2024-07-21 - San Jose CRC - sermon only - Gil Suh

2 Kings 5:1-15

Unsung Heroes of the Bible - Naaman

Transcript

Good morning. Our scripture reading this morning is from 2nd Kings chapter 5 verses 1 through 15 which can be found in your pew bibles on page 294 or you can follow along on the screen. Naaman healed of leprosy. Now Naaman was a commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded because through him the lord had given victory to Aram.

He was a valiant soldier but he had leprosy. Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel and she served Nahum's wife. She said to her mistress, if only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy. Nahum went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said.

By all means go, the king of Aram replied. I will send a letter to the King of Israel. So Naaman left taking with him 10 talents of silver, 6, 000 shekels of gold and 10 sets of clothing. The letter that he took to the King of Israel read with this letter, I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.

As soon as the King of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me? When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message.

Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman went to it with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house. I'm going to read a passage from the book of Elisha. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored, and you will be cleansed.

But Naaman went away angry and said, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot, and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed?

So he turned and went off in a rage. Naaman's servants went to him and said, My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then when he tells you wash and be cleansed? So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

We are in the middle of this series called unsung heroes of the Bible, the ordinary people. people for God's extraordinary purposes. So we are going to do just this unnamed individuals one by one and see how God used this unnamed people for his purpose. And I'm hoping that through this series, we become more convinced that God can use ordinary people like you and me when we do certain things in obedience.

We may not see immediate result, but God can use and, um, people like you and me. So today the title is the girl with compassion, the girl with compassion for the suffering. Let's pray with me, Lord. Um, we want to just hear your words. We read your words. Now speak to us through my message, although it's my message.

May this message be to your people. Your voice, not only to understand and hear, but to take it hard and apply to our life in such a way that our obedience to your words will be pleasing to you. Be with us in Christ's name. Amen. One of my favorite subjects in the school was history. Anybody else who loves history?

Yeah, history, yes. If you love history Then you likely then, um, love reading biographies, right? If you love history, usually, um, love reading biographies. The history of the world, the Thomas Carlyle of the great man theory in 19th century said this. History of the world is but the biography of great men. So powerful events.

Indeed, shape the history, powerful individuals, shape, powerful events.

And that's largely true of man's history, right? On one level. In light of that, most of us don't feel that powerful, which means we feel we don't make much difference in history. Because we are not powerful. Therefore, we're not, uh, shaping the great events. Therefore, we don't shave the history. Not so soon.

What if we recognize history not just as the history of great men shaping the great events, but what if you recognize history as unfolding of God's will through history? The people that he choose,

that's on a different level and different perspective on history, isn't it? Then, who really shapes events in God's history? The Bible keeps telling us different stories that are quite surprising. And one of the stories is today's story. In today's story, we see a group of interesting characters, the powerful, the powerless and the prophet.

So three powerful men were introduced. Great General Naaman and the King of Aram and the King of Israel. Well, these are powerful people at the time. General Kings, And then a bunch of unnamed servants, a slave girl of Naaman's wife and Naaman's servants and Elisha's messenger. We don't know their names.

And of course, among them is the prophet Elisha, the man of God. Now, if we read this story from the beginning to the end, it seems the main character is who? The main character seems to be Naaman. Why? You know, other characters kind of come and go, but Naaman was mentioned from beginning to the end. So he's present throughout this story.

And he was the hero in his country. Highly regarded commander of the Syrian army. At that time, Syria, another word for Aram, was one of the powerful empires, and he was the commander that the king highly regarded him, highly prized him. We could imagine, here is a man who's focused, disciplined, capable, and loyal.

Accomplished leader, billion dollars worth in today's terms. And now man was great. Indeed, almost perfectly in control. But he had one problem, actually big one. He had leprosy. Have you ever seen somebody with leprosy? Joyce and I say it's a terrible disease, terrible skin and nerve disease that you don't feel pain.

So eventually you lose control of your body.

At that time, throughout history, those with leprosy were considered to be outcast, right? Cursed, punished by God. So they are separated from the rest. So this great general, Naaman, the hero, highly regarded person, warrior at that time. But had leprosy. You know, anything great in the world has but as a shadow side.

So actually, there is a famous sermon by Martin Luther King Jr. Great. But in this world. Wow. Great. But The Naaman story is that. I just finished reading, um, the biography of Steve Jobs by, uh, Isaac Walterson. I didn't start years ago because it was this big, but I got, I think, I got renewed interest to know more about his story because after all, I live in the Silicon Valley where he's influenced just like many other high tech leaders.

penetrating. So I wanted to understand who he was and then what's how he kind of impacted in one word. We can say Steve job was great, but he has many other issue, but he had cancer, just like Naaman was great, but he had leprosy. Steve Jobs was great, but he has cancer

when he was diagnosed. He stubbornly tried to beat his pancreatic cancer on his own for the first nine months after the initially diagnosed. He resists the surgery, which could have saved his life. So in the book, yeah, that he sort of regretted that he did it, but at that time he thought he could beat it because he was able to beat many other things in his life.

So he thought he was in control. So he tries sort of a acupuncture or, um, uh, supplementary diet way and things like that. He didn't want like somebody to open up his body, but eventually he became desperate and change his mind to do whatever, but it was a bit too late. We could imagine Naaman at first when he heard that he was diagnosed with leprosy, he might have gone through.

The denial period, just like most of us will go through when we are faced with some kind of, you know, bad news like that. No, not me. It couldn't happen to me. I don't deserve it. Maybe first, or so he thought he could conquer and defeat the disease, this terrible, terrible disease, like he did with, uh, many other forces of evil enemies forces in his life, right?

He's the general after all, conquer and defeat. It must have been very, very difficult for him to swallow his pride and lose control like that. And he became eventually desperate enough to do whatever that may solve the problem. So in addition to now Naman, We see other two powerful men.

This, the king of Aram and king of Israel, they play kind of minor roles in this story. Actually, they're playing politics. If you really pay attention to what's going on, they're kind of playing politics. Quite funny, actually. First, when Naaman said, Well, there's this little girl saying there's a, somebody in his, her country that might have some kind of cure or something for me.

Then the king of Aram say, like, Oh, by all means, go. I'll write the letter. And the letter says what? Well, here I'm sending my servant and it's kind of like almost a power play. You know? Okay, you are my subject. You know the country I'm sending my servant who has the problem. You find a solution for him.

Just tone of voice is very control and command.

And what was the reaction of King of Israel who received this? He got angry, of course. It's like, man, who do you, like, just because, you know, you are the powerful, powerful nation, that you think you can just come and send this guy and then say, we, am I God? So it's like, there are this kind of funny reaction.

and default mode with a default mode of command, control and reaction. And in the midst of this powerful man struggling, then there is a young girl from Israel who was a servant of Naaman's wife. We don't know much about her. We don't know her name, but obviously she was at the bottom of social chain at the time, at a doubly disadvantage.

as a slave girl in a foreign land that we learned that she had been carried off. She was captured and carried off as some of the spoils of war. It's not clear if Naaman was directly involved in capturing her or she was brought to him by one of his inferiors. Maybe she was pretty or she was smart.

Something about, okay, maybe we should make her, uh, one of your servants in your home. So she became Naaman's wife, servant girl. To be, to be more correctly saying, his slave. Whatever the case, imagine, this girl had all the reasons to be resentful toward Naaman. this man, the leader of the enemy of our people and somebody who was also responsible for her situation carried off from her home country and now foreign land as a slave.

But yet this humble girl sees her master suffering from this cruel torments of leprosy. And instead of kind of secretly enjoying a sense of satisfaction that this man who had captured and enslaved her was getting his due justice, you know, we could have said like, yes. But she actually reaches out to him and recommend someone who can help him and probably heal him.

Why does she do that? You know what? Nothing can explain her action except compassion and mercy. She didn't have to, right? She didn't have to tell him about that prophet Elisha. Maybe Naaman was a good man, treating his subjects fair and well. But still, from the world point of view, she should not have helped him.

Why helping the key leader of the enemy state? Maybe it's better off for someone like to be gone for our country to have a chance to recover. The same is true of Naaman's servants who pleaded with him when he was angry when Elisha told him, not even directly, Elisha told his messenger to tell Naaman, Naaman, when he came, you know, with a motorcade, you know, you could imagine, like, you know, chariots.

And now you just imagine, like, you know, this big limousines and, you know, this big, big car just pull over to your, your house. And then, like, knock on the door. Here is a great general, Naaman, expecting, you know, Elisha to come out and bow down. Oh, what can I do for you? Instead of that, somebody opened the door.

How can I help you? And then he saw that, Oh, this is like so and so. Okay, wait. And then he went back. Master, Alicia, here is a general Naaman who came all the way from Maran because of, you know, he had leprosy, whatever. Well, just tell him to go to Jordan River and then dip into the river for seven times.

And then he came open. My master said, you should go and then dip yourself in the Jordan River seven times. Boom.

That's what's happening. And of course, this General Naaman got furious. Angry. Man, we had much better river in my home country. I came all the way here for that muddy Jordan River? Ah, what an insert. I'm going to do something about this, man. But then there is group of servants. We don't know how many.

Master, you could have done something much difficult if he asked you to do it. But like he said, go wash and you'll be healed. And these servants, if they had any grudge against the Naaman, they didn't have to kind of plead with him. Why they do that? Why they do that? Again, nothing can explain but their compassion.

They somehow want Naaman to get better.

So what was common among these ordinary people? They spoke calmly and truthfully out of compassion and obedience to God. Then God used them, right, these people mightily to accomplish his purpose of saving this pagan leader. Why? Because in his sovereign and great plan, He had in mind saving this Naaman, pagan general.

Why? So that he can declare from his mouth, this pagan leader mouth. What did he say? He says, Now I know, this is what Naaman said at the end. There is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant. Now finally he's this. Seemingly, supposedly arrogant, powerful man of the history who was changing the world acknowledge God Almighty and then bring his gift and say, accept my servant gift.

This wonderful salvation story all start with unnamed girl who acted out of compassion. which is of God's heart. Her action reflected the ultimate act of compassion. God became man and die for us on the cross so he could save us from our sins. And first Corinthians 1 27 to 29 reminds us with this word.

God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not To nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him

As I began our message this morning that You The great man shaped the history through great events. That may be true on one level, but in God's story, we believe that often than not, God chose the weak, poor, lowly, humble, and exultant to bring his glory.

The cross of Jesus Christ and our faith in him and commitment to follow him all seem foolish and weak things in the eyes of the world. When I was reading Steve Jobs, you know, the biography and what he did, he's dealing, business dealing, talking about millions and talking about these thousands of people like, wow, in light of that, that's a lot.

I and we see what we do seem very mundane, insignificant. What if God's way is beyond our understanding?

It is the power of God that saves his people.

Not only that Sunday, each and every one of us. You believe in Christ. And we have the conviction that God saves us, the sinners. It is the power of God. It is not our choice. And that give us confidence not only for ourselves. When we do things, ordinary things, small things in the eyes of the world, but out of compassion and out of the obedience to God.

See what God could do. With this small act of kindness of this unnamed girl, he changed the direction of the history. So

if we believe that, and what are some applications in our life? You could just say, Oh yeah, that's very inspiring, you know, thought and story. I'm not gonna let you just go with that. What are the implication of applications? You know, if we really truly believe that God can use that unnamed girl and the boy with the five piece of bread and two fish and some others that coming next few weeks.

You and me. So how shall we think? And how shall we act in our daily lives? How should we consider ourselves? Perceive us and what we are doing and our relationship with others, especially those who are suffering.

I will leave that question for you to really ponder as your response to his message. Let us pray.

Oh, Heavenly Father, we must confess. It seems like our daily lives, our activities, and our interests and our priorities and our commitments seem to be so far from our deep conviction of faith in who you are and who we are in you. So, Lord, forgive us. We are so driven by the things of the world that we hardly, Lord, stop to really pause and consider.

to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit within us.

With gratitude that Lord, you never give up on us. You never let us go. You always bring us back to you. The fact that Lord, we can gather here, worship you and hear your words. It is Lord really by grace and we can truly thank you for that. And yet we want to continue Lord to respond to your love and grace.

through our daily lives, what we think and what we do, who we are in you.

We believe that true history is your history, unfolding of your will. And just as you used humble actions of that unnamed servant girl to bring healing and faith to mighty commander, we pray that you use our ordinary acts of compassion and obedience to accomplish your extraordinary purposes. So help us to see beyond our limitations and trust in your power.

May we respond to challenges, not with doubt or self reliance, but with simple faith and sacrificial action. Teach us to speak truthfully and act out of compassion, reflecting your love and grace in all we do. Let our lives be a testimony to your greatness, showing the world that with you, all things are possible.

In Jesus name we pray, Amen.