Seven Ducks In A Dirty River

By John Stallings


……..but he was a leper. -- 2nd Kings 5:1


Imagine if you attended a well known college or university.

You graduated with honors & now you have a really great job with a large company. You had worked hard through the years & gotten lots of promotions & eventually became CEO of the company.

You continue to grow the business & expand it further into other countries. NOW YOU’VE MADE IT!! You’ve made a name for yourself. You’re smart & everybody knows it & well known in your field of expertise. Not to mention you’re rich.

One morning you’re combing your hair & feel a burning pain in the upper part of your body. You see your doctor & he tells you you’re seriously ill. Not only that, you must enter the hospital immediately for a battery of tests with radical surgery soon to follow. You must cancel all plans as of that moment & put your life on hold and you’re told that most cases like yours have an extremely high mortality rate. How do you think you’d feel? You’d be devastated, it’s just that simple.

Now all the education, all the hard work, all the riches mean nothing. Not only that, what about all the employees in your large company who look to you for sustenance. Suddenly everything goes up in smoke.

This brings us to one of the most interesting stories in the Old Testament. In the book of 2nd Kings we find a man named Naaman in the very same situation we just described. His chief claim to fame is --- he’s mentioned in a sermon by Jesus in Luke 4:27. Jesus commented that the only leper healed in Elisha’s time was Namaan the leper.

Our response to our bad health news would very likely be taken much more mildly than Naamans so long ago. His world abruptly blew apart. He was the captain of the Syrian Army. He was a mighty man of valor, a great man of courage, a great leader & military tactician. He was brilliant with many battles behind him most of which he’d won. He was a big- shot & a national hero in his own country. Had he lived in our day Namaan would have been a governor, head of a chamber of commerce or president of some bank. But---Naaman was a leper.

Naaman had the whole world seemingly in the palm of his hand. He had all that fleshly appetites could possibly want. He was on top of the world & at the top of his game. Unfortunately his life took a bad twist & when we meet him here in 2nd Kings he’s hideously & terminally ill with a flesh devouring disease.

The best comparison I can think of with leprosy in our modern day would be AIDS. Barring a miracle, life as he knows it is over for Naaman. He’s going to die sometime soon. Death would be a blessing considering the alternative of the digits & limbs of his body literally falling off.

But now Naaman must be quarantined because he’s contagious. He’s unclean. There’s no cure. This once powerful man is now powerless, he’s a pathetic case. He’s really sick. His position in the Army now means absolutely nothing at all. The battles he’s won; the achievements he’s had so far in life are totally insignificant.

As it oft-times happens, help came from a strange source-a young Jewish girl. She had been taken captive & was now a servant to Namaan’s wife. This girl was probably a teenager snatched from her home & may have even witnessed the death of her parents. Her reaction to Namaan’s tragedy was remarkably Christian. She had no hatred or resentment, only a desire to help. She told of a prophet by the name of Elisha in Samaria who could heal him of his disease. Samaria was the capitol of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This constituted great news for Naaman.

Now Naaman is on a search for God & God’s man.

SADLY SOME PEOPLE NEVER THINK OF GOD UNTIL THEY’RE DESPERATE?

Far too many people take no time for God when things are running smoothly. They don’t acknowledge Him in any way. I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news but God loves us enough to rock our world to get our attention. If we place God on the back burner, sooner or later we’ll get a rude awakening & it won’t be pleasant.

So Naaman asked permission from the King to go see the prophet Elisha. The King sent him to another even weaker King & we are furnished with a little comic relief here at the expense of “The high & the mighty.” It was a typical case of bureaucratic bungling which causes two kings, the king of Syria & the king of Israel to have a short “Mexican-standoff.” The King of Israel had a conniption hissy-fit thinking he was being messed with by the king of Syria. He couldn’t cure a fly with a headache & he knew it, so he got all bent out of shape & rent his clothes. It’s really comical when you read it in 2nd Kings 5:6-7.

Well Elisha the prophet heard about the kerfluffel & sent word to the king of Israel to send Naaman to him. It’s slowly sinking into Naaman’s head that God is his only hope. Naaman lets no grass grow under his feet. You’ve really got to picture the scene of Naaman arriving at Elisha’s house. His big chariot wheels barely fit between the curbs. He pulls up in front of Elisha’s house with all his entourage thinking Elisha is going to lay hands on him. Naaman’s horses are puffing & pawing on the ground & Elisha’s neighbors are hanging out their windows. One of Naaman's snappily dressed servants walks up to the door & knocks.

But Elisha sends his servant out to tell Naaman to go duck in the river Jordan River seven times. It’s this simple; General Naaman, a commander of the Army of Aram who was packing a lot of gold & silver in his luggage as well as clothes, was supposed to go squat around in a muddy river like a five year old boy.

JUST DO IT NAMAAN
The instructions given Namaan are reminiscent of the Nike commercial— “Just do it.” When Naaman gets the orders to go to this dirty river & duck he’s gets so angry & upset he turns & starts home. What kind of shabby welcome is this? The approach Elisha is using & these seemingly nonsensical instructions are totally unacceptable. His home town of Damascus was known for its clean pure rivers & endless supply of clean water. Namaan’s servant reminds him that if the prophet had asked him to so some great thing he’d have been willing to do it.

NOTICE HOW THE SERVANTS, BASICALLY POWERLESS PEOPLE, ARE PLAYING SUCH IMPORTANT ROLLS IN THIS STORY.

Namaan was fortunate to have such wise people around him who weren’t afraid to speak truth to power. So often simple common sense tips the scales in the right direction. So finally Naaman goes down to the river & walks out into the muddy water. He really wants to get well. He leaves his clothes & shoes on the bank. The water was greenish & smelled like fish. There was nothing remotely sacred about it. Can’t you just hear him say “Ooooooooo its Soooo cold & muddy?” I can imagine his teeth were chattering & his sores were burning. He pinches his nose & tries to think of nothing but numbers.

1. After the first DUCK Naaman still had leprosy --but his DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD was washed away.

He was obedient & that was a good start but what he needed was more of God. If he was going to be healed it would take more obedience. Many people have all of God they want. Today “our greatest need is to see our need.”

Abraham was the poster boy for disobedience in Genesis. God told him to leave Ur & go to Canaan but he went as far as Haran & settled down there; a direct act of disobedience. He didn’t sojourn there, he settled there & there’s a big difference. As a matter of fact, when studying Abraham’s life Haran is called the “land of disobedience.” Many people never see their dreams come true in life because they fail to fully execute God’s will for their lives.

Also Abraham strayed down into Egypt which is a type of the world. Abraham was a man with flocks & herds & when the rain stopped he was in trouble. So he felt driven to leave & go south toward Egypt. Abraham didn’t consult God about the matter, he just went. This was a tragic mistake for each step took him away from the alter & closer to Egypt.

Egypt looked good with its lush green delta & the Nile River. There would be plenty of food there. But the trip turned out to be disastrous because Abraham took council with this fears instead of with God.

So we can readily see that when Namaan got rid of his disobedience he was definitely on the right track but he still had a ways to go.

If God tells us to jump through a wall it’s our business to jump & God’s business to make a hole. The people standing around watching will be happy to tell us two seconds after we jump if God told us.

2. The second DUCK & Naaman still had leprosy-- but his STUBBORNESS was washed away.

Proverbs 29:1 says---He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed & that without remedy.1 Peter 5:5 tells us to---- clothe ourselves with humility toward one another.

Saul is a great example of stubbornness in the Old Testament. In 1 Samuel 15 God told Samuel to tell King Saul to wipe out the Amalekites. Saul in his stubbornness didn’t complete the job & allowed the King to live & took many of the spoils of the land including the animals. It was in this context that God said;

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, & stubbornness is as iniquity & idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king.

Namaan isn’t whole yet but he now has a handle on his stubbornness & this is a great victory for him. The sins of Naaman’s character & his lack of Godly graces were much more of a challenge to God than the healing of his leprosy. As a matter of fact the ducking in the muddy Jordan really had nothing to do with the leprosy but all to do with the sins of Naaman’s heart. Man looks upon the outward appearance but God sees the heart.


3. The third DUCK & Naaman still had leprosy-- but his PRIDE was washed away.

Pride was a major problem for Naaman. After all he was a man of high estate & authority. Pride is a pesky weed that sprouts up when & where we least expect it. Someone has said that pride is the Dandelion of the soul. Its roots go deep & if a small amount is left it can sprout again & again. It will always be standing two or three inches above the grass. If the grass grows two inches, the dandelion will grow three. The danger in pride is that it thrives on goodness. We tend to think of real sin as adultery, murder & car-jacking but pride is perhaps the most dangerous sin of all because of its deceptiveness.

I remember reading a story about Ronald Reagan back when he was governor of California. He was making a speech in Mexico & afterwards he sat down to a rather unenthusiastic applause. A Spanish speaker then got up to speak & he was applauded on almost every paragraph. To hide his embarrassment, Reagan applauded at every opportunity. He clapped when he spoke, and always clapped a little more than everyone else. Then our American ambassador leaned over & said, “Mr. President, I don’t think I’d do that, the man is interpreting your speech.”

This was a very innocent mistake but it points up how easy it is for us look prideful or slip into prideful actions. It seems you can beat pride down & do all you can to eliminate it but there it is, it’s still alive. Part of the problem with pride is that it’s easy to see in others but not so easy to see in ourselves. The self-centered see everything through the prism of self. There’s a little “mini-me” lens in the eye & our main question is always, “what about me?” Pride causes us to look through a straw & of course at the end of the straw is “us.”

I saw a cartoon years ago where a smiling woman said, “That’s enough about me, lets talk about you. What do you think about me?”

One time Mohammad Ali was riding on a plane when the stewardess came up & told him to buckle his safety belt. Ali answered; “Superman didn’t need a safety belt.” She answered; “Yes, & Superman doesn’t need no plane.” Pride can convince us that we are somehow better & more important than other people.

Juda & I once met with a denominational leader about becoming part of his organization. All through the conversation he would refer to “the little man.” By this he meant the basically unknown men who pastored the small churches in his group. During an hour conversation he must have used that phrase “The little man” two or three dozen times. We left there with a sick feeling in the pit of our stomachs & I told Juda I didn’t believe that man would hold his leadership very long unless he lost that way of referring to his ministers. Sure enough before long he was voted out of his leadership position & consigned to a small church, which in his own words was a “little mans” place.

I like the way The Message Bible paraphrases Proverbs 16:18---First pride—then the crash—the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.
Someone has rightly said; when the head starts swelling, the mind stops growing. If we are having marriage problems & we refuse to talk to anyone about it, that’s pride. When we’ve got financial problems & we refuse to admit & get help, that’s pride. When we are having problems as parents or aren’t cutting it on the job, we don’t want anyone to know about it & we refuse to seek help, that’s pride; & a very destructive kind of pride. Pride is the wall that keeps sinners from Christ & it leads us to exclude Him from His rightful place in our hearts.

I remember a song we used to sing when I was a boy;

When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but lost,
And pour contempt on all my pride.


4. The fourth DUCK & Naaman still had leprosy--- but his SELF- PITY was washed away.

Let’s not forget that Namaan was a strong, proud accomplished warrior, the ranking general of his nation’s armed forces, an honored & well-rewarded member of Syria’s ruling elite. He was accustomed to adulation from commoners & to riveted attention from their admiring eyes. But now he is forced to leave the confines of his home & endure people’s stares. His clothes may conceal the fiery inflamed skin & the white scaly patches that cover most of his body, but his face is so afflicted that it is clear he’s a ritually unclean man who has been marginalized by the dreaded disease of leprosy.

How art the mighty fallen. There can be no reasonable doubt that Namaan is filled with self-pity & suppressed anger. Everyone in his household knows of his dreaded disease. As already stated, all through this story God is using servants, those who some would call “small people” to bring Namaan’s miracle into fruition. God is orchestrating every detail in this story to minister to Namaan’s pride & self-pity because it was such a great weight to the powerful man. But when he obeys the man of God’s instruction self-pity is washed away.


5. The fifth DUCK Naaman still had leprosy-- but his ANGER was washed away.

When Namaan is told he’s to duck seven times in an old dirty river his response is to stomp off in rage. His anger is stirred up & his ego is wounded by the prophet who is again stepping on his pride & marginalizing him. Even the Holy Man has refused to come to him directly. How much more humiliating can it get? Is this prophet going to shrink away from looking on his afflicted personage? The anger almost did the trick of cheating this man out of his miracle because he was definitely headed home until one of his servants reminded him that had he been asked to do some great thing he’d probably been glad to do it, just not this demeaning dip in an unclean river called Jordan.


6. The sixth DUCK Naaman still had leprosy --but his SELF-RIGHTOUSNESS was washed away.

Have you ever noticed that rebellion & arrogance usually carry with them a strong sense of self-righteousness? Head-strong people will almost invariably have an attitude of “I’m right,” & it’s usually the “in your face” variety.

Job was correct when he said;

If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse. Job 9:20


Luke gives us a very succinct story in Luke 18:9-14. He starts off by saying;

And Jesus spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: two men went into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee & the other a publican. The Pharisee stood & prayed thus with himself, God I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortionist, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

I fast twice in a week & give tithe of all I possess. And the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exhalteth himself shall be abased & he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

We all want to be O.K. We want to be accepted. Who is acceptable to God? This story we have read throws some light on that question. The Pharisees were seriously religious. They weren’t Jesus’ favorite people. But we shouldn’t forget that at least they were serious about keeping the Law. They felt that their nation had suffered in the past because they hadn’t kept the law. They studied it very carefully & had codified it into 248 positive rules & 365 negatives ones. As if that wasn’t enough they had a bunch more to sort of keep them from “getting into trouble.” So we can’t say that was all bad.

The other group, the tax collectors were considered the dregs of society. They had to collect taxes from the common folk & pass them on to the Romans. But they were crooked & often took more than they were supposed to & lined their pockets with it.

Jesus takes one person from each of these groups & tells his story about what happened when they both went into the temple to pray. In this story Jesus is aiming at the problem of self-righteousness.

Here is the real problem with self-righteousness;

SELF-RIGHTOUSNESS MAKES IT POSSIBLE FOR OUR GOODNESS TO SEPARATE US FROM GOD.

Let me say that again---Self-righteousness makes it possible for our goodness to separate us from God. Whew! Doesn’t that sound strange? Surely God prefers good to evil. After all it was God who gave the Ten Commandments. But the reason self-righteousness is so dangerous is that instead of our goodness bringing us closer to God, it can lead us far away from Him. The reason for that is-- self-righteousness is just another manifestation of the sin of pride. When I speak of pride here I don’t just mean the pleasure & satisfaction we get out of a job well done or when one of our kids does well at school. The problem comes with the tendency of the individual to do so well in his own strength that he refuses to acknowledge any dependence on God. Haven’t you heard people say; “I feel I’m a pretty good person, I don’t really need God. I bet I live as good a life as those people down at the church.”

SELF RIGHTOUSNESS IS A SLIPPERY CONCEPT

To show you how slippery it is, a Sunday school teacher taught one morning about this proud Pharisee & in her closing prayer she said, “Lord I thank you that I’m not like the Pharisee in this story.” We can smile at this but then if we’re not careful we can turn around & feel that the fact that we are humble sinners saved by grace is something to be boastful of.

7. The seventh time Namaan ducked into the cold muddy water his skin became like a BABY’S SKIN.
The pivotal point of the whole story is found in verse 15 of 2 Kings 5. Namaan goes to Elisha’s house & stands before him & says. –“Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.”
Namaan is a converted man. He finally got emptied out & realized that his connections had gotten him nowhere. Elisha wasn’t even going to dignify him, he was just going to ask him to do an extremely stupid thing, & his bags of money would get him nowhere. When Namaan was finally stripped of all his pride & “fig-leaves” & stepped down to bathe in the murky Jordon waters, he met the wonder-working grace & power of God.

It was in his moment of vulnerability, helplessness & humiliation that Naaman found God & so have lots of others. Stripped, obedient & trusting, that’s the territory where God finds fertile human soil. Again, think of the way God used human instrumentality in this story. Every person is acting out of their own free will & not under compulsion. Yet from these many threads God weaves a tapestry of grace with Namaan at the center. If it weren’t for each of these people, their understanding, their care, their advice, Namaan would never have been healed.

So at the end of our stories lengthy journey through-

• Self-pity-
• Rage-
• Righteous indignation-
• Pride-
• Stubbornness-
• Disobedience- &
• Sympathetic intervention----
--We arrive at the final destination, -the good news that the compassion of God is offered even beyond the borders of Israel to persons of all nations.
God’s love was & is so radically inclusive that it embraces even enemy generals.

Elisha sends Namaan off to his new life, cleansed of the leprosy of his body & renewed in his soul. What will Namaan do? What happened to him? We don’t know. But Elisha is content to send him away in God’s peace & in God’s grace. The God who sought Namaan out & healed him in body & soul will also guide him when he gets back home.

Leprosy is a type of mans sinful condition. We were all born spiritual lepers. The only cure of the spiritual leprosy is to be cleansed by the blood of Christ. ---There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath the flood, lose all their guilty stains.

If you haven’t been plunged into the river of Christ’s forgiveness & washed in his blood, why not do it today. You will know the same life changing miracle that Namaan experienced.

If we serve the same loving & nurturing God, & we do, what will stop us from seeing the cries of our hearts come to fruition? As I see it, the only things that could hinder us would be the same things that almost sidetracked Namaan.

When we look at some of these hindrances & see ourselves there, we can follow Namaan’s example & throw off the old cloaks that self has weaved for us to wear & plunge into the waters of God's love, mercy & forgiveness.


Blessings,


John