find right from the beginning of the story that Naaman is a “mighty man of valour”. He was well respected and had earned the respect of those that were his superiors and those who were under him. God had allowed Naaman to be used through the Syrian army to subdue the Israelites due to their sin. Naaman has earned quite a reputation, but he had also contracted a deadly and highly contagious disease: leprosy.
Naaman’s wife had at her service a young maid from Israel that had been captured and brought back to Syria to become a slave. Two side notes here: 1) The actions of leadership have far ranging effects. Because of the sin of the political leaders and religious leaders, young people like this little maid had ended up in slavery in a foreign country. 2) God has a plan for our lives even in the darkest of circumstances. Here is a young lady whose dreams have been crushed. She had visions of being a wife, mother, family holidays, and the heritage of her home country. Instead, she’s now a slave in a foreign land. Yet God had her right where he wanted her to fulfill His perfect will. When God tells us “all things work together for good” in Romans 8:28, it often does not work out the way WE expect it to. Yet God’s perfect will works perfectly.
This maid was concerned for her master. She had seen the stress in the home and the concern of the wife with whom she worked. She had seen the grave late night whispered talks, the tears of the pending separation due to quarantine, the serious nature of the disease and the possible early end of the Naaman’s life. The maid saw this and spoke her thoughts out loud. If only Elisha was nearby. Elisha, the prophet from Israel had cured leprosy in others and he could certainly help Naaman. He could bring an end to the concern, the tears, the stress that was tearing this family apart. She said as much out loud, and the news traveled quickly to Naaman, and even to the King himself.
We begin to see the character of Naaman and the rapport he had developed with the people around him. There was a genuine concern for his health stemming from the maid all the way to the King himself. Naaman was loved and respected and everyone involved wanted to help him. The king insisted that Naaman pursue every possible avenue for healing and sent letters with him to the king of Israel explaining the need and course of action.
We begin to see the necessity of swallowed pride and the seeds of humility as Naaman now has to go to the king of Israel for help. This would be the country that they had just conquered. This would be the king of the army that Naaman had just defeated. This would be like George Washington traveling to England to ask a favor of King George in 1780.
We know the king of Israel acted in his own personal pity party and wallowed in his own misery at the request. But, Elisha heard about the kings reaction and sent for Naaman. We then come to the taxing of Naaman’s humility. He was a decorated soldier. He had great authority. He thus had great pride. As he comes to Elisha’s house, Elisha does not even bother to go great Naaman. He sends his servant out to give the instructions to Naaman. Why? Why does Elisha not go out to meet Naaman? He knows the urgency of his health. He knows the stature of the man. Why does Elisha not even bother to get up and go out to meet Naaman, because God wanted Naaman to learn humility. God wanted Naaman to know that the power was not in Elisha, not in the area, and certainly not in the task at hand. The power was in God and God alone.
Naaman receives the instructions to wash in the Jordan river seven times. He finally has had enough. The Jordan river is muddy and nasty. There are bugs swarming around and it doesn’t even smell that good. There were far better rivers in Syria and if leprosy was something you could just wash away, Naaman would have already done that. He turns to leave in fit of anger.
Once again, Naaman’s rapport with his men is essential. His men reason some common sense into him and convince him that if he traveled this far and was asked to do such a simple task, why not do it. Naaman, as we know, does dip in the Jordan seven times and comes out clean. He acknowledges God as the one and only true God and vows to sacrifice to only the God of Israel from that day forward.
1). Sometimes we have to listen to people we may not normally listen to.
Counsel and advice come from unusual places all too often. The Word of God tells us that “out of the mouth of babes comes great wisdom”. Naaman had to humble himself and take the advice of a little maid, receive his instructions from Elisha’s servant, and listen to the reason of his own entourage. Naaman had to learn to listen to those whom the decorated warrior was not used to listening to. He was used to people listening to him.
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How often do we recoil at criticism we receive? How often do we already know we are doing the right thing when in reality we may NOT be doing the right thing? “In the multitude of counselors is great wisdom”. Do we ask others for their insight? I find so often as a Pastor that most of my people that come to me for counsel are not really asking anything. They already had decided what they are doing and would really like some affirmation that they are right. We need to learn to listen to others. Notice how the voice of reason and the will of God came from the little girl in the story of Naaman.
2) Sometimes we may have to go to places that we would not normally go.
When Naaman was sent by the king of Syria to go to Israel, he was sent to the king of Israel. Let’s stop and think about that for a moment. Naaman had been used by God to win great victories over the nation of Israel, bringing death and destruction to their military. Now Naaman would have to go before the king of Israel, the very king that he had defeated and whose armies he had decimated, and ask for help. Now Naaman had to go humbly before his defeated foe and admit that he was sick unto death and was at their mercy begging for help. Wow; that’s a hard pill to swallow!
Naaman then has to go to the home of Elisha, some crazy bald-headed religious nut in a foreign land. This was not a religion that Naaman was familiar with. This was not a god that he had served. Yet, Naaman had to rely on a god he did not know, in a country he had helped to defeat, and a religious nut he had never met or even heard of until days before. Things had truly changed drastically in Naaman’s life.
Ultimately, Naaman was going to have his greatest test in going into the muddy Jordan river and it is here that we finally hear his complaints due to his pride. Naaman argued that if he could simply ‘wash off’ the leprosy, than he would have done so in the nicer, cleaner rivers back home. Besides, he had to ride all the way back to Syria, and the Jordan was a muddy mess. He would smell bad. The smell would be in his clothes. He was above this. No way!
Sometimes when we need to learn to swallow our pride, we have to go to places we would not normally go to. We may have to help out at the mission down town. We may have to head into the poor trailer park to pick someone up for church. We may have just lost our job and now we are forced to buy our groceries at the grocery outlet that we thought we’d never go to. Christ was accused by his nay-sayers of dining with ‘publicans and sinners’. We may have to get dirty with the world in order to show them the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
3) We may have to do things in humility that we thought we would never do.
How often does it seem in life that God makes sure we find ourselves in the midst of the things we would ‘never do’. The shy young boy grows up to become the preacher. The affluent young lady grows up to become a missionary in the poorest of lands. The successful architect leaves his career to care for a mentally handicapped relative. The things we never thought we would do are so often the things that bring us the joy of knowing we are in God’s will.
Humility does not make one weak, it spiritually makes one stronger.
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