Is There Not A God In Israel?

Introduction

Out of 2 Kings chapter 5. We pick up reading in 2 Kings 5. We’ll notice that this is the middle of a story. And we don’t want to understand what’s going on in the larger context of this story before we jump in, just as if you walked into your house and your family was watching a movie, and they were halfway through, you would want them to pause and explain to you what was going on and what the plot was up to this point, so you can understand the rest of the movie. 2 Kings 5, we’ll notice a story about Elisha and a series of stories about Elisha here in 2 Kings. And Elisha is the man of God as he is called, which is a term used to signify that he’s the prophet of God of Jehovah in Israel.

He just took that place over. In 2 Kings chapter 2, we find he transitions as he takes over for his successor, his master, Elijah. I know in the next few minutes I’m going to probably say the wrong name at least once, so bear with me as we talk about Elisha taking over for his master Elijah. In chapter 2, he follows Elijah. And he starts in Gilgal, then to Bethel, then to Jericho. And each step of the way, Elijah tells him, Look, man, I’m leaving, I’m departing. There’s no reason for you to follow me anymore. And even the people around, the sons of the prophets, who are kind of like the prophet groupies in the book of Kings, they’re telling Elisha, Look, your master is leaving. There’s no reason for you to stick around.

But Elisha is determined to stay with Elijah as long as he can. And in chapter 2, verse 9, Elijah asks him, Okay, what do you want from me? We’ve come out here, we’ve crossed over the Jordan, I’m about to leave. What is it that you want? And Elisha says, I want a double portion of your spirit. A double portion of your spirit. And Elijah says, Well, you’ll receive that if you see me taken up. And he does. He sees Elijah taken up into heaven by a whirlwind of fire. And all of a sudden, Elisha’s left on his own. And he’s standing there. He looks down and he sees the mantle of Elijah. And he literally takes up the mantle of Elijah. And he goes back to the Jordan River.

And he goes to strike the water with that mantle, like Elijah did. But before he does, he asks a very interesting question. He asks in verse 14, Where is Jehovah the God of Elijah? Where is Jehovah, the God of Elijah? You see, Elisha wants to know, and everybody else is going to want to know. Is Jehovah God with this new prophet? Just like he was with the old prophet. Is Elisha the new prophet of God like Elijah was? And the answer is yes, because he strikes the water, and the water parts for him, and he crosses back over the Jordan, and then he retraces the steps through Jericho, Bethel, back to Gilgal, each step of the way, performing miracles to show to the people that he is the new prophet of God.

He is the new man of God in Israel. But in the larger context of 1 and 2 Kings, which by the way is just one book that over time was separated into two books because of Link. In the larger context, there’s this question that keeps on getting asked in the book of Kings. Because the house of Ahab is very wicked. Ahab took over as king. He was the most wicked king there was. His sons took over after him. They were wicked. And if the nation is just plummeting into spiritual depravity, there’s this question going around, where is Jehovah? Is there a God in Israel? Is there a prophet of God in Israel? Because it sure doesn’t look like it. In 1 Kings 18, you’ll remember the famous challenge that Elijah posed to the prophets of Baal to see which God was truly God.

And he says in verse 21 of that chapter, how long will you vacillate? How long will you go back and forth between two opinions? If Jehovah is really God, then serve him. But if Baal is God, then serve him. And on that occasion, in verse 36, when he calls to God to send the fire, he says, Jehovah God, show these people. Send the fire down so that they may know that there is a God in Israel. That you are God, and that I am your servant, that I am your prophet.

And that’s declared on that instincts, but as people often do, the Israelites quickly forget. And in chapter 22, Ahab is going to war. And the allies with Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and Ahab brings his guys, you know, his prophets to inquire of him before the battle, and they all say, Yeah, you’re going to win, yeah, you’re going to win. But Jehoshaphat asked that same question. He says in chapter 22, verse 7, is there not a prophet of Jehovah in Israel that we can inquire of him? In fact, Jehoshaphat will ask the exact same question to Ahab’s son in 2 Kings chapter 3, who’s trying to do the same thing. He’ll say, Look, isn’t there a prophet of Jehovah in Israel that we can inquire of him?

And finally, in 2 Kings chapter 1, Ahab’s other son, Ahaziah, hurts himself and is sending messengers to inquire of a false God, Baalzebub, to see if he’s going to get better. And three times in that chapter, Elijah asked the same question. Is it because there is no God in Israel that you send to this false God to inquire of him? And so we come to 2 Kings chapter 5, with this question hanging over us as readers of this book. Is there a God in Israel? Is there a prophet of Jehovah in Israel? Keep that question in mind and read with me. We’re going to read quite a bit here. 2 Kings chapter 5, starting in verse 1 down through verse 19. Follow along with me, please.

2 Kings 5, verse 1. Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, Would that my Lord were with the prophet who was in Samaria? He would cure him of his leprosy. So Naaman went in and told his Lord. Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go now, and I will send you send a letter to the king of Israel.

And so he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing, and he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy. And when the king of Israel read this letter, he tore his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and make alive that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider and see how he seeks a quarrel with me. But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, Why have you torn your clothes?

Let him now come to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house, and Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean. But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Obana and Farper, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

But his servants came near and said to him, My father, it is a great word that the prophet has spoken to you. Will you not do it? Have he actually said to you, wash and be clean? So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God. And his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. So accept now a present from your servant. But he said, As the Lord lives before whom I stand, I will receive none.

And he urged him to take it, but he refused. Then Naaman said, If not, please let there be given to your servant two mules load of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering of sacrifice to any God but Jehovah. In this matter, may Jehovah pardon your servant. When my master goes into the house of Rimen to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimen, when I bow myself in the house of Rimen, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter. He said to him, Go in peace.

There is no God in all the earth except in Israel. And I want you to notice who in this story knows that and who doesn’t. First, we have this little slave girl from Israel, when she’s captive in Syria. And she knows this. Because when her master, when Naaman has leprosy and needs help, she knows where to turn. She says, there’s a prophet in Israel. And he can help you. On the other hand, we have the king of Israel, who has no idea. He’s clueless. Because when the letter comes to him that Naaman needs help curing leprosy, it wouldn’t make sense for Naaman to come to the king first, because surely, if there’s someone in your nation that can cure leprosy, the king would know about it.

The king doesn’t know. He says, What am I supposed to do about this? You think I’m going to cure your leprosy? And he tears his clothes and he whines and he is just convinced that the king of Syria is just trying to start a war with him. The king has no idea. What the servant girl clearly knows, which is that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. In fact, that is actually the point. That’s the purpose of this story, of this miracle. Because in verse 8, when Elisha hears of this, look at what he says. He says, look, send him to me. I’ll deal with this. Why? So that he may know. You kind of read between the lines here, and you’re kind of thinking, so that you also may know, King.

So that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel. That’s why Elisha did this, to make clear that there was still a prophet of Jehovah in Israel. And then when Naaman is healed, he declares that. That’s the message. That’s the lesson that Naaman gets from all of this. He comes up out of the water clean and he says, Behold, now I understand. Now I get it. Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. That is Jehovah. Even more than that, he says, you know what? From now on, I’m not going to worship any other God. I’m not going to offer sacrifice to any other God. And yeah, he asked for some earth from the land of Israel.

It’s still some pagan notions kind of hanging around and naam it. But the point is that he recognizes I’m not going to worship these other gods anymore. I’m only going to serve Jehovah because there is no other God in all the earth. And you know that’s just as much true today as it was in the time of Elisha. And unfortunately, it’s just as true today that truth is unknown in the world we live in. It’s easy to look around. Today, you can turn on the news, go to school, go to your workplace, talk to people of the world, look on the internet.

Is there no God in this land? Is there no man or woman of God around? What have we come to?

And unfortunately, like in Elisha’s day, the people that should know that the best often don’t. Like the people in positions of authority, for instance. But more than that, what about us? People that claim to be the people of God. Do we understand that? Is it clear to us that there is no God in all the earth? But the God who still lives in Israel, in spiritual Israel, in his people. And if we do understand, if we recognize that truth, then Naaman’s reaction shows us that if Jehovah really is God, then we ought to live like it.

1. If Jehovah Is God, We Need to Recommend Him

We ought to live as if there truly is a God in Israel. I want to talk from this text about two things that we need to do. If Jehovah really is God. First of all, if Jehovah is God, then we need to recommend him. If Jehovah is God, we need to recommend him. You know, this story in 2 Kings 5 is really cool. And one of the reasons it’s cool is because it’s actually written in a way to highlight the role of the little servant girl. She’s introduced in a very key point in the story. Usually you read any kind of story, there’s usually a problem that’s introduced. And usually the next person that’s introduced right after the problem is going to be the person that is the person that delivers, that solves the problem.

And the same thing is true here. Naaman’s introduced in verse 1. He’s this king, or he’s the he’s the commander for the king of Syria. He’s this great man, but he’s a leopard. That’s a problem. And verse 2 says, But there’s this little girl living in the land of Syria, serving Naaman, because she was taken captive. So we’re introduced to her at the very beginning, this little girl. Then notice that in verse 14. In the story, toward the end of the story, when Naaman comes up out of the water, do you notice how he’s described? It says that his flesh is restored like the flesh of a little child. It’s the same word in Hebrew that’s used at the beginning to describe the little girl.

So the text kind of points us back, kind of reminds us of the person who recommended Jehovah to Naaman in the first place. It’s amazing how all throughout the book of Kings, this question’s going around. No one knows. Everyone’s looking around saying, Is there really a prophet? Is there really a God in Israel? And yet this little girl answers the question that’s been being asked through all these chapters. And she speaks up, and because of that, she not only saves the life of Naaman, his physical life, but she also brings him into relationship with Jehovah and helps him to know the one true God. Because she spoke up and recommended Jehovah to someone who needed it. But the other person in the story who does this is Elisha.

Because when the king can’t do anything, Elisha says, Well, send him to me. He says, I’ll heal him again, so that he will know about Jehovah. That’s why he wanted to do this. He wanted to do this miracle in order to proclaim that truth. And that becomes even more clear at the end of the story, right? In verse 16. When Naaman comes back and says, Thanks so much for healing me. Here, take these gifts. Take these gold and this silver, these changes of clothing for what you did for me. But Elisha says, No. I’m not going to take that. Because it wasn’t about that. It wasn’t about him gaining from this. It was about doing something so that people would know who Jehovah is. Same thing’s true for us.

If Jehovah is God, we ought to recommend him. Our job is to point others to the God of Israel. And there’s a couple ways that we do that. One, like the servant girl, we do that through our words. We’re surrounded by people every day that are dying in spiritual leprosy. People that are dying in sin. And we know what the answer is. We know what will save them. We know what will heal them. And all we have to do is speak up. And say, if only you were with the God who’s in Israel. If only you knew the true prophet, the Messiah. If you knew Jesus, you could be healed.

Servant girl spoke up. We also ought to speak up as often as we can. But also through our actions. We recommend the God of Israel, which is what Elisha did. He did something. He performed an act. Now it’s a miraculous act that we cannot do. But still, he did something to help Naaman. And through that act showed Naaman that there was one true God. We need to be living and doing things every day so that people can look at us and say, you know what? That is a man of God. That’s a woman of God. And I want to serve the God they serve because of the things they do every day. There is no God in all the earth but in Israel. And so if Jehovah is God, we ought to recommend him by our words and by our actions.

2. If Jehovah Is God, Then We Ought to Obey Him

But finally tonight, if Jehovah is God, then we ought to obey him. If Jehovah is God, then we ought to obey him. We’ve been talking about Naaman and how he ends this story so devoted to Jehovah, but we know that didn’t happen right away. Because when he first heard the commands of the prophet, he wasn’t all out wanting to do that. In fact, he doesn’t want to obey at first. Because he doesn’t like what Elisha told him. You know, he was expecting to come, and this famous guy was going to come out, and he was going to be signing autographs and taking pictures and waving his hands, and he was going to say these magic words and make a big show and wave his arms around, and Naaman’s going to be healed as dapped of his leprosy right there on the spot.

That’s not what happened. In fact, Elisha didn’t even come out to him. He sent a messenger to him. And the messenger said, Hey, you can go down to the river, dip seven times, and you’ll be clean. Naaman didn’t like that. Maybe it wasn’t dramatic enough for him. Maybe it wasn’t magnificent enough for him. And he says, too, that, you know, there’s these waters back in Damascus where I came from that are better. I guess that probably means they’re maybe purer, cleaner.

This is kind of beneath him, right? To dip in this dirty water. Plus, it seems kind of like a waste of time. I mean, I came all the way down here where there were these rivers that were just fine. Came all this way, and then you’re asking me to dip in the Jordan. It didn’t make sense to him. And he didn’t want to do it.

But his servants helped him to see the truth of the matter, which is that obedience is best. And depending on your translation, what they say kind of takes on a little bit of different flavor. They basically say to him, Look, how great is this? That he asked you to do something so simple. He really just said to just dip in water seven times, and your leprosy can be taken away from you. Maybe they’re saying, look, if he’d asked you to do something great, you would have done it. How much more if he’s asking you to do something very simple?

It’s Naaman’s credit, to his immense credit. Twice in this story. He, as a commander of a national army, listens and takes advice from a servant. And he does what they tell him to do, and he goes and he dips in the Jordan seven times. And he is made clean. And so if Jehovah is God, we ought to obey him. And we ought to obey him no matter what we think of his commands. You know, I think it’s easy to kind of look at what we do and it kind of seems like we’re not really doing much. We’re just like a small group of people come together, even where we’re at Kleinwood. Maybe bigger than here, but relatively it’s not very big. The world’s standards. We come together, we sing some songs.

It doesn’t always sound that great. You know, we listen to a talk. We go home. We’re not doing anything that’s like shaking the world. We’re not doing anything great. We’re not in the headlines, we’re not on the news. Maybe it’s easy to look at what we do and say, we’re not really doing anything very impressive. Maybe we should do something else. That’s more impressive, more dramatic, more powerful in a worldly sense. Or maybe we look at the commands of God and we think, really? You expect me to do that? That’s beneath me. I’m not going to stoop to that level. You expect me to forgive this guy? Do you know what he did to me? I’m really supposed to serve this sister? Do you know what she’s like?

I’m really supposed to, you expect me to show compassion and mercy to these evil, wicked people that I’m around every day? Be patient with them. Often God’s commands seem unpleasant to us. But in reality, we ought to be thankful for the simplicity and clarity of God’s commands. That we have the word of God.

And that we can simply do what God tells us to do. Do the simple things he asked us to do day in and day out.

Conclusion

And we have life in following him. Because there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. Jehovah God. And if Jehovah is God, we ought to recommend Him and we ought to obey Him. You know, in Luke chapter 4, Jesus was in a setting a lot like we’re in tonight, and he was preaching a sermon, kind of like I am. And he was preaching about Naheman, like I am. And Jesus was preaching in Luke chapter 4 to a group of people that was convinced that they were the people of God. And that they had a relationship with God. Because they were Jewish. And Jesus talks about Naaman in Luke chapter 4. Because Naaman wasn’t a Jew. He wasn’t one of these people of God.

But he was healed, and he was accepted because he heard the word of the Lord in faith. And he obeyed.

You know, those people of Nazareth in Luke chapter 4. They responded in a way that I hope you guys don’t respond tonight. That’s the one thing that’s not, I hope it’s not similar between what they did and what we’re doing tonight. They took them out and tried to kill them afterward.

Because they didn’t hear the words of the Lord in faith. Like Naaman did. My prayer denies that we would hear the words of God in faith. The words of the lessons tonight, the words of the text that we looked at, the words that we come in contact with every day, that we would hear in faith and we would simply obey. And you know there may be someone here tonight that is still living in sin, still carries their sins with them. And how great would it be if we could say to someone tonight, like servants said to Naaman in 2 Kings 5, wash and be clean. However, you need to respond tonight, whatever it is that you need, and pray that change would happen tonight. And you can do that in a public way now, as we stand and we sing the song that was selected earlier.