Now, we're going to be thinking
about this man, Naaman, and the little servant girl. And as I
said, I think she is one of the most attractive characters that
we have in the whole of Scripture. And I just think so highly of
this little girl for all of the experiences that she had and
the testimony that she made. Somebody once said to me, and
I think it's right, you see what God will do to make sure that
his people has fellowship? God took that little girl to
Syria and made her a slave in that country. And then he saved
Naaman so that she would have someone to worship and fellowship
with. Isn't that amazing? I think so. What a wonderful God we have
to so provide for that little girl that he gave her someone
as great and as honourable in the country of Syria to be her
guardian and to be her fellow believer and worshipper with
her in a strange and foreign country. Here we discover a man
called Naaman, a man who needed help. Now if anybody was to look
at Naaman from the outside, he had everything. He had everything
that a man could ever want. He had greatness, he had prestige,
he had honour, he was brave, he was well-respected and popular
in his country. Do you know that his name might
even mean good-looking? He had everything. He had everything. He was a mighty man. He was a
man of importance, a man of honor and greatness in his country,
a man by whom the Lord had delivered his country. I think that's interesting
too. That shows us that God is at
work in the countries of this world. This wasn't in Israel.
This wasn't in Judah. This wasn't amongst the people
of God, but God had delivered Syria by this man. And so we
see God's hand at work amongst the nations of this world, raising
nations up and bringing nations down, such as the God that we
worship. And here we see that God is always
at work and he is always accomplishing his purpose and doing his will
and managing this world for the benefit of his people. Naaman
had been used to defend and protect Syria, and he was a man who was
known for his bravery. He was loyal to his king and
his country. He was honourable amongst his
people. He was highly respected. But
the Bible uses something else to describe Naaman. And there's
a little but word. And it says, but Naaman was a
leper. So from the outside, he looked
great. From the outside, he was great. But in his body, he hid a secret. In his body, he was a leper. Now leprosy, was and is still
in some countries a terrible disease. It is a disease, we
were talking about it a few weeks ago at the rescue mission. Sean
brought a fine word concerning leprosy and he described there
how it destroyed the skin, how it consumed the flesh and how
it entered into the very bones and the marrow and ate away everything
that it contacted. And though Naaman seemed to be
a man who had many blessings and benefits in this life, that
leprosy that he had in his body would lead to great loss. It
would lead to great shame. It would lead to the destruction
of his life and the life of his family and friends. It would
be to the destruction of his house. and ultimately it would
bring him down to death. No one in Syria could cure him. Naaman needed help, but he didn't
know where to find it. So here was a man who needed
help. And here was a little girl who knew where he could get it. She's just a little servant girl.
She's just a child. And yet surely she is one of
the most fascinating characters in the whole of the Bible. She
was stolen from her home. Can you imagine what that must
have been like for a little girl? Getting grabbed by some man,
maybe grabbing her by the hair and pulling her up and throwing
her over his horse and riding away with her. And she's screaming
and she's squealing for her mother and her father. And her mother
and her father are searching for her. The enemy has come,
destroyed the farm, destroyed the village and they're shouting,
they're out in the fields and they're shouting our name and
they're saying, where are you? Where are you? And you know what
they're hoping? Oh, they're hoping that they
find her alive. But if they can't find her alive, they're hoping
that they find her dead. And she's taken. and she's captive,
and she's in a strange land, and she's in the middle of the
market square, and people are poking her and prodding her and
deciding how much they will pay for her. And she doesn't know
the language, and she doesn't know the customs, and she must
have been heartbroken, and she must have been so fearful. But
the Lord was with her. The Lord Jesus Christ loved that
little girl. And I think that this is one
of the most beautiful stories. Here is this little girl, lost
to her parents, lost to her home, lost to her friends, transported
into this foreign land, roughly handled, made a slave. and yet
God was with her. And what a great contrast that
there is between these two, brought in under the same roof, brought
in by the providence of God into contact one with another. A great man in his country who
worshipped idols, who was lauded and applauded, and yet who had
a terrible disease hidden away in his body. and a poor little
child who had nothing, and yet who trusted in the Lord. I love the confidence of this
little child. I love her faith. I love that
despite all that had happened to her, she still trusted the
Lord. She still trusted the Lord. I
want you to notice that. You know, I hear about people
who say, I couldn't trust God because of what has happened
to me. I couldn't believe in such a
God that would let that happen to me. You know what? This little
servant girl's story is for that person and it's for you. If you
could possibly think that you'll never trust God because of all
the things that he's allowed to happen to you, then all you
need to do is look at this seven-year-old. I don't know what age she is.
Maybe, but it's probably not much more or different to that.
Just a little child. And yet, she knew the Lord. She believed and she continued
to believe in the power of God. Now remember what is happening
in Israel at this time. Israel has fallen into idolatry,
and yet there are still a few, like that Shulamite woman, like
the sons of the prophets who came, or Balalisha, the man from
Balalisha, who came and offered the firstfruits to the prophet.
But there are only a few. Israel is in idolatry. And it
is those people who are that remnant that are kept that these
terrible things are happening to. Here was a little girl and
yet her parents had taught her to love the Lord and to honour
the prophet of God in the country. And yet it was their farm that
was abused by the Syrians. It was their daughter that was
taken by the Syrians. Just because we love the Lord
doesn't mean to say we're going to be preserved from all the
hard things in this world. but they had taught her well.
And you may be small, and I may be small, and we may be young,
and we may be poor, and we may be in difficult circumstances,
but God will use us for his glory if we follow him in faith. That little girl said to her
mistress, the prophet of God in Israel could cure my master
of his leprosy. Why do you think she said that?
Do you think she had seen Elisha curing lepers before? How would
she know that? Do you know that Elisha had never,
ever cured a leper? He'd never done it. How did she
know that he could? Do you know that the Lord Jesus
Christ told the people of Capernaum that in the days of Elisha there
were many lepers in Israel, but only Naaman the Syrian was healed? And she believed that her master
could be. Oh, how the Lord was with her.
She trusted in the power of God. So here's two people. I just
want to mention another two people that we've got in this story
and then we'll wrap it up. There are two kings mentioned
in this story. There's the king of Syria and
the king of Israel. These two kings are mentioned
only to show us that they had no power at all in this situation. They had no knowledge of what
to do and no power to help. People think that they can solve
their own problems. People think that they can manage
the circumstances of their life. They can arrange things so that
their life will get sorted out. We don't have the ability to
sort our lives out, Shane. We just don't. We can't. The very kings of these countries
were completely inadequate to sort the problem of this man,
Naaman. And what they thought was, here's
the king of Syria sends a letter and some money with Naaman and
says to the king of Israel, see that this man gets healed of
his leprosy. And the king of Israel rents
his clothes and says, what does he think I'm God that I can heal
him? I know what he's trying to do, he's trying to pick a
fight. He wants to pick a fight with me and he's using this man
as a pretext. But the point is this, that the
very kings didn't know what to do. And it was only the spiritual
understanding of that little girl that was going to make the
difference in that man's life. Leprosy in the Bible is a picture
of sin. It begins small. and we try to
hide it, but soon it spreads and then it brings death. That's
what sin does. You know, some of us are still
young. It's lovely to see the youngsters
coming along to church, but very soon, you're going to be in a
situation where you have to make decisions and choices for yourself. And some of those choices are
going to go wrong. Some of those choices are going
to be bad choices. That's just the way of life.
That's just the things that happen to us in this life. And by the
time we're a few years older, we will already be able to look
back and see that little spot starting to get bigger and starting
to get bigger. It spreads and it brings death. And we need to be cleansed of
that sin. We need to have that sin dealt
with. And we've learned from this story
that money can't buy cleansing, power can't gain cleansing, even
a will to have it removed. won't do any good because Naaman
certainly had a will to have this leprosy cleansed. What was
he doing in another country with his servants and his money bags
and his garments and clothes asking for healing? He wanted
it to be healed. But only going to God through
Jesus Christ will be the source of our cleansing for sin. Naaman made a false start here
because he went to the wrong place. He should have gone to
Elisha, the prophet of God. He went to the king of Israel.
But Elisha heard about him. I don't know how. And he sent
a message to the king of Israel. And he says, let him come now
to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. And that's what we have to do.
Let him now come. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ
is the only way that we will have the sin problem of our lives
dealt with. The gospel says, let those who
are sick with sin, who need a cure, who need cleansing, come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And when we come, he will not
turn us away. Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, saith the Lord, and I will give you rest. We can only thank God for that
little servant girl who kept the faith and pointed Naaman
to her God for healing. And may we emulate that little
girl in her trust of the Lord Jesus Christ. May God give us
such faith and boldness to speak a word in season and a word of
wisdom to needy sinners. Amen.