Dr. Derek Thomas (0:00)

It's a story of human trafficking, so it's a very contemporary story. She has no name and that's fascinating. She's lost forever. Her parents never saw her again. But she does one thing and it changes history.

Nathan W. Bingham (0:24)

Who is she and what did she do? Welcome to Renewing youg Mind. On this Monday, as we begin a break, brand new series from Derrick Thomas on some of the lesser known characters of the Bible. We know the big names, the big characters who are recorded for us in the Bible, Abraham, Moses, David, Deborah and Mary. But there are many people who get a passing mention, yet their contributions under the sovereignty of God are significant and you'll meet one such individual today. This series has just been released and if you'd like access to all 12 messages along with the Renewing youg Mind notebook to keep all of your notes from your study or perhaps to use as you take notes in church, you can request this resource bundle today when you donate@renewingyourmind.org so who was she? Well, here's Dr. Thomas to introduce us to the maid of Naaman's wife.

Dr. Derek Thomas (1:29)

Well, today we begin a series of lesser known characters from the Bible and today we are in 2 Kings, chapter 5, and I want to focus on Naaman's wife's maid. Now, the chapter is long and it has 27 verses, but I'm just going to read the first three verses. Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favour because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now, the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, would that my Lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria. He would cure him of his leprosy. So Naaman is a Syrian general and in the Old Testament, Syria is sometimes translated or called Aram. And you might remember the Arameans. The Arameans and the Syrians are one and the same. We're talking about a piece of land northeast of Israel. Israel is the northern kingdom. Judah is the southern kingdom after the two kingdoms divided. And you've got Israel and then up in the northeast you have Syria. And at one time, well, Syria had its capital in Damascus, the same Damascus that you can read about today. It is often said that Damascus is the oldest capital city in the world. And David had conquered Syria at one point. But by this time in 2 Kings, chapter 5, it is back in Syrian hands. Now Naaman is in favor with the king. He's a general. There's been some kind of military raid into Israel, so they've gone southwest into Israel. And we read of the capture of this little girl. One assumes there were many captured and they were enslaved and put into service in Syria for sure. And this little girl is put into the service of Naaman's wife. She is Naaman's wife's maid. But Naaman is a leper. One assumes he contracted this disease after this raid, and it had all kinds of medical and social consequences. And his job as a general would be very much in doubt. So first of all, I want to ask the question, why is this story here? And it's a story about the providence of God. It's a story about international politics. This has nothing to do with Jerusalem. It's to do with the rebel kingdom of Israel in the north and Syria, or the Arameans. And the writer, I think, just wants you to know something that's very important. That God is sovereign over everything. And he's sovereign even over pagan kings and generals. And then the story focuses on a little girl, the maid of Naaman's wife, who's been captured in this raid. So you've got big things and you've got small things. You've got Naaman, the great general, and you've got a little girl whose name we don't know. It's a story of, well, human trafficking. So it's a very contemporary story. She has no name, and that's fascinating. She's lost forever. Her parents never saw her again. There were no milk cartons with her face on it. But she does one thing and it changes history. And what is this? Well, the big picture is the providence of God. God ordering all events. Nothing happens without God willing it to happen. And without God willing it to happen before it happens. And without God willing it to happen in the way that it happens. God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm deep in unfathomable mines of never failing skill he treasures up his bright designs and works his sovereign will. That's a hymn that we sing by William Cooper. Troubled, psychologically, troubled as he was, and a neighbor to the great John Newton. God moves in mysterious ways. And we see here the providence, the providence of God over big things and little things. Well, secondly, God's servants can be pathetic. This servant girl tells her mistress that there's a Prophet, a servant of the Lord who can heal him. And that's all she does. Her master, Naaman, the general, has leprosy. And she says in verse three, would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria. He would cure him of his leprosy. We're talking about the prophet Elisha, who followed the prophet Elijah. And so she tells Naaman, she tells her mistress and then her boss, who in turn tells Naaman, who asks the king for permission to go and see this prophet Elisha. And the king gives him letters of safe passage and a change of clothing, several changes of clothing. There's no Amazon.com there's no endless clothing catalogs coming in the mail. And evidently at this period in history in the Middle east, clothing was an important and perhaps an expensive item. And he comes to the king of Israel. Now, we don't know who the king of Israel was. We speculate that it might have been Jehoram. And there's a problem, because the king of Israel, if it was Jehoram, the king of Israel suspects a plot. The king of Syria is sending his most revered general to his opponent and adversary, the king of Israel, over whom he has been victorious in recent days in a great raid against the king of Israel. So you've got, on the one hand, you have the faith of the little girl, and in contrast, you've got the fear of Israel's king. And in verse seven, we read, when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, am I God to kill and to make alive that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me. Well, there it is. He suspects a plot, and he's fearful. He's a politician. He's in the world of compromise and intrigue and suspicion. It's a plot set up by the Syrian king to let his guard down and be vulnerable to attack. The whole thing is a ruse. A man, a king, who fails to trust God, and a little girl who has faith that God, through this prophet Elisha, could cure him of his leprosy. He's the king of God's covenant nation now in a period of apostasy. You can belong to the body outwardly, but inwardly you are far away. And in rebellion you can use the buzzwords but not know their power. You may have an outward profession of faith, but inside there's nothing but emptiness and fear and disbelief. Well, thirdly, God's ways are sometimes humiliating the king of Israel is pacing up and down. He's talking to his advisors. He's convinced it's a plot. And the message comes to Elisha. And Elisha says, send the general to me now. Where did Elisha live? He didn't live in the palace. He lived probably in a very humble little home, perhaps made of mud and straw, somewhere on the outskirts of the city. And Naaman comes with an entourage of chariots. One imagines there might have been 20 or 30 or 40 chariots to accompany the great general. The street is blocked. The neighbors are unhappy. Is this the start of an invasion? Are there other chariots over the hills ready to come and pounce? And Naaman's pride is triggered because Elisha, first of all, Elisha says, come and meet me. He didn't. He didn't go to the palace to meet him. He asked Naaman to come to his house. But Elisha doesn't come out. He sends one of his servants to tell the general to go and perform some ritual, dipping himself seven times in the River Jordan. And Naaman is outraged. There are two great rivers in Damascus, Arbana and Pharpar. And he says, aren't these rivers in Damascus are way better than this little river of. Of the Jordan? And we're at a point where it's the very beginning of the River Jordan. So there isn't much to the River Jordan. Lower down, the River Jordan might be a substantial river, but at this point in the geography of things, the River Jordan is nothing at all. And so Naaman is out of sorts. You see, Elisha is treating Naaman like a leper. He doesn't come anywhere near him. It's God's way to humble us to the ground. It's this way or not at all. If Naaman was going to know the grace of God, it was going to be God's way and not Naaman's way. Don't you see a little foreshadowing of the Gospel. Every now and then when you read the Old Testament, you get a little story that reminds you that this is God's way, this is what he does. Before we can experience the grace of God, he has to humble us. We have to feel the need of it. We have to bow the knee and acknowledge that we are unworthy of his mercies and grace. Pride, like a balloon, needs to be burst. Pride will keep you from the favor and grace of God. The fourth thing that we see in this passage is the gratitude and faith of Naaman. He goes to the River Jordan. He dips himself. Verse 14 he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan. The word dipped, the verb dipped in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament is baptism. He baptized himself seven times in the river Jordan. And a change occurs. You notice in the second half of verse 15. Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. So accept now a present from your servant. This is the great General, but he's referring to himself as your servant. And that little expression occurs five times in this narrative. Something has changed. The balloon of pride has been burst. And he's admitting that there is only one true God, and it's the God of Israel, the God of the Israelites, whom the Israelites have abandoned and forgotten. The God of Elisha, the prophet. Now, verse 17, Naaman said, if not, he offers Elisha a gift, and Elisha refuses it. He urged him to take it, but he refused. End of verse 16. And then verse 17, then Naaman said, if not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth. For from now on, your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifices to any God but the Lord. He wants a piece of earth to take back with him. He wants a piece of Israel, God's covenant, and he wants to take it back with him. Now, politics is a messy business, and Naaman realizes that, and I think Elisha realizes that he's going to be in the service of the king of Syria. And there'll be occasions when the king of Syria will be offering sacrifices to pagan gods and Naaman will be standing right next to him. You either quit your job or you ask forgiveness. And he asks forgiveness. For in this matter, may the Lord pardon your servant. When my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship, there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon. When I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter. And Elisha says to him in verse 19, go in peace. Now, commentators disagree. What does Elisha mean when he says, go in peace? Is he granting him forgiveness? Is he granting him the right to compromise because he's in the world of international politics and to forgive the outward gesture, even if inwardly he's not worshiping these foreign gods. Jonathan Edwards didn't believe that Naaman was a converted man, but John Calvin compared him to Cornelius, the Roman general in Acts, chapter 10, who gave alms, and those alms were acceptable. Go in peace. Elisha says. God's grace healed and transformed him. But there's a fly in the ointment, as there often is. And the second half of 2 Kings 5 is the story of Gehazi, who is a servant of Elisha. And Gehazi is a greedy and corrupt man. Elisha had refused a gift of silver and change of clothing. And when Naaman's chariots have gone a couple of miles, Gehazi comes running after them and suggests that Elisha has changed his mind. Some seminary students have come down from the north and they need clothing, and it would be great if there were a few silver coins to support them and give them some help. All of this, of course, is a lie. Two talents of silver and two suits of clothes. But then when he gets back to Elisha's house, Elisha is a prophet, and prophets knew stuff. The Holy Spirit told prophets stuff that you otherwise wouldn't know. And so Elisha knows exactly what Gehazi has done, and Gehazi becomes a leper. That was his punishment. And there's irony in it, isn't there, that Naaman was healed and experienced the grace of God. But Gehazi got Naaman's leprosy for his greed and unbelief. But you say to me, wait a minute, I thought this lesson was all about the servant girl of Naaman's wife, the little girl who had been captured in a Syrian raid into Israel. This little girl, she is by this time perhaps a teenager. Who knows how old she is. She hasn't seen her parents or grandparents or friends, and she never will. She's in a foreign land with foreign customs, and she's in the service of the wife of one of the greatest generals in Syria. We don't know her name. And she's hidden in the story of Naaman and Elisha and Gehazi. And you get all embroiled in the drama of that story, and then you remember, none of this would have happened if it hadn't been for the faith of that little girl. Naaman would never have come to know the grace of God, this foreign general, of all people. And God had a plan to save him, to humble him, to bring him to himself, to have a prophet say to him, go in peace, to know the shalom of God upon his life. A difficult life. Christians in politics, Christians in military service. And it's a difficult life. And there would be moments of great tension and opposition and difficulty, issues of conscience. And Elisha seems, I think, to say to him, to Naaman, the grace of God will be with you. The peace of God will be with you. You'll know what to do. And all of this has come about because of an act of a little girl who says to her mistress, would that my Lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy. She had one thing to do, and she did it and did it well.