2 Kings 5:10

_SO NAAMAN CAME WITH HIS HORSES AND WITH HIS CHARIOT, AND STOOD AT THE DOOR OF THE HOUSE OF ELISHA._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

9-14 Elisha knew Naaman to be a proud man, and he would let him know, that before the great God all men stand upon the same level. All God's commands make trial of men's spirits, especially those which direct a sinner how to apply for the blessings of salvation. See in Naaman the folly of pride; a cure will not content him, unless he be cured with pomp and parade. He scorns to be healed, unless he be humoured. The way by which a sinner is received and made holy, through the blood, and by the Spirit of Christ, through faith alone in his name, does not sufficiently humour or employ self, to please the sinner's heart. Human wisdom thinks it can supply wiser and better methods of cleansing. Observe, masters should be willing to hear reason. As we should be deaf to the counsel of the ungodly, though given by great and respected names, so we are to have our ears open to good advice, though br...

Verse 2 Kings 5:10. _SENT A MESSENGER_] Did not come out to speak with him: he had got his orders from God, and he transmitted them to Naaman by his servant. _WASH IN JORDAN SEVEN TIMES_] The waters of Jordan had no tendency to remove this disorder but God chose to make them the means by which he _would_ convey his healing power. He who is the author of life, health, and salvation, has a right to dispense, convey, and maintain them, by whatsoever means he pleases....

Elisha was not deterred from personally meeting Naaman because he was a leper. He sent a messenger because Naaman had over-estimated his own importance 2 Kings 5:11), and needed rebuke. AND WASH IN JORDAN - Compare the marginal references. A command is given which tests the faith of the recipient, and the miracle is not performed until such faith is openly evidenced....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 5:1 THE CURE OF NAAMAN'S LEPROSY. HIS GRATITUDE; AND THE SIN OF GEHAZI, The historian continues his narrative of Elisha's miracles, commenced in 2 Kings 2:1; and gives in the present chapter a very graphic and complete account of two which were especially remarkable, and which stood in a peculiar relation the one towards the other. One was the removal of leprosy; the other, its infliction. One was wrought on a foreigner and a man of eminence; the other, on a Hebrew and a servant. The second was altogether consequential upon the first, without which the

AND ELISHA SENT A MESSENGER UNTO HIM,.... Or returned an answer by Naaman's messenger; he did not go out to him, choosing to be retired, as he commonly did; and being perhaps employed in prayer for the cure; and it may be also to show his contempt of or little regard he had to worldly grandeur and honour, as well as to mortify the pride of Naaman: SAYING, GO AND WASH IN JORDAN SEVEN TIMES; so, according to the law of the cleansing the leper, he was to be sprinkled seven times, and on the seventh day his flesh was to be bathed or dipped all over in water, which is meant by washing here, Leviticus 14:7 AND THY FLESH SHALL COME AGAIN TO THEE; which was eaten and consumed by the disease on him: AND THOU SHALT BE CLEAN; freed from this pollution, or filthy disease, with which he was defiled; for a leper was reckoned unclean,...

4. NAAMAN AND HIS HEALING CHAPTER 5 _ 1. Naaman, the leper (2 Kings 5:1)_ 2. The testimony of the maid of Israel (2 Kings 5:2) 3. The message to the king of Israel (2 Kings 5:5) 4. Naaman and Elisha (2 Kings 5:9) 5. Gehazi; His sin and punishment (2 Kings 5:20) The story of this chapter is peculiarly rich in its spiritual and dispensational meaning. Naaman, captain of Ben-hadad, the King of Syria, was a Gentile. He was no common man. In all his greatness and might, with all the honors heaped upon him and wealth

NAAMAN HEALED OF HIS LEPROSY. This story, familiar to all, presupposes a time of peace between Israel and Syria. As in 1 Kings 20, the king of Syria addresses the king of Israel (unnamed here) as his vassal (2 Kings 5:6 ff.). Elisha was living in Samaria, apparently in his own house. Naaman, on being healed, returned to Elisha, who refused to take any present, using Elijah's formula (1 Kings 17:1 *). Naaman thereupon declared himself a worshipper of Yahweh (it is remarkable that 2 Kings 5:1 ascribes his victories to Yahweh), asking pardon if in his official capacity he bows himself before Rimmon (Ramman, the thunder-god of the Assyrians). Readers of _Tom Brown's Schooldays_ will remember the not unnatural discussion amongst th

GO AND WASH. Compare John 9:7, and other commands: "Go, call" (John 4:16); "Go, sell" (Matthew 19:21). WASH. bathe (ceremonially). See note on Leviticus 14:9....

_Elisha sent a messenger unto him_ The princely cavalcade waited at Elisha's door, but the prophet did not come forth. We need not think of him as avoiding a leprous person, either from fear of infection, or from legal scruples. It was rather that he wished to prevent any thought of himself as the worker of the cure coming into Naaman's mind. The Syrian captain's idea was, as we can see from the sequel, that Jehovah was specially the God of the land of Israel. If he were sent to one of the streams of that land, he would be most likely, to connect, as he actually did, his recovery with the might of the God of Israel. The prophet would therefore only be the mouthpiece of Jehovah, and for this reason sent his direction by a messenger. _Go and wash in Jordan_ Naaman would be quite sure that the waters of the Jordan were not a cure for leprosy, otherwise there would have been no lepers in Isr...