In 2 Kings 5, 6, and 7 the reader finds three incredible statements made by the prophet Elisha. The response of many to these statements would be, “No, I don’t think so. I don’t see how that can happen.” Yet each one of them is absolutely true. The purpose of this article is to review these events and make some pertinent observations concerning them.
Naaman the Syrian
2 Kings 5 describes a commander of the Syrian army. He was a mighty man of valor, a description that was used of many of David’s men about 150 years earlier. His master believed also that he was a great and honorable man (5:1). The only problem was that he was a leper, which probably meant that his days of service were numbered.
His greatness might be noted in the way he and his wife treated their servants. Mrs. Naaman had a servant girl who had been captured in a raid on Israel. Instead of seeming bitter or resentful for being enslaved, she actually shows concern for Naaman’s affliction. She exclaimed to her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy” (5:3).
By this statement, is she hoping to be taken back to Israel? And isn’t she a bit presumptuous? How does she know that Elisha would be willing to heal a foreign enemy? She had not seen him heal other lepers; Jesus would later say, “And many lepers were in Israel at the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian” (Luke 4:27). It may be that she simply knew of his power in other areas and just assumed it could extend to healing a leper.
The girl must have been very convincing—or maybe Naaman was just desperate—because he went and spoke to his master, the king of Syria about what a lowly, female servant had told him. Remarkably, the king then wrote a letter to the king of Israel on Naaman’s behalf. The message was brief:
Now be advised, when this letter comes to you, that I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy (5:6).
To be sure, Naaman took some gifts for the cure he hoped to receive—plenty of gold and silver, not to mention 10 changes of clothing. He took all these plus the letter and went to see the king of Israel, who was shocked at the request. The letter is written as if the king had the power to heal, and he certainly recognized he had no such ability. In fact, he responded by saying, “Am I God, to kill and make alive, that this man sends me a man to heal him of his leprosy?” He concluded that the king of Syria could not be honest in this request and was determined to start a war (5:7).
However, when Elisha heard of the situation, he told the king of Israel to send Naaman to him, and he would take care of the matter. However, when Naaman came to Elisha’s abode, he was not welcomed inside. Instead, the prophet sent his servant Gehazi out to him with a message: “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you, and you shall be clean” (5:10).
Even though Gehazi delivered the message, it was authorized by Elisha; this is the first of the incredible statements in these three chapters. Why is it of such an astounding nature? The answer is that the cure, the idea of which undoubtedly originated with God, makes no sense. Was this some kind of home remedy? Had anyone ever tried it before? No connection between washing seven times in the Jordan River and ridding oneself of leprosy exists.
This fact was not lost upon Naaman. He grew furious over the matter. Was someone just toying with him? The solution provided him had no link to anything logical. If he tried washing the leprosy away, would they follow him so they could just get a good laugh? As a military man, he was accustomed to analyzing battles and strategies for fighting. He relied on factual information—not fantasy. To expect leprosy to be cleansed away in water could only be fiction. Even if water could remove his problem, at home he had much cleaner rivers. He “went away in a rage” (5:12).
Now he will never know if he would have been made clean. Naaman was an experienced and successful military leader. Fortunately, he had one other impressive talent—he selected excellent servants. His wife’s maidservant had suggested this solution in the first place; now his other servants reasoned with him, seeing his determination to leave hastily. They pointed out that, if the prophet had told him to do something extremely difficult or dangerous, that he was prepared to attempt it. How much easier was it to follow the instructions he had been given? He did so and was cleansed of his leprosy. What a happy moment! His wife would be elated, and so would his king! He would be able to return home to lead a normal life instead of wasting away slowly from the effects of this awful disease.
Did he obey what the prophet said because he chose now to believe him? Or did he go down to the river in defiance—with the intention of returning and complaining if the process had not worked? We would like to think his rationale was the former—that he stopped to think about all that had happened. The servant girl had seemed so sure. So had the prophet’s servant Gehazi. Could it be that crazy idea of dipping seven times in the Jordan might actually work? Well, he had nothing to lose, and he could possibly recover healthy skin.
What’s Baptism Got To Do With It?
When it comes to salvation from sin, today not many resemble Naaman—willing to do something great in order to obtain it. Of course, salvation never comes by great works we might do, but neither is it as simple as modern man has tried to make it. The majority of religious teachers have run so far away from the idea of meriting salvation that they have removed almost any response at all from the process. Most have decided to camp on the doorstep of “faith only.”
Exactly how would that have worked with Naaman? To be parallel, Gehazi would have stepped out of the prophet’s house and said, “If you just believe God can remove your leprosy, you will be clean. Just pray this prayer: “O God, I believe that You, because of Your great love and power, have cleansed me from my leprosy. Amen.” Needless to say, when he took a good look at his body, nothing would have changed—about like when people pray the “sinner’s prayer” today (which is still not in the Bible).
What if Gehazi had told Naaman, “He who believes and dips in the Jordan River seven times shall be cleansed from leprosy”? In effect, he did tell him that. The fact that Naaman was about to depart without obeying shows that he did not believe the message. It made no sense to him, and if you don’t believe it, then why do it? Today, people are subject to the words of Jesus, who said, “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16). Immediately, some will
argue, “But you don’t have to be baptized in order to be saved.” Who said that? Not the Lord.
To try to put salvation between belief and baptism would be analogous to putting the cleansing of Naaman between his hearing the message and his washing in the Jordan. Is that the way it happened? No. After he heard the prophet’s message, he had to go and dip in the Jordan River seven times—before he became clean.
Someone might protest, “But I don’t see any connection between baptism and salvation. How can being immersed in water remove a person’s sins, which is a spiritual concept?” That’s actually a fair question, but it’s essentially the same one Naaman had in his mind. How can being washed in the Jordan River possibly remove the plague of leprosy? There’s no connection between the two acts. No reason to explain a correlation was ever given to Naaman. It finally came down to this: Washing seven times in the Jordan River removed his leprosy because God said it would.
In other words, it was a matter of obedience. If God says it (whatever subject is being addressed), that settles the matter. Decades earlier, after the Amalekites had taken David’s and his men’s wives and property, David inquired of the Lord if they should go after them and reclaim what they had lost. God said they should, and that was all the assurance that David needed. He and his men conquered them and returned victorious.
So if we never see a connection between sin, salvation, and baptism, we need not be concerned. God sees it, and being baptized for the forgiveness of sins works (Acts 2:38, 41; 22:16). However, unlike Naaman, God has given us a connection between baptism and salvation. It is during this act (and nowhere else) that we come in contact with the blood of Jesus.
Is the literal blood of Jesus in the water? No. But this is the moment which God has chosen to wash away our sins. Revelation 1:5 states that Jesus washed us from our sins in His own blood. Saul of Tarsus was told to arise and be baptized and wash away his sins (Acts 22:16). What else can we conclude but that Jesus does this when we obey Him in baptism?
Besides, Paul writes that baptism is the means by which we are buried with Him into His death (Rom. 6:3-5). Jesus died in the flesh and was buried; we die to sin and are buried. Jesus’ blood was shed in His death (John 19:34). When we join Him in His death, that blood cleanses us of our sins just as certainly as Naaman was cleansed of his leprosy. Why? Because this is the way God designed it to work.
Works?
“Oh, but baptism is a work of man that merits salvation, and we know that the Bible teaches that we cannot be saved by works.” It is absolutely the case that no person can merit salvation, but some people confuse this truth with something that is not true—that no human response is required whatsoever. If such were the case, then faith would be futile because it reacts positively to the evidence God has provided as to who Jesus is—the Son of God. That proof was recorded for the very purpose of causing us to believe (John 20:30-31).
Besides, baptism is not a work of man; it is the work of God. Sinners are buried with Christ in baptism and also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead (Col. 2:12). We do not merit salvation by being baptized; we have faith, however, in the working of God—that Jesus’ blood will wash away our sins.
Now let’s consider Naaman once again. Will anyone affirm that he earned the eradication of his leprosy? In what way was dipping in the Jordan River a work of merit? No, he simply obeyed what the prophet told him to do. No one considers that, by following instructions, he actually deserved to have healthy skin. Yes, he was willing to give away gold and silver for what he received, but that was out of gratitude and generosity—not because he was being charged a fee.
The instructions given to Naaman, then, were incredible in that no discernible connection between the leprosy and the washings can be detected. The application cannot be missed. Whether or not we understand the reason baptism works, it does—and for the same reason: God says that it removes our sins. Do we trust God enough to believe His Word?