Unfathomable Grace

Transcript

JR 23
July 2, 2023
Unfathomable Grace
II Kings 5:1-14
Jesse Randolph

In 1934 a tall, lanky marine biologist from New Jersey named William Beebe along with a Harvard-trained engineer named Otis Barton wedged their bodies into a cramped 5-ton cast iron object which Barton had designed called the bathysphere. As they did so both Beebe and Barton had both one mission and one purpose in mind. They wanted to descend deeper into the ocean than any human being up to that point had ever done. Beebe and Barton had their sights set, at that point, 1934, on going a half mile down. Now in those days what Beebe and Barton were seeking to accomplish was a major news story. The world was moving at a much slower pace than it does today. These were the days before the 24-hour news cycle, these were the days before YouTube, these were the days before Twitter feeds, and these were the days in which events and stories that we might not think of as major news stories were in fact major news stories. This was 1934, between two world wars, five years into the Great Depression, and people were genuinely interested and regularly interested in whatever news dripped out about what Beebe and Barton were seeking to do. Now a major part of the public's intrigue over what Beebe and Barton were trying to do centered around the risks that were involved. Could a human being really plunge a half mile deep into the ocean? There were so many “what ifs” involved. There was the “what if” of the bathysphere leaking, “what if” the men ran out of oxygen, “what if” the little capsule wasn't sufficiently pressurized, “what if” the men froze to death, under the water, “what if” a giant sea monster swallowed the capsule whole, and they were never heard from again. But it wasn't just the risk that was intriguing to the general public, it was also the mystery. What was down there? What would these men find? Would they find entirely new species of marine life? Would they find a lost ancient underwater civilization like Atlantis? Would they discover mermaids? Well, Burton and Beebe did not find Atlantis, they didn't find mermaids, and they didn't, at least in that first voyage, even find any new creatures or species. But what they did find was this: That even in the deepest, darkest recesses of the ocean in places never reached by the sun's rays, there still exist these little pockets of light, even a half mile down. In fact, later Beebe would write an account of their journey in the bathysphere, and he said this in his memoir. He said, “I peered down,” that means beneath the half-mile mark, “and I felt the old longing to go further although it looked like the black pit mouth of hell itself.” Then he said this, “Yet it still showed blue. Yet it still showed blue.” Did you catch that? How was the ocean beyond a half mile deep in its pitch blackness still showing blue? Well, what Beebe was describing when he wrote that and what modern marine biologists credit him with discovering is this phenomenon known as bioluminescence. That's a term that describes how even in the pitch blackness of the deeps of the ocean there is this hidden world of glows and flares and shimmers. It's really a muted light show that has been projected in the sunless depths of the ocean, and it's these flickers that occur in these deepest, darkest pockets of the ocean are being put off by these various species of marine life that give off these faint flickers of light and these faint flickers of light in unison create this appearance of blue.

I mention all of this—Beebe, Barton, bioluminescence and blackness and blueness or blueness and blackness—because there is a parallel between what Beebe and Barton witnessed a half mile under the sea as they sat in that bathysphere and they witnessed these bluish pops of light appearing in the blackness of the ocean, and the far more transcendent and gripping reality of the grace of God shining in the darkest and bleakest moments in time, whether those be moments in time are in history generally speaking or even in our individual lives. That's precisely what we are going to see happening—God's grace shining through bleakness in the book of the Bible that we will be in this morning, II Kings.

Now before we turn there, I want to give you a little bit of a backstory about what is happening in this section of Scripture. In the Hebrew Bible II Kings is part of one larger book that is simply called Kings. In our modern English Bibles, though, it has been divided into I Kings and II Kings. At the outset of I Kings, King David has died, and his son Solomon has taken over. In fact, let's turn over to I Kings to get ourselves sort of a running start to our text this morning. We'll go over to I Kings 3, and we see here in I Kings 3 that King Solomon's reign starts off well, starts off really well in that he starts his reign by asking God for wisdom. Look at I Kings 3, and we'll pick it up in verse 7. This is what has been known as Solomon's prayer, his request for wisdom. I Kings 3:7 says, “Now, oh Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. Your servant is in the midst of Your people which You have chosen, a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted. So, give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours.” God grants Solomon the wisdom he sought. Look down at verse 12, these are the words of the Lord here. Actually, we'll start in verse 11, it says, “God said to him,” I Kings 3:11, “Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice, behold I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart so that there has been no one like you before you nor shall one like you arise after you.” Then God went above and beyond and actually granted Solomon riches and honor. Look at verse 13, it says, “I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days.” But there was a string attached. Look at verse 14, “If you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments as your father David walked, then I will prolong your days.”

Well, we know that Solomon failed because as time went on, he proved himself to be enamored with the world and not fully devoted to the Lord. The compromises in his convictions showed up in two areas of his life which have been a continual source of compromise for men both before and ever since—wealth and women. As it relates to Solomon's wealth, we see in I Kings 10 that Solomon was acquiring thousands of horses and stockpiling gold. I'm not going to read through the whole thing here, but we see in I Kings 10 that he is crafting shields of gold and he is overlaying his ivory throne with gold, and he is drinking from vessels made with gold. And in I Kings 11, picking it up in verse 1, we see how Solomon relates to women, infamously. It says, “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, you shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods. Solomon held fast to these,” meaning those women, “in love. He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old his wives turned his heart away after other gods and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God as the heart of David his father had been.”

So, each of these, the gold and the horses and the wives, they ran afoul of what God had warned the Israelites against several hundred years prior to Solomon's reign and Solomon's life. In fact, turn with me back to Deuteronomy 17. Like I said, we're getting a running start up to our text this morning, we'll get there eventually, don't worry. Deuteronomy 17, the Lord's words to Moses here several hundred years before Solomon, where we see these words of warning from God to the Israelites as it relates to any future king they may have. Look at Deuteronomy 17:14. It says, “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you and you possess it and live in it and you say, I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me, you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves. You may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses since the Lord has said to you, you shall never again return that way. He shall not multiply wives for himself or else his heart will turn away, nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.”

I go through all of that before we even get to our text this morning in II Kings 5 because it's important to note that Solomon's own compromises, his own drift from the Lord really planted the seeds for the demise of the kingdom of Israel which would take place following in his steps. See, after Solomon's death, which occurred around the year 930 B.C., the kingdom split in two between the ten northern tribes of Asher, Dan, Gad, Ephraim, Issachar, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon and Zebulon and then the two southern tribes of Benjamin and Judah. Then a couple hundred years after Solomon's death, after many decades of wicked kings, the ten northern tribes of Israel were eventually conquered and sacked by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. After that the two southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin, were sacked by the Chaldeans and taken away to Babylonia in 586 B.C.

Again, with all of that as background we're now going to transport ourselves back to this period in II Kings 5 which is the period of the divided kingdom. Post-Solomon, well after Solomon. We're going to center ourselves geographically now in the northern kingdom and we're going to look at a period of time about 885 to 865, about 50 years after Solomon's death. What we know historically is that this is a period in Israel's history that was marked by its plunge progressively downward into the depths of spiritual darkness. God by this point had long ago given His people His Law. He had long ago given them His warnings about disobeying His Law. He had already told them that He was going to cause an invading force to defeat them and destroy them and take them captive if they refused to honor Him and obey Him. But they didn't care, they were no longer listening to God or heeding God or obeying God anymore. They were fully going their own way. The curses that God had promised to visit upon the Israelites for disobeying Him, they were now starting to experience. They were now reaping what they had sown, which in their case meant they were headed straight off to exile, and they were on the verge of being taken into captivity. These were incredibly bleak times, these were incredibly dark times, these were the worst of times. But even then, God was still God.

Back to our text today, II Kings 5. The longest run up in history to a text. As we're going to work through these 14 verses of this fifth chapter of II Kings, I want you to see if you can't detect, like pops of blue shooting across the inky blackness of the Atlantic Ocean, God's grace at work in the midst of a culture that was awash in sin and apostasy. I want you to note the people and the details and the circumstances, and I also want to make sure that is highlighted for all of us here—the unfathomable grace of God that was at work in all of it. That's the golden thread which ties these 14 verses together, and it's the golden thread that connects these verses with us here this morning—God's unfathomable grace. That's the reason for the title of the sermon—Unfathomable Grace.

Now as we get ready to dive into our text, just one more set of preparatory remarks, I can't resist. The preface before the preface before the preface. I do want to give you guys a few definitions of what we mean for today's purposes when we speak of, because I'm going to say it a lot up here, the grace of God. When someone mentions the grace of God in common conversation today, we can be referring to a number of different things. There is the saving grace of God, Ephesian 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” The saving grace of God is the voluntary, unrestrained, unmerited favor that God shows guilty sinners like you and me as He forgives them of their sins based on the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Then there is the irresistible grace of God. That means God draws those who are His irresistibly. Jesus, in John 6:37 says, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me.” There is the sanctifying grace of God, Titus 2:11-12, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.” That aspect of God's grace, namely His saving grace, is not principally what we will be interacting with today. Rather, what we are going to see in our text today is one man's encounter with what theologians would call God's common grace. What Ryrie, Charles Ryrie, called the unmerited favor of God toward all men displayed in His general care for them. What Louie Berkhof once described as the free bestowal of kindness on one who has no claim to it. What Matthew Henry once summarized as the free, undeserved goodness and favor of God to mankind. What B. B. Warfield once described as God's free sovereign favor to the ill deserving.

Now as we finally, I think this is my last time saying finally, as we finally get to our text the first thing, I want you to note from our text is what it teaches us about the reach and the scope of God's grace, that is of God's common grace. See, God's grace is not confined to a specific group of people. It wasn't restricted to God's original covenant people, the people of Israel, nor is it restricted in our modern context to the church today. No, God's grace, His common grace, cannot be boxed in or pinned down or otherwise quarantined. No, God's grace is limitless in terms of its reach and its scope. In fact, if you are taking notes this morning, that's our first sermon heading or sermon point, The Unlimited Grace of God. The Unlimited Grace of God.

Look at II Kings 5:1. It says, “Now Naaman, captain of the army of Aram was a great man with his master and highly respected because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant warrior.” Now just by reading that first verse we learn so much about this man by the name of Naaman. We see right away that he is not an Israelite, meaning he is not a part of God's original covenant people. Rather, the text tells us that he was an Aramean. Another word for Aramean would be Syrian. But Naaman was not just any Aramean, it says he was the “captain of the army of the king of Aram.” The king that Naaman would have served under was Ben-Hadad, whose battles are chronicled against Israel in 1 Kings 20. Now Aram, or as it is known today, Syria, was Israel's immediate northern neighbor. Arameans, the Syrians, were constantly causing trouble to the Israelites in the south, namely the northern tribes of Israel. This would be like if the Canadians were constantly raiding and pillaging Duluth, Minnesota. But Canadians, and for that matter people from Duluth as far as I know, were pretty polite and courteous. The Arameans were not, the Arameans were the exact opposite of polite. They were fierce and they were nasty. Naaman, came from this nation of fierce and nasty, marauding invaders.

But Naaman was no rank-and-file invader, you'll note. He could not plead ignorance to his people's brutish ways. No, look at the next part of verse 1, the text says that he “was a great man with his master and highly respected.” See, Naaman was a decorated military commander, his role would have been similar to our nation's Secretary of Defense and because of his high rank, the text tells us, he was “highly respected.” When Naaman walked down the streets of Damascus of his day, people would have shown him whatever culturally appropriate gesture of reverence and respect they needed to show him, whether that was bowing down to him or getting out of his way.

But it wasn't only his title that brought Naaman the respect of his people, it was also his military success and his prowess. Look at what it says, “because by him,” still in verse 1, “the Lord had given victory to Aram.” The Lord had given victory to Aram. Yes, Naaman was successful on the battlefield, but did you catch the rest of what is being said there? Though Naaman was this pagan from Aram, though he wasn't a follower of the one true God, the victories he experienced on behalf of his nation—Aram, Syria—came because the God of Israel, the one true God, had granted him those victories. That is completely in line with what Scripture teaches elsewhere about God reigning over kings all over the earth, no matter whether they are for Him or against Him. In fact, turn with me if you would over to Psalm 47, we'll see this truth come out of God's reign over kings favorable to Him and kings against Him. Psalm 47, just look at verse 5. It says, “God has ascended with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises. Sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth, sing praises with the skillful psalm.” Here we go, “God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne.” He reigns over the nations. See, it's not as though God only has authority and dominion over the nations and the rulers and the kings who are friendly to Him. No, He has just as much authority and dominion and rulership over the nations and the kings and the rulers who are hostile to Him. The hearts of all kings, not some kings, are like Proverbs 21:1, “channels in the hand of the Lord and He turns each one of them wherever He wishes.” So, it was with Naaman. God had allowed him, Naaman, to get as far as he had gotten, just as God has allowed Biden and Kamala and Trump and Obama and Bush and Clinton and Binladen and Stalin and Hitler to get as far as they have.

The text next says, II Kings 5:1, “The man was also a valiant warrior.” In other words, Naaman was not weak in the knees. Now he was a fierce fighter, he was a man of courage, he was a man who lived up to his rank and so far, we are getting this glimmering portrait of Naaman, aren't we? He is this really impressive guy. Keep reading, look at the last few words of verse 1, “but he was a leper.” Just like that our first verse ends with this deadening thud. This list of Naaman's accolades and credentials, his greatness, his respect, his victories, his valor come to this screeching halt with these deafening words, “he was a leper.” Note the contrast. The strong man, this figure of authority with all of his regalia, with his stellar resume was a leper. There is this tension being introduced right away in this text between this strong man who is presented as having it all together, all put together, but at the same time he is experiencing this debilitating, embarrassing weakness—leprosy. If you want to read up more on leprosy, I'd recommend #1, you do it after lunch, after you have digested your food; and #2, the place to go is Leviticus 13-14 which gives you a full rundown of what leprosy involved. But just to summarize it, it was a very painful and embarrassing and debilitating, humiliating skin disease. A person with leprosy would have been covered in these painful pinkish-red boils. There are accounts, extra-biblical accounts, from the same time of people who had severe cases of leprosy. There is one account that comes to mind of a person who put his foot in his boot or his shoe and when he tried to pull his foot out of his boot or his shoe, the foot stayed in the boot. That's how degenerated his flesh had become. It just fell off, literally detached in the boot. That's exactly the type of disease that Naaman here was stricken with. He undoubtedly at this point was in a lot of pain and facing embarrassment and uncertainty and worry. Naaman the Aramean could find no solutions to his problem in his homeland. Naaman the commander had no command over his situation. Naaman the leper was a diseased man who desperately needed a cure. The cure he needed could only be provided by the God of Israel, the same Israel who he had devoted his life to attacking and invading and fighting. This is what the Hollywood writers would call a juicy plot twist.

Let's keep marching through the text, looking at the next few verses. Look at verse 2, it says, “Now the Arameans had gone out in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel. And she waited on Naaman's wife.” Again, another contrast that is being set here between verse 1 and verse 2. In verse 1 we're introduced to Naaman, this great and powerful commander, this mighty man of valor. He is called a great man in the text. And then in verse 2 the focus is on this little girl, a girl who was probably 11, 12 years old. The only other things we know about this little girl, we don't know her name, we don't know what family she came from, we see from verse 2 that she came from the land of Israel, and we also see that she waited on Naaman's wife. In other words, she was a young, foreign girl who is now a house servant or a slave to this well-to-do Aramean home. Now note that this little girl wasn't a housekeeper in the sense that we might think of housekeepers today, she wasn't commuting back and forth from Israel to Aram on the highway to do her job for pay here. Rather, she had been taken captive by these Aramean warriors, likely after her own family had been murdered, and then taken back to Damascus to serve as a slave in the house of her captor, Naaman. So now, that all having happened, as this young girl, she is now waiting hand and foot on the wife of the man who has not only stolen her from her family but killed them all. Put yourself in her shoes for just a minute. Can you imagine working against your will for someone who has killed your parents? Picture being this little slave girl in this situation, watching the one who had done such a thing—kidnapped you, killed your parents—himself now, suffering. What would you do? I know what I would be tempted to do, I'd be tempted to say, let him suffer. He is getting what was coming to him. But that's not what we have here, instead what we see is God working through her heart and through her words to extend His grace to Naaman.

Look at verse 3, it says, “She said to her mistress,” this is the little girl speaking to Naaman's wife, “I wish that my master was with the prophet who is in Samaria. Then he would cure him of his leprosy.” Allow me to paraphrase, if I may, this little girl's conversation with her mistress, meaning Naaman's wife. She is saying, Mrs. Naaman, your husband, that man who snatched me away from my homeland and my family, he needs to go back to see a prophet in my home country for healing. That man who murdered my mom and dad, I know where he can get help for his embarrassing skin condition. Though she could have held a major grudge against Naaman, what we see in this little girl, seeing this man in this disgraceful condition suffering from this painful and humiliating skin disease, her reaction is not one of vindictiveness or giving him what he deserved or even rejoicing in the plight he now finds himself in. Proverbs 24:17-18 actually warns against that very type of reaction. It says, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles, or the Lord will see it and be displeased.” No, that wasn't this young girl's reaction at all. Rather, her reaction was one of compassion. She knew that there was a prophet in her homeland, Elisha, who we will meet later, who could actually do something about Naaman's condition. She knew that her God, Exodus 34:6, was a compassionate God and a gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. She knew that she was called as an Israelite to extend God's compassion to others, which is what she did, and which is why she suggests to Naaman's wife here that he go see the prophet who is in Samaria.

Now I want you to notice something. Naaman isn't even in the room yet. He hasn't even made an appearance yet in this whole scene. But do you see how God's grace is already being extended to him here from the most unlikely advocate and the most unlikely ally? Do you see how unfathomable God's extension of His grace is to a man like Naaman under these circumstances?

We move on to verse 4, it says, “Naaman went in and told his master saying, thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel.” In verse 3 we have the Israelite slave girl talking to Naaman's wife and then in verse 4 now we jump ahead to Naaman suddenly talking directly to the king of Aram. How did that happen? How did we get from Point A to Point B there? Well, the implication that sits in the white space between verses 3 and 4 is that Naaman's wife eventually told Naaman about what the Israelite girl told her and now Naaman is telling his master, it says, meaning the king of Aram, Ben-Hadad, that thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel. This news of there being a prophet in Samaria who could heal Naaman has gone all the way from the lips of this little Israelite slave girl now to the king of Aram. Again, all this is a manifestation of the unfathomable grace of God working in Naaman's life.

There was a Methodist minister and author named Arno Gaebelein who lived in the early 20th century and when his book, Studies in Zechariah was published, he made it a point to send a free copy of that book to every rabbi in New York City. Gaebelein never received word from any of those rabbis that they had either received a copy of his book or thanked him for their copy of his book, let alone that they read his book. But many years later, I think it in fact was many decades later, a young man introduced himself to Gaebelein and this young man told Gaebelein the story about how he was raised in a Jewish home and how when he was younger, he was a secretary to a well-known rabbi in New York City. The rabbi that this young man had worked for received his free copy of Gaebelein's Studies in Zechariah, but instead of reading Gaebelein's book, this rabbi tossed the book into the wastebasket. Well, this young man reported many years later directly to Gaebelein that he had taken that copy of Gaebelein's book out of the wastebasket and he read Gaebelein's commentary on Zechariah which pointed to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he came to saving faith. Gaebelein, of course, rejoiced, knowing that his work had landed somewhere, had been profitable in turning at least one heart to the living God. But this young man's story was clear evidence of the unfathomable grace of God working in his life as that secretary for this New York City rabbi, just as it was working here back in our text in Naaman's life. God's grace was able to reach Naaman, God's grace was able to reach this New York City rabbi's secretary, it was able to reach me, and it was able to reach you if you have trusted in Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul. Aren't you glad that God's grace is unlimited in its reach?

It is unlimited not only in its reach, though, God's grace is unlimited in its scope. We see that throughout our entire lives that we live and walk in this life. We see that in the big decisions that we make. Should I take that job or buy that house or introduce myself to that new person or take on that ministry post at church? We see it in seemingly small decisions. Should I stop at this yellow light as it is flashing yellow, or should I power through and try to beat it? Should I buy that shirt or put it back on the rack? Should I leave at 5:30 today or 5:45 today? God's grace is present and working in every detail and circumstance of our lives, every aspect of our lives, every challenge in our life, every victory in our life, every defeat in our life, every season in our life, every corner of our life. God's grace extends to the furthest corners of all creation, and it extends to every seemingly minute detail of each and every one of our lives. Reminds me of David when he says in Psalm 139:18, “If I ascend to heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold You are there.” God's grace is unlimited. There is nothing going on in our lives that is outside God's scope, grace, His provision, His reach; that should be of great comfort to us.

God's grace is not only unlimited, though, it is unpredictable. That's our second heading this morning—The Unpredictable Grace of God. So Naaman the Aramean commander, we have seen, was also Naaman the leper. He was sick and he was diseased and there was no human cure available to him. He had already experienced the unlimited reach of God's grace through this undeserved kindness of this Israelite slave girl, and what we are going to see next is that as Naaman experienced further the depths of God's grace, he was going to experience it not Naaman's way, not the way he was hoping or expecting to experience it, but instead he was going to experience it God's way. As we've already seen in verse 4, Naaman took the information he received from this Israelite slave girl through his wife, and then relayed it to the king of Aram. That is significant because what it shows as he is speaking to the king about this matter is that apparently Naaman thought that having his leprosy cured was a political matter, that it was a diplomatic matter, that it was not a spiritual matter. He thought it was a matter for his king to address. At first the king of Aram, Ben-Hadad, was tracking with Naaman. Look at verse 5, it says, “Then the king of Aram said, go now and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” Put in modern terminology the king of Aram here is saying, don't worry about it Naaman, I'll talk with the king of Israel. This is executive level business; we'll get this handled between the two of us. Then the rest of verse 5 says, “He,” Naaman, “departed and took with him ten talents of silver and 6000 shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes.” So, Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, writes this letter on behalf of Naaman to the king of Israel, who, by the way, would have likely been King Joram. But not only that, Ben-Hadad loads Naaman up with all this loot. He loads him up with ten talents of silver, that's about 750 pounds, and 6000 shekels of gold, about 150 pounds of gold, and then ten changes of clothing, it says. That gift might seem extravagant, but that was actually pretty typical of the gifts that were exchanged between kings in these days. But don't lose sight of this, that the Arameans in this story—Naaman and Ben-Hadad—they were continuing to think about Naaman and his medical issues in purely political and diplomatic terms. The obvious thought process that is going on so far is if we send a big enough gift, Naaman will be healed. Does that sound familiar to anybody? Sow a big enough financial seed into our ministry and you will be healed. Make a big enough investment in our ministry and all your earthly problems will be taken away. Write that big check and then you can name and claim whatever you want. If these guys were living today, these powerful Arameans, they would have fallen prey to today's false prosperity gospel teachers and teachings. That topic deserves its own sermon for another day.

Back to our text, note this. Going back to verse 2, that the Israelite girl in speaking to Naaman's wife, back in verse 2, did she say anything about political diplomacy? Or meeting with kings? Or bringing royal gifts? No. She said there was a prophet in Samaria who Naaman needed to see. Naaman needed to see Elisha the prophet, not a king in Israel. But again, that just shows that Naaman with all his might and all of his pride was determined to do things his way.

Now as the scene shifts again in verse 6, we see that Naaman is no longer standing in Aram, his homeland, he is now in Israel. Look at verse 6, it says, “He brought the letter,” that's his king's 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 Naaman is now in Israel, he is standing before King Joram of Israel, he is holding a letter from his king, Ben-Hadad, in his hands, he has brought this cartload of gifts that are sitting now on the doorstep of the palace of the king of Israel and as he presents the gifts to the king of Israel, his expectation is that somehow the king, Joram, was going to cure him of his leprosy. Again, the Arameans are totally confused, they are totally confused about the different roles that kings versus prophets would play during this time. But again, he couldn't play the foreigner part. There should not have been any confusion because back to verse 2, that little Israelite slave girl told him clearly that he needed to see a prophet in Samaria, not the king of Israel. Have you ever played the game of Telephone? That's what is going on here. The original message from the little Israelite slave girl to Naaman's wife has by this point gotten completely washed out.

Keep reading, look at verse 7. It says, “When the king of Israel read the letter, 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 consider now and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me.” This Israelite king, Joram, was so taken aback by Ben-Hadad's letter that he tears his clothes. It's a sign of anxiety and distress. Why was this king distressed? Well, as a good Israelite he was distressed by the suggestion that a mere man, a mere human king could cure Naaman of his leprosy. That's why he says here in verse 7, “am I God?” He is saying here, this is beyond me. Clearly there is this breakdown in communication here and clearly now the king of Aram and the king of Israel are now at odds so much so that the Israelite king is saying, “He,” the king of Aram, “is seeking a quarrel with me.” Who does he think I am? He's trying to start some trouble with me, he's trying to mix things up.

But then as yet another manifestation of God's grace in Naaman's life, we see the prophet Elisha step in at just the right time. Look at verse 8. It says, “It happened when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes that he sent word to the king, saying, why have you torn your clothes? Now let him come to me and see that there is a prophet in Israel.” Though the text doesn't tell us how, it tells us that somehow Elisha had heard about this fight that is brewing between these two kings, so Elisha contacts his king, King Joram, and tells his king to send Naaman directly to him. That alone is another interesting twist in the story because this king of Israel would have been used to telling others what to do and suddenly Elisha is now telling him what to do, saying, get out of the way, king. Send that pagan leper my way. I'm the expert here, I'll handle this one. The reason that Elisha summoned Naaman to come to him is given in the last line of verse 8 there. It says, “Now let him come to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel,” which is another way of saying so that he shall know that there is a God in Israel. See, Elisha wanted Naaman to experience God's grace in the ultimate sense by coming to know God personally and relationally; and Naaman sort of halfway obliges.

Look at verse 9, it says, “So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha.” So Naaman makes his way over to Elisha's house with all of his horses, with his chariots, with his full entourage. We have to remember when he first left Aram, his homeland, with a letter from his king and a cartful of silver and gold, Naaman thought and fully expected that he was going to end up in another king's palace. But now he finds himself working his way down some dusty side street to see some prophet in Samaria. This would be like receiving an invitation to a fancy meeting in a boardroom at an upper crust hotel in Omaha, only to be told that the meeting has actually been moved to the lobby of the Super 8 in Council Bluffs. No offense to the Council Bluffs crowd. This would have been a humble experience. Then speaking of humbling, look at verse 10. It says, “Elisha sent a messenger to him.” So, after being told that the king of Israel couldn't help him, after being told to go out of his way to visit the prophet in Samaria, the prophet that he has been sent to go see doesn't even bother to come out to greet him. Can you imagine the anger that would have been welling up in Naaman's heart? Remember, he back home in Aram is this important military commander. In this culture where honor and respect were central Elisha wouldn't even give him the courtesy of a proper greeting. So, what's going on here? Here is what's going on. As he was preparing to show Naaman the fullest expression of His grace yet, God here was humbling Naaman. He was ripping pride right out of his heart. Naaman's pride needed to be dealt with because God doesn't and never has looked kindly on competing sources of devotion and worship. Naaman's pride was going to be ripped out and dealt with right there on Elisha's doorstep.

Our family is on the verge of, I'm going to say this carefully, finally and mercifully wrapping up baseball season. We love baseball, but we also love when baseball season is over and the relief that comes from that. But one of the joys I've had as a dad is not only to play baseball with my sons but eventually when time permits to coach them in baseball. A couple of years ago I was able to coach two of my boys, Noah and Eli, who were on the same team. We were the Ohio State Buckeyes. I remember there was this kid on our team named Ricky. I can say his name now without a veil of identity protection because I'm many states away. But on our first day of practice for the Buckeyes I remember Ricky walked up to me and said, Coach, I've played four seasons of baseball and I just want you to know that I always bat first. I said to Ricky, Hi Ricky, it's nice to meet you, too. Put a helmet on, you're batting seventh for the entire season, and he did. Ricky had a pride issue; Ricky had a pride issue that needed to be dealt with. Ricky thought he needed to bat first just like Naaman thought he needed to be greeted by kings. Ricky batted seventh and learned his lesson. Naaman was about to learn his lesson.

Well, next we see through Elisha's messenger that Naaman was given these instructions at the end of verse 10. It says, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean.” Now you have to think about this. Now Naaman, this decorated commander, most certainly had some posh bathing arrangements back home in Damascus. Now here he is, having come all this way, only to be told that the way that he needs to have his leprosy cleaned or healed is to wash in the muddy brown waters of the Jordan River. Clearly this is not what Naaman was expecting and clearly this is not what Naaman preferred. But he had not yet fully learned the lesson that God's grace is unpredictable. But he is inching closer to learning that lesson.

Look at verse 11, it says, “But Naaman was furious and went away and said, Behold, I thought 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 cure the leper.” So Naaman, this Aramean pagan thought he had religion all figured out, at least how he thought religion was supposed to work. See, in Naaman's mind Elisha the prophet was going to come out, wave his magic wand and Naaman would be healed. But that is not how it was going to work. Naaman wasn't told to go wash in the Jordan because it was what anyone would expect or because it is what made the most sense in human terms. No, God's grace is unpredictable. It doesn't always work according to our plans. It doesn't always fit with our mindsets. God's grace doesn't always look the way we think it ought. His ways are above our ways, they are not our ways. What Naaman still needed to realize was that he was required to come to God and obey God and not on his terms but rather on God's terms. He needed to obey God in the way God had set out, not the way Naaman preferred. So, if God had decreed that Naaman needed to wash himself seven times in the Jordan River, then he needed to do it. But he hadn't quite reached that realization yet.

Look at verse 12 where Naaman here is recorded as saying, “Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” See, Naaman here is still seeking to negotiate with God, he is still resisting, he is still kicking against the goads. He is asking to go back to one of the rivers of his homeland in Aram. Now the two rivers that Naaman mentions here, the Abanah and the Pharpar, they were known as being crisp, cool, deep rivers. The Jordan by contrast was shallow and murky and brown. What Naaman was saying here was if I'm going to wash myself, let me do it on my terms, let me do it back home in a cleaner river in a nicer setting. But that wasn't God's instruction. Not getting his way, Naaman was furious. Look at the last line of verse 12 there. “So, he turned and went away in a rage.” I mean if we close the sermon there, that would be an awkward place to end, right? Let's pray.

No, thankfully the story keeps on going. Look at the last two verses here, we see another turn of events, one more pivot in the narrative. Our third heading for this morning, by the way, is this—The Unrelenting Grace of God. We've seen The Unlimited Grace of God, we've seen The Unpredictable Grace of God in this account, now we see The Unrelenting Grace of God. Verse 13 says, “Then 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? How much more then when he says to you, Wash and be clean?” See, Naaman's servants here, they are not sharing in his indignation. So here they are recorded as stepping in, in this effort to calm him down and to pacify him, and as we are about to see they were successful. They persuaded him to follow the prophet's directions. Like the anonymous slave girl all the way back in verse 2, these anonymous servants were yet another manifestation of God's grace working sovereignly in Naaman's life.

Finally, verse 14, it says, “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.” Heeding the counsel of his own servants, Naaman finally submitted to what Elisha's messengers had communicated to him and obeyed. Now when it says here “he went down,” that simply is referring to the fact that he descended from where Elisha lived down to the Jordan River, which would have been a journey of about 25 miles. Then he dipped himself seven times in the murky Jordan River, it says, “according to the word of the man of God.” Naaman had finally submitted himself to the word of the Lord as communicated by the man of God, Elisha; and then “his flesh was restored like that of a little child,” it says, “and he was clean.” He had followed the plan, he had followed the instructions, he was humbled, he was cleansed, and he was healed.

A. W. Tozer once defined God's grace in these terms. He said, “Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits on the undeserving.” The good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits on the undeserving. There is no doubt that Naaman, a man clearly undeserving, experienced God's grace, the good pleasure of God in the account that we've just gone through. As we've seen, Naaman was the undeniable recipient of God's grace. It was grace that was unlimited in its scope, it reached down to Aram; it was unpredictable in its outworking, not Naaman's ways but God's ways; and it was unrelenting in its effect. As was the case with Naaman it is important for us here to recognize that God's grace, as it did with Naaman here, will sometimes challenge us and offend us and break us and humble us. Things aren't going according to your plan? Things aren't going the way you preferred that they went? That doesn't mean that God isn't there working in and through your circumstances, even the darkest of circumstances, to showcase and magnify His great grace.

Since my wife and I have become Christians, we've been through a lot. I've lost jobs, we've lost income, we've lost friends, we've lost relationships, we've lost a child. I'm sure for you as you look back on your own life in Christ and your own walk with Christ and your own trials as you sought to serve Christ, you would relate. But because we know that God by His grace is working in and through every circumstance or trial that we find ourselves in, we know for certain that when we reach the golden shores of heaven one day, we'll look on all of those circumstances, both the head-scratching ones and the heart-wrenching ones, and we'll say, that was best. There will be no disagreeing with God because in showcasing His grace He never makes a mistake. Abraham has no quarrel today with God about being asked to place Isaac on the altar. Joseph has no complaints today about the years he spent in Egypt. Daniel has no disputes about the time he spent in the lions' den. Paul isn't fretting before God about the time he spent shipwrecked or run out of town by angry mobs. Stephen isn't crossing his arms in disbelief or disgust about being stoned to death for his witness for the Gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ who today sits in heaven at the Father's right-hand interceding for us today has no complaints about His Father looking away while He agonized on the cross on our behalf; and why? Because each recognizes, and of course in Jesus' case, perfectly, that God's grace is unfathomable grace, always hits His divine target. It always accomplishes God's perfect purposes.

I just mentioned the name of our Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know from Scripture that during His earthly ministry the great works and the miracles that He performed, He performed primarily for the house of Israel. But we see in His encounter with the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7 that there were times that what Jesus said or did, that they fell like crumbs so that those outside the family of God could come to know Him and be saved. That's what we see here in our account of Naaman. Though not one of God's covenant people, he encountered the one true and living God through these extraordinary outworkings in this account of God's grace. Well, Jesus Christ of course is the fullest expression of the manifestation of God's grace. We know from John 1:14 that He is full of grace and truth. If we're sitting here this morning as followers of Christ, we praise the Lord for that, that we've been shown that grace in that ultimate sense. But if you are sitting here this morning and if you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, I hope that you are at least aware of the fact that though right now you reject Him, God's grace is still at work in your life even right now. God has already given you so much. He has given you life and breath and being, He has given you water and food and clothing, He has given you friends and family and loved ones, He has given you nature which testifies to His existence, He has given you a conscience that testifies to His existence and your sin, He has given you ears to hear the message I'm preaching to you right now and brain waves to process what is being said. All of it points to the fact that He is there. If I'm describing you right now, you already recognize in your heart of hearts that there is a God and that He is a God whom you will one day answer to, but you have not submitted your life to Him. Instead, you are like Naaman in the first 13 verses that we went through. You are still standing on the edge of the Jordan and your toes are still clinging to the earthy banks of that Jordan River, but you have yet to go in. You've spent however many years you've spent on this planet, witnessing the hidden hand of God in your life, but you still have leprosy, you have spiritual leprosy. You have yet to be washed, you have yet to be cleansed. If I'm speaking to you right now as someone who has not given their life to the Lord Jesus Christ, know that you need to be cleansed and know that you can be cleansed. But you won't be cleansed by washing yourself in the rivers of this world, by doing better at work or giving to the poor or just trying to become a better person. No, you can only be cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. It is through His blood and His blood only that you can be made right with God, that you can have your sins forgiven and be granted eternal life. Isaiah 1:18, “Though your sins are like scarlet they shall be as white as snow, though they are red like crimson they shall become like wool.”

So, wash. Be cleansed. Repent of your sins and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross to save you. Trust not in your accolades, trust not in your name, trust not in your job, trust not in your reputation or your resume or your riches or your good deeds. Rather, trust in Jesus' finished work on the cross to wash all your sin away and be saved. Then and only then can your life's focus be where it ought to be which is on our great God and the great grace He has shown us through His Son. Let's give thanks to that God now for His unfathomable grace, a grace He showed a physical leper like Naaman and a grace he has shown spiritual lepers like you and me.

Let's pray. God, thank You for the time we have enjoyed this morning in Your Word. Thank You for the account of Naaman and when we go to the Old Testament at times, we can think to ourselves if we're not careful how distant, how removed from our situation. Certainly, while there are cultural differences and time differences and historical differences between what Naaman was experiencing and how we live today, ultimately we know it is the same God behind his story and behind where we are today, now. So I just ask that we would remember today as we see this account of Naaman, as we reflect and meditate on this account of the washing of Naaman, what it means to know that You are a God who is altogether gracious, a God Whose grace is unlimited in its reach, a God Whose grace is unpredictable in its outworkings, a God Whose grace is unrelenting as You pursue sinners like us. Thank You, God, for the ultimate showcase of Your grace in the cross of Jesus Christ. For we who have trusted in Christ's finished work on the cross, I pray that this text and these principles would be a good reminder to us of the grace that we have been shown in the ultimate sense at Calvary. For those who may not know You this morning, who have just made their way to church for the first time or maybe have been deceived for a long time, I pray that today would be the day that they would cry out to You and ask for mercy, that they would ask that their sins would be forgiven, that they would be granted eternal life and that they would recognize that the ultimate way to be shown grace is through the cross of Christ. That only comes by saying, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling. God, please do a great work in our midst, grow Your people into the conformity of the image of Christ and save more people unto Yourself and for Your glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.