Jesus used the story of Naaman and Elisha as an illustration of Israel’s problem of unbelief – Luke 4:27.

2 Kings 5:1-14, v 17-18

Naaman:

Naaman comes from the Hebrew verb name, “be delightful, pleasant and beautiful”. It has the idea of “gracious” or “well formed”. Because of the significance of names in the scripture, this tells us something about the man. His names suggest he had undoubtedly been a handsome man, at least before the leprosy.

• He as a commander of the Army of the King of Aram/Syria
• 2^nd from the King in Authority – Ben Hadad II
• He was a great man and highly regarded by his master
• Through him, the Lord had given victory to Aram (Was being used by God though still in sin/a gentile/lost and fulfilling God’s purposes. We can as well serve God though still in sin.
• He was a valiant/brave/courageous/gallant/bold/fearless soldier.

The background information shows us that Naaman had a comfortable life and the future looked/seemed bright for him. Probably in future he would have become the King.

He possessed a lot of authority and respect.

But despite of all his achievements/medals/honours, there was something which was weighing him down, a heavy load which was making him unhappy/lose heart/lack a smile.

Things were falling apart and shame was awaiting him.

He had leprosy – No Cure.

Leprosy starts small/slowly and starts to spread. It was killing him slowly.

Leprosy (Defiling skin diseases), was especially bad because (Leviticus 13 and 14):

It was repulsive to all those who saw a leper – Sin is filthy/repulsive before God.

It was incurable by human means – Just like sin.

It was isolating – lepers were confined outside the city limits – many times to the city dumpsites, probably because they could find food there. Sin isolates us from God (our source), we start looking for food (livelihood) from the dumpsites like the prodigal son.

It caused one to become ceremonially unclean by touching leper, without necessarily catching the disease – Association with sin brings guilt.

It killed the nerves and body parts would fall slowly – Sin hardens the heart

It was the physical counterpart of the spiritual problem of sin. It was the model disease for sin. That is why when a leper was healed; it was called cleansing instead of healing. It was a graphic illustration of sin’s destructive power.

When a leper was healed, he was to go to the priest and be pronounced clean before re-entering into the society (reconciliation) – Through atonement for sin/cleansing, Christ reconciles us back to God.