Sermon Tone Analysis

II Kings 5:1-15a

 

! Introduction

Every time we sit down we manifest faith.

We trust that the chair will still be there when we transfer weight from our legs to our chairs.

This is not to be taken for granted.

When I was young and immature I helped more than one person find the floor instead of the chair by pulling it out from under them just at the moment of weight transfer.

We trust that the chair will hold up under our weight, which we should also not take for granted.

Carla warned me that it was a child’s chair and would not carry me, but I believed that the construction was the same as an adult chair and would be fine.

She was right and I ended up on the ground with a broken chair.

Every time we face a problem without prayer we manifest unfaith.

We try to fix it by ourselves or we find experts to help us and we fail to believe that God is able and compassionate.

How does faith work in your life?

Do you believe?

Does unbelief sometimes make its way in your life?

What does it mean to believe?

This morning we will be looking at a story from II Kings 5:1-15 which invites us to consider what it means to believe.

Read II Kings 5:1-15.

There are four characters in this story and each one manifests a different aspect, or perhaps we could say level of faith.

In order to properly understand some of the things in this story, we need to understand the context in which it occurred.

The story takes place in Israel, that is to say, the northern area of the land of the Jews at a time after the kingdom was divided into north and south.

The northern tribes, which were known as Israel, more quickly deviated from following God than the southern tribes, known as Judah.

The king of Israel at this time was Joram and he was not a king who faithfully followed God.

Because of that, God sent invading armies to try to drive the people towards seeking God.

In II Kings 3 Moab fought against Israel and in II Kings 6 Aram made a direct attack.

From II Kings 5 we know that Aram had made raids into Israel several times to harass them.

Verse 1 of our text is an interesting perspective which tells us that Aram attacked Israel and had military victory over them from time to time because God gave that victory.

That was how an Israelite girl became the slave of a military general from Aram who was plagued with leprosy.

The four primary characters in the story are the young girl, Naaman, Joram and Elisha.

Each of them manifested a different level of trust or lack of trust in God.

As we examine their faith in God, it will be an opportunity for us to understand what faith is and to examine our own response to God.

!

I.                   Young Girl – Childlike Faith

The young girl mentioned in the story is not named.

She was an Israelite but had been captured in a raid which military bands from Aram had made into Israel.

We don’t know much about her, only enough to guess that she was probably too young to be married but old enough to be a servant.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to be captured and forced into slavery.

I wonder what would go through a person’s mind and heart.

Would you rebel?

Would you be angry and sullen?

How would you cope with sudden slavery?

It speaks well for the girl that she seems to have accepted her situation.

In fact, we see into her heart when she expresses compassion for the leprous condition of her master.

She cared enough about him to desire that he be healed.

The other thing we see in the girl is that she believed that God was at work through Elisha.

She suggested that if Naaman would go to Elisha, he would be cured.

I think that the kind of faith we see in this young girl is a “child-like” faith.

She must have heard the stories about Elisha and what he had done before she was captured.

She believed the stories and the connection seems strong enough that she believed that God was at work through him.

Her statement suggests a simple confidence that God would act.

We expect that as people grow up that they will not be naïve.

We expect that if they do believe it will be because they have examined the possibilities and have decided that faith makes sense.

There is a place for an examined faith and we certainly see that with Naaman and how he came to believe in God.

Nevertheless, the Bible also affirms childlike faith.

There is a place for the simple, confident trust which is so often expressed by children.

In Mark 10:14, 15 we read the words of Jesus who said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

What are the implications of affirming such a childlike faith?

It means that when children declare their faith in Jesus, even though they have not even begun to consider all the implications, we should affirm that faith in them and nurture it so that it will weather the storms of doubt and disappointment which will come later.

It also means that it is good to continue to believe in God even when we don’t understand everything.

Instead of giving up on faith until it all makes sense, it is better to continue in faith and grow in our understanding even when there is a lot of confusion.

So the first level of faith, which Scripture affirms is child-like faith.

!

II.

Joram – Unfaith

Joram’s response was quite different.

!! A.                 Challenge to Faith

Ben Hadad who was king of Aram probably assumed that if there was a prophet in Israel he would be attached to the king in some close way, so it is not surprising that the request of Naaman would be directed first to the king of Israel.

Although Joram is not named in the story, we know that he is king from II King 3.

When Joram received the letter, he responded with deep emotion.

The letter presented him with two significant challenges.

First of all, he was upset because he knew that he had no power to do what the letter demanded.

The wording of verse 6 suggests that there was an expectation that healing was going to happen.

The wording does not place the request into a conditional phrase, such as, “we have heard that it may be possible that you might be able to heal him.”

It is “that you may cure him of his leprosy.”

Joram had no hope that he would be able to do what was asked.

Therefore, he viewed it as a trap, a provocation to war.

Since he could not cure him he assumed that the king of Aram knew he could not cure him, and the only explanation that made sense to him was that Ben-Hadad was trying to find an excuse to make war against Joram.

!! B.                 Response of Unfaith

The response of the king was to tear his robes.

He felt trapped.

His action arose out of feelings of frustration, anger and fear.

In reality his reaction demonstrated lack of faith.

Why do we see this as a response of unfaith?

The foundation of Joram’s life was not one of trust in God.

When he became king, he was introduced in 2 Kings 3:1-3 in the following way, "Joram son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria…He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not as his father and mother had done…he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them."

Yet he had had previous experiences in which he had seen what God could do.

Just like the little girl, he had heard the stories of what was happening through the work of Elisha and he had had personal experience of observing God at work.

In II Kings 3:11-20 there is an account of a battle in which the Kings of Israel, Judah and Edom had attacked the king of Moab.

In that story, the king of Judah had requested a word from God through Elisha and the word from God was that God would cause a great flood to come into the valley and that because of that flood the Moabites would be defeated.

This word from God through Elisha came to be and Joram observed the authority of Elisha and saw the power of God at work.

When Elisha heard about Joram’s response to the present crisis, his words function as a rebuke to Joram’s unbelief.

In 2 Kings 5:8 we read, "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.”"

The question “why have you torn your robes?” is a rebuke implying that getting upset and angry is not really necessary when you know that God is able to help you in all situations.

The statement “he will know that there is a prophet in Israel” is also a rebuke for it implies that Naaman was going to discover what Joram should already have discovered and that is that God was at work in Israel.

His response was unbelief because it manifested his understanding that authority and power ended with him.

He saw no power or authority outside of himself.

He did not believe in God or what God could do.

!! C.                 The Temptation to Unfaith

We may not be as wickedly inclined as Joram, but his response strikes a chord with us because we are quite familiar with the responses of anger, fear or frustration when we face a challenge which is beyond us.

We don’t know what Joram believed, but his unbelief is clearly manifested in the way he responded to the challenge.

How often is our unbelief manifested in the way we respond to situations?