Wholly Trust God’s Word for Wholeness

2 Kings 5:1-19
    1 Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper. 2 And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman's wife. 3 Then she said to her mistress, "If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy." 4 And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, "Thus and thus said the girl who is from the land of Israel."
    5 Then the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel."  So he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. 6 Then he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said, Now be advised, when this letter comes to you, that I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy.
    7 And it happened, when the king of Israel read the letter, that he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and make alive, that this man sends a man to me to heal him of his leprosy? Therefore please consider, and see how he seeks a quarrel with me."  8 So it was, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Please let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel."
    9 Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha's house. 10 And 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." 11 But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, "Indeed, I said to myself, 'He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.' 12 Are not the Abanah and the 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. 13 And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?" 14 So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
    15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him; and he said, "Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel; now therefore, please take a gift from your servant."  16 But he said, "As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive nothing." And he urged him to take it, but he refused.
    17 So Naaman said, "Then, if not, please let your servant be given two mule-loads of earth; for your servant will no longer offer either burnt offering or sacrifice to other gods, but to the LORD. 18 Yet in this thing may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the temple of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the LORD please pardon your servant in this thing."  19 Then he said to him, "Go in peace." So he departed from him a short distance.

Naaman, the commander of the army of Syria was used by the LORD in cleansing His people Israel by defeating them in battle that they might trust His word and follow Him again.  When this important man had developed leprosy, it took but a word from a captured Israeli girl to ask the king of Israel for healing by the LORD’s hand.  He may have been desperate to be healed, but he also had enough trust in God to do this thing.  He had faith.  This is an example of believing God which Jesus told in Luke 4:27, reminding the people that only Naaman the gentile was healed from being a leper because he heard the word of the LORD and trusted Him to make him cleansed and whole again.  Naaman was invited by the prophet Elisha to come and know the word of the LORD through His spokesman.  He wanted to glorify God, not demonstrate his own miraculous power as a healer.  This is a word of warning for some today as well.  The solution for healing was not as expected, however.  Naaman was simply to wash in the Jordan River to be perfectly (seven times) clean by trusting God to do so at His word “be healed” command belted out for an audience to magnify the messenger, but a test of trusting faith which acts on the word of God for His working.  We see this when Jesus told the man to wash in the pool at Siloam (John 9:7, 11) with trust in God’s word with obedient receiving action as proof of that true faith we see laid out for us in John 1:12 for true healing of the soul promised in Isaiah 53:6-11.  This was a trust issue tested by the willingness to accept God’s word to do something seemingly quite ordinary, bathing in a river, instead of demanding theatrics to bring down lightning and thunder to prove God’s word and ability to heal accordingly.  When Naaman listened to Elisha after his initial indignant questioning, he followed the word with the result that he was cleansed and made whole.  Then he realized this was the one and only God and offered to give a gift in return out of gratitude.  In the end, he ended up worshiping the LORD and went in peace.  We see that God requires this of us to do God’s work - to believe His word that He is God, and that He sent His Son for our healing of the soul, our salvation or deliverance from the wrath on our sin of disbelief and its resulting disobedience.  The true sin of Israel and all of the sons and daughters of Adam is this refusal to take God at His word and follow it as given to us for His glory and our good.  This is saving and pleasing faith in Christ.  We go in peace when we receive His word in the scriptures, trust Him, and joyfully obey in response.  We must wholly trust God’s word for wholeness.  Let us therefore learn the lesson of the Syrian commander as Jesus told those refusing to take Him at His word, walking out life by faith.