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When
a Great Man Listened to a Little Girl |
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A Pocket Paper Robert J.
Morgan The term paradox comes from an unusual Greek word meaning contrary to expectation. We can define a paradox as a statement that appears to be self-contradictory, but actually has a basis in truth. The world is full of paradoxes. We’re living in an age of paradox, in which we buy more things but enjoy them less. We have larger houses but smaller families. We have more conveniences, but less time. We have more channels on our television, but nothing worth watching. We have more knowledge, but less discernment. These are the paradoxes of our times. But God also has His own set of paradoxes. The Bible is full of paradoxes. In fact, Jesus Himself began His ministry by issuing a set of paradoxical statements that we call “The Beatitudes.” Ø Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Ø Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Ø Blessed are the meek, for that shall inherit the earth. These are all paradoxical. They appear to be self-contradictory, yet they are true. And they are true because from the vantage point of Jesus Christ, things are not always as they seem. Today I’d like for us to look at a passage of Scripture that is full of paradoxes. It is one of the most paradoxical stories of Scripture, and we’re coming to it in our on-going series of sermons entitled “Miracle Man” on the life and ministry of the prophet Elisha. It’s the story of Naaman, in 2 Kings 5. 1.
It’s Possible to be Successful but Miserable (v. 1) We come to our first paradox in verse 1—It’s possible to be successful, but miserable. Now Naaman was
commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his
master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to
Aram. He was a valiant soldier,
but he had leprosy. Notice this sentence. It gives us five superlatives about this man Naaman, followed by that terrible conjunction, but. He was: Ø
Commander of the army of Ø A great man in the sight of the king Ø Highly regarded Ø Victorious - Through Him the Lord had brought victory Ø A valiant soldier But he had contracted the dreaded disease of leprosy. Leprosy was a sort of external cancer that ate away the skin and the digits and parts of the body. There was no cure and no treatment and no hope. Perhaps it had begun on his finger or on a toe, and now that finger or toe was rotting and becoming just a putrefied stump. And it was spreading to the rest of his body; and none of his achievements or renown or valor could stop the spread of this miserable disease. He was a great man, but he was self-destructing because of this miserable disease. This is counter-intuitive to us; because we think that to be great or successful or wealthy is to be happy; but there are other factors that enter the equation. Last year at a book sale, I picked two biographies. One was the memoir of Priscilla Presley in which she talked about her life with Elvis. The other was about Princess Diana by her personal aide. Elvis was the “King,” and Diana was the “People’s Princess.” They were popular, wealthy, successful, and had everything that anyone could ever want. But what surprised me was how very unhappy they both were. Priscilla said, “Elvis and I couldn’t be happy together because he was so unhappy….” He kept pumping himself full of pharmaceuticals in an effort to escape anxiety and unhappiness, and it finally killed him. Princess Diana’s butler described her as constantly suffering from low self-esteem and a constant feeling of rejection, and she turned to psychics to help her cope with the pressures of life. Her desperate longing for happiness is part of the reason she died so young. She was only 36, and Elvis was only 42. The king and the princess—successful beyond belief, but miserable and destined for an early grave. I read an interesting article the other day about people who win the lottery, and there was a long list of the disasters that seemed to follow lottery winners, such as: Ø Lottery millionaire Michael Allen was bludgeoned to death in Lewiston, Maine. Ø Lottery winner Billie Bob Harrell, who won $31 million in the Texas lottery, committed suicide. Ø Patrick Collier won $1 million in the lottery and two weeks later was arrested for allegedly choking and punching his fiancée in the face. Ø Lottery winner Phil Kitchen was found dead on his couch from the over consumption of whiskey. Ø Lottery winner Dennis Elwell died from drinking cyanide. Ø Lottery winner Jody Lee Taylor was arrested in Virginia for driving naked down the wrong side of the highway with his headlights off and trying to run over a sheriff’s deputy. Ø A 16-year-old lottery winner on the UK named Callie Rogers said, “Some days I don’t even want to leave my house because people scream abuse at me. Two months ago I though I was the luckiest teenager in Britain, but today I can say I have never felt so miserable.” Ø Lottery millionaire Kevin Lee Sutton was charged with attempted murder for attempting to shot another man in the head with a .22 caliber pistol. Ø Seattle lottery millionaire Rick Camat was shot to death by police in a parking lot after he refused to drop his pistol. Ø Gerald Muswagon won $10 million in the lottery, spent it all in seven years, and then hanged himself. Ø William Post III, who won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery, died in bankruptcy. He old an interviewer, “Everybody dreams of winning money, but nobody realizes the nightmares that come out of the woodwork.” This is the paradox of our times—that it’s possible to achieve great things in this world, yet be miserable. 2.
It’s Possible to be Unknown but Influential (vv. 2-3) But with verse 2, we encounter another paradox: It’s possible to be unknown but influential. Now bands from Aram
had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served
Naaman’s wife. She said to
her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in
Samaria! He would cure him of his
leprosy.” We don’t know this little girl’s name. She was kidnapped from her home in Israel by Syrian marauders. I picture her as a young teenager; and her story was tragic—torn away from her mom and day, removed from her siblings, taken into captivity and sold in a foreign nation to a wealthy family. But she was a witness there and she pointed Mrs. Naaman toward Elisha and toward the God of Israel. And though her name isn’t recorded and her position was humble, she cast a long shadow and had an impact that we’re still talking about and preaching about today, 2500 years later. It’s possible to be unknown and of a low and obscure position, but influential. I’m sure every one of us and every school child knows about Paul Revere and his famous midnight ride; but have you ever heard of a man named Israel Bissell? He was a 23-year-old dispatch rider who, on that same April evening of 1775, also took off to warn the colonies that British troops had opened fire on colonial farmers at Lexington. He went south with the news, and he rode like the wind. According to local legend, he made it to Worcester—normally a day’s ride—in just two hours, and his horse dropped dead when he got there. With a new horse, he took off again, racing through Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania, spreading the alarm. He rode 350 miles in six days, an unheard of feat. Paul Revere, on the other hand, only rode twenty miles. So why is it we remember Paul Revere and not Israel Bissell? It’s because Paul Revere was immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem: Listen my children and you shall hear Nobody wrote a poem about Israel Bissell, and he is virtually unknown today; but he helped saved the Colonies, leading to the establishment of these United States of America. And, I’m happy to report, about ten years ago a Massachusetts poet, Clay Perry, did write a poem. It began: Listen my children, to my epistle; Of the long, long ride of Israel Bissell; Who outrode Paul by miles and time; But didn’t rate a poet’s
rhyme. [Rick Beyer: The Greatest Stories Never Told (New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2003), pp. 52-53.] In any event, one man made did the hard work but another man got the fame and glory; and that’s the way it’s been throughout history and even throughout Christian history. As we look back across the 21 centuries of the church, there are a handful of names that everyone knows—Peter and Paul, Augustine and Chrysostom, St. Francis and Thomas Aquinas, Calvin and Luther, D. L. Moody and Billy Graham. But the real work of the church and the real evangelism of the nations has been done by simple, nameless, ordinary people like you and me who just take every opportunity to say, “There’s a great man named Jesus Christ who can help you with your sad condition. If only you would go to Christ, you could find healing.” We are links in a chain; we are part of a chain reaction of evangelism that is reaching this world with the Gospel; and the important thing isn’t whether or not we’re famous, but whether or not we are faithful. It isn’t being well known, but making Him well known. It isn’t by might nor by power, but by His Spirit. 3.
It’s Possible to be Powerful but Useless (vv. 4-9) That leads to the third paradox in this passage—it’s possible to be powerful but useless. Look at verses 4ff: Naaman went to his
master [Ben-Hadad II] and told him what the girl from Israel had said. “By all means, go,” the
king of Aram replied. “I
will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten
talents of silver [about 750 pounds], six thousand shekels of gold [about 150
pounds] and ten sets of clothing.
The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending
my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of leprosy.” Somehow the message got bungled up as it went from the servant girl to Mrs. Naaman to Mr. Naaman to Ben Hadad to the King of Israel. The letter quoted here said nothing about seeing a prophet. The Syrian king wrote to the Israeli king saying, “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of leprosy.” And when King Joram received the letter, he was incredulous. As soon as the king
of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to
life? Why does this fellow send
someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel
with me!” Kings can set policies, start wars, impose taxes, and make speeches. But they can’t change hearts, forgive sins, or give abundant life. In reality, they cannot even direct the course of history. Several years ago, one of the most insightful political
consultants was a Washington lawyer named Robert Strauss, a prominent
Democrat. He said something one
day in an interview that I read and copied into my notebook: “Everybody in government is like
a bunch of ants on a log floating down a river. Each one thinks he is guiding the log,
but it is really just going with the flow.” There’s only one King who can direct the course of history, and He alone can heal diseases, forgive sins, and give eternal life—and that is King Jesus. 4.
It’s Possible to Do Something Simple but Be Changed Forever (vv.
8-15) That leads to the final paradox in this story: It’s possible to do something simple, but to be changed forever. Continue reading in verse 8ff: When Elisha the man
of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this
message: “Why have you torn
your robes? Have the man come to
me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman went with
his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him,
“Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be
restored and you will be cleansed.” Have you ever noticed that the number “seven” is very significant in the Scriptures? Ø There were seven days of creation, and the seventh was a day of rest. Ø Noah took seven of every clean animal into the ark. Ø There were seven years of plenty and seven years of famine in Joseph’s day. Ø There were seven branches on the lamp (the menorah) in the Tabernacle. Ø The blood was to be sprinkled on the mercy seat seven times. Ø The children of Israel were to march around Jericho seven times. Ø The Psalmist said that the words of Scripture were like silver tested in the furnace seven times. Ø Proverbs 6 lists seven deadly sins. Ø In the book of Daniel, seventy “sevens” are decreed for Israel. Ø Jesus taught us to forgive others seventy times seven times. Ø The early church chose seven deacons to oversee the work of waiting on tables. Ø
Revelation was written to the seven churches
of Ø The scroll in Revelation 5 was sealed with seven seals. Ø There are seven trumpets in Revelation, and seven plagues and seven bowls of wrath. Ø The fiery dragon in Revelation has seven heads. Ø And the Tribulation will last for seven years. Seven seems to be a number indicating completion and thoroughness. It also requires a certain perseverance and faith. It’s one thing to march once around Jericho, but to do so every day for seven days—and seven times on the seventh day—that requires faith and perseverance. The same is true for dipping seven times in the Jordan, which is what Elisha told Naaman to do. But Naaman wasn’t impressed with Elisha. He seemed a little offended that Elisha just send a message to him instead of coming out to see him himself. Second, he had expected a more immediate and impressive miracle. And third—dipping in the Jordan? The muddy Jordan? The rivers of Syria were far more accessible and beautiful. Verses 11ff say: But Naaman went away
angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and
stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot,
and cure me of my leprosy. Are
not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the water
of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in
them and be cleansed?” So
he turned and went off in a rage. God’s ways of doing things don’t always fit our preconceived ideas. But Naaman had good people around him, and they reasoned with him. Naaman’s
servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you
to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells
you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” So he went down and dipped himself in
the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was
restored and became clean like that of a young boy. But that wasn’t the greatest miracle. The great miracle was something that happened on the inside of Naaman. He was healed of his spiritual leprosy, and He acknowledged the God of Israel. In today’s language, we would say that he was born again. Verse 15 says: Then Naaman and all
his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said,
“Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in
Israel.” When you drive from Nashville to Atlanta, you pass by a place called Chickamauga. The Chickamauga is a river in North Georgia, and it’s also a battlefield. The Battle of Chickamauga was fought between the Army of Tennessee and the Army of the Cumberland in September of 1863, and some historians say that it represented the last real opportunity for the Confederacy to win the Civil War. It was a two-day battle, and a very costly one. There were 35,000 causalities and over 4,000 fatalities. The ironic thing about the Battle of Chickamauga is its name. Chickamauga is Cherokee word. It means, literally, “the River of Blood.” When Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary, a river of blood flowed from His wounded side, from His thorn-pierced brow, from His nail-pierced hands and feet, and from His lacerated back. Ø
Mark 14:24: This
is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Ø
Ephesians 1:7: In
Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Ø
Colossians 1:19: For
God was pleased…through Him to reconcile to Himself all things…
by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross. Ø
Hebrews 9:22: Without
the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Ø
1 Peter 1:18: You
were redeemed…with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish
or defect. Ø
1 John 1:7: And
the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin… If we want forgiveness of sin and everlasting life, we have to go to God’s Chickamauga—the River of Blood—and there we can wash away our guilt and stain. We have to be washed and cleansed by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We have to trust Him as our Lord and Savior, and live our lives for Him alone. We have to be justified by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. For… There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins, And sinners plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains. If you want inner, spiritual healing, you can find it in
Christ alone by being willing to pray this simple prayer: Dear
God, I acknowledge my sins before You, and with Your help I am willing to
turn from them. I believe that
Jesus Christ died and rose again for me.
I now receive Him by faith into my heart and life, and I ask Him to
become my everlasting Savior and Lord.
I pray in Jesus’ Name.
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