2 Kings 5:8-14

B. NAAMAN'S CLEANSING 5:8-14

TRANSLATION

(8) And it came to pass when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments, that he sent onto the king, saying, Why have you torn your garments? Let him come, I pray you, unto me, that he may know there is a prophet in Israel. (9) And Naaman came with his horse and his chariot, and stood at the entrance of Elisha's house. (10) And Elisha sent unto him a messenger, saying, Go and wash seven tunes in the Jordan, and your flesh will return to you, and be clean. (11) And Naaman was wroth, and went away and said, Behold I thought, Unto me he would surely come out, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leprosy. (12) Are not Abanah and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, that I may be clean? And he turned and went away in wrath. (13) And his servants drew near, and spoke unto him, and said, My father, if a great thing the prophet had spoken unto you, would you not have done it? And how much more if he said unto you, Wash and be clean? (14) And he went down, and dipped in the Jordan seven times according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh returned like the flesh of a little lad, and he was clean.

COMMENTS

The king had not attempted to keep his reaction to Benhadad's letter secret. In fact he wanted his subjects to know what an unreasonable and ruthless adversary Benhadad really was. News of the king's distress reached the ears of Elisha. The prophet's word to the king contained first a gentle rebuke. Why had the king torn his clothes? Had he forgotten that God still had His representative in the land? Send him to me, Elisha suggested, that he may discover that there truly is a prophet in this land (2 Kings 5:8). The king may be the head of the state and embody all earthly power, but the prophet was the duly commissioned agent of God and the channel of spiritual power. He alone could help under the circumstances.

In short order Naaman and his entourage arrived at the humble abode of Elisha in the city of Samaria. A man of his station and rank was not about to enter such humble quarters, and so he simply waited impatiently at the door of the house (2 Kings 5:9). Regarding the pride of his visitor as worthy of rebuke, Elisha remained within the house and sent his servant out to communicate with this dignitary. The prophet was not trying to be impolite; he was trying to impress upon the mind of this general the absolute nothingness of earthly wealth and grandeur, and the dignity of the prophetic office.

If the actions of the prophet insulted the inflated ego of Naaman, his instruction did even more. Go wash in the Jordan seven times, the servant ordered in the name of his master. What a burden! The nearest point of the Jordan river from Samaria was some twenty miles distant. If Naaman had the faith to go to the Jordan, and there persisted in the formal act of dipping in the river seven times, the scaly leprous skin would disappear and clean flesh would appear (2 Kings 5:10).

Naaman was shocked, horrified, and angered by the treatment he had received from this as yet unseen prophet. He had expected to have been waited on and to have received every possible attention; but these expectations had been rudely rebuffed by the failure of the prophet even to greet him at the door.[534] The general had a very different mental image of what should have transpired there that day. He pictured the prophet emerging from his house, and with great fanfare, waving his hand over the leprous spot while he solemnly called upon the name of his God. He expected an instantaneous cure, witnessed perhaps by hundreds of the inhabitants of Samaria (2 Kings 5:11). Instead he was told that he must do somethingdip in the muddy Jordan! Incredible! The rivers of DamascusAbanah and Pharpar[535]were fresh, clear, beautiful, and romantic. If the leprous taint was to be washed away, would not the crystal clear waters of his native land have more cleaning power than the turbid, sluggish and often clay-colored waters of Jordan? Disgusted and perturbed, Naaman wheeled his chariot around and departed in a cloud of dust (2 Kings 5:12).

[534] The Hebrew emphasizes in the most forceful way that Naaman regarded it the duty of Elisha to come out to him.
[535] Precise location of these rivers is uncertain. It has been suggested that they are the modern Barada river and one of its tributaries.

Fortunately for Naaman, his servants did not share in his wild indignation. When their master bad cooled somewhat, one of his servants, acting as a spokesman for the others, reasoned with Naaman. My father is a deferential and at the same time an affectionate way in which a servant addressed his master. The servant suggested that if Elisha had directed Naaman to do some difficult thing, the general would have attempted to do it. How much more should he be willing to do the simple, if somewhat silly, thing which the man of God had designated. The logic was unanswerable, and Naaman was persuaded (2 Kings 5:13). At the first opportunity, he turned his chariot eastward and began to make his way through the rapidly descending valleys toward the Jordan. When he exactly complied with the prophet's instructions, the miracle occurred. Not only was the leprosy removed, his flesh became as soft and tender as that of a little boy (2 Kings 5:14).