As we turn again to 2 Kings, we turn to chapter 5. 2 Kings chapter 5. We'll take the whole chapter this evening. captain of the army of King of Aram was highly respected because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper." 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. She said to her mistress, I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria. Then he would cure him of his leprosy. Naaman went in and told his master, saying, Thus and thus spoke the girl, who is from the land of Israel. Then the king of Aram said, Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothes. He brought the 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. When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and 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. It happened that 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 he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots, and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you, and you will be clean. 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. 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. 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 than when he says 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. Then he turned to the man of God, when he returned to the man of God with all his company and came and stood before him, he said, behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. So please take a present from your servant now. He said, as the Lord lives before whom I stand, I will take nothing. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. Naaman said, if not, please let your servant at least be given two mules load of earth, for your servant will no longer offer burnt offerings, nor will he sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord. In this matter, may the Lord pardon your servant. When my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter." He said to him, go in peace. So he departed from him some distance. But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, thought, Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Aramean by not receiving from his hands what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him. So Gehazi pursued Naaman. When Naaman saw one running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him and said, Is all well? He said, All is well. My master has sent me, saying, Behold, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothes. Naaman said, Be pleased to take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver and two bags with two changes of clothes, and gave them to two of his servants, and they carried them before him. When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and deposited them in the house, and sent the men away, and they departed. But he went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, Where have you been, Gehazi? And he said, Your servant went nowhere. Then he said to him, Did not my heart go with you? when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it time to receive money, to receive clothes, olive groves, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and male and female servants? Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever. So he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow." Thus far the reading of God's Word. Amen? Let us pray. Great and mighty God, I ask that you would Bless the reading and preaching of your word. I pray that you would take feeble and inadequate labor, that you would take perhaps distracted and wandering minds, that you would gather us together. Gather our hearts to yourself and speak to us from these things. Show us what we need to know and see. Call us into your presence. call us into the life that we ought lead. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. It's been a few weeks since we were in II Kings. We're in days that are both dark and light. That is gloriously we're in the time in II Kings of the ministry of Elijah and then Elisha, two of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament. It's glorious in terms of those men, but their brilliant ministries are set against a dark contrast. That is They labor in the northern kingdom. This is the time when the kingdom of Israel has been divided into the kingdom of Judah in the south and the kingdom of Israel in the north. And in the north, it is just one bad king after another. And so we're now in the time of King Jehoram, who is king because his lousy brother Ahaziah fell out of a window and died. And yet before that man died, Ahaziah, before he died, that was back in chapter 1, he fell and he was desperately sick and he had sent his messengers to a Philistine city, the city of Ekron. He sent them to go and find out from that god whether he was going to get better. The messengers never made it to Ekron because they were intercepted by Elijah. who brought this question to King Ahaziah. Is it because there is no God in Israel that you're going to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? That's the tenor of the times. Ahaziah did not recover from his fall, and so now his lousy brother, Jehoram, is on the throne. But it's not with the king that we're principally interested tonight. It's this fellow who comes out of nowhere, as it were, suddenly we're introduced to Naaman, captain of the army of Aram. He appears like a shooting star in the old book. That is, every now and then you get these characters that are just, here they are. They're bright and interesting and intriguing and engaging, and then they're gone. And so it is with Naaman. His entire story is here in this chapter, everything that I've read to you. The only other mention of Naaman in the Bible is one passing reference by Jesus in Luke 4, where he simply mentions him by way of contrast. That is to say, he refers to a time in Israel's history when there were many lepers in the land, but the only leper that was healed was this foreigner, Naaman, captain of the army of Aram. That is, he is captain under the king. The king is not named, but if history gives us any insight, this would be Ben-Hadad II. And this man is his captain for multiple reasons. Well, really, central reason is that he's good at it. That's what it says. That he is, as it says here, a great man with his master, highly respected, Because by him the Lord, that is Yahweh, had given victory to Aram, that gives you just as a passing reference, the sovereignty of God is not exclusive to one nation, but to all nations. The man was a valiant warrior, but the thing that stands out is that he's a leper. He's a leper. Now Aram is not a neighbor that Israel is particularly fond of. Aram is a nation that they have been at war with in the past and they're going to be at war with again in the future. We're sort of in between wars right now. And you can get a sense of how things stand between the two nations. Apparently at some point in their marriage, Mrs. Naaman said to Mr. Naaman, you know, I could really use some help around the house. Could you go get me somebody? And he went down to the slave market and bought a little Jewish girl that had been captured in a raid. That tells you the standing of the two nations. And you can also catch it from the reaction of the King of Israel when he receives this message from the King of Aram. He doesn't think it's anything but a plot. to get them into war. He thinks it's a conspiracy that the king of Aram has sent him an impossible task as an excuse. This is the setting of our story. This man, this captain of this hostile neighbor, this man who has been blessed of the Lord for the Lord's own purposes, is esteemed by his master, yet a leper. which may or may not mean that he has leprosy as we define it today as we've discussed in other passages that deal with leprosy. Leprosy in the Bible is a much broader thing than leprosy of the modern laboratory. In ancient times, whether they had that specific disease or some other disease in view, which they applied the word leprosy to, in almost every record we have in every culture, leprosy was a dread and feared disease, particularly the forms that are disfiguring, that can be quite disfiguring. And lepers were very often shunned. And in Israel, they were counted as unclean. It is probably, we probably get some insights into Naaman's situation that his case is mild enough, obviously, that he can function. And his labor is good enough that his king is willing to endure the idea of having a leper as the head of his army. But yet his case is still plainly severe enough that this extraordinary step is taken. Send him to a neighboring country, one that you've been at war with, and demand or seek a cure for your general. Well, we read the story. We read about his coming. We read about how he is received first by the king and then received by Elisha. We read of his anger. He's tremendously offended because Elisha doesn't so much as come out to the driveway when the entourage arrives. He just sends a messenger out with instructions and Naaman is furious. We read about how his servants subdue his anger and how he submits to what Elisha has prescribed. We read about how he returns to Elisha clean and humble, greatly humbled. We read about his requests of Elisha and his departure to his own country. And then we read that sad epilogue of the witness to all these things, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, and his foolish behavior. It's an intriguing story, no doubt. The question is, really, what is it about? It's not here simply to entertain us, though you could be entertained. What is it about? Well, I think if you look at this story, you could see it at least, I think there are many things we could see, but what I want to focus on tonight is simply this theme. The theme of being near or far from God. Near or far from God, or perhaps you could phrase it this way, who is near and who is far from God? And the way I want you to see this is by looking at five people. we'll look at a person alone and then two pairs. The person alone is Elisha. He's the man who is essentially the face of God on earth. He is where God is working. He is the place where God's Word is heard. He is the place where God's power is shown. This is actually accidentally stated by the king of Israel in an interesting way. Naaman shows up at the king's court. He's bearing a letter from his king to whom it may concern. The bearer of this letter is a leper. Please fix it. And the king reads the letter. What is this? Notice what he says. Verse 7. Am I God to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy." The king says, why would you ask me to do this? Why don't you ask me to create a new world? Why don't you ask me to walk on water? I mean, am I God? He says, only God has the power of life and death. That is specifically only God can make the dead alive. Now, while that in and of itself is a right thought, what is striking is where it's said. That is in Chapter 5. What happened in Chapter 4? If you may recall, Chapter 4 is a series of miracles by Elisha that are all built around the one central miracle of Chapter 4, which was what? There was somebody who was dead and Elisha raised him from the dead. That is to say, Elisha is the instrument of the power of God. The king recognizes that even while he doesn't recognize it. He articulates what Elisha represents, the power of God on earth. And so it would be that your proximity, your nearness to Elisha would represent, in a sense, your nearness to God. Now let's see how that plays out as we consider two pairs. The first pair that I would set before you is the king, that is the king of Israel, and the slave girl in Aram. Compare them, the king and the slave girl. Look at the girl. She is an orphan. She is an exile. And she is a slave. There is not a single hint in the text. We don't know anything about her outside this passage. There's not a hint in this text that she has ever met Elisha. And my guess is she's never going to. Slave girls in that time and period usually did not get early retirement packages in which they got to go home to their native country. She is likely going to live and die her whole life in Aram. She doesn't have any formal direct connection with Elisha at all. By contrast, the king is right down the road, perhaps just a few doors down. We know that he's got to be close by because when the hubbub happens in the courtroom or the king's reception hall, when he receives the letter and he tears his clothes and he starts fretting and fuming about this whole thing, it says, It happened when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes. He has to have heard of this event. rather quickly because something's got to happen before Naaman leaves. So they must be close by. They must be in near proximity and they're plainly in communication because Elisha sends to him. And in fact, even in the previous chapter, we know that they know each other because Elisha offered to speak to the king on behalf of the Shunammite woman. So the king knows Elisha. He knows about Elisha. He is near Elisha. He has all the freedom and opportunity to go to and interact with Elisha. But he never does of his own will. So who's closest? Who's closest to the prophet? The king that can see him and speak to him or the slave girl that never will? Well in mere distance the king but in substance the girl. This is the difference. This is the difference between knowledge and faith. This is the difference between knowing about and believing. The king knows all about Elisha. He knows about Elisha's power. And yet it does not seem to enter his mind when faced with an impossible dilemma, an impossible task that he thinks may bring his kingdom into a conflict. It does not occur to him to turn to God's prophet down the road. And yet when the slave girl sees that same problem afflicting her master, She simply believes, well, if he could just get to the prophet, why, there's power there. The prophet of Yahweh could fix this. Rather different responses. He frets while she seeks. Look at the second pair. It's our two lepers, Naaman and Gehazi. Naaman is about as cut off from the God of Israel as a man could be. He is a Gentile, a foreigner, an enemy, a leper, who doesn't even know about the prophet's existence. That is about as cut off from access to God through his prophet as you could be. And Gehazi, on the other hand, is the individual in all of Israel that is closest to the prophet. He's the one who stands between the prophet and everybody else. That is, if you want to go see Elisha, you've got to go through Gehazi. He's not just heard of Elisha's miracles. He's been on scene. In fact, Though you might think the way this chapter ends, this is the last time we'll ever hear of Gehazi. There's one more place where we're going to hear from him in Chapter 8. He's just mentioned in two verses. And what we see him doing in those verses in Chapter 8 is he's with the king. And the king is saying, tell me about all those great things Elisha used to do. Because there's nobody who knows them like Gehazi. Nobody is closer. Yet, who's closer? Naaman or Gehazi? Well, you can see that they, in substance, exchange places. It's not just that one was a leper and one becomes a leper. Their exchange is much deeper than that. You actually, you can catch it by a word that's easy to overlook. It's the word stand or stood. It's used a number of times. You see in verse 11 that when Naaman comes, he's angry because of his expectation. He said, Behold, I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord. That is, Naaman has a sense that he is the superior. Elisha is the inferior. The inferior stands before the superior. In fact, that's how Elisha describes himself in relation to God. In verse 16, he said, as the Lord lives before whom I stand. So Naaman had expected that Elisha would stand before him as Elisha understands himself to stand before God. But notice how this affects these two men, Naaman and Gehazi. When Naaman first comes to Elisha, he's not allowed so much as to be in the prophet's presence. He's an unclean leper and this is the prophet of God. He doesn't come into his presence. But after he goes to the Jordan and is made clean, when he comes back, then, verse 15, He returned to the man of God with all his company, and he came and stood before him. And when he stands before him, what does he refer to himself as? Your servant, your servant, your servant. Five times Naaman calls himself Elisha's servant. And how does our story end with Gehazi? After Gehazi thinks he's pulled his fast one, he's got the cash, he secured it at home, he shows up at work. Verse 25, he went in and stood before his master. He's come to take his place, standing before Elisha as Elisha's servant. And yet it is at that point that Elisha turns upon him and says, I saw it all. And he curses him and sends him out. So you see, they've changed place, not just the change of the condition of leprosy. They've changed place in their relationship to God's prophet. One is allowed in the presence now, who before was not allowed. And the one that used to be in his presence is now sent out as the unclean leper. Who's closest? Who understands? Notice the great shift. Not just in this chapter, but so far in this book. In chapter one, the question of King Ahaziah, the question that was put to him, why are you going to the God in the Philistine city? Is it because there's no God in Israel? That question is put to that king three times in chapter one. Is there no God in Israel? Is there no God in Israel? Three times. When we come to his brother on the throne, what is his brother saying? Am I a God? He doesn't know of any other God in Israel either. You expect me? What does Naaman say? Naaman's the one who understands. Verse 15. When he returned to the man of God with all his company and came and stood before him, he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. No God in all the earth, but in Israel. You see that shift? And so as he comes back a changed man outwardly and a changed man inwardly, he seeks a few things from Elisha. He wants a preemptive pardon for future actions and he wants some dirt. A pardon and some dirt. The pardon, this troubles many people. He asks, he says to him, In this matter, may the Lord pardon your servant when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there and he leans on my hand and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon. When I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter. Now what is he asking? Is he asking to pursue both religions? That is exactly what he's not asking. He's made it quite clear in verse 17, So he's not asking Elisha's permission that he can go back to Aram and do both religions and worship both gods. He's made it plain that that is not what he's going to do. So what is he asking? Well, he's asking this. You see, the ancient world knew absolutely nothing of the concept of the separation of church and state. No concept of the separation of church and state. That is, the nation, the government, and the religion were all bound up together. And this man's position is high up in the government. He is a ruler. just under the king. And he knows that as part of his position in that government, he's going to be accompanying his king wherever his king goes. And his king goes into this pagan temple. And he, as part of his job, he's going to be with him. And he's even, I guess the king may be somewhat decrepit, he's even going to be helping the king up and down. And he's simply saying, can I be understood that though I'm there, I'm not there. It's not me, boss. There you go. Though I'm there in that temple, that's not me. If we may adapt. or apply an expression from the New Testament. He wants to render under Ben-Hadad, his king, the things that are Ben-Hadad, his service in the state. But his intention is to render under God the things that are God's, and he wants it to be understood. And Elisha understands, go in peace. Not to be a syncretist, not to have multiple gods, but go in peace. It is, I think, a remarkable condescension. by God through Elisha to a man in a difficult circumstance and is probably well taken by us. Not that we would endorse, frankly it makes me a little uncomfortable this thing, but that we would be slow to condemn those that are in difficult circumstances that must carry themselves in very precarious places. But he has declared his heart And Elisha has said, go in peace. More intriguing to me is the other matter. He wants some dirt. Two mules load of earth. Why does he want dirt from Israel? Well, because the connection between God and the nation. This was the understood worldview of all the nations. They understood their gods to be connected to specific places. But whatever their perspective, this is the perspective of the Jews, that the God of Israel and the land have the closest possible connection. And he's saying, I want to take a piece of Israel home with me. You know what he's going to do? He's going to set up a satellite campus, something very un-OPC. I don't ever see us having multiple churches, you know, multiple campuses. But in this sense, what he's asking to do is I want to take, it's like an embassy. I want to take a little piece of Israel home because I'm going to worship the God of Israel. He's essentially an Israelite. He's been baptized or he's been cleansed in the Jordan River and he's going to worship the God of Israel and he wants to do it on the soil of Israel. Now, beloved, in this we have a beautiful anticipation of the gospel. beautiful anticipation of the gospel. One of the glorious changes that comes from the Old Testament to New is that when Christ comes, the restrictions, the constraints of the God of Israel's religion are all broken. That is, up until the time of Christ, true religion was found in one place, one patch of dirt. It was done in one building, by one race, in one language. And when the Gospel comes and Christ comes, all of that changes. We're not constrained to some place, to some patch of land, to some temple. But rather, wherever Christ's people are, there is the temple. Each of us individually is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and collectively, the Church of Jesus Christ, we are stones built together on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus, the cornerstone, this is the language of Ephesians 2, The foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus, the cornerstone, we as living stones built together are the temple of the living God. Everywhere becomes the land of God. Every place we gather is the temple of God. This man anticipates that as he becomes a one man piece of Israel in Aram. He anticipates the gospel. It's reach. He understands and he demonstrates that the center of true religion isn't a piece of ground. It isn't a building. The center is the heart. Look how his heart is changed. Verse 11, when he is angry. The Hebrew text actually shows even better how full of himself he is. My translation says that what he said was, Behold, I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord. But you know, the Hebrew word order puts it a little bit more forcefully. Behold, I thought to me. I thought, to me, he will come out and he will stand and he will do. The emphasis is upon himself. He is full of himself. He is full of his sense of rank and position and power. Why, the rivers of my land are better than all the waters of this place. He's full of himself. And yet when by his servants' voices he's soothed into submission, He comes back empty. Your servant, your servant, your servant, your servant, your servant. Please forgive me when I do this thing. His conscience is tender. I'm going to be required by position. I'm going to be required to be where I would rather not be. Please forgive me. Could I have some dirt? Could I have just some dirt? He's utterly changed because this is the center of true religion. It's not Israel. It's not a temple. It's the heart. It's seen gloriously in Naaman. It's seen most ingloriously in Gehazi, who for all of this demonstration and all the other things he's seen, it seems the only thing he can see is cash. I'm going to get me some." I don't know what Elisha was thinking. He let, not my brother in the faith, he let this Aramean go. I'm going to get me some. He's a shrewd man. He knows better than to take it all. He concocts a little story. Just enough. but not too much. He's clever to get it brought back but only so far and then to hide it in his house and go fill his position up nowhere, nowhere. His eyes are as closed as they could ever be and he reaps the reward which is his condemnation. The question for us is simply this, do we see? Do we see better than Gehazi? Do we see with the wisdom of Naaman? If you could have one wish and you could get something for saying it, would it be more Christ or more cash? If you could have a pile, if you could pile it as high as you could dream. Or you could understand Christ more. You could believe more. You could have more faith. Which would you choose? If you could be a pagan king with all the luxuries of the king of Israel, all the staff, all the freedom, all the comforts, but no faith. Or you could have faith, but you have to be an exile slave like that girl. Which would you choose? Which do you want, the dirt of heaven or the gold of earth? That's the question. As we look at these two men, how you answer those kinds of questions will tell you how near, how far you are from God. Amen? Let us pray. Great and mighty God, teach us to delight in the dirt of heaven. Teach us to delight in you. Even as the psalmist says he would rather stand in the Lord's house, that is he'd rather be a servant in the Lord's house than to dwell in tents of wickedness. Teach us to have such a perspective and to recognize that anyone and everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord Whether they look like us, sound like us, dress like us, if they call upon the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, that one is our brother or our sister. And the one that is closest to us may share our genetics, our color, our language, our history. As far as they deny Christ, They are as foreign to us as they could ever be. I pray, Father, as we look out upon those that are apart from you, whether they're our kin or our neighbor or acquaintance, that we would call upon them with great humility to see that there is a way to be made clean, that you would grant to them humility, that they would climb down from their chariot that leads them to doom. and come and say to Jesus Christ, I am your servant, your servant, your servant. Give us such a ministry. Give us that humility first ourselves and then such a humble but beautiful ministry in the world. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I'll ask you to stand and I'm going to pick something else, Alice. I think that's Psalm 84 I was quoting. Is that? Yes, it is. Psalm, I'll ask you to stand and take your psalter and turn to Mike Sears' favorite psalm, 84B, the one in which we sing of the desire to, we'd rather stand in the Lord's house than dwell in tents of wickedness. Let us sing together, 84B. advancing still from strength to strength they go where other pilgrims from till each desire Amen. Receive now the Lord's benediction. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen. ♪ Over bless thee from above ♪ ♪ Bombs iron in it boundless love ♪ ♪ Our God whom heaven and earth did frame ♪ ♪ Blessed be His praise and glory evermore ♪ So, I'm sorry.