Bible talk with Sister Deb. Cleansed in Faith: Naaman's Story

Naaman's story in 2 Kings 5 teaches profound lessons on humility, faith, and obedience. Through the voice of a captive girl and the challenges of pride, Naaman's journey reflects the transformative power of surrendering to God's way. 

• Naaman's stature as a mighty warrior contrasted with his affliction from leprosy 
• The young Israelite girl's compassion sparks hope in Naaman's life 
• Naaman's initial anger at Elisha's simple healing method reveals his pride 
• Obedience ultimately leads Naaman to healing and spiritual awakening 
• Gehazi's greed serves as a warning against materialism and deceit 
• Naaman's request for soil symbolizes his commitment to worship God in his homeland 
• Themes of humility, faith, and obedience resonate throughout the story

Chapters

• 0:30 Bible Talk With Sister Deb Osmond
• 13:40 Lessons in Obedience and Humility
• 24:53 Promoting Sister Deb Osmond's Radio Show

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

Hey, you're listening to Bible Talk with Sister Deb Osmond. You can also listen to her show on WIC 88.1 Christian Radio Station every Sunday at 5 pm. You can also listen to her show and much more, on the 421 Podcast Show. You can stream that on Google, Apple, Spotify or whatever platform of your choosing. If you'd like to contact Sister Deb, you can email her at osbrenndeverk at gmailcom. If you'd like to support the show, you can support it through PayPal, slash HOR421, or you can go through the website at HOR421showbuzzproutcom. All shows are recorded live, no post editing, recorded at the 421 studio. Contact information for all of your studio needs you can email at H-O-R-421ministries at gmailcom. Phone number is 239-849-1502. Now I give you your host, Sister Dick.

Speaker 2: 1:30

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord man. It feels so good to be back in the studio doing the Lord's work. Hello everybody. So today on Bible Talk I'm going to be in 2 Kings 5. This is going to be an Old Testament story. It's an Old Testament story, very, very awesome story. I loved it. I didn't get to read all of it, but what I did read of it, I really liked it. We're going to be able to learn some things about this, I hope. But it's about a great warrior. He had a very, very terrible illness. It's also got a couple different characters.

Speaker 2: 2:06

It's got a young girl, you know, who was captured and uh, it's about a mysterious healer, a healer from the girl's homeland, and so the warrior that I'm talking about is naaman. He's the warrior of the story. He is the commander of the army, the Syrian army, and he's a great man in high favor with the king, clearly used to be in control. So the thing about it is he is a mighty warrior, he has power, he has wealth, he has connections, but he has one thing he has a chronic illness, he has leprosy, and apparently not a bad case. I'm not quite sure the Bible doesn't say For him to have been out there in the Syrian army. He couldn't have been too bad, but anyway, the thing about it is is, despite his wealth and his fame and his physical strength, naaman does not have control over this dreaded disease. It's got control over him, you know, and so he was a leper. Now we all know leprosy was kind of like the AIDS of Naaman's day. Lepers were always isolated, they were treated as outcasts. It was the most feared disease of that time, very, extremely contagious and in some cases, you know, incurable, and often it leads to death. Now, how he got that leprosy, the Bible doesn't tell us. I know that if you look back through, especially the Old Testament, the leprosy seems to be a symbol of both sin and God's punishment for sin. And I found this stuff like, for example, in Numbers 12 and 10, god infected Miriam with leprosy as a punishment for her sin when she rebelled against Moses' leadership. And then another example there was a man. He was called King Uzziah. He got infected with leprosy when he tried to take on two different roles, as a king and a high priest, which God had separated those two roles. That's 2 Chronicles 26. But it was really thought that Naaman was under God's judgment because God lifted him up and blessed him, but Naaman took credit for it out of his pride. And the thing about it is, if Naaman wants to do something about it, he's going to have to listen to a very unlikely advisor. It he's going to have to listen to a very unlikely advisor and he's going to have to turn to a very unlikely healer. And so now we enter.

Speaker 2: 4:55

Another heroine of the story is a young girl. She was captured from Israel, she was captured in one of the raids and now she is in service to Naaman's wife. Now the Word of God doesn't give us her name. She's a young, small girl, helpless helpless to change her life, maybe a poor victim with no control over her life? I don't know for sure that I would call her a victim, because this captive girl has a lot of faith and her belief in the one true God, the God of Israel, and because of her faith she's not dwelling on her terrible fate. So she trusts in God and trusts in God that he has control of her life, and so this young girl is able to show remarkable compassion to those that has power over her. So Naaman captured this young woman in one of his many raids and Naaman committed a very active evil by taking and making a slave out of one of God's people. But as we read in this story, we're going to see that God used this evil act to teach this proud general humility. So this young lady had compassion for her captor and she also had a whole lot of faith to go along with it. So this captive girl one day she approached her mistress, which is Naaman's wife, and she tells him that if only my Lord would go and see the prophet in Samaria, which is Elisha, and he might be able to get him to heal him Right. So the thing about it is she's not really trying to help her circumstances. I think she's just, she's trying to show compassion, you know. She is truly, I think, trying to be a hero.

Speaker 2: 6:47

And Naaman listens to this little girl. He listens to her. Desperation may have had a hand in on it, I don't know. But he does decide to go and see the prophet, elisha. And there's our other hero of our story, elisha. So now Naaman goes and he gets his army together and they get some stuff together and he gets some gold, and silver and a bunch of changes of clothes I think is what it said and they travel to Elisha's house, right. And so when he arrives at Elisha's house with his army, the thing about it is he brought all of this treasure to give to Elisha. He wants help, but see, elisha doesn't care about any of that. Naaman just doesn't know it yet.

Speaker 2: 7:53

But Elisha's got to figure out how to help Naaman, to put all of his trust in the Lord, you know, and not in his own strength and his own wealth. Naaman has got, he's got a surprise coming right. And so they pull up in front of Elisha's house and Elisha sends out a messenger and tells Naaman, you know, with instructions and, and tells him to go wash in the Jordan River and dip seven times and he would be healed. Now Naaman, of course, doesn't understand. He's all furious about because Elisha didn't come out to see him. And he's all mad because Elisha didn't come out and wave his hand over his spots or something and magically cure him right. And wave his hand over his spots, or something and magically cure him right. He's mad because Elisha wants him to go dip himself.

Speaker 2: 8:27

In that he's probably thinking of Dirty Little River, the Jordan River, rather than one of the other bigger rivers, right? So Of course, we're going to talk about the Jordan River just for a second. We know that the Jordan River is a special place, right? And we know that this is the river that the Israelites crossed to enter the Promised Land. We know that and we know that one day, way after Naaman's time, we know that God's own son will be baptized in this river. But see, to Naaman, this river is just another dirty little creek. He thinks it's nowhere near impressive as the other rivers of Damascus, right? So he's thinking how could this little creek cure him? He's thinking, how could this little creek cure me? Is this water more special than the other? No, no, this water is no more special than even with its history, even with the history of this river. It's no more special. It's not the water that's going to heal Naaman.

Speaker 2: 9:35

I read about a German priest, his author, and he had a lot to do with the Protestant movement. His name is Martin Luther and he said baptism is simply plain water. It's not just simply plain water. Instead, it is the water used according to God's command and connected with God's Word. You see, the thing about it is it doesn't matter where you're baptized or by whom. It doesn't matter what church or what water you used. What matters is that you're doing what God commands, and it's about faith. It's all about faith, right, and I tell you.

Speaker 2: 10:17

I can tell you a little thing about me. I used to work at the American Red Cross in Evansville, indiana, and I was a supervisor out on the road and stuff and we set up blood drives and I was in a Catholic church. We were always in a church somewhere on Sundays, every Sunday, we were somewhere and I'm setting up and we're setting up our stuff in this little church and I looked over in one of the rooms and there sat a little bottle of holy water. Now, anybody that knows me and the people out there that knows me well knows that if you walk by me and tell me your head's hurting, probably 10 minutes later my head's going to be hurting. And if I look up and I read some kind of, that's why I can't read the side effects on medicine, because if I read them I'm going to have every one of them.

Speaker 2: 11:04

So I had this little bitty sore, little bitty raw spot in my nose, had it for it had been there for a while and be honest with you I'm going to be honest with you I thought I had cancer in my nose. I'm not going to lie and I'm sure everybody that people that know me is going to get. I walk over and I pick up this bottle of holy water and I put some on my finger and I put it up in my nose, thinking wow, this is some holy water here. I had all every bit of faith there was in that little old bitty drop of holy water that I put in my nose. And that just goes to show if we don't watch what we're doing, we can really lose touch with things. It's not the water.

Speaker 1: 11:44

It's our faith.

Speaker 2: 11:45

Right, it's our faith, our obedience. So, anyway, naaman. Back to Naaman. He was really, really furious because he expected a dramatic public ceremony, he wanted all the bells and whistles After all, he's a military general and he came with money but he's wanting all these little things and I think he probably thinks that maybe Elisha insulted his pride, and you know, but if you think about it, his pride really almost caused him not to be healed.

Speaker 2: 12:16

You know so Naaman's servants even tells him. You know why. You know what, if the prophet had told you to go and do this big, huge thing, a big great thing, you know you would have done it. So why not just go and do this little? You know, follow these little simple instructions. You know so Naaman, he did, he does what Elisha instructs him to do and he, a little bit reluctancy of course, and with some convincing from his servants, he did this as Elisha told him. And he goes and he dips in the river and he's miraculously healed, right?

Speaker 2: 12:57

So once Naaman obeyed God, god healed him and now Naaman's journey began. He listened to this servant and his journey began. You know, he listened to this servant and his journey began. And these servants, you know these servants. They confirmed that importance of obedience. We, you know, when Naaman obeyed and dipped in the Jordan River, it wasn't the water that would heal him, it was God's power. It was doing what the Lord told him to do. And once Naaman submitted, once he submitted and learned that to obey God and God's word, god restored him. I mean even, really, god went a little bit beyond. I mean, I think it says that not only removing the leprosy, but God gave Naaman the youthful skin of a young man. Awesome story. You guys ought to go read it, people.

Speaker 2: 13:40

The thing about it is is obedience is the key. No matter what God tells you to do, no matter what, where God sends you, no matter what, obey God's word. Whenever you read John 14, 15, verse 15, verse 21,. It says if we love him, if we love Jesus, we're going to keep his commandments. Now, what God asks us to do sometimes maybe it's probably pretty simple. It maybe asks us to step out of our comfort zone. But see, he knows what we can and can't do. What was so hard about really dipping in the Jordan River? I mean, if I had leprosy and God told me to go lay down in the Jordan River, I'd go lay down and stay there as long as I felt I needed to. You know, in the Jordan River I'd go lay down and stay there as long as I felt I needed to.

Speaker 2: 14:24

So the thing about it is, obedience is better than sacrifice, and God's ways aren't our ways, his ways. They may challenge our pride, but our humbleness and our obedience will put us in the position to receive God's blessings and people. We all need to surrender our pride and trust God's ways, even when they may challenge us. You see, this great warrior, naaman, humbled himself before God and he received God's grace and God's healing and God's peace. His life was never the same. Now, naaman, let's go back to Naaman. He returns to Elisha after he gets healed and he returns to Elisha and Naaman is so changed his whole life. He goes and he declares before Elisha and he tells him and he says now I know there's no God in all the earth except in Israel. See how quickly, once he obeyed, how his heart was changed. See, naaman didn't have to do this. He didn't have to acknowledge his newfound belief that there was no other God. You see, this could have really gotten him in trouble because in his other country. Now they worshiped other gods there, but Naaman now sees who's in control, and this puts him in a total new path of his life, a path from fear, free from fear, free from the need to be in control. I mean, now he believed and the God that this young girl and this mysterious prophet, elisha, introduced him to. You know, you see, friends, all that separates the sinner from eternal life in Jesus Christ is a willingness to do things God's way. When we become willing to walk the path that God has laid out for us, we will receive eternal life through Jesus Christ. Naaman was changed because he did it the Lord's way and if you really think about it, there's really no other way but God's way. I mean, you know, but there's a little bit more to this story.

Speaker 2: 16:44

There's another character that come in to play here when you read on up in the story. There was a young person come into the story. His name is Jehazi and he is Elisha's servant. And so he saw, you know, elisha didn't need the money, and he told you know, he didn't want the money and he didn't want the jewels and he didn't want the money and he didn't want the jewels and he didn't want the silver and the gold. That wasn't what it was about. He was doing what God had him to do. He was obeying God right. So Jehazi sees these people leaving. He sees Naaman and his entourage leave with all this money. And you know what? He ran after him and he caught up with him. He said that the prophet had changed his mind and would like a part of the wealth to be given to him. So when Elisha learns of Jehazi's lies, right, he informs Jehazi, like you know what, you're going to be stricken with Naaman's skin disease. Look what greed will do you. There's so many. There's a few different lessons, I believe, to be learned here. He got greedy and now look what he ended up with. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 17:55

And there's one more final part to this story. So Naaman made a very unusual request of Elisha. He asked a prophet to provide two mule loads of earth to take back home with him to his country of Aram. Why Naaman wanted to be able to offer burnt offerings and sacrifices to the one true God, the Lord, god of Israel. To me, that's an awesome ending. I mean, this shows us that the right response to being healed, to being blessed by God, is always to worship him, and that's what Naaman wants to do. He wants to worship the God of Israel. And so he's literally saying, he's literally going to bring a little bit of the promised land back with him to his home country. Now, does he have to do that to worship God? No, of course not. But this was his own way. This was his way of bringing his newfound faith and gratitude home with him. You see, god worked a miracle in Naaman's body that day. You see, god worked a miracle in Naaman's body that day, but he also worked a miracle in Naaman's heart.

Speaker 2: 19:12

Naaman came to Israel a leper, seeking for a cure. He was seeking help and people. He left Israel a Christian, and that's awesome, I think. I think it's just totally awesome. You see, naaman wanted things on his own terms when he first got there. He wanted things on his terms.

Speaker 2: 19:35

But the thing that a lot of people don't seem to realize is God don't do terms. It's his way or no way, and he has that right. He's God. But, friends, our thing is obedience. Obedience is doing what God says. When he says to do it the way he tells you to do it, you don't need to understand to obey, you don't need to understand it. We all have questions. We all question God. I know we do, and sometimes I don't want to and I'll tell the Lord. Man, forgive me, god. I'll ask the Lord forgive me for questioning you, you know, but the thing about it is Naaman wanted things on his terms. But God doesn't do terms, because God's ways are not our ways.

Speaker 2: 20:20

You know, naaman expected all the bells and whistles and he wanted these big religious things according to his own way of thinking, but that wasn't what God wanted. God was like hey, we're going to do this my way and you go dip in the river, blah, blah, blah. You know if it would have been so much easier and better for him to just obey and do what the Lord said and go on, and better for him to just obey and do what the Lord said and go on. But, like I said, our lesson here from Naaman is basically, when we ask God for something, we should really leave ourselves open, because we never know which direction God's going to come from. We never know what he's going to tell us to do, we never know where he's going to take us, but we have to come willing in our hearts and in our minds to do what God tells us to do. You know, isaiah 55, 8 and 9 says God said for my thoughts are not your thoughts and neither are your ways, my ways, me, that's just. That's an awesome thing, I mean, you know, um, I know there was one point in time that the lord told me to do something, and and I I didn't argue with the lord, but I sure didn't want to.

Speaker 2: 21:38

You know, the lord had told me to go pray for someone in my family, but I knew who this person was, was, and she had lung cancer and had been in the bed for a while. And you know I hesitated. I really feel bad about that. I did that, but I hesitated because I know, I know this person was the type of person that she didn't care to hurt your feelings sometimes, and so I worried about going over there. I worried about going to her house and saying hey, can I pray for you? This is a cold, hard sinner here. And I did go. Now am I going to say, can I sit here and say that every step that I took wasn't a hard step to take? Yes, you know it was probably. It was 20 steps from my house to hers, and it's about 20, I guess, and that was probably the longest steps I've ever made in my life, that's what it felt like anyway, but I did and I walked into her room and I said, hey, can I pray for you?

Speaker 2: 22:43

And she handed me her arm.

Speaker 2: 22:44

Here, yeah sure, nothing said and I quickly anointed her hand and prayed for her before she changed her mind and I went back out of her bedroom. I went and sat down in the living room and I talked to her sister for a while and you know what, 10 or 15 minutes later, here she came, hadn't been out of the bed in a long time, a few days, suffering from lung cancer, not really not good breathing, not good breath, blah, blah, blah. And you know what? She got up and she came into the living room. I mean feeling good and that's awesome, you know, now I felt really bad because I should have obeyed the Lord when he first put that on me. You know what I'm saying, but I didn't Lord when he first put that on me. You know what I'm saying, but I didn't.

Speaker 2: 23:29

People, we have to learn to obey God. A lot of this, to me, is about obedience. You know, we have to obey the Lord when he tells us and we have to do what he tells us to do. We don't need to understand, we don't need to question him, we just need to do what he tells us to do. I read something somewhere that said obedience is the pathway to blessing, and that's true. So, people, I'm going to close with this. I don't have anything else. I hope this has blessed you as much as it's blessed me to bring it to you.

Speaker 2: 24:09

Thank you very much for listening. If you need to call me, need to talk to me, you know how to get a hold of me. You can always get me on my cell phone at 606-909-0256. My email is osborne-debra-kate at gmailcom. I have a prayer box. If you need some prayers, hey, jot it down, send it to me, send me a message Whatever. We'll pray day and night. I pray over the box and every name in it. Give me a call, give me a message, whatever. Thank you very much for listening, god bless everyone and have a good week.

Speaker 1: 24:50

Hey, you was listening to sister dev with bible talk. You guys can also catch her on wuic 88.1 christian radio station every sunday at 5 pm. You can also catch her on the 421 podcast show. You can find that on google, apple spot, spotify, whatever platform you're choosing. If you guys like to email her, you can email her at osbornedebrakaygmailcom. If you guys like to support the show, you can support it through PayPal, slash HOR421 or you go through our website, hor421showbuzzsproutcom. All shows are recorded live, no post editing, recorded at the 421 studio. For contact information for all of your studio needs, you can email at HOR421ministries at gmailcom. Phone number is 239-849-1502. Thank you.