Throughout the story of the Old Testament and God’s direct dealings with the nation of Israel are these one-off, seemingly isolated stories of God dealing directly and personally with foreigners. From the beginning of the story of Israel when God rescued them from Egypt, “foreigners” have been counted among God’s people. The “mixed multitude” that left with Israel (Exodus 12:38) were joined with them in the covenant God gave them at Mount Sinai. Throughout Israel’s history we see God’s concern for the nations even as he focuses on the nation of Israel. Israel’s role in the world was always supposed to be a missionary role, pointing the nations to the only True God.
Israel failed at this in various ways, largely due to their ongoing struggle with idolatry. As we’ve seen in the book of Judges, God often disciplined his people by allowing foreign nations to oppress them. On one such occasion Syria invaded the northern kingdom of Israel and hauled off prisoners to work as slaves. One of them was a young girl who is not named. We read of her in 2 Kings 5. She was given to the wife of Naaman, the commander of Syria’s army.
Naaman is important. He has regular access to the king. In many ways he was the king’s right-hand for he executed the king’s commands. Naaman, however, had some sort of skin disease. The text in 2 Kings 5 says he was a leper, but that word is a catch-all for all sorts of skin diseases. If it were leprosy the way we use the term today—Hansen’s Disease—he would have been living alone in isolation for that particular skin disease is deadly and easily transmitted to others. More likely, Naaman had something like psoriasis that covered a significant portion of his body. It didn’t prevent him from commanding the army yet it no doubt made his life miserable.
The young Israelite girl who was serving Naaman’s wife said something remarkable one day. Remember, she’s essentially a slave. She’s likely treated well given her role to Naaman’s wife, yet she surely remembers the battle and the harm Naaman and his army brought. She remembers the death and destruction that led to her own capture and enslavement. In all this she says something remarkable:
She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
2 Kings 5:3 ESV
This little girl, captured in battle and taken from family and friends to a foreign land, expresses compassion for her captor! She knows the God of Israel can do anything, and she knows he often uses his prophets for such things. The problem for Naaman is the prophet is in Samaria—the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. When Naaman heard about this he immediately went to the king. The king values Naaman, for he is the commander of the king’s army. He wants him well. He sends him to the king of Samaria with a letter and with a lot of money: ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.
In today’s money, that’s 772 pounds of silver and 110 pounds of gold. At today’s rate, that’s more than $360,000 in silver and a whopping $4,617,000 in gold! I promise you the ten changes of clothing weren’t purchased at the outlet mall, either. Let’s overlook the fact that a significant source of that wealth was the cities along the border that the king of Syria kept invading and pillaging. He’s willing to send Naaman to the king of Israel who is in the city of Samaria that the commander of his army might be healed.
The text tells us the king tore his clothes when he read the Syrian king’s letter. He was, essentially, seeking to buy a miracle! The king of Israel recognized the blasphemy in this, thus the tearing of his clothes. It was a public sign of remorse. He knows he is only a man; he possesses no such ability. Then he wonders if he is being punked. Is this guy mocking me? Is he planning to invade again?
Elisha the prophet heard the king had torn his clothes. This was sort of like flying a flag at half-mast—it was a very public sign that something was wrong. Elisha knew why the king had torn his clothes so he tells him to send “him” to where he is. He doesn’t even name this “important” foreign official who was sent by the king of Syria!
Think of the amount of treasure that Naaman is carrying: nearly $5,000,000. He’s not there alone. He’s not there with a handful of trusty soldiers. He’s there with a large retinue of servants and other officials. He’s there as the representative of the king of Syria, with all the pomp and circumstances that would accompany such an important figure. Verse 9 in 2 Kings 5 tells us Naaman arrived at Elisha’s house “with his horses and chariots” and stood at the door of the house. Everyone inside the house would have heard the commotion and would have known something important was happening. Naaman has arrived and he’s expecting something like a royal welcome. Why wouldn’t he? He’s come with a tremendous amount of wealth to give and he’s the commander of the Syrian army! Elisha knows why he’s there, yet he doesn’t exactly greet him. We read this:
And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. 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.
2 Kings 5:10-12 ESV
Naaman thought Elisha would come out with a show! There were lots of prophets throughout the world. There were lots of priests throughout the world. Every one of them made a big show of everything—it’s what the people wanted! Come out, give us a song and a dance, wave your magic wand over me and heal me. He knows he doesn’t need a bath; he needs a miracle and Elisha isn’t even greeting him. He sends a messenger to tell him to wash himself in the river.
Naaman knows how the world works. He knows that if your army is more powerful than the other army, you win the battle and get what you want. He knows that if you have enough money you can buy anything you want. He knows how gods work, too. If you do the right ritual—you know, wave your hands in just the right way and speak the right incantation—then even the mighty God of Israel will be forced to give a miracle! This is how it works! Dunk himself in a dirty river? That’s not how any of this works! That’s certainly not how he works—he, the mighty commander of the army of Syria!
Naaman presumed to know how God works. Naaman was used to issuing orders and having those orders followed. When the king issues him orders, he follows them immediately and to the letter. This is how the world works: you do what you’re told. He arrives in Samaria with the required offering, and demands a miracle. All that remains is for those orders to be carried out. His servants, however, recognize that things aren’t always that way. Surely the God of Israel, according to all the stories they have no doubt heard, doesn’t operate that way. He’s not the sort of God who is ordered around, who dutifully responds to the right incantations and the right rituals. His servants recognize this and speak to him.
But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
2 Kings 5:13-14 ESV
They approach him with reverence and fear as seen in them calling him “father”. They point out that in spite of the odd method of healing, Elisha—the prophet of the God of Israel—has actually promised he will be healed. Isn’t that why they came? Well, how humiliating for one such as Naaman to dip himself in a dirty river. How humbling for one a king would spend millions on in order to improve his quality of life. There’s no indication his skin disease is fatal; it’s uncomfortable and painful and itchy. The king is willing to spend millions to make his life easier; all he has to do is humble himself as the prophet required and he will be healed. Naaman was initially enraged by the indignation of it but the text tells us he finally dipped himself into the water seven times and his flesh was restored.
Naaman’s problem was he made assumptions about how God must act. He knew the God of Israel could heal skin diseases. He had certainly heard the stories of God’s miracles throughout Israel’s history. The problem for him is when he attacked the border cities in northern Israel and captured the little girl who served his wife, the God of Israel allowed it. Clearly even the God of Israel must bow before one such as Naaman! Naaman’s power was overwhelming.
Naaman traveled all the way to the city of Samaria believing the God of Israel could rid him of this disease. Again, remember who Naaman is! The king was willing to send him to an enemy’s capital with millions of dollars in order to be cleansed of this disease. If the king would do that, there was no medical care available in Syria that he was denied. How many times had Naaman been treated by the king’s doctors? How many times had Naaman performed religious rituals to various gods seeking relief, only to return home with the same problem? How much had he suffered at the hand of doctors and priests? Despite this he travels to Samaria believing the God of Israel can actually heal him, and then he’s told to bathe in a dirty river.
It isn’t at all surprising that he refused. He was too important to be dismissed by the prophet in such a manner. Not even a little religious ritual? Really? What Naaman didn’t understand but quickly learned when his servants convinced him to obey the Lord is that the Lord God of Israel cannot be forced. There is no power strong enough to stop him and no power strong enough to move him. The right response to the God of Israel is always faith, and faith results in obedience. If the Lord says to dip yourself into a river seven times, you dip yourself into a river seven times.
When God speaks clearly, as he did through the prophet Elisha, we don’t have to understand all the details. Think of Abraham. God called him to leave his father’s home and go “to a land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). Can you imagine what was going through his mind? “Um…how will I know when I’m there?” “I’ll tell you.” Abraham’s faith was enough for him to leave behind his father’s home and head out on a journey with the Lord in obedient faith.
Faith is an interesting thing. It is a word that is often used, but what is often said to be faith isn’t faith but wishful thinking. The world often thinks of faith as entirely blind. It is presented as though one is believing something in the complete absence of evidence, but this is not faith as the Bible describes it. It is true that Abraham did not know where God was leading him, but this is not the same as not having any evidence. The author of Hebrews describes the faith of both Abraham and his wife Sarah.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
Hebrews 11:8-12 ESV
Abraham obeyed because he was looking forward to what God had promised. In other words, God’s promise was the evidence. Sarah, though long past menopause, believed she would conceive—not because her body demonstrated to her she was fertile and still able to have children, but because “she considered him faithful who had promised”. Again, the evidence was God himself. God doesn’t reveal everything to us, but he reveals enough for us to have faith. That faith is not blind, completely void of evidence, for the evidence is God himself.
That passage in Hebrews tells us, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”. We cannot see a promise, but again, this isn’t the same as not having evidence. The evidence is the very character of God. If God says he will do a thing, the evidence that he will do that thing is his incredible track record of keeping his word.
Think of it this way. If I were to flip a coin 1,000 times in a row and correctly guess whether it would be heads or tails, you would be foolish to not bet everything you own that I would guess the 1,001st coin flip accurately. The odds of guessing accurately 1,000 times in a row is 1 in 10³⁰¹—that’s a 1 with 301 zeroes after it! To put that into perspective, there are approximately 10⁸⁰ atoms in the observable universe. Would you have any evidence that I could correctly guess the very next coin toss? Absolutely! The astronomically incredible odds that I had already done so a thousand times in a row! God’s promises are certain the moment he utters them.
What Naaman discovered is that God’s promises are more incredibly profound and certain than flipping a coin and guessing heads or tails accurately ten-thousand times in a row. You see, as incredible as it would be to guess a coin toss 1,000 times in a row, the next toss would still be just a 50/50 chance of guessing it accurately. Each coin toss is a separate event and each guess is independent of the prior guess—and the prior 1,000 guesses. It’s still either heads or tails and I still would have a 50% chance of guessing accurately. God doesn’t guess.
Naaman learned this very quickly. Through the prophet Elisha, God told him to how he would cure him of his skin disease, and it wasn’t about the river. As Peter says of baptism, it ain’t the water! It is the faith that appeals to God, for God is the only one who can heal. All Naaman needed to do was obey the Lord in faith, without having all the details, for God had them all worked out.
New City, what this means for us is this: we’ve seen God work in incredible ways. He has surprised us time and time again. In 2025 as we seek to follow him faithfully, let’s commit ourselves to doing the next right thing. We may not know what the thing after the next thing is but if God shows us the next right thing to do, let’s commit to doing it. This means we must trust him, believing he has everything lined up, even if we do not see the line! Even if the thing he calls us to do doesn’t make human sense—like washing in a dirty river—we trust him, for his track record is spotless. Faith is obeying the Lord in response to all the evidence around us, and that evidence is him.
Today is the first day of 2025. As John Piper has said, God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them. We have no idea what God has been working on, what he has lined up, but we know this: he can be trusted. Even when things go badly for us, God is at work and is still worthy to be trusted. Think of Naaman’s life. Who knows how long he suffered with his skin disease. Without that struggle, however, he would not have come to know the Lord God of Israel, for he would not have traveled to Samaria to be humbled and then to encounter God’s saving hand.
This means whatever hardships we will face in 2025, we can face them head on, knowing God is in control, and knowing we can trust him with the ten-thousandth coin flip, for he controls the flip.