Give In
2 Kings 5:11, “But Naaman was wroth, 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 †strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.” [1]
I. Frustrated
A. Wroth
B. Went
II. Foregone
A. Will
B. Way
III. Foreshadowed
A. Wash
B. Worship
Introduction: Lately we have been looking into the ministry of a prophet called Elijah. Today we will be introduced to Elijah’s protégé. Elisha was with Elijah when he was taken in the whirlwind up in a chariot of fire. The men have very similar names so it is easy to confuse them and their stories.
As we study prophets we find that, to them, the message from God was never an impersonal lesson intended for someone else. The prophet God uses is a person that has experience with what he/she would bring forth to the people.
For me to preach something to a congregation about divorce would be somewhat ineffective. While Rachael and I both have experience with divorce in our families and have had marital problems like most every other couple, we have not personally been through divorce ourselves. To tell anyone of a personal experience such as Hosea had with Gomer, I cannot.
Alcoholism is another one that I can speak of as having been around family member with that addiction but God decided to not tempt me with that. Otherwise I could have been useless in my attempts to overcome that particular addiction.
If I were to give someone else advice or preach a message to someone who I have nothing in common with concerning their sin need, I would be less effective as someone who has walked in their shoes. To misrepresent yourself to someone who is hurting is harmful and not helpful.
God often allows us to live out what we are to bring out. The world has no time for that as they ignore the one with the difficult past. Christians know better. We are all sinners. Jesus died for us all. We learn from the experiences of others or we fall into the temptation ourselves. We need each other and we learn from each other.
I say all that to say this. There is a man named Naaman. He had a similar experience to something that just recently happened to me. It can happen to you. I pray that it doesn’t. It is not easy to listen and do what someone tells you when you are used to being the one who gives care and advice.
The title of today’s message is “Give In.” The keyword in this message today is humility. It seems that God has been bringing many messages through me concerning the need to humble yourself. People have told me that I am not humble. The question today is; whose attention is God getting? If God is not getting my attention it is because of my lack of humility.
God is getting my attention. It just may be that God is speaking to you through what is happening to me. If that is that then that is good. As a very good friend that I once called pastor told me, “If a preacher stands up and says this is a message that God brought me to preach to you; run.” In other words if a man of God begins to think for a minute that he is not susceptible of the same sin that he is preaching to you, he is not worth hearing.
Oh by the way; I’m learning something else lately. If you think you have gotten old enough not to listen to someone else or you have gotten old enough to tell your mamma and daddy that you know better than they do, you’ll never be that old. We all still have got something that God will teach us unless we are too obstinate to learn from others.
Tomorrow is Independence Day for our nation. It is a day to celebrate. We were once a nation that was subservient to a tyrannical government that did not have the values that we hold dear. We rebelled against that and won our independence from worshipping a man king. We did all that so that we could worship The One True God King. Let us never forget.
Scripture: The scripture tonight is 2 Kings 5:11. Please stand if you’re able.
Prayer: Let us pray. Be seated.
Message: Naaman was wroth and he went away. Who was Naaman? Look at 2 Kings 5:1-3, "*Now Naaman, acaptain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man †with his master, and ||honourable, because by him the Lord had given ||deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. 2 And the Syrians had gone out by bcompanies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she †waited 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 of his leprosy.” [2]
No doubt Naaman was a guy who was used to getting his way but he had a skin disease. His wife had a servant girl who happened to be an Israelite. She saw what was before her and thought she might be able to help. She is so important to the story that her name is not even mentioned. What she said got the attention of the king of Syria. He wrote a letter to the king of Israel asking if he might be able to help Naaman who was an important member of his kingdom.
The king of Syria also sent some gold and silver along with ten changes of clothes. Maybe he needed the clothes because of Naaman’s skin problem. When Naaman got there the king of Israel was irritated to say the least. So much that he ripped his own clothes. May he’s the one that needed the ten changes? In essence he responded to the request rudely. I’ll paraphrase, “I might be a king but I’m not a god!”
“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 ctook †with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten dchanges of raiment. 6 And he brought the letter to ethe 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 ethe king of Israel had read the letter, that fhe rent his clothes, and said, gAm I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore hconsider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me” [3]
Elisha had taken the place of his mentor Elijah. Now Elisha was the prophet that the king knew to have God’s word. The king was no happier with Elisha than the previous kings had been with Elijah. He had no desire to call Elisha to help this Syrian hero. It seems that he was afraid that the Syrian king was actually setting a trap for him. That didn’t stop God’s word from getting to God’s prophet.
2 Kings 5:8 “And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that ethe 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 a prophet in Israel. 9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. 10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and iwash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.” [4]
And now we are at the focal verse. He wasn’t a little bit happy with his prognosis. When it happened to me I was frustrated. He was wroth! That word wroth is one that isn’t used much anymore but if you’ve ever been around a two year old you’ve seen it. Stomping mad! Jumping up and down throwing a fit angry! He was wroth! Then he went away. He took his toys and went home. At least that was his intention. He had rivers closer to home that would be just as good anyhow. What good is there in Israel? I’m headed to the house.
Naaman was used to having his way. Next in our focal verse we see him so mad that he seems to be talking to himself. This is one willful dude. I just figured that since I am who I am that surely this Israelite will come out to me. Who does he think he is? Doesn’t he know who I am?
In Naaman’s mind it was a foregone conclusion what would happen next. That is not the way it happened. My dad told me many years ago to never think that I have mastered a motorcycle. I came home from getting some onion sets one day on my motorcycle. The road in front of Frank Dicken’s house was wet. I wanted to go around the curve. The motorcycle didn’t. I stuck in the mud in the ditch. My head hit the tree and busted my helmet. Daddy needed help to get up so that he could see the muddy motorcycle. Momma cried. Daddy laughed and gave me that inspirational message. He wrecked an old Harley when he was about my age.
When you think you have mastered God watch out. You still have more to learn than you have learned. I don’t care who you are. Naaman was about to learn.
Look carefully there as Naaman mentioned God. Notice that he said the Lord his god. At that point Naaman still considered The Lord as Elisha’s god with a lowercase “g” but not Naaman’s God with a capital “G.” Naaman’s beliefs had overshadowed the truth at that point. He could not see God for who God was.
Along comes another servant. Someone whom Naaman earlier thought less of than he had thought of himself was there to remind him of the truth again. “13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, lMy father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? 14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and mhis flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and nhe was clean.” [5]
Prayer: Let us pray
Invitation: It is hard to believe, no it is impossible to believe without the Holy Spirit; that a person might only come and be washed in the blood of Jesus and become a new creation. It is the miracle of faith when the Lord becomes God. What can we do after that?
This is what Naaman did. “15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is ono God in all the earth, but in Israel:” [6] Now God was not just god lowercase “g” anymore. Now God is God to Naaman and He is to be worshipped.
Today we are going out to the fellowship hall to have some fellowship and eat. We do this in commemoration of the independence of our nation. Naaman also received independence and so can we. We can declare that we are independent from serving anything or anyone except the One True God. He was, is, and always will be God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Let us worship… Let us sing… Let us eat and enjoy that which He has given…
† Heb. [I] said.
|| Or, I said with myself, He will surely come out, &c.
† Heb. move up and down. Comp. Job 31:21. Isai. 11:15 in the Heb.
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., 2 Ki 5:11). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
* About B.C. 894.
a ch. 4:13.
† Heb. before.
|| Or, gracious. Heb. lifted up, or, accepted in countenance. See ch. 3:14.
|| Or, victory. Judg. 15:18. See Judg. 2:16 marg.
b ch. 6:23 (Heb.).
† Heb. was before.
† Heb. before.
† Heb. gather in. ver. 6, 7, 11.
[2] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., 2 Ki 5:1–3). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
c See 1 Sam. 9:7.
† Heb. in his hand. ch. 8:8, 9.
d ver. 22, 23. See Judg. 14:12.
e See 1 Kin. 20:7.
e See 1 Kin. 20:7.
f See Gen. 44:13.
g So Gen. 30:2. See Deut. 32:39.
h So 1 Kin. 20:7.
[3] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., 2 Ki 5:4–7). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
e See 1 Kin. 20:7.
i See ch. 2:21. Comp. John 9:7.
[4] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., 2 Ki 5:8–10). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
l ch. 6:21. & 8:9. Judg. 17:10.
m ver. 10. So Job 33:25.
n Luke 4:27.
[5] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., 2 Ki 5:13–14). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
o So Dan. 2:47. & 3:29. & 6:26, 27.
[6] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., 2 Ki 5:15). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
