NAAMANS BECOME SAVED, BUT  GEHAZIS ARE LOST FOR EVER 

07-28-19 This message may be viewed live streaming video at www.tabernacleofmoses.org commencing today Sunday at 11:00 am, and repeated 24/7 for one week; thereafter, the video, audio, and study notes are archived.

(2 Kings 5:1)  Now Naaman [Heb: pleasantness: pleasant /// be agreeable], captain [Commanding General] of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man [esteemed and admired] with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance [Heb: rescue: victory] unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour [Heb: virtue], but he was a leper [Heb: to scourge, to be stricken with leprosy].

1.     Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary: Although leprosy was a despised disease in Syria, as in Israel, those who suffered from the disease [in Syria] were not outcasts [as they were in Israel].

2.     leper = Webster’s Dictionary: 1. a person having leprosy. 2. a person to be shunned or ostracized, because of the danger of moral contamination.

3.     leprosy = Webster’s Dictionary: a chronic infectious disease caused by a bacterium that attacks the skin, flesh, nerves, etc.; it is characterized by nodules, ulcers, white scaly scabs, deformities, and wasting of body parts, and is apparently communicated only after long and close contact. [pure leprosy is white as snow]

4.     leprosy = Wilson’s Dictionary of Bible Types: This disease is a type [and shadow] of sin from the standpoint of its being incurable and defiling. In nearly every case of healing, the leper is said to be “cleansed.” One of the outstanding features of this disease was its defiling influence on others. The leper must live a separated life. He must wear a cloth over his mouth and cry “unclean.” He must be shut out of the camp. All of this is true about an unsaved man as regards his relationship to heaven. He cannot enter heaven because of his defilement which is hopeless. Only God can remove it, only God has the remedy.

(2 Kings 5:2-6)  And the Syrians had gone out by companies [Heb: troops of soldiers], and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid [Heb: a girl (from infancy to adolescence)] [please note the extreme contrast between the “great,” and “honourable”and “mighty” Naaman and the “little” maid]; and she waited on Naaman's wife.  And she said unto her mistress, Would God [that] my lord [Naaman] were with the prophet [man of God] that is in Samaria! for he would recover [Heb: take away from] him of his leprosy. And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said [to Naaman], Go to, go, and I will send a letter [with you] unto the king of Israel. And he [Naaman] departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, [the letter] saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.

(2 Kings 5:7)  And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter [from the reigning king of Syria], that he rent [Heb: tore] his clothes [in anguish, distress], and said [to his close advisers], Am I God, to kill and to make alive [i.e., to do the impossible], that this man [the Syrian king] doth send unto me [a command] to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider [think about it], I pray you, and see [understand and console, show sympathy with me] how he seeketh a quarrel against me [as an excuse for another war].

(2 Kings 5:8-10)  And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore [Why] hast thou rent thy clothes? let him [Naaman] come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses [symbols of great power] and with his chariot [a type of mobile throne] [and with his armed troops standing behind him], and [in great pride] stood at the door of the house of Elisha [please note that Naaman was a man living in great physical and mental misery, but who still had great pride]. And Elisha sent a messenger [Heb: an angel] unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan [river (a type of the Holy Ghost and a type of the Word of God)] seven times [a number that symbolizes “completion”], and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

1.     (Eph 5:26)  That he [Christ] might sanctify [Gk: make holy, purify] and cleanse it [the church, the body of Christ] with the washing of water by the word [Gk: rhema - revelations] [of God],

(2 Kings 5:11,12)  But Naaman was wroth [Heb: fig. burst out in rage: angry, wrathful], and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand [before me in submission and respect], and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover [re/cover] the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage [Heb: heat: anger, furious, indignation].

(2 Kings 5:13)  And his servants came near, and spake [gently] unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it [even if it entailed great effort or great personal danger]? how much rather [easier would it be] then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?

(2 Kings 5:14)  Then went he down [to the river Jordan, humbling himself], and dipped himself seven times in [the waters of the] Jordan [river], according to [(obediently to)] the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child [a type of a “big man” being born-again as a “little child” in Christ] [1], and he was clean [Heb: bright; pure, clear; morally innocent or holy: cleansed] [i.e., saved].

1.     (Matt 18:3,4)  And [Jesus] said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

a.      converted =  Gk: turn quite around or reverse: turn (again, back again, self, self about).

(2 Kings 5:15-19)  And he returned to the man of God [Elisha], he and all his company [Heb: soldiers], and came, and stood before him [having disembarked (come down) from his chariot]: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing [a gift (sacrifice)] of [from] thy servant [(Naaman)]. But he [Elisha] said, As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused [because the gift (sacrifice) belonged to God]. And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth [of Israel]? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD. [However,] In this [following] thing the LORD [please] pardon [Heb: forgive] thy servant, that when my master [the king of Syria] goeth into the house [Heb: temple] of Rimmon [a Syrian god] to worship there, and he leaneth [Heb: for support] on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself [in seeming acquiescence, compliance, submission] in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing. And he [Elisha] said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.

(2 Kings 5:20-24)  But Gehazi [a type of professing Christian], the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared [Heb: preserved] Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that [“blessing” present] which he brought [which would have been the sin of sacrifice unto other gods (idolatry)]: but, as the LORD liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him. So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot [an example of Naaman’s new-found humility] to meet him [Gehazi], and said, Is all well? And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me [(a lie)], saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets [a carefully fabricated lie]: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments. And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he [Naaman] urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his [Naaman’s] servants; and they bare them before him [Gehazi]. And when he [Gehazi] came to the tower [standing on guard before the village], he took them from their hand, and bestowed [placed] them in the house: and he let the men go [to return to Naaman without contact with anyone in the village], and they departed.

(2 Kings 5:25-27)  But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence [from where] comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither [no where] [Gehazi lied again]. And he [Elisha] said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man [(Naaman)] turned again from his chariot to meet thee? [1] Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants? [2] The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he [Gehazi] went out from his [Elisha’s] presence a leper as white as snow.

1.     Commentary: Elisha, the man of God, “knew” the truth of what Gehazi had done through exercising one of the free gifts that God had given him, “the word of knowledge” (1 Cor 12:8).

2.     (Rev 21:6-8)  And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh [Naaman] shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars [Gehazi], shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Amen