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2 Kings 5:1-27 · Naaman Healed of Leprosy
Seven Habits Of Highly Effective Christians
2 Kings 5:1-27
Sermon
by William L. Self
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Naaman was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. What a shock it must have been to this great man, the leader of the Syrian army, when the unaccountable lethargy and the terrible pain in the joints attacked his body. Then he discovered, especially on his back, the discolored patches and on them the little nodules which were pink at first and then turned brown. He knew that he had it, the dreaded leprosy. It was the scourge of the ancient world -- the AIDS of his day. In crystal clear and cryptic language the Bible says it all. He had leprosy, that terrible skin disease that was dreaded not only because of the physical suffering involved but also because to have it meant one would be socially isolated.

Leprosy was very democratic. It infected the rich and the poor, the wise and the unwise, the powerful as well as the weak. Lepers were ritually unclean and thus isolated from the holy things. Interestingly enough, the Hebrew word for leprosy, tsar-a'ath, is generic and covers a full range of skin diseases from a mole to psoriasis.

The Bible makes it clear that Naaman was powerful and was afflicted with a terrible disease, and even the powerful man was helpless before the disease. A small microbe had rendered the great man powerless. He dreaded the outcome and the awful path the disease would take. The skin would become thick; the nodules would appear, especially in the face and the folds of the cheeks, nose, and forehead. The whole appearance of his face would change. Then the nodules would become larger and larger. Eventually they would ulcerate, and from them the foul discharge would come. The eyebrows would fall out, the eyes would stare, the vocal cords would ulcerate, and the voice would become hoarse and the breath wheezing. Muscles would waste away, tendons contracting until the hands became like claws. After that would come progressive loss of fingers and toes, until in the end a whole hand or a whole foot would drop off. The duration of the disease would be anywhere from twenty to thirty years, the body dying, bit by bit. Naaman was a powerful man, but he was a leper. A small microbe stole the power of the man and in some ways of the Syrian army.

A little Israelite maid had been captured in a raid and found herself in the service of Naaman's wife. She told her mistress of the prophet of Israel. When the king of Syria heard of this, he encouraged Naaman to visit Israel to see the king and to be healed.

Naaman departed from Syria with much treasure, the price of his healing. It is not easy to figure accurately the rate of exchange between the gold and the silver reported in verse 5 and present currency. However, it is estimated by scholars that Naaman took a king's ransom, approximately $1,247,240, to Israel with him.1

The king was honest enough to admit he could not heal Naaman. However, he was reminded of the prophet Elisha and his miraculous powers, so he sent Naaman to him. Elisha bid Naaman to bathe seven times in the Jordan. Indignant, Naaman at first refused. The Jordan, a muddy river between two muddy banks, is not like the clean, pretty rivers of Syria. Finally, he agreed to do this as instructed, and was healed.

To how many of us do these words apply? They were mighty but were not whole or sound of soul. How many of us of strong intellect find an exalted position, financial power, and incredible influence, but have leprosy of the soul? Consequently, our great abilities will bring no good to ourselves or to our world. Today we have proud and forceful people who ride high, achieve wealth and position, and yet are lepers. Some hidden moral defect cancels their real abilities and prevents them from attaining lives of positive influence and from commanding confidence and respect. They are mighty, but lepers.

This matter certainly applies to this sick culture of ours. Today's headlines of street riots and murder by mob violence, of corruption in high places of both government and business, of rampant commercialism, and of the rape of the environment give evidence to the leprosy in the soul of our culture. We are a great society of much potential, but we are halted by the leprosy of greed, savagery, and lust. We are mighty people but we are lepers.

Naaman traveled all the way from Syria to Israel to seek healing from the man of God named Elisha. Here we have the touchstone by which we may test the supremacy of our faith. It alone is able to purge our souls from the leprosy of sin. Only the religion that can do that can claim the final allegiance of the human heart. Naaman heard the prescription of Elisha, but he was indignant and felt that another river ought to do just as well. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the rivers of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? And so we prefer our substitutes. But substitutes are not good enough. Only the real thing will heal us today.

First of all, Naaman learned that the treasure he brought with him to Israel could not buy his health. "I cannot accept your money for that which I cannot do," said the king to Naaman. Money can do much, yet it has never purchased for anyone the healing of his soul nor the peace of his mind.

It is a good thing to have money and the things that money can buy. But it is a good thing to check up once in a while and make sure you have not lost the things that money cannot buy. We have reached the point in our culture where we believe that the dollar is a magic cure for our ills. We believe that if we have enough money, we can do anything or even build a great society.

I would not minimize the importance of money. I know it is food to eat, a roof over our heads, education for our children, books and music for the soul, medicine for the ill. Free speech, free press, free assembly, and free ballots -- they are priceless but a poor makeshift for a man who lacks economic freedom. It is a good thing to have money and the things that money can buy, but is that the emphasis we must have? Some people possess much and own little. Other people possess little and own much. Possessing concerns things that can be bought and sold. Ownership concerns values that money cannot buy. Possession is having a house; ownership is having a home in it.

Every pastor knows people who would give anything to have happiness, peace of mind, and a good home. But it would do no good, for these things exist where money has no power. As soon as we learn that the dollar does not cure all our ills, we shall move along the road to true prosperity -- peace and happiness.

Also, Naaman learned that the secular forces could not deal with his issue. All his power and dignity were powerless in the face of his needs. The king of Israel, the seat of power, sent him to Elisha, the prophet of God.

We are learning that lesson today. Secular forces cannot heal our moral leprosy. In the long run, the law can get no more goodness out of the people than there is inside the people. The law and its force is much like a pump, and the water it pumps is the intellectual, moral, and spiritual life of the people, no better, no worse. As Woodrow Wilson told us, "Our nation cannot survive materially unless it is redeemed spiritually." This generation stands on the verge of an era that may see the death of our civilization -- not so much from atomic bombs but in the spirit of people. A civilization always dies first at the roots. It dies in the death of all the forces that make people good, loyal, right, and strong within. Civilizations die as they are born, not with waving of flags or the noise of machine guns in the streets, but in the dark, in the stillness, when no one is aware of it. It never gets in the paper, but long afterward a few people looking back begin to see that it has happened. Sometimes in the stillness of the night, thinking of what is going on in our country, in our homes, and in places of entertainment, I wonder if that is not happening to us. If our nation is to survive, if her people are to be the individuals they ought to be, it will take more than the force of law to save it. It will take a profound moral and spiritual revival.

The story also suggests that Naaman would rather have been cleansed a different way. He preferred a substitute for the Jordan. He preferred something more spectacular done by the holy man. In fact, he was indignant about the prophet's prescription. Elisha said it was this way or no way. Many of our people are in the same mood as Naaman. Modern prophets are telling them that secular forces of inspiration and reform never healed them of their leprosy. They must wash "in the old river Jordan," and find their healing in the church and in Sunday Bible study and prayer, but the modern mind rebels. We want a surface cleansing; we don't want to change our souls. In the words of Thoreau, "For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root."2

We can only achieve quantum improvements in our lives as we quit hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior and get to work on the roots, the understandings from which our attitudes and behaviors flow.3 We too must wash in the old river Jordan. We affirm that washing in church, in Sunday Bible study, and in prayer, but we don't like it. Naaman was told to wash seven times in the river Jordan. No one really knows why it was seven times, although seven is the perfect and sacred number. Allow me to suggest seven things that will not only change a life at the core but also will make that life very stable and effective in a most difficult world.

1. We must make a profession of our faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

2. We need to be baptized and affiliated with a local congregation.

3. We must study the Bible with a responsible church group, consistently, week after week.

4. We must pray and maintain a daily quiet time of introspection and meditation.

5. We must attend and participate in public worship on a regular basis with a community of faith to whom we have committed ourselves.

6. We must be good stewards of our income through the local congregation (I would be so bold as to recommend that we heed the biblical admonition to tithe).

7. This newly cleansed person should become engaged in personal acts of ministry.

These seven habits will make this new life effective. The act of contrition to be washed in the old muddy Jordan, not once but seven times, heals a life and sets it on a new course.

A soldier in the Second World War serving in the South Pacific wrote a letter to his father, who had been an alcoholic. The father knew the moral law, but he had not had the strength to fulfill it. Then he came in touch with God and found a power that the law, affluence, and success did not possess. The father bathed himself in the Jordan seven times. The son came home for a visit after his father's amazing transformation and, returning to the Pacific, he wrote this to him: "When I look back at how you changed, Pop, it seems like something from a fairy tale. All the fellows think they have the best father in the whole world. You've always been the best father to me. But now there is something else. I'm so proud of you, Pop, for what you've done in the past few years -- it's better than being Lincoln's son or even Uncle Sam's son. You did wonderful things for other people too, but you have climbed the biggest barrier in humanity. You have conquered yourself. It takes a thousand men's wills and a million men's patience to do that completely. I started to tell you how I felt when I was home but I never got through the first sentence. I'll still never be able to put into words how much I love you for what you've done for Mom, me and the family."4

Only washing in the old Jordan can do that.

1. Russell Dilday, Communicator's Commentary, Vol. 9, p. 307.

2. Stephen Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (New York: Fireside Books, Simon & Schuster, 1989), p. 30.

3. Covey, p. 31.4. From unpublished material shared with me by Dr. J. Chalmers Holmes."

CSS Publishing, Lima, Ohio, Defining Moments, by William L. Self