Obedience brings blessing: Namaan dipped 7 times
Has the Lord told you to do something and you are resisting? Are you weighing pros and cons? Are you questioning whether you really heard right?
Has the Lord asked you to surrender something to Him and you are still holding on?
Namaan reached the same impasse.
Merriam Webster defines impasse as a predicament affording no obvious escape. We all know from experience that trying to negotiate with the Lord is futile.
He’ll let you go your own way and do your own thing, but you will forfeit the richness of His blessing that rewards obedience.
My advice: Just do what He has told you to do. Quickly. Just give in and surrender what He has asked you to give because He wants to replace it with something far superior.
Consider Namaan.
2 Kings 5:1-14 (Read here) tells his story. He was the commander of the army of Syria and is described as a great, honorable man of valor. The text states he was also honored by the Lord Himself because by the Lord’s hand, Syria was given victory over its enemies. Namaan may be the only gentile in the Bible described in this manner.
Namaan was also a leper.
A word about leprosy: Ancient leprosy began as small, red spots on the skin. As time passes, the spots get bigger, and start to turn white, with a shiny or scaly appearance. After a brief period of time the spots spread over the whole body and your hair begins to fall out - first from the head, then from the eyebrows. As the leprosy worsens, finger nails and toenails become loose; they start to rot and eventually fall off. Then the joints of the fingers and the toes begin to rot and fall off one piece at a time. Gums begin to shrink and they can’t hold the teeth anymore, so each of them is lost. Leprosy keeps eating away at the leper’s face until literally the nose, the palate, and even the eyes rot. Then the victim wastes away until death.
What a terrifying diagnosis to receive. Dread would overtake the afflicted person, knowing their fate was extreme suffering, and eventual death, with no hope of a cure.
Further, Leviticus 13:45 and 46 tells us “The person afflicted with an infectious skin disease is to have his clothes torn and his hair hanging loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘unclean, unclean!’ He will remain unclean as long as he has the infection. He must live alone in a place outside the camp.
For the leper, this was a life sentence. Their skin infection never healed so they remained unclean and eventually died. Not a reality I would wish on my worst enemy.
Namaan was a leper, and this is the life he had to look forward to. I don’t know what type of laws a leper had to follow in Syria. I’m guessing they were not as strict as the law of Moses because as the commander of the army of Syria, Namaan would have been in contact with many people.
We also know he was in some form of contact with the King because he approached him and told him he learned of a prophet in Israel that could heal him and asked his blessing to go to Israel.
He may not have had to live in a leper colony, but he surely knew his fate. He surely lived each day in dread knowing how the disease progresses and what his end would be. Surely he lived in a state of despair.
So, with expectancy, he went to Israel to visit Elisha.
He approached the prophet’s house with his horses and chariots on display to show what a great man he was. Even stricken with this dreaded disease, he still carried with him the pride associated with his status as a commander. He must have had some humility forming in him to go to the prophet at all, but he still carried his reputation and the stature that afforded him, as his calling card.
I’m sure Elisha saw this. We know that the Lord saw this and set out to test and humble Namaan’s heart before healing him.
The Lord instructed Elisha to send his servant to tell Namaan to dip in the Jordan River seven times and he would be cleansed.
Namaan balked at seven dips in a muddy river.
His pride almost caused him to remain a leper. He did not want to humble himself and dip in the muddy Jordan River as the Lord had instructed him. If he had not obeyed, his story would have ended with him dying as a leper.
Will you miss God’s best for you because you won’t come to the place of humble faith and obedience that brings you into your muddy Jordan?
Namaan had a condition that meant certain death unless he received a miracle. And still he hesitated following the directions given him through the prophet of God.
I’ve done that before. I’ve gone to the Lord knowing that only He could answer my heart’s cry and when He told me what to do, I stepped back and began to analyze…. I began to figure out ways to do what He told me to do but in my own way.
Have you ever taken a look at he muddy Jordan and thought that maybe the pristine rivers of Syria would be a better option for you? Or if you dipped in the muddy Jordan, did you lose momentum and stop before you went down seven times?
Or maybe you have been the Elisha – the one who had to tell someone else that their answer was in a muddy river. Being the one to deliver God’s message isn’t always easy. In fact, the Lord had Elisha send his servant to give Namaan the instructions on how he would be healed. Elisha never left his house!
The Lord tested Namaan and chipped away at his pride throughout this entire process. He did this because he both loved Namaan and held him in high esteem. He was after his heart!
Namaan thought he was really something. The army that served him thought he was something. His enemies thought he was something. God knew that his pride would lead him into destruction and He wanted to spare Namaan that anguish.
God began intricate surgery on Namaan’s heart. It began with a diagnosis that could not be remedied by natural means
Next, the Lord spoke through a servant girl. This is how he learned there was a prophet in Israel who could heal him. No great sign – just a message from a lowly servant.
When he arrived in Israel, the prophet did not come out to greet him or show him the proper respect he felt a man of his stature deserved. Again, the Lord sent a servant to deliver the message to him.
He learned his healing would not come with great fanfare. The God of creation would not appear before him in a supernatural display and heal his flesh. Instead he would have to dip in a muddy river seven times.
Namaan learned that Elisha would not do anything for him. He merely sent word about what Namaan would have to do for himself.
Namaan was so frustrated by this experience and the directive he received that he turned and went off in a rage. Being humbled, rather than humbling yourself is a painful experience. The thoughts that flood your mind when your pride is being chipped away are distressing and troubling. They force you to take a good look at yourself and your foundation is rocked. I know. I’ve been there. Have you?
His frustration got the best of him and he decided to walk away. His trip to Israel was not what he thought it would be. He wasn’t going to immerse himself in any dirty river once, much less seven times, no matter what the prophet of God instructed.
Again, God sent Elisha’s servants to go after Namaan and counsel him. I don’t know everything they said to him but they convinced him to give the Jordan a try. They convinced him that he had nothing to lose. They convinced him that his life was as good as over anyway – why not try doing what the Lord commanded?
So, the happy ending is that Namaan did what the Lord instructed, He wrestled with the Word of God but obeyed and he got his life back. He learned he was not too good to bathe in a dirty river if that is what the Lord asked of him. He not only was cleansed of the leprosy but his skin was restored to that of a young boy. When we fully surrender, God always does above and beyond all that we can hope or imagine!
He also learned that “there is no God in all of the earth except in Israel.”
Sometimes God’s answers require us to do some things we just do not want to do.
Sometimes God will test our true motives by delaying answers to see just how much we are willing to sacrifice to see His will accomplished.
That person you are praying for? Don’t give up. Even if it’s been decades – keep praying.
That healing you are waiting for? Keep waiting. You don’t know when the Lord will direct you to your muddy Jordan.
That breakthrough you are crying out for? Keep crying. Not one tear is lost – all are captured and stored by the Lord. You are precious to Him. Trust HIM.
FULLY OBEY WHATEVER THE LORD HAS TOLD YOU TO DO OR SAY AND DO NOT NEGOTIATE OR DELAY.
The blessing that comes from full obedience is not only for you but for your family and for your descendants.
Namaan dipped seven times. Will you?
