NAAMAN THE SYKIANAN ADDRESS ON 2 Kings V.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 233, 17 December 1887, Page 1

NAAMAN THE SYKIANAN ADDRESS ON 2 Kings Y.

C.H.M.

In order to profit by the history of Naaman, we must bring it- under the light of the New Testament, and interpret it thereby. In this way, avo shall find every point of the narrative fraught with rich and weighty principles of evangelical truth. ct All scripture is ghen by inspiration of Clod, and is profitable." This statement applies to 2 Kings v. The record of Naaman's condition, of his course to and from Jordan, of his cleansing and its results, is full of most precious teaching when viewed in the light which the New Testament pours upon it. Let us, then, in humble dependence upon the Spirit's teaching, proceed to the consideration of this singularly interesting passage of holy scripture. " Now Naaraan, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had gi\ en deliverance unto Syria : he was also a mighty man in valour ; but he was a leper." Here, then, we have the two sides of Naaman's condition. As to his circumstances, he was all that heart could desire. "Great"' — "honourable" — '•mighry 1 — " valiant ;" what more could he be ? Ho was, as men would say, one of fortune's most highly favoured sons. He was commander-in -chief of the forces of Syria ; he possessed the confidence and esteem of the king ; and he wore upon his brow the laurel of victory. " But he was a leper ! ' Alas ! this was a sad drawback— a grievous blight upon all his dignities — a heavy cloud upon all his glory. The foul disease which covered his person not only prevented his enjoyment of the honours which fortune had heaped upon him, but actually changed them into so many sources of humiliation and chagrin. His very elevation made his malady conspicuous, and the sunshine of prosperity made his personal vileuess apparent. His military costume enwrapped the person of a leper, and his laurel of victory crowned a leper's brow. In short, the lowest menial in Naaman's establishment would not have felfc the humiliation of leprosy so keenly as the noble captain himself. The higher he was in position, the more intenselj he musv have felt the degradation and depression of his loathsome disease. What would he not have given to anyone who would but take his leprosy ? And yet, he was soon to have it taken away for nothing. Now, when we look at all this from an evangelical point of view, we discern, in the person of Naaman, the case of a sinner in Ms natural state. He is covered with the disease of sin. Yes ; outwardly he is covered, and inwardly pervaded with the incurable malady of sin. He may, like Naaman, be surrounded by wealth and splendour, pillowed on the bosom of foitune, nursed in the vei-y lap of luxury ; but he is a sinner— he is lost— he is undone; and when once he is brought to see this, his very honours and dignities only serve to make his inwai'd wietchedness all the more intense. He is lost, and he wants salvation. He wants to have his malady removed, his ] guilt cancelled, his conscience cleansed. ! This is what he wants, andthisiswhatUodhas : provided for him. As in Naaman's case, God had the water of Jordan to cleanse him from every trace of his disease, so in the case ot the convicted sinner, He has provided " the precious blood of Christ" to cleanse him from every stain of guilt, and free him fiom every breath of condemnation. But let us see how strikingly all this comes out in our narrative. "And the S3 r rians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid ; and she j waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord was with the prophet that is in Samaria ! for he would recover him of his leprosy." What a difference between this little captive maid and her noble lord! Andyetshewasin possession of a grand secret of which he was wholly ignorant. She knew that in the land of Israel her master could find what he wanted. She understood where grace was to be found, and the knowledge of that grace filled her heart with the desire that her lord should partake thereof. " Would God," said she, "he were there." It is ever thus. Grace fills the heart with earnest J desire for the good of others. It mattered not to the little maid that she was an exile from the land of her fathers, and a captive in the house of a Syrian. She saw that her master was a leper, and she longed to put him in the way of being healed. The God of Israel was the only One who could perfectly meet the leper's need. "And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thua &aid the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Co to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment." How hard is it for the human heart to rise to the measure of the thoughts of God ! The idea of being cleansed for nothing never entered Naaman's mind. He was, we may safely say, quite ready to give largely, if by thab means his leprosy could be cleansed ; but the idea of getting all he wanted •♦ without money and without price" was entirely beyond him. and hence his cumbrous preparations. He knew not, as yet, the grace of the God of Israel. He thought that the gift of God was to bo purchased with money. Here was his mistake— the mistake of millions— the mistake of the human heart, in every age and in every clime. And yet, when one looks at it closely, what an absurdity to suppose that a little gold and silver could get aught from " the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth ! " Yes, this is easily seen to be absurd ; but it is not just as easily seen to be absurd to come before God trusting in our works, in our morality, in our religiousness, in our amended life, our altered conduct, our changed habits, our pious performances, our tears, prayers, sighs, vows, resolutions, alms deeds, our feelings, frames, and experiences, or in anything, in short, which we could produce of thought, word, or deed. People do not co readily grasp the fact that they might just as well present a piece of silver or gold as the ground of their confidence, as all those things which

have been named, and ten thousand times as much besides. If I had all the good works that were OAer performed; all the tears that were shed ; all the sighs that were everheaved; in one word, ifl had all that was ever produced in this world, in the phape of human righteousness, and that multiplied by ten thousand times ten thousand, it would not blot out so much as a single stain from my conscience, or give me solid peace in the presence of a holy God. These things are valuable in their right place ; but as a foundation for our souls' peace, we must have nought but Christ. He must take the place of everything in which our hearts would place confidence. I We have all in Him, and having Him we want no more. But it takes a long time to convince us of the worthlessness of all our own efforts. It seems passing strange to the human heart to be told that wo need no other title to Christ but our utter ruin ; that we need not wait to prepare ourselves ; that every step in self-improvement is a step in the wrong direction, inasmuch as self can never ', be mended in such a way as to make it tit for God — fit for heaven. Religious flesh is as far from God, as far from righteousness, as far from heaven, as flesh in its very grossest forms. This is a hard saying, but it is true ; and, moreover, it is well that the truth should be fully seen. It is of the very last importance that my reader should understand that what is needed is not self-reformation, but a new life altogether, and this life is Christ. This is the grand point. We must get lid of all hopes and expectations from our fallen and corrupt nature, and take Christ as our all in all. Do what you will with flesh and you cannot make it fit for God -fit for heaven. Flesh could not live in heaven. It could not breathe the atmosphere of that hallowed region. The ' most fruitless task that ever was undertaken is to effect any improvement in that which God lias condemned and set aside as incorrigible and incurable. Now, it is interesting to see how our chapter opens this line of truth to our view, in its own peculiar style. When Naaman stood with his pompous retinue, and with all his gold and siher, at the door of Elisha, he appeals before us a3 a marked illustration of a sinner building upon his own efforts after righteousness. He seemed furnished with all that heart could desire ; but in reality, all his preparations were but a useless encumbrance, and the prophet soon gave him to understand this. The brief, simple, pointed message, " Go math," swept away all confidence in gold, silver, raiment, retinue, the king's letter, everything. It stripped Naaman of everything, and reduced him to his true condition as a poor defiled leper needing to be washed. It put no difference between the illustrious com-mander-in-chief of the hosts of Syria and the poorest and meanest leper in all the coasts of Israel. The former could do with nothing less ; the latter needed nothing more. Wealth cannot remedy man's ruin, and poverty cannot interfere with God's remedy. Nothing that a man hasdoneneeel keep him out of heaven ; nothing that he can do will ever get him in. "Go wash " is the \s ord, in every case. Naainan evidently felt the prophet's message to be deeply humbling. He was not prepared for such a total setting aside of all human pretension. He would like to have been called upon to tell out 7m pieces of gold, Mb talents of silver, his changes of raiment; but to be told to "go wash," without the slightest allusion to any of these things, was quite too humiliating. " But Naaman was wroth, and said, Behold, / thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper. Are not Abana and I'harpar, rivers of Damascus, better than ail the waters of Israel ? may I not wash in them and be clean ? So he turned and went away in a rage." Thus it is ever. God's simple plan of salvation is so thoroughly humbling to man's pride that he cannot submit to it. " They, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righUv •/••lfps, have not submitted themselves to 1. . i^hteousnessofGod " (Kom.x.) And yet, we may say, What right had a leper to reason, to argue or to prescribe ? Had he come to be cleansed or to dictate ? Had he tried what ' Abana and Pharpar ' could do for him ! The fact is that Elisha wanted to teach him that he needed to bring nothing to God but his leprosy. All beside was superfluous. This was a noble lesson. Naaman must bring back to Syria everything he had brought out of it, except his leprosy. Such was Elisha's purpose, though that purpose was, in a measure, frustrated by the covetousness of Gehazi. The sinner would fain bring his good deeds to Christ. " I fafst twice in the week and give tithes." It is all useless; you must come to Christ bringing only your guilt. You must learn that you want cleansing, and that Chi-ist has it for you. If you think you have a single atom of goodness in you, then you have not yet got to the very bottom of your condition. You may try the Abanas and Pharpars of the legal system ; but you must, after all, "go wash in Jordan " ere you can know what it is to be divinely clean. This is deely humbling. It puts the legalist "in a rage." All those wno think themselves wiser than God, must learn their own folly sooner or later ; but as for those who know and own themselves lost, they have but to put their trust in Jesus, and be as clean as His precious blood can make their. This is God's simple way of salvation. Jeaus has dono all. He died for our sins according to the scriptures, and He is now up in heaven, as tho pledge, proof, and measure of the believer's acceptance before God. All who, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and on the authority of the holy scriptures, put their trust in a dead and risen Christ, are as free from guilt and condemnation as He is. Glorious, emancipating, elevating, soul-satisfy ing fact ! May my reader enter into its power ! May he prove the deep blessedness of simply taking God at His word ! This was what Naainan, after a fierce struggle, learnt to do. He learnt, after- all; to give up all confidence in "Abana and Pharpar," and yield the simple "obedience of faith "to tho testimony of God. " Arid his servants came near; and spake unfco him,

and said, My father, if the prophet, had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it ? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean ? Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God : and his ilesh came again liko unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." This was just and simple reasoning. "If the prophet had bid thee do some yreab thing, wouldst thou not have done it ?' No doubt ; but then this word, "go wash "' was so humiliating, so self -empty ing; l It left flesh nothing to glory in. "To him that woiketh not, but beliereth." "Not of works, lest any man should boast. *' Such is God's principle, and to this principle Naaman had to submit. He went and washed in Jordan. He obeyed the word of the Lord. And what was the result? "His flesh eamo again like unto the fle.sh of a little child, and he was clean." The very moment a sinner submits to God's righteousness, that righteousness becomes his. The very moment he casts himself on Christ he is as safe as Christ can make him. The glory of God is involved in the full and eternal salvation of all those who simply look to Christ. Naaman might havo plunged himself, ten thousand times over, in the waters of "Abana and Pharpar, " and remained just as he was ; but the moment he took God's way, he became as clean as God could make him. Had a single spot of leprosy appeared on Naaman's person when he came up out of Jordan, it would have been a dishonour cast upon God's remedy. For a sinner to trust God's salvation and yet not be saved, would involve-an eternal insult to the divine glory, and furnish an abiding ground of triumph to ail \ the powers of darkness. I It is important to understand this. To know that the glory of pod is involved in my full salvation must impart solid peace to the conscience, and complete emancipation to the heart. I greatly desire to press i this upon tho anxious reader. God has been glorified in the putting away of bin. What a truth for an exercised heart to get hold of ! It is no longer a question of what ,lamto do with my sins. ; Christ answered that question over eighteen hundred years ago. This is enough. I rest here, in full assurance that all has been divinely and eternally settled. God is glorified— l am saved — the enemy is silenced — I have only to go on my way rejoicing. And, now, one word as to the practical i results of all this, as seen in Naaman's course, after he came up out of Jordan. Nothing can be more interesting. ' His flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him : and he said, Behold now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel : now therefore I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. But he said, As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it ; but he refused." What a marvellous change in Naaman, from the moment in which he turned and went away in a rage from the door of Elisha, until he found his way back to that door again cleansed and like a little child ! He was, in type, a new creature. He stood on new ground. He was in a new condition. He had submitted to God, and he felt and manifested the precious results of so doing. Tims it is in every case. The proud, haughty, self-sufficient legalist may display all the bitter animosity of his heart against a scheme of redemption which places him on a level with the vilest of the sons of men. He may argue, reason, and rebel ; but the very moment he bows his head and consents to be saved in God's way, all is changed. The animosity and indignation of the legalist, together with the guilt and uncleanness of the sinner, are all left beneath Jordan's flood, and he cornea up cleansed and pardoned, calm and humble, to devote all he is, and all he has, to the service of the true God. But why, let me ask, did Elisha refuse to take a blessing from Naaman's hand ? For a truly noble reason. He would have Naaman to return to Syria with this testimony, that the God of Israel had taken nothing from him but his leprosy. He would have him to go back and declare that his gold and silver were useless in dealing with One who gave all for nothing. Elisha would not tarnish the lustre of divine grace by accepting a shekel of the stranger's money. Alas ! that the covetous Gehazi should have thwarted his master's noble intention. He had fixed his lustful gaze upon the silver and gold. He was wholly incapabale of rising to the height of his master's thoughts. He understood not the sacred power of divine grace. He sighed for Naaman's gold. "As the Lord liveth," said he, "I will run after him and take somewhat of him." Ho could not, like hfs master, say, " the Lord, before whom I stand." Elisha was standing in the perBence of God — breathing tho very atmos- > phere of grace. Here lay the secret of his moral elevation and holy disinterestedness. But Gehazi loved money, and hence he cared not how he dimmed the lustre of that grace which had Rhone upon the pathway of Naaman the Syrian. He would make him pay for his cleansing. Ho forgot that that was not the time " to receive money and garments." Unhappy man ! He gained his heart's desire, " but went out from his master's presence a leper as while as snow." Terrible warning to all lovers of money ! Those who will have this world's gold mu-t have this world's leprosy also. A deeply solemn reflection. How delightful to turn from the contemplation of Gehazi, with his heart full of covetousness, and look at Naaman, with his heart full of thankfulness and praise to the God of Israel ! The contrast is as striking as it is pleasing. Naaman's heart went out after the One who,' without money and without price, had fully and perfectly met his need. " Shall there not then, I pray thee," he says to Elisha, "be given to thy, servant two mules'' burden of earth ? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt , offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but' unto the Lord." ' Thus it was with Naaman. ]Je had left home a defiled leper; he was returning' thither . a cleansed ,worshipper, ' What a change f , And' 'all, done

in a moment, when once he took God's way. The work was of God ; and, as for Naaman, he had bub to bow his head and worship. Having left his leprosy behind him, he desired to bear away with him an altar on which he might offer sacrifices to the only true God. Thus much as to the practical result in the matter of worship. Let us, now, very briefly refer to the question of walk. It is obvious that Naaman was exercised as to this latter point. New springs of thought and feeling had been awakened in nis soul. A sense of responsibility had been created, to which, he had hitherto been a total stranger. r Until the moment of his cleansing, all his efforts were directed to the one point of getting rid of his leprosy ; now, on the other hand, the grand question was as to his walk before the One who had cleansed him. "In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master j goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow mybelf in the house of Rimmon ; when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon. the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing." This stipulation was very far below the propei* mark. Ti'ue de\otedness never stipulates, never seeks a loophole, never desires to chalk out an easy path. Whenever a person says, " May Ido this ? Is it wrong to do that ? What harm is there in the other thing?" you may- be quite sure that Christ has not yet gotten His true place in the heart. If the whole compass of my soul is filled with Christ, I make Him my rule, my measure, my standard, my touchstone, in all things. The question, then, is not " What is the harm ?" but, " Is it Christ?" It is, be assured of ib, a poor, low thing to be questioning as to how far 1 may go in self-indulgence, without risking my eternal salvation. "To me to live is Christ." This is Christianity. May we prove its power, and manifest its fruits ! There is a deep and valuable lesson to be learnt from Elisha's brief answer to Naaman. He does not place him under any rigid rules or regulation?-. To do so would be as foreign to the grace of God as to take money for his cleansing. All must be free. He would nob put a yoke upon the neck of one who hitherto had been only a subjectof grace. He could not say "go," for that would be to sanction idolatry. He could not say, "don't go," for that would be to sanction legality. The former would be a denial of God's being ; the latter a denial of His nature. But mark what the prophet says. Mark his admirable reply. "Go in peace." He casts Naaman back upon the grace which he had already experienced. He does not put him under any bondage. He leaves ample room for the lovely action of personal re-ponsibil-ity, which should never, in any case, bo interfered with. The prophet' 3 reply was eminently calculated to produce in Naaman's soul the most salutary exercise. It was calculated to raise in his mind the inquiry, "Can I 'go -in peace' into the temple of Rimmon V" What a searching question ! What a healthful exercise ! Could he really ' ' go in peace " from the altar of Jehovah to the temple of an idol ? Could he combine the altar of earth with the house of Rimmon V The heart that knows aught of the preciousness of Christ, or "the vast constraining influence" of His love, will be at no loss for an answer to all such questions. May the Holy Ghost unfold and apply this interesting narrative of Naaman the Syrian to the heart of the reader ; it is indeed a most fruitful section of inspiration, setting forth the depth of man's ruin— the worthlessness of all his legal struggles —the freeness of God's grace — the efficacy of Christ's work — the precious fruits of a known salvation,and the true principle of a disciple's walk. May the I ord bless His own word, and His name shall have all the praise !