Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: We all want healing, but most of us want healing on our own terms. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll recounts an ancient story about a proud Syrian commander who was stricken with leprosy and desperate for a cure. Chuck reminds us that Naaman’s illness and his stubborn resistance to God’s plan for healing mirrors the way that we often treat the Gospel. This isn't just a story about physical disease. It’s about our sin-sick souls and the humble obedience required for cleansing.

Chuck Swindoll: What we have in 2 Kings 5 is a story of a miracle. The main character in the story is a man named Naaman, N-A-A-M-A-N, who’s mentioned in verse one. Naaman. He was a Syrian. Understand now, he is an unsaved, Syrian military officer who serves the king of Syria named Ben-Hadad, who isn’t mentioned in this account but is mentioned elsewhere in the book of Kings. But he was a leper.

We’re not told every detail of what he said or what he did, but out of the blue, and this is just the way God works, there’s a little servant girl that comes across his path. Look at verse two. The Syrians had gone out in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel, and she waited on Naaman’s wife. Isn’t that interesting how these lives crisscross and dovetail? And she said one day to her mistress, "I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria." The prophet is Elisha. "He would cure him of his leprosy." You wonder if Naaman was open to it. Verse four, Naaman went in and told his master, that’s the king, Ben-Hadad, saying, "Thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel." Now understand, there’s a lot of prejudice. There isn’t an openness between these countries, but when you’re pressed, those kind of things sort of break down.

There is a desperate search that takes place in Naaman’s life in between verses five through twelve. I don’t want you to miss the mistakes he makes because he’s thinking like an unsaved person thinks when seeking the Lord. I see two or three major mistakes he makes. Look at verse five. The king of Syria said, "Go now, I will send a letter to the king of Israel." And Naaman departed and look at what he did. Of course, there is no free lunch. You’re going to buy it. So he took with him about four million dollars in silver and gold and ten new suits from Syria’s finest men’s clothing store. He takes all of that with him as he makes his journey from Syria to Samaria where Elisha is living his life.

His first mistake is, "I’ll buy my cleansing." That’s still going on, by the way. People who believe, if I am going to get something as rich and significant as heaven, it’s going to cost, and I am willing to pay. You know something? There are more people willing to pay their way to heaven than to believe their way into heaven. More people are willing to buy heaven than to take it by faith, free of any cost. I know. I’ve heard from too many of them. If this costs me something, it makes sense. I’ll buy it. But if you’re telling me it’s a free gift, I’m suspicious of it. Nothing’s free. That’s the way the unsaved think.

There’s a second mistake and that is, "I’ll get my cleansing from another man." Now look at what he does. He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, "And now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you that you may cure him of his leprosy." So the king sits there and he’s reading. This is Jehoram, the king of Israel. It came about when Jehoram read the letter that he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? But let’s look into this. Consider now and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me." He’s suspicious. He wonders what this is all about. Now Naaman comes thinking this man is going to cure him. He doesn’t know who it is, but he comes trusting in a man, gives him a letter, says, "I’m ready for you to cure me."

It happened when Elisha, now there’s the man that’s got the power, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent word to the king. Now by the way, how would Elisha hear about Naaman’s visit? I mean, there was no major newspaper that was delivered every morning into the driveway of Elisha. Life wasn’t quite like that. But the beauty of it all is that God is at work and His ways are higher than our ways. He works in surprising ways. He gets information from one source to another you look back and you wonder, "How did that happen?" and you can’t explain it. We’re not even told here. All we’re told is that Elisha, we’re told it happened, that he heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes and he sent word to the king saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel."

This leads to his third mistake. So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. This is the moment of truth. Leper standing at the doorway of prophet. Watch. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean." Period. Now here is a man who has multiple millions of dollars’ worth of silver and gold and clothing ready to pay his way. Here is a man who has already been suspected of some kind of plot by the king, now standing at the doorway getting word from not the prophet, did you get it? From a messenger. And he’s ticked off, to use today’s terms. Verse 11 says he was furious and he went away and said, "Behold, I thought."

See, that’s his first mistake. "I had it all planned that it would be like this. I thought." He, Elisha, would surely come out to me. You see, he’s the captain, and when you’re a field marshal, most folks jump when you snap your fingers. Surely Elisha will come out of this little house where he lives and talk to me. I thought he would do that. See, the third mistake is, this isn’t the way I had in mind. This isn’t what I thought would happen. I thought something else would occur. Look, he was furious. He said, "I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of his God and do his voodoo and wave his hand over it and cure the leper. I thought he would just do the mumbo-jumbo thing and I’d pay him and I’d be on my way clean and healthy and happy and ready to live the rest of my life. That’s what I thought would happen."

Then you’ll get a little prejudice in verse 12. "I mean, are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. How dare he think I’m going to put my body in some muddy river called Jordan in Israel when we’ve got these great rivers back home? I’m going to any one of them. They’re better, those two rivers, than all the waters put together in the land of Israel. Sound familiar? Sound like the wrestling you’re hearing from someone you’ve talked to about the Savior? "Well, I thought this. Well, I expected that. I didn’t think it would be like this. I mean, I never... This is a whole another set of circumstances here. It’s another game plan. I thought he’d come out to me. I thought he’d stand personally before me. I thought he’d call on the name of his God. I thought he’d do his magic, do his chant. I thought immediately it’d all be taken away. I mean, after all, look at the reward I brought with me. I’ve already gone the second mile and on top of this, he’s telling me to duck down in a Jordan River? Absolutely no way."

Next time you have a chance to read Bunyan, you will meet a character named Mr. Loath-to-stoop. I thought of him when I read about Naaman’s response. Loath-to-stoop, you may recall, comes across Emmanuel. And in order to come to terms with himself, he doesn’t want to stoop. He wants Emmanuel to recognize his own superior character and dignity. Upon finding there was no way that that would happen, there was no way he could come to the Savior but by bending and stooping, he refused to do so. Naaman is an ancient Captain Loath-to-stoop. "I am not about to do what he says."

Once again, God’s ways are not our ways. Earlier a servant girl spoke, verse two. Later a messenger spoke, verse ten. And now there’s a third unnamed individual or group of individuals. It’s amazing whom God uses in our lives. Verse 13. As he turns away in a rage, his servants came near and spoke to him and said, "My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?" Did they know him? Oh, bet they did, better than he would ever believe. "If he had told you to do something great, you would have done it. How much more then when he says to you, 'Wash and be clean'?" I mean, I think they’re saying, "Wake up, Naaman. This is your chance. Just go down to the river and dip seven times and you’ll come up cleansed."

What a message this is to those people who are still saying, "It’s just too simple. Just doesn’t have enough dignity to it. I mean, just to believe in the Savior, just to give my life to Christ?" Yeah, that’s it. Just that. I’m impressed with his momentary sense of teachability. Verse 14. So he went down and he dipped himself seven times in the Jordan. Can’t you see the servants sitting on the rock? "One, two, three, go ahead, four, five, six. That’s it! I’m not... One more! Seven!" Look at this. And his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.

Water? I mean, if we could bottle that kind of power and dispense it. But it isn't bottled water. It isn't the place. It isn't the details. It's the Lord. It's the working of God in the life of a diseased man. It's doing exactly what the Lord says that brings the change. It isn't studying about it, it isn't talking about it, it is doing it. Not until he did was he clean.

There are some lessons we learn at Naaman’s expense, aren’t there? I can think of four of them. Number one, it is not until we accept the fact that we are diseased that we seek cleansing. Christ didn’t come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. If I can just get people to believe they’re sinners, we are three-fourths of the way toward their salvation. Just getting people to admit, "I am lost. I am unable to get myself clean." It’s not until we accept the fact that we are diseased that we seek cleansing.

Second, another lesson. It is not until we hear the truth that we discover the way to find relief. We’ve heard testimonies from people who heard the message of the Savior in any number of ways, and it was not until they heard the truth that they discovered the way to relief. In Naaman’s case, each person God brought across his path led him closer. I call it links in the chain.

By the way, who’s God bringing across your path lately? Don’t take it lightly. Some of you have had a rather interesting pilgrimage in the process of a few years. You have met a person who interestingly it seemed almost a coincidence that person got you in touch with another and it altered the course of your life and you decided perhaps even to move or to make a change in your lifestyle which led you to yet another group or another individual who provided something altogether different from the first person in the chain, in the links of the chain. And here you are a few years later, absolutely different than you were back when you began this journey, this pilgrimage. God knows what He’s doing.

We heard last Easter about a fellow who was a graduate of UCLA and his wife had spoken to him about Christ and he wasn’t interested. But as time passed he began to soften and out of the blue, they are at a public park and he goes into this public restroom and he meets a black man who is in there cleaning the restroom. I mean, it’s just inadvertent conversation. And when this individual cleaning the restroom begins to, you know, the light is in his life and the joy is in his heart and he's bubbling over with enthusiasm and our UCLA friend asks him what this is all about, he says, "I just have to tell you it’s the Lord Jesus Christ who has changed my life." And the man thought, "I mean, if I’ve got my wife on one side saying this and out of the blue meet another fellow I’ve never met, there’s got to be something to it." And the long and short of it is he gave his heart to Christ.

Don’t take lightly individuals God brings across your path. There’s a little servant girl here and there. There is a messenger that sticks his head out of the prophet’s house. There is a servant who comes near, verse 13, and speaks the truth and confronts you with something you need to deal with. Don’t take that lightly. These are all fingers on the hands of God moving and changing.

I heard from a fellow who works in a service station. He was pumping gas and these people kept driving in with this sign on the back of their car. It was an Ichthus. It was a fish. And he kept wondering, "Why are all those fishermen’s club? They must all be a part of this group of people that fish." And he said, "We weren’t within hundreds of miles of a place to fish. I kept scratching my finally I said to one guy, 'Why are all of you fishermen out here on this highway?'" And the fellow says, "Well, what you need to know is that that fish is an ancient symbol of Christians. He said in fact the word Ichthus represents Jesus Christ the Lord." And he described to him the letters that make up the Greek word fish. And it led him to Christ. Pumping gas, a little sign on the back of a car. Another messenger that God uses. It’s not until we hear the truth that we discover the way to find relief.

Third, it’s not until we come to an end of ourselves that we’re ready to go God’s way. Money? No. Logic? No. Important people? No. Pride? No. God tells us, "You must be born again." It’s humbling, it’s simple, if I may, it’s illogical. It doesn’t fit the scheme of earthly things. It doesn’t appeal to the flesh. It results in being misunderstood, scoffed at, even persecuted at times, treated rudely, but it’s true. And you have to come to an end of yourself to believe and to go God’s way. Not until then are we ready for it.

Fourth and finally, it is not until we actually do as God requires that cleansing occurs. Naaman finally had to get in the Jordan. He had to strip down, he had to walk out into the muddy waters, and he had to literally go under the water seven times. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else because that’s God’s way. And when he did, and not until he did, was he cleansed.

Alexander Whyte, one of my favorite Old Testament biographers, in fact Bible character writers, says this: "My brethren, salvation is not cut to your pattern. Leprosy is not cured on your prescription. I advise you to get over your temper and to try that very way that you have up till now been so hot and so loud against. It will humble you to do it and you are not a humble man. But if you ever come back from Jordan with your flesh like the flesh of a little child, you’ll be the foremost to confess that you had almost been lost through your pride and your prejudice and your ill nature." And then he pleads, "Oh, leper, leper, go out with thy loathsome and deadly heart. Go wash in Jordan. Go in God’s name, go in God’s strength, God’s mercy, God’s pity. Go this moment." That’s the message. I invite you not to a river filled with water, but to a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stain. All their guilty stain.

Let's bow together, will you please? Salvation is not cut to your pattern. Leprosy is not cured on your prescription. If you want to know God, if you want to know what it is to have peace, forgiveness, eternal life, hope beyond the grave and excitement until the grave arrives, you’ve got to come God’s way. You don’t need the River of Jordan, you need the Savior. And you’re surrounded by people all around this country, in fact dotted all around this world, who claim the name of Christ and you’ll find in every case their search for hope has stopped. It stops with Christ. In every other religion, the search goes on because there isn’t peace, satisfaction, security, and forgiveness. There is just more searching.

Father, I thank You for the truth of this great Old Testament story. I’m grateful that it’s still true that our ways are not Your ways, that Your ways are higher than ours, and we must confess in this hour, better than ours. Many of us have wasted far too many days, perhaps even years on our own search, looking for something to buy, some person to impress, some way that we expected You to change our lives and we’ve come to realize that it’s the simple faith in Jesus Christ that does the job. You’re satisfied with His death. Give us a sense of satisfaction in it as well, Lord, and calm our spirits and use our lives to reach others who are on a search and are going about it the wrong way. In the name of Jesus Christ, we trust You and we thank You. Amen.

Bill Meyer: Just as Naaman had to humble himself and obey God, we must come to Christ on His terms, not ours. That’s one of the major takeaways from Chuck Swindoll’s message called "Naaman: The Officer Whose Leprosy Was Cleansed." You’re listening to Insight for Living. Today’s study is just one of fourteen in a complete series in which Chuck describes the Bible’s often overlooked characters. To fully engage with all fourteen studies, we have a great resource that lets you linger over each message at your own pace. It’s a spiral-bound Bible study workbook that guides you through each story and leaves plenty of room for making personal notes and observations. Look for the searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook on "Fascinating Stories of Forgotten Lives" when you go to insight.org/offer.

If you’re an audio learner, keep in mind you can purchase the CDs or MP3s for this entire series or access our convenient Insight mobile app and download and listen to the complete study for free. We’re also excited to introduce something brand new. It’s called Guided by Grace, a beautifully designed magazine created just for you. Each colorful issue celebrates characteristics that define authentic Christian living: joy, leadership, generosity, and authenticity. You’ll find inspiring messages from Chuck, stories of God’s transforming word around the world from Insight for Living pastors, plus devotionals to deepen your walk with the Lord. It’s all designed to encourage you right where you are in your spiritual journey. Best of all, it’s completely free. No cost, no obligation. To receive this quarterly newsletter from Insight for Living called Guided by Grace, call us at 800-772-8888 or visit insight.org/guidedbygrace to request your free one-year subscription. Let Guided by Grace become a trusted companion in your walk with God when you call us at 800-772-8888 or look for it online at insight.org/guidedbygrace.

Have you ever been jealous of a colleague’s sterling reputation? I’m Bill Meyer. Chuck Swindoll describes the temptations of borrowed popularity tomorrow on Insight for Living. The preceding message, "Naaman: The Officer Whose Leprosy Was Cleansed," was copyrighted in 1990, 1992, 2006, 2012, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.