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Grace Emmanuel Church
Pastor Sam Chess
God Moves in Mysterious Ways
Suddenly,…so many
people connected with this church seem to be going through extreme
circumstances in their lives. We look into the lives of the Brogans,
and the Crums, and the Rules and several other families connected
with this church and wonder what God is trying to accomplish in and
through the crises’ in their lives. When I sat down to pray with
some of you this week, I often wasn’t sure what to pray except that
God’s great plan would be accomplished.
If I’ve learned one thing in
48 years it’s that God tends to think on a much higher plane than I do
. What I think God should do, in a given situation, is often not what
God does….but later I discover that the way God acted was right and the
way I wanted things done was not. In fact, there’s quite a pattern
there….. I have yet to see God’s way of doing things fail to ultimately
achieve eternal results and my plans have fallen flat over and over and
over.
I found an example in
Scripture of a story that you may be familiar with, where God’s plan is
anything but apparent as the tale unfolds. Where the main characters
are always trying to second guess God…and where, in the end, God’s plan
is proven to be light years ahead of human planning.
Let me unfold it for you….
It’s found in 2 Kings 5:
I. A Problem to Solve
2 Kings 5:1 Now Naaman was
commander of the army of the king of Aram (Syria). 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….
Syria, not really much
different than today. Syria, same general piece of real estate…perhaps
a bit larger than in modern times. Let me take a little sidebar here:
(One of the reasons some small
modern Muslim countries feel so antagonistic at the West has to do with
the fact that they remember times when they were powerful forces to be
reckoned with. Oddly when this clash between Syria and the world was
taking place the US did not exist…even when Islam was taking the world
by storm (by force), the US was still years from forming. When Islam
was stopped and its wings were clipped and the power of the Muslim
armies fell apart, it was European colonialism that stopped them… and
if you remember your American history we were one of the European
colonies. Yet today because we are the strongest world power we are
blamed for many of the ills of those who feel powerless in the world.)
(Come Wednesday Evening)
Back to Old Testament Syria….
They were very little different than they are today…the next verse
makes that clear.
2 Now bands from Aram had gone
out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served
Naaman's wife.
So you get the picture. A
country feeling their military oats… they had made these raids into
Israel and eventually assumed some level of control over the country of
Israel. In fact if we read the rest of the surrounding context right it
seems that this was the period of time when Syria actually defeated the
armies of Israel, killed their king, and perhaps oversaw the installing
of the next king. ( I’m sure with all kinds of warning of, You better
do things our way or you’re a dead man.)
What’s important to us today
is that the military genius who had fought his way to the top of the
ranks in Syria, made himself invaluable to the king of Syria, a “great
man” and “highly regarded” is the same central character in this story.
I left out the end of the first verse a while ago…let me insert it now
and you’ll see the sudden change in the flow:
2 Kings 5:1 Now Naaman was
commander of the army of the king of Aram (Syria). He was a great man
in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the
LORD had given victory to Aram/Syria ( that’s another whole story of
why the LORD was involved … God was using a foreign power to correct
the behavior of the wicked northern ten tribes)…… He was a valiant
soldier, but he had leprosy.
Comes home from a successful
military conquest, at the top of his game, hand starts to itch…his
whole world changes in a single day. Whatever his successes are, that
little spot on his hand will soon ban him from contact with his king,
his armies, his friends, his family….he’s done….leprosy was a death
sentence.
Observation # 1: God often
uses the most unusual sources to get his message through.
There’s this young girl that
he took captive in Israel and hauled home to be a servant to his wife.
She should have hated him. She should have said when she found out
about his leprosy: “Serves him right, that’s God repaying him for the
evil he did to me. I hope he dies the most awful, painful, humiliating
death.”…. but that wasn’t her response.
Observation # 2: Maybe we
shouldn’t be waiting for the wrath of God to fall on those who have
done us wrong!
3 She said to her mistress,
"If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would
cure him of his leprosy."
There’s an positive mental
attitude. This man had ripped her away from all her security, safety,
dreams, plans for her future. Whisked her away to a foreign culture and
forced her into servant-hood…and she’s concerned about his healing.
II. A Solution to Consider
What about Naaman’s mental
attitude? Here’s a man who could intimidate anybody into submission. He
hold’s the lives (and deaths) of thousands in his hands but he is
powerless over the little white spot on his hand. He has almost
unlimited influence over every person in his nation and those of all
surrounding nations but he has no influence at all over the one who
formed his body. He was undoubtedly an arrogant man who could control
destiny’s but his own destiny comes grinding to a halt and he has no
answers, nobody he can call to fix his problem….leprosy was not a
curable disease!
Observation #3: God usually
has to humble our pride before he releases his power on our behalf.
You know how desperate Naaman
was by what he is willing to do next.
3 She said to her mistress,
"If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would
cure him of his leprosy."
1) He’s advised to go to a
prophet in the land he just conquered.
2) He’s advised to submit
himself to the prophet of a God he doesn’t believe in.
3) His advice giver is a
servant of his wife, a prisoner of war.
4) His advice giver is a
woman!
5) He imagines the response of
a country to the general who just killed their king.
6) He imagines the response of
a country to the general who just stole their children.
Observation # 4: One should be
careful how they treat God’s children…they may be the only pathway to a
solution later on.
Naaman’s choices are limited.
Notice he still uses the power route.
4 Naaman went to his master
(the king) and told him what the girl from Israel had said. 5 "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 ten talents of silver
(750lbs.), six thousand shekels of gold ( 150 lbs.) and ten sets of
clothing. 6 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."
We’ve got to notice the
arrogance here. The king, in that he thinks he can command another king
to bring about healing. Naaman, in that he can use his connections to
influence a healing on his behalf and, failing that, he takes along
enough loot to buy his healing. (probably using wealth he stole from
Israel to start with)
7 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!"
It’s not hard for us to see
why the pagan general and king of Syria would make out God’s healing to
be something that could be commanded with force or bought with money
but the response of the Israelite king is just plain wrong. This was a
man who had a national history full of examples of God’s miracles. He
should have immediately thought that he was in a “God” situation where
the events of the last few years could begin to be turned around. But
he missed it completely, saw the situation as purely political. What
might have been different about the fate of the ten northern tribes if
this king had been more tuned to the mysterious workings of God? And
this robe tearing thing………
8 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." 9 So Naaman went with his
horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house.
You can bet that the top
general in Syria wasn’t traveling alone… he probably had horses and
chariots leading the way and bringing up the rear…. Probably some of
the same ones he had just used to whip this country into submission. He
comes pulling up to the little house of the prophet Elisha. He probably
thinks, “This will undoubtedly be the pinnacle of Elisha’s career. He
will be able to put on his resume: Healed the top general of Syria of
leprosy.”
He wait for Elisha to come
running out….he doesn’t come. Elisha is sitting in his Laz-E-Boy and
doesn’t even move out of the reclining mode.
Observation # 5: Do not
presume to know what message or through what messenger God will use to
speak into you life.
How many times do we tell God,
This is what we expect to hear and this is the way we expect to hear
it… and God almost never responds the way we think he is going to.
If He did we would come to think that we commanded God and he obeyed
us…which is the exact opposite of the way things are supposed to be.
Elisha had to come out that
door…he was Naaman’s inferior in every way. He was racially inferior,
he was socially inferior, Had this prophet ever commanded armies to
great victory. The money Naaman had brought was probably enough to buy
out all of the prophet’s earthly goods. He had already been humiliated
by taking the advise of a servant girl to get here….Elisha had to get
out of his Laz-E-Boy, come out that door, and show Naaman the deference
he deserved. But he didn’t show up. Instead:
10 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."
A messenger, a gangly pimply
faced intern… It was more than Naaman’s pride could take.
11 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. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of
Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash in
them and be cleansed?" So he turned and went off in a rage.
Observation# 6: If you think
God has to respond to you in the way you have decided you’re going to
be left in a snit.
Observation# 7: When God
doesn’t respond the way we think He should, when we think He should; it
tends to reveal what is inside us.
I’m writing this from personal
experience. I know what it’s like to expect God to do something in the
way I have planned and when he does not… I’m amazed at the thoughts and
emotions I find on the inside.
In what ways in your life has
God not come through in the way you expected?__________ __________ Has
that altered your attitude toward God?
III. A Cure to Embrace
13 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'!" 14 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.
Observation#7: Follow God’s
leading in your life, whether you understand it or not!
15 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.
Conclusion: The Rest of the
Story:
Please accept now a gift from
your servant."
16 The prophet answered, "As
surely as the LORD lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing." And
even though Naaman urged him, he refused.
17 "If you will not," said
Naaman, "please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair
of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt
offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the LORD. 18 But may the
LORD forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the
temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I bow
there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the LORD
forgive your servant for this."
19 "Go in peace," Elisha said.
After Naaman had traveled some
distance, 20 Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said to
himself, "My master was too easy on Naaman, this Aramean, by not
accepting from him what he brought. As surely as the LORD lives, I will
run after him and get something from him."
21 So Gehazi hurried after
Naaman. When Naaman saw him running toward him, he got down from the
chariot to meet him. "Is everything all right?" he asked.
22 "Everything is all right,"
Gehazi answered. "My master sent me to say, 'Two young men from the
company of the prophets have just come to me from the hill country of
Ephraim. Please give them a talent [d]
of silver and two sets of clothing.' "
23 "By all means, take two
talents," said Naaman. He urged Gehazi to accept them, and then tied up
the two talents of silver in two bags, with two sets of clothing. He
gave them to two of his servants, and they carried them ahead of Gehazi.
24 When Gehazi came to the hill, he took the things from the servants
and put them away in the house. He sent the men away and they left. 25
Then he went in and stood before his master Elisha.
"Where have you been, Gehazi?"
Elisha asked.
"Your servant didn't go anywhere," Gehazi answered.
26 But Elisha said to him,
"Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to
meet you? Is this the time to take money, or to accept clothes, olive
groves, vineyards, flocks, herds, or menservants and maidservants? 27
Naaman's leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever."
Then Gehazi went from Elisha's presence and he was leprous, as white as
snow.
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