2 Kings 5:1-19

2Ki 5:1-19

1. Now Naaman ["beauty"], captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man [Heb., lifted up, or accepted in countenance] with his master, [lit., before his lord (comp. Gen 10:9 )] and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance [victory] unto Syria; he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. [Lit., and the man was a brave warrior, stricken with leprosy. His leprosy need not have been so severe as to prevent him following his military duties.]

2. And the Syrians had gone out by companies [or, in troops], and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited [Heb., was before] on Naaman's wife.

3. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him [then he would receive him back (comp. Num 12:14-15 )] of his leprosy.

4. And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.

5. And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him [Heb., in his hand] ten talents of silver [about £3,750 in our money. The shekel was about equal to 2s. 6d. of our money] and six thousand pieces of gold [six thousand gold shekels = about £13,500. The gold shekel was about equal to 45s. of our currency. The total amount appears too large; the figures are probably corrupt], and ten changes of raiment.

6. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.

7. And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes [as if he had heard blasphemy (comp. Mat 26:65 )] and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive [Deuteronomy 32:39 ; 1 Samuel 2:6 . Leprosy was a kind of living death (comp. Num 12:12 )], that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.

8. ¶ And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard [he was at the time in Samaria ( 2Ki 5:3 )] that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is [with stress on "there is"] a prophet in Israel.

9. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood [stopped] at the door of the house of Elisha.

10. And Elisha sent a messenger [avoiding personal contact with a leper] unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan [Naaman was to understand that he was healed by the God of Israel, in answer to the prophet's prayer, (comp. 2Ki 5:15 )] seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

11. But [And] Naaman was wroth [he thought he was being mocked], and went away, and said [I said to myself], Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike [wave his hand towards (comp. Isaiah 10:15 , Isa 11:15 )] his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

12. Are not Abana and Pharpar [the], rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

13. And his servants came near [comp. Gen 18:23 ], and spake unto him, and said, My father [implying respect and affection (comp. 1 Samuel 24:11 ; 1Sa 6:21 )], if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done [or wouldest thou not do] it? how much rather then, when he saith [hath said] to thee, Wash, and be clean [ i.e., thou shalt be clean]?

14. Then [And he went down] went he down, and dipped himself seven times [seven was significant of the divine covenant with Israel, and the cure depended on that covenant] 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.

15. ¶ And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company [camp, host], and came [went into Elisha's house. Gratitude overcame awe and dread] and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore [and now], I pray thee, take a blessing [accept a present from ( Gen 33:11 )] of thy servant.

16. But [And] he said, As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. [Matthew 10:8 (compare Act 8:20 ). Elisha's conduct, so different to ordinary prophets ( 1Sa 9:6-9 ), would favourably impress Naaman]. And he urged him to take it; but [and] he refused.

17. And Naaman said, Shall there not then [If not, let there be given, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth [he wished to worship the God of Israel on the soil of Israel, Jehovah's own land. (Comp. Exo 20:24 ; 1Ki 18:38 )]? for thy servant will henceforth offer [make] neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord.

18. In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship [to bow down] there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing.

19. And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way [Heb., a little piece of ground ( Gen 35:16 )].

The Danger of Preconceptions

Behold, I thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper" (2 Kings 5:11 .) Naaman had heard of a man who could cure his leprosy, so he thought out how this would be accomplished. He made a plan in his own mind, as we see in the eleventh verse. Now that thought before the thing happened was what is termed a preconception, and suggests our subject, namely, the mischievousness and absurdity of preconception in religious thinking. Religion must not be a discovery, but a revelation, if it is to have any depth of wisdom, any force of pathos, any riches of comfort if it is to have the infiniteness of redemption which our sin and our necessity require. The great mistake that we have made is, that we thought we could find out a religion we could make one. So we have set our inventiveness to work, and we have said, God must be thus and so. Man must have begun then and there. The connection between God and man must be of this and that nature and limitation. Thus, without the slightest authority beyond what may be involved in our own consciousness, we have constructed a plan of the universe, a method of government, a system of providence, and therefore anything that opposes our preconceptions encounters in all its fulness the action of a personal prejudice. Religion must surprise by showing the unexpected way of doing things. Religion is not a condition of our a priori thinking. The religion of the Bible never professes to meet us half-way, to do half the work if we will do the other half. It comes upon us like a light we never kindled, like a glory which extinguishes all the mean flames of our own lighting. Herein is its power, and herein is the disadvantage to which it exposes itself in the estimation of men who begin their intellectual life by inventing a religion which is not confirmed by the revelation contained in the Bible. What then are we to do? Were we wise men, and burningly in earnest about this matter, we should come with a mind totally unoccupied, without prejudice, without bias, without colour, and should humbly, reverently, and lovingly say, "What wilt thou have me to be and to do?" Instead of that we come with a prejudice seven-fold in thickness, and the first thing the Bible does is to rebuke our pride, and dash our religious imagination to the ground. Man does not like that. He would rather be flattered and commended, and it would be pleasant to him to hear the old prophets say: "Thou art a clever man, and thy astuteness must be most pleasing to God and his angels; thou hast found out the secret of the Almighty; by thine own right hand hast thou captured the prizes of heaven." Who would not be pleased by such commendation? But it is never given. The Bible pours contempt upon the thought which preoccupies the mind, and has no blessing but for those who are poor in heart, meek, lowly, contrite, broken in spirit, childlike, who say with a tender loving reverence, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to be and to do?" "To this man will I look." How expectation is excited by that introduction. It is as if God's finger were stretched out, and pointing to a certain individual, and the eyes of the universe followed the pointing of the finger, and the ears of the universe listened while God gave this testimony concerning the specified man. Who is the man? "To this man will I look, who is of a broken and contrite spirit, and who trembleth at my word."

Let us apply this suggestion to two or three of the most vital religious inquiries. Apply it to the subject of Inspiration. Instead of coming to the Book without bias and prejudice, simply to hear what the Book has to say for itself, we come with what is termed a theory of inspiration. As if there could be any balance between the terms, as if in any degree or sense they could be equivalent to one another. Theory equal to inspiration inspiration equal to theory. The word theory must be an offence to the word inspiration! Inspiration is madness, ecstasy, enthusiasm, the coronation of the soul, the mind in its widest, grandest illumination. How have the Naamans of the world treated the Bible? Thus: "Behold, I thought the Bible will be artistically arranged; it will move in such and such grooves and currents; the men will be so distinguished from all other men that there will be no mistaking them. They will never fall from their inspiration; they will not live on earth, they will not live in heaven, they will live somewhere midway between these places; they will not speak our language, or, if they do, it will be with a different accent. All the Book contains will have about it the fragrance of an upper and undiscovered paradise." Now open the Book. The Book is as nearly not that as it is possible for a book to be. What is the consequence? The Book is not inspired, because, forsooth, it does not answer our preconception of inspiration! Where does the Book say that it is inspired? Where does the Book lift itself up and say, "I am not written with the same ink as other books, beware how you touch me; I am inspired; my punctuation was settled by a special angel from heaven, and all my words I have directly from the lips of the Eternal"? The Book comes with an abruptness that startles us, and with a simplicity so simple that it actually bewilders us. The Book is so broadly human, and so graphically historical, taking note of great things and little things; revealing much that we had no expectation of having revealed, and keeping back much that we expected would be revealed; putting in its very centre some three thousand proverbs, terse sentences, utterances that might be graven upon rings, and might form signet mottoes by which to regulate our daily conduct. And the Book which has in its centre proverbs which a mere moralist might have written, has at its end an apocalypse which might dazzle the angels. What does Naaman say about the Book? "Behold, I thought it would be all written in polysyllables; I expected it would be all sublime, with an unprecedented sublimity too grand for our language, and would need a language of its own too superior for our atmosphere, and would need an air created for itself." And, behold, it is so simple, so graphic, so abrupt, so social. Fascinating as a romance, solemn as a day of judgment, rich in moral maxims, filled with dazzling and bewildering prophecy, and such an appeal to the religious imagination as never was addressed to it before. How is it that you have got so little out of the Bible? Simply because you had a preconception about it which the Bible itself does not confirm, and therefore you have elected to follow your own prejudices, rather than to accept a possible revelation. What you have to do with the Bible is to read it straight through, without saying anything to anybody. You have not to dip into it just as you please, you have to begin at the beginning and read through to the final Amen. In doing so you have to be as fair to the Book as you would be to the meanest criminal that ever stood at the bar of justice. The counsel asks you in considering the evidence to banish all preconceptions, all prejudices, all theories, and to listen to the case without any bias or mental colour of your own. That plea we allow to be just. We ask for nothing more than that in considering the Bible. Do not come with your notions of inspiration, your "Behold, I thought," but come with a white mind, an unprejudiced understanding, and read the Book, not here and there, but steadily on and on, page by page, historian, prophet, psalmist, evangelist, apostle, and that wondrous Speaker whose words were as the dew of the morning. When you have read the Book thus straight through, there is no reason why you should not form a distinct opinion about it. Nowhere will the Book take away your power of thought, reason, and judgment. It will rather challenge you at the last to say, "Who or what say ye that I am?"

The same suggestion has its application to the great question of Providence. Here, again, we lose much by the indulgence of preconception. Given God and man. God, almighty, all-wise, and man as we know him to be, to find out the course of human history. "Behold, I thought it would be thus. The good man will have a bountiful harvest every year. The praying man will see every day close upon a great victory of life. Honesty will be rewarded, vice will be put down, crushed, condemned by the universal voice. The true man will be king, and the untrue man will be hated and despised. Virtue will lift up her head, and vice will pray some seven-fold night to hide its intolerable ghastliness." That was your preconception, what is the reality? Sometimes the atheist has a better harvest than the man who prayed in the seedtime, and prayed every day until the autumn came. Sometimes the righteous man has not where to lay his head. Sometimes the true man is put down, and the false man is highly exalted. Sometimes the honest and honourable trader can hardly make both ends meet, and the man given to sharp practice and immoral speculation is a man who retires to affluence and dies in castle or in palace. Sometimes the good are condemned to pain, and sorrow, and loss, and sometimes the wicked have eyes that stand out with fatness, they are compassed about with chains of gold; they are not in trouble as other men. Our preconception is so different from this that we feel the violence of a tremendous shock, and possibly may turn and go away in a rage. Let us consider and be wise. What business have we to invent a theory of Providence? We cannot tell what a day may bring forth. We have already forgotten all the incidents of yesterday, tomorrow we are never sure of: we are of yesterday and know nothing. We cannot tell what is written upon the next page of the book until we turn it over. Who are we that we should invent a theory of the Divine administration of the universe? What ought to be our mental attitude and moral mood? The Christian ought to stand still and say, "Lord, not my will, but thine, be done. What I know not now I shall know hereafter. I am but of yesterday and know nothing. Thou art from everlasting to everlasting, and thou knowest all the system of compensation which thou thyself hast established. In the long run thou wilt justify thy providence to man. I will, therefore, not preconceive or pre-judge, or invent, or suppose, or have any theory that will set itself between me and God. My theories have become idols which hide from me the true divinity. God give me strength to cast these idols to the moles and to the bats."

What applies to Inspiration and to Providence applies of course to the greater question of Redemption. We had thought that the plan of redemption would be this or that, and all our preconceptions fail to reach the agony of the cross, and the mystery of a sacrificial death. The sublimity of a battle won by weakness. We are lost in wonder. May we also be lost in love and praise! Many persons address themselves to a theory of redemption, in their anti-Christian arguments, who never approach the inner and vital question of redemption itself. We care nothing for any theory of redemption, as such, that was ever heard of. We believe all reasoning about redemption, with a view to find out the secret of the divine meaning, and to trace the mystery of moral law and claim, to be vain and worthless. You see the redemption once and the vision passes, you feel the mystery, and after that the life is transfigured and becomes itself a sacrifice. If the cross has got no further than your invention, your intellect, your range of scheming, and theorising, it is not a cross, it is but a Roman gallows. There is no theory of the heart. There is no theory of love. There is no theory of a mother's sacrifice for her ailing and dying child. You must feel it, know it by the heart, see it by some swift glance of a similar spirit, and after that you will have an understanding that cannot be put into words and phrases.

What, then, is the sum of the argument thus roughly outlined? It is this. Rid the mind of preconceptions. Do not go to church with some theory which the preacher has to destroy before he can begin his work of construction. When we enter the sanctuary, we ought to enter it without prejudice against the place, against the book, or against the man who, for the time being, officiates in the name of Christ. We should be fair, and honest, and just, we should not be more righteous to a criminal than we are to an equal. We should enter God's house in this spirit: "Lord, show me thyself as thou wilt. Lord, teach me thy truth. Lord, show me what I ought to be and to do. My selfishness takes the form of religious inventiveness, this is the most subtle temptation of my life. Lord, help me to answer this temptation. I am not tempted to commit murder, or to tell great blasphemous lies to men, but I am tempted to form notions about thyself, and thy book, and thy providence; and my mind is like a chamber full of pegs upon which I have hung a hundred preconceptions, and there I am the victim of my own fancies. Thou hast to crush thy way through a crowd of idols to get at me. Lord, cleanse the chamber of my mind, banish all these idols and come in thyself, and by the shining of thy face I shall be able to identify thy deity." That is the prayer which ought to rise from every heart when we approach the worship of God and the consideration of his mysteries. As in the case of Naaman, so now. The surprise of Christian revelation is always in the direction of simplicity. Naaman had a programme, Elisha a command. Naaman had a ceremony, Elisha a revelation. Naaman required a whole sheet of paper on which to write out his elaborate scheme, Elisha rolled up his address into a military sentence, and delivered his order as a mightier soldier than Naaman.

Let us burn our theories, inventions, preconceptions, prejudices, and our forecasts about God, Providence, Inspiration, Redemption, and human destiny, and throw ourselves into the great arms, asking only to be and to do what God would have us be and do. Let us live the true, sweet child's life, and not be the victim of our own prejudices, nor the dupe of our own cleverness. May our prayer be, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? I am ready, by thy Spirit, to go, and stand, and fight, and wait, to suffer, to enjoy, to be rich, to be poor, to be known, to be unknown; not my will, but thine, be done." And at the last we shall say, "Thou hast done all things well."

Prayer

Almighty God, how do they praise thee who stand in the unclouded light and sing thy name and do thy service evermore? We wonder, but we cannot tell. We long sometimes to be of their number even but for one moment, that we might return again and praise thee on earth as they do in heaven. How sweet their song, how undivided their thought, how complete their loyalty! Yet may we be growing up toward all this by the grace of thy Holy Spirit, becoming wiser, purer, tenderer, more like thyself at least in our love of holiness. Help us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Save us from foolish and vain notions concerning thyself. Deliver us from the power of superstition, lest we forget how really to pray, and how truly to worship the threefold name. May we know thee as Father, King, mighty one, yet tenderer than a mother, more patient than a nurse who serves for love. We bless thee for all our mental illumination; we thank thee now, whereas once we were blind and could not see afar off; now we seem to know better what the meaning of life is, what are its capacities, and what is its destiny. We cannot tell how the idea grew in our mind, but it was a miracle of thine that we know. We could now tell thy word, because we know what it is in pureness, in wisdom, in righteousness, and in the spirit of hopefulness, so that no man can now deceive us by saying, This is the word of God, when it is not. Behold, thou hast set thy witness in our hearts, which says to us, This is God's word, and that is a counterfeit gospel: reject it, for there is no blessing in it. This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. Help us to read thy book with eyes which thou thyself hast opened, so that we may see not the letter only but the spirit, so that looking upon the letter we see within it chariots and horses of fire, living spirits, gracious angels; and may we yield ourselves to the whole spiritual ministry. Thus shall we show what it is to be in God, to live, and move, and have our being in him, by the loftiness of our judgment and the Christliness of our charity. May we hate sin, which is an abominable thing in thy sight. May we know that sin always means leprosy leprosy for ever: but that in Jesus Christ there is a healing even for the leper in the sweet gospel we have heard. The Lord cleanse us, and we shall be clean. We would that we might be recovered of our spiritual leprosy, that we might be healed with the blood of sacrifice, the precious blood, which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. We have heard of this gospel of blood, this salvation by atonement: what it all is we cannot tell, but we long to know; by faith we cast ourselves upon it; living or dying our cry shall be, Lord, we believe, help thou our unbelief. Amen.