I preached this sermon on August 14, 2011, at the Dawson Creek Church of the New Jerusalem in Dawson Creek, BC.<\/p>\n
NAAMAN\u2019S LEPROSY<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father, if the prophet had spoken unto you of a great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, \u2018Bathe and be\u200b<\/em> \u200bclean\u2019?\u201d<\/em> (2 Kings 5:13)<\/p>\n What should we do to be cleaned?\u00a0 How can we be cured of our spiritual diseases?\u00a0 The answer is simple: wash, and be cleaned.\u00a0 Cease to do evil, learn to do good.\u00a0 But that simple answer is often unsatisfying.\u00a0 Sometimes we want something much bigger, something immediate<\/em> and powerful<\/em> that heals us in an instant.\u00a0 In those times, we are like Naaman, who we read about this morning.<\/p>\n Naaman was the commander of the army of the king of Syria \u2013 \u201ca great man.\u201d\u00a0 He was a hero of his people \u2013 but he suffered from leprosy.\u00a0 In those times, there was no known cure for leprosy.\u00a0 It would have disfigured Naaman, and made his skin hard and white.\u00a0 Besides this, when a person has leprosy they lose sensitivity, and they can easily hurt their bodies because they don\u2019t feel pain.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We don\u2019t know how long Naaman had been a leper, or whether he had tried anything to find a cure, but the story reveals that he was desperate\u2013 since he brought with him an incredible sum of money that he was willing to give to Elisha if the prophet was able to cure him.\u00a0 In fact, the disease may have been life-threatening, since when the king of Israel was asked to find a cure, he cried out, \u201cAm I God, to put to death and make to live?\u201d \u2013 implying that Naaman was asking for his very life.<\/p>\n Elisha might have been Naaman\u2019s last hope.\u00a0 But Naaman would not have even known of Elisha if it were not for a young Israelite girl who had heard of his plight.\u00a0 She had been captured by the Syrians in one of their frequent raids against Israel, and brought to the house of Naaman \u2013 but she did not seem to have borne any ill will against her captors.\u00a0 On the contrary, she expressed a sincere desire for Naaman to be healed \u2013 she said to her mistress, Naaman\u2019s wife, \u201cOh that my lord were before the prophet that is in Samaria \u2013 then would he recover him of his leprosy!\u201d<\/p>\n And so, after the king of Syria had sent a letter to the king of Israel, and Elisha had promised that Naaman could be healed, Naaman came to Israel.\u00a0 He came with his horse and chariot, and he went to the entrance of the house of Elisha the prophet.\u00a0 No doubt he expected a great welcome fitting for a man of his greatness.\u00a0 Imagine his surprise when instead a servant came out with a message: Elisha said to bathe seven times in the Jordan, and his flesh would be returned to him, and he would be clean.\u00a0 That was it \u2013 Elisha did not even come out to see him.<\/p>\n Naaman was furious.\u00a0 He had travelled over a hundred miles, he had crossed several rivers \u2013 including the Jordan, miles before \u2013 and the great prophet would not even speak to him in person.\u00a0 He had expected a great ceremony; he had thought, \u201cHe will come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and wave his hand over the place, and recover the leper!\u201d\u00a0 But this \u2013 a message, to simply bathe in the Jordan \u2013 was insulting!\u00a0 The Jordan was not even a very great river \u2013 the rivers of Damascus, Naaman\u2019s home city, were much more renowned.\u00a0 If he had to bathe in a river to be cleaned, couldn\u2019t he as well or better bathe in the great rivers of his home?\u00a0 So he turned away in a rage to begin the journey back to Syria.<\/p>\n But his servants stopped him.\u00a0 They said, \u201cIf the prophet had spoken unto you of a great thing, would you not have done it?\u00a0 \u00a0How much more when he says to you, bathe and be clean?\u201d\u00a0 That gave Naaman pause.\u00a0 Imagine the struggle that this might have started in him.\u00a0 On the one hand, he had been told to do something so simple and childish that it was almost insulting.\u00a0 On the other hand, though, he still had his leprosy, and he had no one to turn to but Elisha.\u00a0 And so, he swallowed his pride.\u00a0 He went to the Jordan river; he dipped in it seven times \u2013 and his flesh was healed, and became soft like the skin of a young boy \u2013 and he was clean.<\/p>\n Naaman\u2019s attitude in the story is one we may recognize in ourselves.\u00a0 It is easy to fantasize about doing something great and wonderful in the service of mankind.\u00a0 It\u2019s more difficult to do the everyday things \u2013 to work thanklessly to clean the house, to put food on the table, to be nice to the cashier who messed up our order, to forgive the driver who cut us off.\u00a0 We would rather do something grand than mundane.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the overall sense of this story \u2013 it\u2019s about the importance of having enough humility<\/em> to do something simple and straightforward rather than large and noticeable.\u00a0 With that general overview in mind, we can look deeper into the story, and see its particular application in terms of our regeneration, since everything in the Word has to do in the internal sense with the way we are reformed and made ready for heaven.<\/p>\n We begin the story with Naaman, the commander of the army of Syria.\u00a0 He\u2019s a successful commander, the \u201csaviour of his people\u201d \u2013 and yet, he has leprosy, a damaging disease.\u00a0 Naaman comes from Syria, and it was known even in Old Testament times that there was religious knowledge and wisdom in Syria.\u00a0 The fortune-teller Balaam came from Syria, and he knew God by His name, Jehovah.\u00a0 The Writings for the New Church reveal that the Syrians had this knowledge because the ancient church, the true church before the founding of the Jewish religion, had existed with them.\u00a0 But over time that church had become corrupt.\u00a0 They falsified the truth that they knew, and the church left them.<\/p>\n Because of all this, Syria represents knowledge of truth from the Lord\u2019s Word \u2013 and in a negative sense, a knowledge that has been falsified.\u00a0 Leprosy, too, represents a falsification of truth, and the profaning of it.\u00a0 And so Naaman stands for a person, or the part of us, that knows things from the Lord\u2019s Word; but it knows them in a false way, a twisted way.\u00a0 For example, Naaman might be the voice in us that says, \u201cAll power is from the Lord, and I have no power of my own\u201d \u2013 which is true \u2013 \u00a0\u201cso there\u2019s nothing I can do for my spiritual life except wait and hope for God to flow in.\u201d\u00a0 Or Naaman might be the voice in us that says, \u201cThe Bible says sinners go to hell\u201d \u2013 which is true \u2013 \u201cand I\u2019m a sinner \u2013 there\u2019s no way I\u2019ll ever be good enough for heaven, so I might as well give up.\u201d\u00a0 Or Naaman might be the voice that says, \u201cGod will put me where I\u2019m going to be the happiest I can be\u201d \u2013 which is true \u2013 \u201cso there\u2019s no point in trying to change.\u201d As you can see, all of those have grains of truth in them \u2013 but the truth is falsified.<\/p>\n Those falsities in particular \u2013 that there is no point in trying to change, in putting effort toward our spiritual life \u2013 are falsities that keep us from goodness.\u00a0 They are falsities that numb us, in the way that leprosy dulls the senses of someone suffering from it.\u00a0 They\u2019re falsities that make us feel dead, and that there\u2019s nothing we can do to change where we are.\u00a0 When we\u2019re in a state like Naaman, we\u2019re in a state where life feels dull and meaningless, and where we feel like nothing is ever going to change.\u00a0 Naaman\u2019s leprosy seemed incurable.<\/p>\n But into the scene comes that young Israelite girl.\u00a0 As a little child, she represents innocence.\u00a0 She knows of a cure for Naaman.\u00a0 And catching sight of innocence \u2013 in ourselves or in someone else \u2013 can prompt us to believe that there is<\/em> something more in life, a deeper kind of joy than we have now.\u00a0 Many of us give up on the ideas of ever being innocent ourselves \u2013 we\u2019ve seen too much, we\u2019ve done too much \u2013 but a reminder that innocence does exist can prompt us to look for something more, to look for a cure for our spiritual leprosy.<\/p>\n And so Naaman comes to Israel, to Elisha the prophet.\u00a0 In the same way, when we have that hope that we can be cured, that something in us really can<\/em> change, we can come to the church \u2013 represented by the land of Israel \u2013 and to the Word \u2013 represented by the prophet Elisha, since as a prophet he spoke the word of the Lord.\u00a0 We decide to see what the church has to say, what the Word has to say, and whether it can really do anything for us.<\/p>\n Sometimes we do this with an attitude of humility.\u00a0 But there are other times when we do it with something of that attitude of Naaman.\u00a0 We want immediate, drastic, visible change in our lives, and we won\u2019t be satisfied with anything less.<\/p>\n We can come with those expectations or desires.\u00a0 That\u2019s certainly what Naaman came with.\u00a0 But Elisha did not<\/em> come out and perform some great, powerful ritual.\u00a0 Instead he sent a simple message: if you want to be cured, go dip in the Jordan river seven times, and you will be clean.\u00a0 Nothing dramatic, nothing immediate \u2013 just go back and bathe in the Jordan.<\/p>\n It\u2019s clear to anyone reading this that there must be some deeper significance to the Jordan river, and to washing seven times.\u00a0 As a river, the Jordan represents truth.\u00a0 Truth quenches our thirst for understanding in the same way that water quenches our natural thirst.\u00a0 Truth washes away falsity the same way that water washes away dirt and grime from our bodies.\u00a0 And the river Jordan, because it was at the entrance to the land of Israel, represents the first, basic truths we learn from the Word.\u00a0 That\u2019s why John the Baptist baptized people in the Jordan: because baptism marks an entrance into the Lord\u2019s church and a first introduction to the basic truths of the church.\u00a0 These basic truths are the ones that are found right in the literal sense of the Word: that there is a God, that He wants us to love Him and love each other, that we must not murder, or steal, or bear false witness, or commit adultery.<\/p>\n The Jordan represents those basic truths, and washing<\/em> in the Jordan means living by them.\u00a0 It especially means repenting from the evils <\/em>listed in the Ten Commandments and elsewhere in the literal sense of the Word.\u00a0 That\u2019s why John preached a baptism of \u201crepentance, for the remission of sins.\u201d<\/p>\n But to return to the story of Naaman.\u00a0 Just as Naaman went to Israel and listened to Elisha, we have gone to the church and listened to the Word.\u00a0 But our lives were not miraculously changed in an instant.\u00a0 We did not immediately learn some great answer that solved all our problems.\u00a0 Instead, we are told to bathe in the river Jordan seven times \u2013 that is, to live by the most basic teachings of the Lord\u2019s Word.<\/p>\n It can be disappointing.\u00a0 How in the world is that going to make any difference?\u00a0 These are obvious things.\u00a0 Everyone knows<\/em> you\u2019re not supposed to lie.\u00a0 Everyone knows<\/em> you\u2019re not supposed to commit adultery.\u00a0 Everyone knows<\/em> it\u2019s bad to murder.\u00a0 These are so simple \u2013 they\u2019re too simple.<\/p>\n And it really can be hard to believe that these will make any difference, because often we feel like we\u2019re basically<\/em> doing them anyway.\u00a0 \u201cSure, maybe I lie sometimes, but I don\u2019t most of the time, and I don\u2019t see how cutting out those times when I do lie will make that big an impact on my life.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cSure, I look at other women and fantasize a bit, but I love my wife, and it doesn\u2019t seem to do any harm.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYes, I\u2019ll occasionally fudge the numbers with my job, but it\u2019s not really hurting anyone, and stopping it wouldn\u2019t make some huge drastic change in my life.\u00a0 Maybe ideally I\u2019d do it, but that\u2019s not really the issue.\u00a0 That can\u2019t be the issue \u2013 it\u2019s much bigger than those little things I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n But the answer to those objections is simple: if those things aren\u2019t that big a deal, than why not stop doing <\/em>them?\u00a0 Why not<\/em> start addressing those simple, everyday ways that you break the commandments.\u00a0 Maybe they aren\u2019t<\/em> the biggest issue \u2013 but if you\u2019d be willing to do something big and grand and life-changing \u2013 why not start with the little things and see what happens?<\/p>\n Naaman\u2019s servants use the same line of reasoning with him.\u00a0 If you\u2019d be willing to do something great, why not do this small thing?\u00a0 And so Naaman \u2013 perhaps still not entirely believing it will work \u2013 bathes in the Jordan seven times.\u00a0 Throughout the Word, the number seven represents completeness.\u00a0 Bathing in the Jordan seven times means completely<\/em> deciding to follow those basic commandments.\u00a0 It means whole-heartedly shunning evils as sins against the Lord<\/em> \u2013 not just because they\u2019re a bad idea, or might get us in trouble, but because they are blocking the Lord\u2019s love for us, and making our lives hellish.\u00a0 Again, it\u2019s hard to believe that those everyday things are so important \u2013 but unless we shun even these evils because they are sins<\/em> against God<\/em>, nothing is really going to change.<\/p>\n And Naaman does notice a change.\u00a0 His skin becomes like that of a young boy, and he is cleaned.\u00a0 That image of a young boy again calls to mind that first impulse that made us want to change \u2013 a vision of innocence.\u00a0 And we can find that there is <\/em>hope that even we can become innocent again, with a new kind of innocence \u2013 not an innocence of ignorance, but an innocence of wisdom.<\/p>\n Now the change did not take place after dipping once in the Jordan, or twice, or three times.\u00a0 You can imagine what Naaman may have been thinking as he went into the Jordan again and again and saw nothing being washed away.\u00a0 Is this really going to work?\u00a0 And the same thing can happen if we make a commitment to shunning some everyday evil in our lives \u2013 it can seem at first like it really makes no difference at all.\u00a0 A person who is fighting an addiction to pornography, for example, might force himself to stop, and to shun that as a sin against God \u2013 but still at first not notice any difference in the way he relates to his wife or his girlfriend or people of the opposite sex in general.\u00a0 But if he keeps at it and continues to shun it, after months or even years, if he looks back to where he was before, he will<\/em> notice that his life has changed.<\/p>\n Now, if a person takes credit for the change, they end up right where they were before.\u00a0 But Naaman knows that it is not due to his own greatness that he was cleaned.\u00a0 At the end of the story, he goes back to Elisha and offers him great riches; and when Elisha turns those down, Naaman asks only for some dirt from the land of Israel to take back with him and worship on.\u00a0 Think of the change that has happened in him: from the arrogant pride when he arrive; to the humility he displays here, valuing the dirt of Israel above his own wealth and reputation.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to hear again and again in church about repentance, and to sigh, \u201cYes, I\u2019ve heard that before!\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty mundane.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that impressive.\u00a0 And because it\u2019s so familiar, we can think it\u2019s not going to make any difference.\u00a0 But challenge yourself.\u00a0 Today, after you\u2019ve gone home from church, look at an everyday, small evil in your life, and resolve to shun it as a sin against the Lord.\u00a0 Pray to the Lord for help. And you will<\/em> notice the beginnings of a change.\u00a0 It will<\/em> open you up to new realizations about where you are spiritually, and where the Lord can take you. \u00a0And if you keep learning truth from the Lord\u2019s Word, and living by it, you will be made clean.\u00a0 \u201cGo and bathe seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh shall return to you, and you shall be clean.\u201d<\/p>\n Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n Lessons: Matthew 3:1-17; 2 Kings 5:1-19; Divine Providence <\/em>329<\/p>\n DP 329. What is the Decalogue at the present day but like a little closed book or religious primer, opened only in the hands of infants and children? Say to anyone of mature age, Do not do this because it is contrary to the Decalogue, and who pays any attention? But if you say, Do not do this because it is contrary to the Divine laws, he may give this his attention; and yet the commandments of the Decalogue are the Divine laws themselves. An experiment was made with several spirits in the spiritual world, and when the Decalogue or Catechism was mentioned they rejected it with contempt. The reason for this is that the Decalogue in its second table, which is man\u2019s table, teaches that evils are to be shunned; and he who does not shun them, whether from impiety or from the religious belief that works avail nothing, but only faith, hears with some contempt the Decalogue or Catechism being mentioned as though he heard mention made of a book for children, n which is no longer of any use to him.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I preached this sermon on August 14, 2011, at the Dawson Creek Church of the New Jerusalem in Dawson Creek, BC. NAAMAN\u2019S LEPROSY \u201cMy father, if the prophet had spoken unto you of a great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, \u2018Bathe and be\u200b \u200bclean\u2019?\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":275,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12],"tags":[29,66,115,138,169,194],"class_list":["post-294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","category-sermons","tag-baptism","tag-elisha","tag-leprosy","tag-naaman","tag-repentance","tag-ten-commandments"],"yoast_head":"\n