There are two men of this name spoken of in Holy Scripture, the one a son of Benjamin, and the other a Syrian officer (Gen. 46:2121And the sons of Benjamin were Belah, and Becher, and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman, Ehi, and Rosh, Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard. (Genesis 46:21); 2 Ki. 5). Doubtless, to contracted Jewish minds, the Benjamite was much more to God than the Gentile; and, in fact, our Lord’s audience in the synagogue of Nazareth were so enraged at His mention of the Syrian that they forthwith cast Him out (Lk. 4:2929And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. (Luke 4:29)). Our Lord cited the case to show that there is goodness in the heart of God for strangers, and also that Israel’s rejection of Himself would have the effect of diverting the stream of divine grace in their direction. This is how the blessing has reached to us, reader and writer alike.
In Naaman we see man at his best estate. He was successful in his undertakings, highly esteemed by his master, and evidently capable of winning the affections of those who served him. But everything was blighted by the terrible disease which afflicted him, for he was a leper. Other foes trembled before him; to this foe he was a helpless victim. Leprosy is ever in Scripture a type of sin—that loathsome moral disease which unfits every man for the divine presence, and from which no man is able to deliver himself.
The captive maid is an attractive character. She was a true child of faith. The graciousness of her spirit is remarkable. Though a victim of Naaman’s military operations, no resentful feeling was permitted to lurk in her mind. Her sufferings became fruitful in blessing to others. She might almost have said with the apostle in 2 Corinthians 1:66And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. (2 Corinthians 1:6), “If we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation.” Assured that there was goodness in the heart of God even for the Gentile, and longing that her master might be blessed, she said, “Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.” But when had God ever done such a thing? From the day that Leviticus 12-14 was written, no case is recorded of any man being recovered of his leprosy. Even at that very time there were “many lepers in Israel” (Lk. 4:2727And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. (Luke 4:27)), and none of them were cleansed. We are reminded of Abraham at Moriah, who accounted that God was able to raise up Isaac even from the dead, though no person had been raised since the world’s foundation (Heb. 11:1919Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. (Hebrews 11:19)). It is blessed to note the confidence that faith has in God. Faith refuses to believe that anything is impossible with Him.
But Naaman knew not God as the maid knew Him. Accordingly he went armed with a letter from his own sovereign to the King of Israel. The healing, if it could be brought about, must come through official channels, with all due pomp and ceremony. But the maid said nothing about the King of Israel. The latter was dismayed at the letter, suspecting only an excuse for a quarrel. This was really shameful in Jehoram. Jehovah had taken great pains with this man in order to teach him that He is God. Had the king quite forgotten the water in the desert? (2 Ki. 3:2020And it came to pass in the morning, when the meat offering was offered, that, behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water. (2 Kings 3:20)). Had not Jehovah said, “I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal?” (Dt. 32:3939See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. (Deuteronomy 32:39)). Why did not Jehoram at once think of the prophet of God! Alas, flesh learns no lessons, let divine favors be ever so abundant.
How often in our own time do souls turn in wrong directions in their search for good! Law keeping, sacraments, etc.—anything and everything but the Christ of God.
Presently, however, Naaman found himself at the door of Elisha. The prophet, hearing of the king’s alarm, sent him a messenger, saying, “Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.” Now behold the famous captain at the prophet’s door. He had his own thoughts as to how the cure should be effected, and he was prepared to pay a big fee for the blessing. He had already humbled himself considerably in order to be blessed. He was following the advice of a mere servant girl, he was seeking a favor in the land of a beaten foe, and he was now halting with his equipage at the humble lodging of Elisha. Surely nothing more in the way of condescension could be expected! But he must come down a great deal lower ere God could meet him. Flesh in all ages resents this coming down. A toilsome pilgrimage, a burdensome pledge, or a huge fee would suit flesh today better than God’s simple terms of salvation by grace alone, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Men’s devices put honor upon the flesh. But God’s plan is to utterly abase it, “that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Cor. 1:2929That no flesh should glory in his presence. (1 Corinthians 1:29)).
It was a tremendous setback for Naaman when the prophet sent a messenger out to him, saying, “Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.” This was more than flesh and blood could bear. The Syrian was deeply affronted. As he turned away in rage, he said, “Behold, I thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.” We all have our own ideas as to how God should work. But He has said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isa. 55:88For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8)). How blessed to come to the end of ourselves, and give up “I thought” once and for ever! The soul only then begins to truly learn.
If men in Israel felt scorn for the uncircumcised Syrian (as evidenced by the anger of the men of Nazareth in our Lord’s day), the Syrian returned the scorn upon them to the full. He could even rail against their streams! “Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel! May I not wash in them, and he clean?”
Naaman may well be eternally grateful to his servants who forthwith pleaded with him, venturing to point out the unreasonableness of his wrath. “If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it! how much rather then, when he said to thee, Wash, and be clean?”
To Jordan then. Let the word of Jehovah through the prophet be tested. When did His Word ever fail! When were any disappointed who had staked little or much, or even their all, upon His words. “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.” Let us not misunderstand this type. Not blood, but water was the element in which Naaman dipped himself. Cleansing by blood has reference to what a man has done (for nothing but atoning blood can put away sins); cleansing by water has reference to what a man is, as scion of a ruined stock. In God’s great plan, the sinner must be got rid of as well as his sins. Now Jordan is typical of death. In the picture before us we have the man of military fame, the man who would have purchased with money the gift of God; the man of “I thought,” taking his plunge into death, and seen as such no more. “His flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child.” So to speak, he made a new start with God. In like manner, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:1717Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)). The believing soul endorses the sentence of death upon himself, and gratefully accepts the death of Christ as the door out of his former sinful state, that hence forward he may “walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:44Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)). Baptism is connected with this truth. The soul which has entered into the significance of it delights to say with the apostle, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)). The old “I” has gone (for faith) with all its appurtenances, and Christ alone remains.