The Healing of Naaman

by Victor Paul Wierwille

There lived a mighty king who was head of the mightiest empire of its day called the Syrian Empire.  The record that I want to look at is regarding one of this king's great men.  His name was Naaman.

He was captain of the host of the king of Syria, which perhaps would mean in our day that he would have been a "five-star general".  There was no one above him.  He was the leader of the greatest army of its day and of its time.  He was a great man with his master and honourable because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria.  He was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.   To be a leper in Israel put you outside of the pale, but if one was a leper among the Gentile or pagan nations, they did not throw you out.  That is why Naaman was allowed to stay, and to the best of my knowledge, as I have worked the Word, this perhaps was in the early stages of what we know as leprosy.

When Syria had gone in to capture Samaria, the capital of the ten northern tribes of Israel, they brought many of the men and many of the women out.  One little maid whom they brought out became the helper to Naaman's wife.

She was just a little maid.  She had been captured.  She had been brought in as a slave, a little maid in the house, a servant to the great Naaman's wife.  And this little maid, in that situation, said to her mistress, "Would to God my lord, Naaman, were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy."  That is a bold statement!

Just stop right there.  That was not what the little maid had said.  The little maid had said, "Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria!  for he would recover him of his leprosy."  But that sharp king, he was smart!  Do you know what he figured out?  He figured out if that prophet down there in Samaria could deliver him, the king had more power than the prophet, so instead of sending him to the prophet, he would send him to the king.  He was smart, and it was great protocol as well.

So the king of Syria wrote a letter.

"He knows that I cannot recover Naaman, therefore he sends the letter, saying, 'Recover him.' I cannot recover him, and that will give him an excuse so he can send his armies down and destroy us."  That was what the king of Israel said.

That is telling the king!  And, the king did not wait very long to tell Naaman about this.

He is a five-star general, and he stood at the door waiting for that prophet to come out there to him - because after all:  "I am five-star!  That little old prophet he's just some nincompoop of a little old 'God' fellow."  Do you know what Elisha did?  Elisha, I think, was sitting in the kitchen, and his servant had baked some chocolate chip cookies.  He was having himself a cup of tea and chocolate chip cookies!  And there was that five-star standing outside.  I can just see this thing:  Elisha reached over; he took a sip; and, while he took a sip he signalled with his eyes to his servant; the servant came over and he said, "Go tell the five-star out there:-"

Naaman, of course, stood outside waiting for the man of God to come out, which was the respect that was needed, according to his thinking.  But, the man of God never moved out of the kitchen.  He just poured himself another cup of tea, gave a messenger the information, sent the messenger out; the messenger delivered the report to Naaman, and the messenger came back in.

What a great, tremendous lesson.  It is not important who delivers the Word; it is important that it is the Word.  It is not important how you get the information from God; it is important to get it.  The Word of God was from the Prophet Elisha to Naaman via the messenger, "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean."

Naaman had it all figured out, but it did not quite work that way!

The Jordan is very narrow, usually very dirty; it is not mountain water.  The logic of a man's mind really tricks him.  He was told, "Go dip in the Jordan seven times," but his mind said:  "Why Jordan?  Why that stupid, dirty Jordan?  Are not the rivers of Damascus clean and nice?  I might as well go there and dip seven times."  But, the Word of God is the will of God; it means what it says and says what it means.  The prophet had said, "Jordan", and what did he mean?  Had he meant the rivers of Damascus, what would he have said?  That is how simple the Word is.

Naaman had it all figured out, but it did not quite work that way!

If Elisha had said to him:  "Look, I will take all those gifts you have got.   Go back and get twice as much, and God will heal you of your leprosy," do you know what Naaman would have done?  He would have gone back and he would have gotten all the money that he needed - he would have begged it; he would have borrowed it; he would have gotten it any which way he could to come back to get deliverance - for when a man is really hurting physically, he will pay everything he has got, if necessary.

And his servants said to him:  "If he would have asked you, you would have done it, right?  If he would have asked you to crawl barefooted up the steps to the highest pinnacle, you would have done it.  But, since he said the simple little thing to you, 'Go wash in the Jordan seven times,' it upset you.  What is the matter?"

He dipped himself how many times?  Seven.  That was exactly what the prophet had said via his messenger.  He had delivered the Word of God via a messenger and said, "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean."

In order to dip seven times he had to dip the first time.  When he dipped the first time, he was a leper when he went in, when he came up and he looked, he was still as much a leper as he was before he went down the first time.  He went down the second time, came up, looked at himself, and he was still as much a leper, because he had not yet fulfilled the Word of God, which is the will of God.  The Word of God was to dip seven times.  Even if he had no improvement after six times, which he did not, that did not invalidate God's Word, because he had not yet fulfilled the Word.  Most people start praying for their deliverance, and then they think about it, and they say, "Well, I do not see much improvement."   He did not see any!  He went down six times and he did not see any improvement.   But, he went down the seventh time according to the word of the prophet and when he came up from the seventh dipping...

...his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

The skin on him was like the skin of a baby.  Gillette went out of business.   So did Wilkinson Sword Blade, all of them, because a little child does not need a Gillette.

The most important thing is to (1) get God's Word, then to (2) carry it out literally.  If God would say, "Jump," you never ask, "How high?", you just jump.

The reason the prophet refused is because of revelation.  God told him not to take it.

Oh it is beautiful!  Being the king of Syria's right-hand man, whenever the king walked into the house of worship of Rimmon, the king would put his hand on Naaman's arm and he would walk with him down to where the altar was, and when the king would bow, Naaman would have to bow.  Naaman asked the prophet, Elisha:   "Do you think, maybe - because I am the king's right-hand man, even though when I bow, I really won't worship Rimmon, I am only going to worship the true God, but in order for me to go with the king, do you think, maybe - the Lord, Jehovah, God would overlook this?"

Do you know what I would have said?  "No, He won't.  If God delivered you, why don't you take a stand out there in Syria?"  The average man would have said:   "Look, God delivered you.  It is my denomination; don't you get out of this denomination and go back to all those sinful things."  There is fantastic learning in here.

By revelation from the true God, the Prophet Elisha said to Naaman:  "Go in peace.  Whenever the king goes in to worship Rimmon, let him lean on your arm."   What a tremendous God of love we have.

We believe in healing - our God is able to deliver to the uttermost - all things are possible to him that believeth.  Yet, we never speak disparagingly about the medical profession; we do not speak disparagingly about the chiropractors, the dentists....  We are not in the business of speaking disparagingly about people or professions; we are in the business of teaching God's Word - God's deliverance - no matter what profession or business.

God had delivered Naaman of the leprosy.  The Prophet Elisha had carried out the ministry that he was responsible for.  And yet, the love of God is so tremendous that He allowed him to go back and go into the house of Rimmon.  If God is that loving, why should I become critical?  Why should I criticize people?   Every man has to walk in his own shoes before God, for we are all accountable to God.  He is our Creator.  He is the One Who gave us the new birth.  We will all stand before Him, and therefore, there may be some things in your walk that you can do which I cannot do.  There may be things in my walk I may be able to do that you cannot do.  So it is never that we criticize anyone, we just hold forth the greatness of God's Word, that whosoever will may come and get delivered and get what God's best is.

Elisha said, "Go in peace."

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