Q.-2 Kings 5 Would you kindly give me a reply in the Bible Treasury to the following: Am I right in saying that, in the matter of Naaman's cleansing, it was not a question of faith, but of practical obedience to the word of the prophet who told him to go and wash seven times in Jordan. Faith was not required at first, only obedience, and it was this-his obedience-on which his healing was made dependent. He had no idea that his soul was to be saved, what he found as a free gift of grace too.
F. W. G.
A.-The healing of Naaman's leprosy-his bodily disease-was contingent upon his acting on the declared word of Jehovah through Elisha. Thus would he know that there was a prophet in Israel. Unbelieving at first, " he went 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." Now he could say, " I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel." Divine life is not in question. Compare also 1 Kings 18:3939And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God. (1 Kings 18:39).
Life and incorruptibility have been brought to light through the gospel. It is soul-salvation that we receive through faith of the gospel, in contrast with the bodily, or circumstantial, deliverances of the Old Testament. The day is coming when the forgiveness of iniquities will go along with the healing of diseases, and the executing of righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed (Psa. 103). It is not so now. We are called to suffering here, to glory hereafter. We may be in heaviness through manifold trials, but should be always rejoicing; and as our affliction is only here, so is it but momentary, whereas glory is eternal. How great the gain!