A Servant Girl and A Syrian General

Let’s go to the Lord one more time.

Lord, what we have just sung is true, that our sins they are many, but your mercy is more. So, we praise you, Lord, that your mercy is more. We praise you that it’s stronger than darkness. It’s new every morning. Our sins, though they are many, your mercy is more. We pray that as we open your Word this morning, that that truth would sink deep into our hearts and minds. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Our text this morning comes from 2 Kings 5. As you turn there, I would acknowledge that Pastor Tom did preach from 2 Kings 4 yesterday. He and I were both coming off sabbaticals in the early fall, so there must have been something in the water that both of us felt compelled to preach from 2 Kings. This morning we’re in the very next chapter. 2 Kings chapter 5. Let me read that for us. 2 Kings 5, verse 1.

“Naaman, commander of the army of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor. Because of him, the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor. But he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, ‘Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.’ So Naaman went in and told his lord, ‘Thus and so speaks the girl from the land of Israel.’ And the king of Syria said, ‘Go now and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.’

So he went, taking with him 10 talents of silver, 6,000 shekels of gold, and 10 changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, ‘When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.’ And when the king of Israel read this letter, he tore his clothes and said, ‘Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of leprosy? Only consider and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.’ But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, ‘Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.’

So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.’ But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, ‘Behold, I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God and wave his hands over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?’ So he turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said, ‘My father, is it a great word the prophet has spoken to you? Will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, “Wash and be clean?”’

So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him, and said, ‘Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so, accept now a present from your servant.’ But he said, ‘As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.’ He urged him to take it, but he refused. Then Naaman said, ‘If not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offerings or sacrifice to any god but the Lord. In this matter may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.’ And he said to him, ‘Go in peace.’”

This morning, we will learn about unexpected grace and undeserved grace. In this story, Naaman, the Syrian general, is a recipient of God’s grace. It’s hard for us to comprehend this type of grace. It’s hard for us to be recipients of grace undeserved, gifts we weren’t expecting. Wasn’t long ago that a friend invited me to join him to play round of golf. So that morning, I was looking forward to it. I woke up early. I drove a couple hours to meet him. We had a wonderful time together. At the end of the round, I went up to my friend, and I offered to pay for my round. And I kid you not, my friend looked at me, and this is a direct quote. He said, “If I let you pay, my dad would punch me in the throat.” I laughed, and I said, “Okay, that’s a bit graphic for me in this moment, but I get the point.” And I thanked him once again for his generosity. But you know what I did when I drove off? I thought to myself, you know, I really should have given him some money. Sure, it may have cost me a punch in the throat, but I still felt like I owed him something.

It can be hard for us to receive free gifts sometimes, can’t it? We fight over the check at a restaurant. We turn down practical help that we may need. Before we all had maps on our phones, we would rather drive lost rather than ask for directions. We say things like, “I owe you one.” Or, “I can’t accept this.” Or maybe here in the South, we may say things like, “I don’t want to impose. I don’t want to be a bother.” Accepting free gifts does not come easy or natural to us.

In our story, Naaman was a man who had everything one could want in the world, except the one thing he couldn’t pay for. But this is also a story not just about Naaman, but it’s a story about a little servant girl – a little servant girl who knew of the grace that came from the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, and she had the faith to share it. Naaman is the main character in our story, and we’re going to spend the most time with him, but along the way, we’ll also meet this little servant girl. We’ll meet the king of Israel and Elisha’s servant Gehazi. But this is a story about Naaman. We’ll first look at how Naaman desperately needed grace. Second, we’ll see how Naaman, despite his need, was a man who did not understand this grace. And finally, we’ll see how Naaman became a man who undeservedly received grace, and it changed everything in his life.

So, we’ll start there with Naaman as a man who needed grace. Look back with me at verse 1. Naaman was the commander of the army of the king of Syria. He was a great man. He was highly regarded. He was skilled in battle. He had won wars. He was a mighty man of valor. Naaman was important. He was prominent. He was trusted. He was respected. He was admired. He was accomplished. He was capable. He was everything you could wish for, except he was a leper. The original language makes this contrast even more pronounced. Our English Bible reads, “But he was a leper.” The Hebrew just said, “The mighty man of valor: leper.” It’s such a stark contrast. There was no reasonable cure in the ancient world. Naaman had everything the world could offer, and yet the one thing he longed for, the one thing he needed, just was not possible. Now, we don’t know everything about his condition, but we do know it was severe enough to elicit sympathy in verse 3. It was severe enough to cause others to want to aid him and that he was desperate enough to ask his enemies for help in verses 4 and 5. Suffering is the great equalizer in this world, is it not? You can have the title, the salary, the reputation, the corner office, the house on the lake, but none of it keeps the doctor from calling with the test results. None of the external things matter when your marriage is falling apart, when your child walks away, or when grief shows up at your door. Naaman had an army at his command, and yet he could not command his own skin.

One of my least favorite activities in life is going to the doctor. And there are many things I don’t like about the doctor, but at the top of the list is having to put on the gown. It is a ridiculous outfit. You would think that we might have progressed past that. Sorry to all the physicians out there. It is a ridiculous outfit, and it is one that everyone has to wear when they go to the doctor. Both the CEO and the custodian have to put the same gown on when they visit the doctor. Now, you may notice a difference in the two in the boardroom, but in the waiting room, we all look the same. And that’s because we are all in need of the same thing, because suffering exposes a deeper problem that we all share – one that we can’t fix either. You see, all of us know that we need to be made clean. Just like Naaman, we’re all in need of God’s grace.

And in this story, grace comes through one of the most unlikeliest places: a little servant girl. This was a little girl who was very different than Naaman. Unlike the powerful Naaman, she was powerless. You see, this little girl was someone who was taken from her home. The text said she had been carried off by the Syrians on one of their raids. It’s very possible that her parents had been murdered right in front of her, or at least taken away from her, and she was now destined to live a life of slavery. Gone was this little girl’s chances of ever seeing a loved one again. Gone were the chances of ever seeing home again. As one commentator notes, whatever dreams she had of personal fulfillment or simply of life among her family and village, those had been smashed. And yet this little servant girl does something very remarkable. The servant girl offers the mighty Syrian general grace. The important, powerful, connected Naaman is need of grace from the little servant girl that he and his bands may have carried off. You think of all the ways she could have responded to her circumstances. She could have rebelled against her master. She could have undermined her master. She could have withheld what she knew from her master. But no, this little servant girl offers the Syrian general grace, and in doing so, she demonstrates her unwavering faith. Notice all that we learn of her in just one verse. She demonstrates faith in God’s power, that he could cure him: “Would that my Lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He could cure him of leprosy.” Full confidence in God’s power to save. She demonstrates that she knows where God is at work. She points him to Elisha. She demonstrates her faith by boldly speaking up, something not normally advised for a slave. She demonstrates all this – this bold faith – even in the midst of her trying circumstances and her captivity.

And this depiction of her faith is made all the more poignant when we look at the counter-response of the king of Israel. Look with me back at verse 6, “And he brought the letter to the king of Israel which read, ‘When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.’ And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, ‘Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of leprosy? Only consider and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.’” The servant girl responds with unwavering faith.

Meanwhile, the king of Israel responds with unbelieving fear. The letter comes to the king, and he tears his clothes. He’s obviously in distress. Maybe he’s worried about some geopolitical implication. Maybe he thinks it’s a trap. See back at verse 7 how he believes the king of Syria only wants a quarrel with him. But note that below the surface, this king of Israel has an unbelieving heart. He acknowledges God’s power, but it doesn’t lead him to action at all. He never prays. He never seeks counsel. He never even sends for Elisha. Here is the king of Israel, frantically running around, worried about what all of this means. He is a man devastated, immobilized, alarmed. The king of Israel is a portrait of fear. Ralph Davis says, “Is this king not a warning to you? You may be numbered among God’s outward people and yet live life without God. Your name may be on a church roll, and yet you do not seek for him, long for him, or thirst for him. You do not cast your anxieties upon in him. You may be a long-standing Presbyterian or some other variety and yet have no faith in the Lord Jesus Christ at all. We may profess God and yet live life without him.”

The servant girl had nothing but faith, but the king of Israel, he had everything but faith. Last week, Pastor Kevin preached from Romans chapter 4 and made the point that Abraham’s true children are those who walk in faith, not merely those who carry the sign or family heritage. Here in 2 Kings 5, we see both. The king has the throne, the heritage, the prophet down the street, but when crisis comes, he responds with fear. The little servant girl has none of that, and yet she is the one walking in Abraham’s footsteps. Friends, it is possible to have God’s Word on your shelf, God’s people all around you, and even God’s prophet right down the street, and still not have faith. And the place it shows up often is in crisis. When the letter comes, the diagnosis, the layoff, the phone call you didn’t want, we should ask ourselves, what is our first move? Do we tear our clothes, or do we turn to the Lord? How we respond in that moment may reveal whether or not we are simply carrying the family name or whether we are truly walking in Abraham’s footsteps. The king had every advantage and yet lived a life of fear. The servant girl had everything taken away from her except her faith. And God used her to change a Syrian general’s life. The servant girl knew where grace could be found, and Naaman knew he needed it. But as we’re about to see, Naaman didn’t quite understand how this grace worked.

In our story, Elisha intervenes, and he tells the king to tell Naaman to come to him. But when Naaman gets there, the prophet doesn’t even come out to see him. He sends a messenger, tells him to go and wash in the Jordan, and he’ll be clean. And Naaman is furious. He’s indignant. Remember, Naaman is a big, important man. He expects to be treated with respect and honor fitting of his rank. And Elisha can’t even come to the door. So, he turned away and went away in a rage. This was a man who didn’t understand what God’s free offer of grace really meant. Naaman thought he could pay for it. He brought silver and gold and clothing. He thought he could get it through his power and his connections. He went to the king first and said unto the prophet he thought he would be honored. As it says in verse 11, “Behold, I thought he would surely come out to me.” In Hebrew, in the original language, “to me” is emphatic. I thought he would come out to me. I’m an important man. He wanted it on his terms. He talked about the rivers of Damascus being superior to the Jordan. As one commentator notes, Naaman wished to be treated like a great man that happened to be a leper, but Elisha treated him like a leper that happened to be a great man. In reality, all Naaman had to do with this gift was to receive it. All he had to do was wash. That’s how the gospel works, does it not? Romans 5:17, just a few verses after what we read earlier, “For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through one man, Jesus Christ.”

Naaman couldn’t comprehend that this gift was actually free. You see, all he knew from his Syrian gods was to get something, you had to give something. In Naaman’s world, healers were hired. Gods were given gold. So, a free gift from the God of Israel was unfathomable, incomprehensible. You see, Naaman expected to receive vending machine grace. I used to love vending machines as a kid. I remember going to the neighborhood pool and thinking to myself, if I can just scrounge up 35 cents, those two Twix bars are going to be mine. 35 cents. You could find that in your sofa cushions. We know how a vending machine works, don’t we? You take a look. You see what you want. You make a choice, you put your coins in, the coils turn, the candy drops. And that’s how Naaman viewed religion. Let me look at the menu. I’ll bring some coins. I’ll make the coil turn. And this blessing, this healing that I need, it’ll drop. I fear this is how many of us treat our relationship with God. How many of us still subscribe to vending machine religion? If I only put my payment in, then God will surely bless me. Maybe you’re here this morning, and you know you’re not a Christian, but you’re going through maybe your own form of leprosy, seeking some answers. You keep thinking, if I only put the right things in – maybe it’s church attendance. Maybe it’s Bible reading. Maybe it’s just being a good person and trying not to mess up. Maybe the coils will turn, and God will give me what I need. Maybe you do consider yourself a Christian. You’ve been to church your whole life, but there’s still part of you that thinks, “I need to keep putting my coins in the vending machine for God to still love me.” Friends, you know how frustrating it is when you put the payment in and the coils start to turn and the snack gets stuck, do we not? There may be nothing more frustrating in life than that. Well, if you treat grace like a vending machine, that’s what you will get every single time. The blessing will never drop because that is not how the gospel of grace works. And you and I will be left shaking it, kicking it, getting angry with it, trying to make the blessing drop, just like Naaman did in verses 11 and 12. But God’s grace isn’t a vending machine. Grace cannot be bought, because grace is given, and grace is received.

You know, the servant’s response is almost humorous. They basically say in verse 13, “Wait, didn’t he tell you that you would be clean, and you’re not going to do it just because you don’t like the water down there? Didn’t you really want to be clean? That’s what you wanted, right, Naaman?” And so, it’s telling that the very next verse, it says that Naaman went down, and he dipped himself seven times in the Jordan. It reminds me of John 5, where Jesus comes to the man who had been lying by the healing pool, who had been disabled for 38 years, and simply asked, “Do you want to be healed? Do you want to be healed?” If you came here this Sunday looking to be healed, looking to be washed, looking to be clean, then you need to know that Jesus stands ready to heal your broken heart, to wash you of your sins, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. All you have to do is receive the free gift of God’s grace.

So Naaman goes down to the Jordan, not on his own terms, but according to the word of the man of God. And look back at verse 14, “And so he went, and he dipped, and his flesh was restored, and he was clean.” What a remarkable story. Here’s this pagan general, an enemy of God and his people. And yet, he is washed clean by the grace of God. And for Naaman, this grace changes everything in his life. Notice how he began the story proud, but grace makes him humble. He goes from trusting in his own rank, in his own wealth, in his own connections to trusting the Word of the prophet. He was angry and offended, but now he is grateful, and he is generous. Verses 17-19 make it clear. He was an enemy, but now he has peace with the God of Israel. He says, “Let me take two loads of soil from Israel, because when I go home, I want to be worshiping the God of Israel on the soil from his land.” Naaman is going back to his home, where he will worship God and God alone. Verse 18, he displays a sensitive conscience. Part of his job description was to escort the king into the place of worship for the god Rimmon. And he tells Elijah, “This is part of my job. I don’t want to worship him anymore – I’m not going to – so please pardon me in this matter.” And Elisha does. He offers this man of war peace. Naaman is a changed man. He confesses there is no God in all the earth but in Israel in verse 15. He describes himself now as a servant. Five different times he says, “I’m your servant. I’m a servant. I’m no longer a great man. I see myself as a servant.” What a stark contrast from this once-proud man.

And friends, that’s what grace does. It changes us. When grace comes into our life, it changes us. Did you know that Jesus spoke of Naaman? Luke chapter 4, Jesus preaches his first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth, and to show what kind of ministry he came to have, he reaches back to this very story. Luke 4:27, Jesus says, “And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet of Elijah, and none of them were cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” Out of all the people that Jesus could have named, he names Naaman. Not a king of Israel, not a priest, not a prophet’s servant, but a Syrian general, an enemy of God’s people. Jesus held him up as a picture of what God’s grace does. The man who came proud went home humble. The man who brought silver went home with dirt. The man who worshiped Rimmon went home worshiping Yahweh. Hundreds of years later, Jesus still pointed to Naaman as someone whose life was changed by grace. And if this grace can change this Syrian general into a genuine servant of the living God, then this grace can change you, and it can change me. You know, the mistake we sometimes make in our thinking is that our offering somehow changes grace. But grace isn’t changed by what we bring. We are changed by what grace brings to us.

The grace of God in Naaman’s life changed everything about him. This kind of change should leave us with two questions – one about the people around us and another about ourselves. First question that we should think about in light of this grace that changes us. First, we should ask, who can we be praying for? If this grace can save Naaman, it can save anyone. Our God is a God who can save anyone, anywhere, anytime he wishes. And our job is just to be like the servant girl, pointing people to where grace is found. Pointing people to grace, pointing people to Jesus. It’s almost as if the servant girl could say today, “If you could only be with Jesus, he could cure you.” I think that should encourage our prayer lives, should it not? There are people that we love, people that need to be washed, and so we should be praying for them and pointing them to grace, just like the servant girl. Naaman was an enemy of God, and he became a friend of Yahweh. So, let’s be praying for that testimony in the lives of people we care for, people that we know, people that we work for.

And as we pray for their testimony, we should ask about our own, how has this grace changed us? Is my life different because of the grace of God? Am I becoming more and more conformed into the image of Christ? Has the gospel of God’s grace changed me? Because here’s the danger that we see at the end of this story. You and I can have a front row seat to the grace of God without allowing it to actually change our lives, because that’s what we see in Elisha’s servant, Gehazi. Look back with me at verse 19 as I finish the chapter:

“But when Naaman had gone from him a short distance, Gehazi, the servant of Elijah, the man of God, said, ‘See, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian in not accepting from his hand what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.’ So Gehazi followed Naaman, and when Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from his chariot to meet him and said, ‘Is all well?’ He said, ‘All is well. My master has sent me to say, “There have now just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.”’ And Naaman said, ‘Be pleased to accept two talents.’ And he urged him and tied up two talents of silver in two bags with two changes of clothing and laid them on his two servants. They carried them before Gehazi, and when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand and put them in the house. And he sent the men away, and they departed. He went in and stood before his master, and Elisha said to him, ‘Where have you been, Gehazi?’ And he said, ‘Your servant went nowhere.’ But he said to him, ‘Did not my heart go when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Was it a time to accept money and garments, olive and orchards, and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male servants and female servants? Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever.’ So he went out from his presence a leper, like snow.”

Gehazi watches all this unfold. He has a front row seat to God’s transforming grace in the life of Naaman. He sees Naaman’s generous offer of thanksgiving, and he says to himself, “I don’t want to miss out on that. I don’t want that silver to go to waste.” So, he chases down the very gift that Elisha refused. He hides it from his master so that he won’t see it. Why did Elisha refuse this gift in the first place? Why was it so crucial for Elisha to say no to Naaman’s offer? It’s because Elisha wanted Naaman to be clear that God’s gift to him is free, that this God of Israel is not like the other gods of the ancient near east. There is no price on God’s goodness. Gehazi puts all that at risk because of his greed. He has a front row seat to see God’s grace on display, and yet he isn’t changed by it. Here we have a Syrian general acting like a true Israelite and the Israelite servant acting like a Syrian. When Naaman sees Gehazi running after him, he steps down from the chariot and asks, “Is all well?” Literally, “Is it peace with you?” And Gehazi answers, “All is well,” but it isn’t. You see, Naaman has just received real peace from God. Gehazi offers a false one. He lies to Naaman. He lies to his master. And at the end of the chapter, the leprosy of Naaman clings to him and his descendants.

Ralph Davis once more, “Grace is both marvelous and dangerous – dangerous when it is obscured.” Ask Gehazi, standing there now with leprosy. Naaman came to Israel a leper and left clean. Gehazi lived in the prophet’s house but left a leper. 2 Kings 5 is the story of faith versus fear, grace versus greed. It’s about two unlikely characters in our story that teach us how we ought to live. The servant girl is a model of unwavering faith. The Syrian general is a recipient of undeserved grace. Two people as different as they could be, yet both of them point us to the same God – the God who delights to give grace to the people we least expect. Think back with me to where we began: a friend not letting another friend pay, a free gift. It’s what we see in Elisha when he wouldn’t let Naaman pay because it was a free gift. We all have the urge to give God something in return for his grace. But God will never accept our payment, because the price has already been paid. It was paid for by his Son on the cross, for you and for me. That’s the gift. All that’s left is to receive it, and so let us not live lives of fear, but rather of faith. May we not give in to greed, but receive the gift of grace. And may we be like the little servant girl, pointing the Syrian general to the place where grace is found. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this little story – a story that has great implications in our lives. All of us are prone, Lord, to fear and greed. It’s human nature. But we pray, God, that you would help us to live lives of faith, no matter what our circumstances are, just like the servant girl. And may this grace that we have received change us, change the way we live, change the way we see others, change the way we see you. Thank you, Lord, that for all of those who are in Christ, you have given us this gift of grace. We pray for those here this morning who may be far from Christ, who may be like Naaman, not understanding grace even though they know that they need it. We pray that this grace, the grace of the gospel, the good news that Christ has come to save us from our sins, we pray that that gift would be received. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.