This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elisha” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 15, 1989.

The scripture tonight is from 2 Kings 5. We are reading from verse 8 through the 14th verse. Here is the word of God. And it happened when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the King of Israel had torn his that he sent word to the king, saying, Why have you torn your clothes? Now let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots, and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.

But Naaman was furious 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 wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Farfar 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. Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, My father, had the Prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says 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. And then over in Luke’s Gospel, 4th chapter, in 27th verse, And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but only Neb, the sealed one. It is you by your word who makes us responsive now. Have we known those times in which we have been seemingly far from you? In which we have been unresponsive? Those times when we find ourselves pushing you away and even willfully forgetting.

Forbear with us, Lord, that we now, at this time, with this opportunity before us, may find ourselves made willing again, made responsive by the promptings of your Spirit in our hearts. We ask, Lord, that you may be pleased with such obedience as you find in us. May You glorify Yourself by Your Word in us. We ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

That verse in Luke’s Gospel, the fourth chapter, provides entrance to the passage that we have in front of us tonight. It is as if, with that passage in Luke’s Gospel, this story is now made clear. Before the time of the coming of the gospel, the gospel itself was being prefigured in the events that were taking place in Israel at the time of Elisha. And in and through those events that took place surrounding this man, Naaman, from Syria. So we read the story in 2 Kings in light of the gospel. And failing to so read it, we do not read it aright. Alright then. Let’s move through these verses which we’ve read this evening in light of the gospel. Verse 8. Here is the message.

Despite Israel’s failure, despite Israel’s political impotency and relativity, the Word of God still issues forth from her. Despite Israel’s failure, despite her political impotency and relativity, the Word of God still issues forth from her. The King of Israel is more than a mere individual. He is a people, a people included in and under him. In the king, you see the people. In the king, you see the nation. In the king, you see the history of the people and the history of the nation.

So when the king of Israel tears his clothes, it’s as if the nation as a whole is tearing its clothes. And why? Ordinarily, when clothes are torn in Scripture, it is due to grief or it is due to the revelation of sin. An act of sorrow or an act of repentance is in view. But when the King of Israel and the nation in the King now tear It is not for sorrow, it is not for repentance. Rather, it is an act of fear and terror.

What has happened? A nation that claims God as its Lord, terrified? How can it be? Israel now is but a state, a nation. In keeping with her own expectations and hopes, she is but a state and a nation like all other states and nations in the earth. And as is true with regard to all states and nations, Israel is paranoid about power.

She feels threatened. She believes that treachery is in the air. She is about to be victimized by Syrian power. Naaman’s presence in the courts of Israel is but a ploy. It is intended to open up the possibility of assault from the east. Israel now is no different than any other nation on the face of the earth, and she is paranoid about power.

She is also, in her king, ignorant of the salvation that is present within her. She is ignorant of her own status. She is ignorant of her own calling with regard to the program of redemption. She is ignorant of God’s salvation as it focuses in his purposes for her. She is even ignorant of her messiah.

In the political arena, what has been sacrificed by Israel, as she has become a nation like any other nation, is her special place in the saving purposes of God, as those saving purposes focus upon the Messiah, the Messianic figure, the King of Israel. He bears a Messianic title. He doesn’t even know who he is. But over against him, there is one in whom the messianic purposes of God are focused.

The prophet, who still speaks in Israel, and in and through him, the purposes of God, with respect to God’s word, are kept alive. Israel then is viewed as a failure, politically impotent, politically relative, but at the same time the word of God prevails, survives, and issues forth from her in the prophet who now stands as the messianic figure. through whom God’s salvation shall be effected. The voice of the prophet then is heard. The king has spoken, and through him the nation may have confessed the hopelessness, if you will, of the situation. But now we hear the voice of the prophet. and that voice of the prophet is the word of God that arises out of Israel for the salvation of the world. Naaman’s journey to Israel is anticipatory of the gathering of the nations to Zion in which they shall be redeemed, saved, and glorified. But here now is the voice of the messianic figure, Elisha. It comes as the word of God arising out of Israel for the salvation of the world. For we know, salvation is of the Jews. Salvation is of the Jews. So says Jesus to a woman of Samaria, John’s Gospel, 4th chapter, 22nd verse.

But it is specifically in this circumstance in which Israel’s failure and weakness, her impotence and relativity are proven, that the great strength, the greatest strength of God and his intention stands front and center. contrasting the weakness of Israel, her failure, contrasting her in all that now speaks to indict her, is the power of God manifest in the word of the prophet. That power, manifested through the prophet accentuates the weakness of Israel so that there is no opportunity for pride left in her whatsoever.

How foolish the ghost of the flesh from an Israelite. There are many in Israel who might boast after the flesh. There is one who considers himself capable of boasting most in the flesh. He was a Jew, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the stock of Benjamin. As to the Pharisees, a member of that sect, as to zeal, pursuing the law blameless before it. Yet now what boast is left to him in light of the incomparable glory that has been manifest in the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no opportunity for boast left for him. Despite Israel’s weakness than her political impotence and relativity, the word of God, the gospel, if you will, issues forth from her.

Verses 9 through 13. The world is addressed by a gospel that is utterly offensive in its simplicity and foolishness. But that gospel is the antidote to all of the world’s pride. And it alone is the source of the world’s salvation. Verses 9 through 13. The world is addressed by a gospel that is utterly offensive in its simplicity and foolishness. But that gospel is the antidote to all the world’s pride, and it is alone the source of the world’s salvation.

Verse 9. whoever wrote the second Kings is very clever this verse speaks volumes you see we haven’t heard much of the retinue that accompanies man as he makes his journey as yet in the story. But here at this point, verse 9, we are told that Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots.

The portrait, the description is quite deliberate. For Naaman here is portrayed for us in all of his worldly might and splendor. He is the image of the world’s glory and power. Here is a portrait of the world’s strength and of its boast. For in the end, the world’s boast will be in its armaments, in the power that it can accumulate to itself and parade before the face of humanity. But the verse goes on to position this man in all of his worldly splendor and might.

He stands before a humble abode. merely a house, maybe even a shack, if you will, the house of the prophet Elisha. This humble abode is the seat of God’s redemptive power, as over against now this man and what he represents, carrying with him the testimony of all of the might and power of Syria, if you will, the might and power of the world. A kingly figure, a military figure, a warrior standing before this door, He positioned before the seat of God’s redemptive power, the place from which God is now going to manifest his might, his glory.

Amir Shaikh. There is something else here to the house of Elisha. Is it but a house? Are we to see something more, is it? I tell you that Naaman has come to the sanctuary of God. God lives in that house. In fact, that house is now the temple in the territories of the northern tribes. And that’s where God resides.

You wouldn’t have ever guessed it. It would not have occurred to you. But that little shack to the north is now gleaming forth brightly and even more brightly than the sanctuary that sits upon one of the hills in Jerusalem to the south. Naaman has been brought to the very sanctuary of God and to the seat of God’s redemptive power. Naaman can’t see it. The world in its unregenerate state can’t see it. but he being brought here now by the sovereign power of that one who dwells in that house has been humbled by the mere act of having to stand there.

Verse 10. Not only must Damon This one who epitomizes the power of the world stand here before the shack. The prophet won’t even come out to him. Don’t you know who I am? I’ve just been talking to the king of Israel. I’m an emissary of the greatest king on the face of the earth presently. I come bearing letters with me from him. Don’t you know who I am?”

But the prophet won’t as much as come out to him. Instead, he sends out his servant. And once more, you see, the humility that is now being demanded of man is compounded. He must deal with a lowly servant, and not the man himself. But there’s more going on. You’ve come to expect that, haven’t you? If the house of Elisha is the temple, is the sanctuary of God, then who is Elisha when he refuses to come out? Elisha is God.

Who is the servant? The servant becomes the prophet. He carries the message from God to the world. He washes the God-figure in the temple. The servant becomes the prophet, the emissary of the king. Elisha, like God, sends out his servant to give the message to the world.

And that message, with that messenger, demands submission. By his very person, one to whom you would not ordinarily submit yourself. But that one who comes, comes in the mode and the manner of a servant. The messenger demands submission, the message itself demands submission.

That message comes as the gospel itself, the means of salvation. It comes with a command to the nation. in which, through its instruction, it comes to know God and submits then to the administration that God has ordained, by which then the peoples of the earth will be identified with God and with his people. That gospel then comes with commands demanding submission. It comes with commands with regard to the waters of the Jordan, with regard to washings, with regard to a sevenfold ablution. It comes with a message about restoration and cleansing.

Why, this is a gospel message that sounds very much like that message that emanates from Christ on the mount in Galilee, the ten northern tribes once more to the north, in which then the disciples of the Lord are sent out to the ends of the earth to disciple the nations, teaching them to observe whatsoever the Lord is command, and baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

It’s here, all in civil form, in the story of Elisha and man. Verses 11 and 12. The reaction of man. He’s going to fight to the bitter end, showing you that left to themselves the nations will not come. They must be overcome themselves by God and His power at work in them. It will be in the end that power that convinces and converts. Naaman, in his reaction, in his reaction he is completely and utterly convinced of his superiority. religiously and ethnically. He is convinced of his superiority. What in the world am I doing here after? Why am I listening to this? Why in the world am I talking to some lowly servant? What am I doing in front of this stupid house?

Naaman reacts as the world reacts when confronted with the gospel, the world convinced of its own superiority. That superiority of Naaman expressed with regard to his religious commitment. He knows, verse 11, he knows what constitutes proper religious practice. Surely he’ll come out to me in the manner of those that practice their arch in Syria. He will come out to me. He’ll stand and call upon the name of the Lord is God. He will wave his hand like a magician over me, and I will be cleansed.

Religiously superior, knowing better than the prophet of God from Israel. Knowing better than God himself what constitutes proper religion, he in his autonomy knows better the truth of religion than does any prophet in Israel. The world is convinced of its religious superiority when standing over against the gospel.

It knows that. It knows there’s no help. And if there is, it knows how to escape it. It knows what God is like and how he operates. It can tell you how he functions. It is utterly confident in itself. There are no surprises for it. For if there is a God, that God shall operate in keeping with our expectation. But Naaman is also expressing his superiority with regard to his ethnic background.

He’s a Syrian. He’s a Syrian. He’s from Syria. There’s no place on the face of the earth like Syria. There are no waters in the world like the waters that come to us from the streams and the rivers of Syria. Why? To be a Syrian. Obviously, we have demonstrated our superiority in that we have now risen to the top of the heap. We control, we control the world. If anyone is to do anything in the world, they must in fact come and get permission from us. It is not just the ethnicity of the circumstance. It is the nationalism of the circumstance. one of the greatest clinics in the world in the last 200 years.

And one that in fact conspires against the gospel ultimately. Will you take pride in your ethnicity? Will you take pride in your national heritage? your citizenship within this land, will you hold that up? You are, in fact, superior upon the face of the earth.”

Such an attitude breeds a paganism, not Christianity. over against this professed superiority now is that command that comes from the prophet that man and the nations in him must submit to God’s purpose as it is manifest in and through Israel from the messianic figure who lives presently in Israel that submission to God’s purpose in Israel, then reflected in the command that Naaman must be baptized in the Jordan. Just as Israel was baptized in the Jordan when she entered the land, now Naaman must identify himself with Israel and God’s purpose by washing himself there.

The cleansing rite that is in view asserts the God of Israel’s prerogative in redemption. Not the ablutions of pagan religions, not their rites, but that rite that is prescribed by God in and through his servant, by his word. The sevenfold washing indicates the completeness, the perfection of that washing that is in view. It carries one beyond the mere washing of Israel in the Jordan to something greater yet, reaching out beyond itself. It is indicative of the arrival of that time when the nations, with Israel, will be the beneficiaries of the completed work of redemption. They all together wash by the Lord himself, in his spirit, for their salvation.

Verse 13, in Humiliation, goes even further. Man in his wisdom now rejects the gospel that he is humiliated even further when he is approached by his servants. You see how it’s a story about servants? The servant figure, even the little girl servant at the beginning of the story sets the tone for the entire story. Manon’s submission, his pride being unmasked, it being remedied by this gospel. Now he is humiliated further by being approached by his servants, those who are lower than himself. He must submit to those who seem to be inferior to himself in order that he might be exalted in the end.

The first must become last, that they might become first. It’s gospel. Who are these servants? Well, if you can see it, they are evangelists. for the message of the gospel. Operating to convince this proud gentleman of his arrogance and his stupidity.

Not approaching him without love, not approaching him without respect, but with love, with respect. but in all seriousness, confronting them with the issues of life and death. Nonetheless, they are in anticipation of Gentile evangelists, through whom many a Gentile will be one. The bottom line, we can move through their argumentation, I don’t want to take a lot of time with it, but the bottom line of their argument seems to be a contrast between the easiness of what Elisha offers and the difficulty that would, after all, appeal to one like me.

But it is also the contrast between the foolishness of the message that has been given to Naaman in his own estimation, and the wisdom which he in his own estimation possesses. But in the end, you see, it is a contrast meant to accentuate the powerlessness of man for all of his wisdom, for all of what he supposes to be his might, The contrast between that and what might be procured by the power of God through the gospel of salvation.

Verse fourteen, by root of the gospel, the nations. come to submit to the Lord, and become, through baptism, newborn babes. By the gospel, the nations come to submit to the Lord, and become, through baptism, newborn babes. Naaman is, shall we say, convinced, moved It seems now that he is humbled that he demonstrates his humility by going to the Jordan and submitting himself in actuality to the command of the Prophet, to the demand of the Lord.

He obeys, therefore, the Gospel, and he is baptized with a baptism that identifies him with the people of God. and the purposes of God manifest in and through Israel. And this action brings him in touch, this Gentile, with the realities of and the blessings of the Messianic age. He touches the future in his submission. So then, down to the Jordan he goes to bathe.

His washing indicative of the cleansing of the gospel, and of that cleansing and washing with the fact that he has gone down. Don’t miss the adverb, he went down. You see, the one who is high, goes down. The one who is exalted in himself, goes down. he goes down. And in this act, and in this submission to the right prescribed, there is the expression of the death of self. He dies. Naaman dies.

And then he’s restored. But note what it says. He is restored in the flesh. There is a restoration of the flesh. The death for Neron is unto a resurrection in the flesh, in the body. We preach the resurrection of the whole body. The sanctification of, the glorification of the flesh. Jesus is raised in his body, in the flesh. And so shall we be. He is restored in the flesh. But then, the most amazing statement of all, so suggestive, so powerful, the stuff out of which entire stories in the gospel is constructed. And how many of them? How many of them? When Jesus, in fact, takes a child and places it in the midst of the disciples, they engage in an argument about who’s the greatest in the kingdom. That’s Matthew 18, read it for yourselves. Matthew 19, the children are being kept at bay by the disciples. Jesus says, don’t keep them at bay, bring them to me, for such is the kingdom of heaven.

Naaman becomes like a child, the perfect expression now of the humiliated. He’s coming to his consummation. He’s childlike now. The one who is great, the one who is surrounded by his horses and his chariot, the one who is surrounded by this retinue of servants, this one who comes with the epistles from the king of Syria, this one. who is the manifestation of all the glory and splendor of the world. He becomes, as a child, the very epitome of humility and simplicity. Naaman’s child-likeness now is indicative of his own humility. The humility, we might say, natively bound up in the figure of a child.

But that’s not all. So you see, the way in which Jesus treats the child figure in the Gospels is not simply to say to you, who are adults, you must become like a child. No, you see, what Jesus says is that the kingdom is made up of children and those like them. That’s what he says. The kingdom is made up of children and those like them. Not just of those who become childless, but of children and those like them.

The pattern of the covenant is consistent. even as we take up the matter of this figure, the matter of this person. Namely, it is not a matter simply then of adults submitting themselves to the right that God has described. No, the child-likeness that is in view places before you the child in this person, the child.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.