Am I Willing to Obey God Even If I Look Foolish? (2 Kings 4 - 8; 2 Chronicles 23 - 24)

A Few Thoughts to Consider

Have you ever had God give what you felt was a strange command?

Maybe you sensed him asking you to do something you thought was ridiculous. 1 Kings 5 gives us one such example with the story of Naaman. Verse 1 says, “Naaman, commander of the army for the king of Aram, was a man important to his master and highly regarded because through him, the Lord had given victory to Aram.” As Iain Provan writes, “It is yet another narrative that picks up themes from the Elijah story; the LORD is seen to be God, not only of Israelites, but also of foreigners (1 Kgs. 17:17–24) and is acknowledged as the only real God (1 Kgs. 18:20–40).”^[1]

Verse 1 goes on to say that Naaman was “a valiant warrior, but he had a skin disease.” This disease was leprosy. His captive Israelite servant girl says in Verse 3, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his skin disease.” As a side note, this demonstration of care serves as a valuable lesson for us today. As Paul House writes, “Despite her captivity, she is not bitter or unhelpful. Rather, she shares what she knows about the Lord and the prophet out of concern for Naaman and her mistress and desire to see God’s glory magnified. In this way she acts like Daniel, Mordecai, Ezra, Nehemiah, and other exiles who care for the spiritual and physical well-being of their conquerors.”^[2]

On the advice of this servant, Naaman goes to the prophet, Elisha, who famously instructs Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan River. This request seems bizarre because the Jordan River was considered a poor option. Naaman had two alternatives. The first was the Abana, known today as the Barada River. It was famed for its clear waters and was the primary water source for Damascus. The second was the Pharpar River, also located in the region of Damascus. Like the Abana, it was considered clean and likely had a significant flow that was suitable for bathing.

Initially, Naaman is angry at Elisha’s request and “left in a rage.” But after prompting from a servant, Naaman consents and bathes seven times in the Jordan. As Donald Wiseman writes,

The ritual cleansing of a leper (Heb. rḥṣ, v. 10) required a sevenfold act (Lev. 14:7–9). Naaman ‘plunged’ (Heb. ṭbl, NIV dipped, JB ‘immersed himself’) in the River Jordan. This signified total obedience to the divine word and so ‘rebirth’. Seven times is a symbolic perfect number and probably has no reference to the cleansing of baptism (1 Pet. 3:21) or to separation from the past, as in Israel’s crossing the same river, where the emphasis is on ‘standing in’ it (Josh. 3:8; 4:9).^[3]

This story teaches us several invaluable lessons. First, God cares about those people we most despise. As Miles Van Pelt writes, “Naaman was a foreigner. But he was not just any foreigner. He was the leader of the Syrian army, the enemy of God’s people. For a prophet of the Lord to heal an Israelite leper was one thing, but to restore the very person whose job it was to oppress you—that was altogether outrageous!^[4] But this is who God is. Second, like the servant girl, we should seek the good of those who are viewed as oppressors.