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For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.
Scriptural study: 2 Kings 5:1-19
- Note: Naaman is also mentioned in the NT (Luke 4:27).
- Syria = Aram = Syria, not Assyria
- His qualities:
- Leadership
- Courage
- And the flaw of leprosy (both visible and humiliating).
- Physical and spiritual health are found in the land of Israel (not Syria, where false gods are worshipped).
- See how God works through circumstances, through people, through conversations!
- Naaman is willing to pay! He knows that cleansing is worth it! (Do we?)
- He proceeds to the king of Israel, to whom this looks like a trap.
- Elisha finds out what has happened, and invites Naaman to come to him (v.8).
- Elisha's instructions are humbling. In the presence of Naaman's entourage, to follow the prophet's instructions would have been humiliating.
- Instead of responding in humility, Naaman has a strong and negative emotional reaction. Furthermore, his reasoning is defective.
- He received some sound counsel – again, from a servant (v.13). Notice the role servants play, as opposed to the roles of the powerful!
- The miracle leads to his conversion.
- It is also a nice prefiguring of baptism, as the early Christians did not fail to notice (Irenaeus of Lyon, fragment 34).
- He was probably already circumcised so didn’t need to be circumcised again!SeeCircumcision in ancient Syria.
- Naaman requests a double load of Israelite dirt – so that he may worship "in" the land of Israel.
- The problem of his accidental bowing when his master enters the temple of the god Rimmon could be a problem, but Elisha tells him to go in peace.
Application
- Cleansing comes when we obey God’s message.
- God’s messengers are often humble persons. Don’t be too proud to listen.
- When we are cleansed, the proper response is a life of devotion towards God.
- All of us who are true Christians have been cleansed from spiritual leprosy.
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