How is it possible that bathing in dirty water can make a person clean? In this ancient story about a Syrian army captain that contracted a fatal disease and his remarkable cure, you’ll discover how God’s simple plan to wash away guilt, unrest and sin involves a humbling of our pride and the need to embrace true Biblical humility.

<p>How is it possible that bathing in dirty water can make a person clean? In this ancient story about a Syrian army captain that contracted a fatal disease and his remarkable cure, you’ll discover how God’s simple plan to wash away guilt, unrest and sin involves a humbling of our pride and the need to embrace true Biblical humility.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Sacramento Central SDA Church

Chris Buttery

Seven Dips in Dirty Water

2nd Kings chapter 5 and verse 1 says the following, Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable because by him, the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria.

He was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper.

Ben-Hadad, he was the king of Syria and he had defeated the armies of Israel in the battle that resulted, interestingly, in the death of King Ahab.

And since that time, the Syrians had maintained a constant border raid against Israel.

They came in and to these small villages and towns on the outskirts of Israel and they would They would do folk harm, property harm, and they would also take people with them captive.

Unfortunately, in 1 of those particular border raids, they carried away a little girl, a maid, the Bible says, who in the land of her and took her to the land of her captives.

And while she was there, the scriptures record that she waited on Naaman's wife, the very woman of the man who had done the border raiding.

Although she was a slave far from her home, this little maid became 1 of God's witnesses unconsciously fulfilling the purpose for which God had chosen Israel.

And she said unto her mistress, Would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy.

And she wished that Naaman would be with her prophet back in Israel, so that Naaman, the man who had taken her captive, would be healed of his leprosy.

Although she was a captive, she did not forget her homeland, she didn't forget her family, and neither did she forget her God.

Neither did she think ill, thoughts toward those who had taken her captive and had forced her into involuntary service.

Would you be praying for someone who treated you bad that they would be healed of their disease?

As this young girl did, but she was filled with the love of God and her heart went out in sympathy toward her sick master and his wife.

Oh, if I could take a moment here to talk about the huge importance of proper parenting.

If I just had a few moments, extra moments to share, the very foundation of the habits and character of children have a lot to do with how the parents care for and they train their children.

Just a moment to impress upon us the need to reveal tenderness, justice, and long-suffering so that our children interpret correctly the love and justice and long-suffering of God.

If I could take a few moments to talk about the need to teach them to love, to teach them to trust and obey us, teaching them by doing so to trust and obey God when they grow older.

If we could just spend a few moments to talk, but we must move on.

You know, we don't know where our children will end up going, and how they'll spend their time when they leave home.

Whenever or whatever they do, and wherever they go, we need to teach them always and be intentional about teaching them to stand always on the side of right and live a life of unselfish service toward Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Naaman had heard what this little slave girl had told his wife.

And so he went out and obtained permission from the king about finding healing over there in Israel, their enemy.

He also carried a letter with him from the king of Syria to the king of Israel, and after having read it to the king of Israel, the king of Israel panicked.

His first thought was that, here they are, coming to get us.

This is their covert operation, coming, professing, wanting healing, but coming to do us harm.

He thought he was the 1 to perform the miracle, and you can read that in verses 5 through 7.

The king of Syria said, "'Go to, I'll send a letter to the king of Israel.

And he departed and took with him 10 talents of silver, 6000 pieces of gold, and 10 changes of raiment.

And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now, when this letter has come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.

And it came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter he was ecstatic and he was happy that he could do such a service.

Now the Bible says that he rent his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and to make alive that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy.

Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeks a quarrel against me." Now before we judge Joram too quickly, This was the king of Israel at that time, King Joram.

Before we judge him too quickly though, let's consider how sometimes, how easily we're prone to stressing out and not trusting that if God brings us to it, he'll see us through it.

Elisha, Elisha got the word regarding the king's reaction and his actions and he told the king you go ahead and you send Naaman over to me in verse 8 he told him that.

But Naaman wasn't impressed with the reception he received at the hand of this miracle worker, this prophet in Israel.

And he wasn't impressed regarding the instructions that he'd been given as well.

The prophet Elisha apparently, according to Naaman, had no regard for who was coming to his house for healing as his instructions were sent via a messenger without coming out to greet him personally.

But Naaman was absolutely mistaken if he thought Elisha was being disrespectful.

Naaman didn't understand that it wasn't the prophet that was going to produce healing here for Naaman, but it was the great God of heaven that would be able to do that.

Only God and God alone could do something spectacular like that.

So why did Elisha need to come out as if he was the important 1?

Naaman needed to know what was about to happen to him was only going to happen because of 1 mightier, because of 1 holier than this mere man, the prophet here in Israel.

Oh, and as for the instructions given to him, well, let's read those in verses 10 through 12.

In verses 10 through 12, And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, And he said, go and wash in Jordan 7 times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean.

But Naaman was wroth, he was angry, and he went away and he said, Behold, I thought he would 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, Ahnod Abana and Papha, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel.

So he turned and he went away in a rage and a huff.

He was upset, he was mad, indignant that first the Prophet hadn't come out to greet him and wave his hand miraculously over the leprosy.

You know, have you ever noticed, and probably you have, that when God does something special for a person, it doesn't always involve something spectacular, something everyone is going to see.

He expected him to come out like those preachers you see on TV and boom, poof, down, healed.

Oh, God doesn't often work in those ways.

He often works in simple, unassuming ways and also involving nature in the process to help.

Jesus, to heal a blind man, took mud and some spittle and mixed it together and put it over a man's eyes and the man was healed.

The man who had a sickness and he was given figs to put over, fig poultice to put over, so God uses natural means, natural methods.

That was a king, you see, who had that problem.

So he had expected him to come out, to greet him, to welcome Him, maybe even bow down before Naaman, this mighty warrior for the king of Syria, and then strike his hand over the leprosy and it'd be gone.

Why go to a river and why go to the Jordan at that?

Are there not nicer rivers here in this area?

Now the Jordan wasn't the only, wasn't the only the smallest or more obscure of those regional rivers in that particular day, it just wasn't that nice either.

In fact, some commentators suggest that it wasn't a very clean river, It was actually, in fact, in some places, very dirty.

And then to go dip 7 times in that river on...

But 7 times you're going to send me out, dip inside that dirty river." And what did Naaman say?

I would have thought that He would have sent me to some better river, I thought.

How many times, how many times we think that our way is a better way than God's.

But often our preconceptions of what the Lord's mode of action should be are often just plain different.

Inspired writer, the inspired writer said, "'When we map out beforehand the path of providence, we may expect disappointment.

You can't direct and guide the hand of providence.

And if you seek to fight it, you're gonna be disappointed, bitterly at times disappointed.

God chose Israel, God chose to lead Israel out of Egypt by way of the Red Sea.

Now that was not an easy way, but that wasn't man's way, that was God's way, you understand.

God sent his son, not as a prince born in a royal home, but to be born in a stable.

But that wasn't according to the idea of the powerful at that time.

God had sent his son to live among men as a servant, but that was not what the religious leaders thought should happen.

In the Bible Commentary, Volume 2, page 876, we're told, The man who would be saved and walk in the ways of the Lord must learn that God's ways are infinitely higher and better than are the ways of man.

And that's just simply reiterating what Isaiah wrote in Isaiah chapter 55 verses 8 & 9 that where God said my thoughts are higher than yours, my thoughts are better than yours.

And you need to come up high, you need to trust me, you see.

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Seven Dips in Dirty Water

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