AS RIVERS GO , the Jordan is rather unimpressive. Its headwaters are formed by the confluence of three small streams out of the mountains beyond the northern Israel border with Lebanon. Beginning as fresh clear waters, it picks up silt as it makes its one hundred fifty-five mile course through the northern verdant valleys and on south into the Sea of Galilee. By the time it exits that body of water on the way to its terminus in the Dead Sea it has become a muddy brown.
In the 6 th C. B.C. Israel, the time of Elisha the prophet, scripture tells the story of Naaman, a very powerful military commander from nearby Aram—modern Syria. A captured Israeli girl has told his wife that a prophet in Israel can cure Naaman of the dreaded disease of leprosy. But when he travels to see the prophet, Elisha doesn’t even come to meet him, instead simply sending him a message. “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.” (2 Kings 5:10)
Already feeling insulted, Naaman arrives at the small, muddy Jordan river and his anger bursts out. “‘Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?’ So he turned and went off in a rage.” (2 Kings 5:12) But his servants talk him out of his angry mood. “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?” (2 Kings 5:13a) Scripture does not tell us how long this took, but “He went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored.” (2 Kings 5:14)
Although the biblical leprosy is probably not the more virulent bacterially-caused Hansen’s disease, it nevertheless was incurable, and was not only visible on the skin, but in latter stages could deform the limbs. Whenever leprosy is mentioned in the bible, it is viewed as a curse from God because of sin, and was feared as contagious. In Jewish customs, to be declared unclean because of leprosy meant that the unfortunate person had to tear his clothes and put a covering upon his upper lip and cry, “unclean, unclean!” whenever someone approached. Lepers were typically banished from Jewish society, and would gather together where they could, forming their own small pitiful communities. It was also considered a scourge throughout all the countries of the A.N.E.
That Naaman was a great military commander might indicate that he contracted this condition later in life, after he had attained status with the king of Aram. Even though his leprosy was ‘only a spot,’ it was potentially life-changing. He was rich and powerful, and it is highly likely that he was fearful of being ostracized from his own class. To be cleansed of this disease meant far more to him than just being free of the condition; this would keep him in the fullness of his ‘rightful’ place in life. Cured, his rage has turned to gratitude, and more. “Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.” (2 Kings 5:15b)
Naaman was a mighty man who needed something he could not win by force of will or war. His fearful disease was incurable and progressive, and he needed a miracle. What the prophet Elisha asked of him was utterly beneath him. “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.” (2 Kings 5:11)
How much like all of us this is! We encounter a problem we can’t overcome, and fixate upon it. It becomes all we can think about, and even if it is small, like Naaman’s spot of leprosy, we imagine what it can become. The scene plays over and over again in our minds, each time becoming more difficult and further beyond our power to cope. Finally, we cry out to God for a miracle, and we hope expectantly that whatever the difficult issue is will be resolved in a flash. That’s what happened for Naaman—we should surely expect the same!
Miracles are hard to come by; by definition, they are rare, and lay outside of normal experience. We can’t buy them with money. There is no formula to produce one. We have no magical incantation to utter that is guaranteed to provide the outcome we seek, nor is there any additive to our prayers that assures or guarantees God’s favor. We can only ask, and wait in faith.
And that is the ‘big thing’ that is required of us. Faith is the great task, the great mountain to climb or sea to swim; faith is what is required of us as we seek a miracle. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” (John 16:23-24) In the story of the unjust judge, “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” (Luke 18:1) At the end of the parable, he asks, “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)
There is a great difference between magic and miracles. One is sleight of hand, and fools the eye, one operates outside of known physics, and materializes something not otherwise possible in space, time, and matter. One is the work of man, the other is the work of God. There have always been false prophets. Jesus warns of them many times in the gospels. They abound today, making the same promises of miracles they always have. And the vast majority of those in need of a miracle who go to them leave with their faith sorely tried, even broken. As we desperately seek the miraculous, we are sorely tried in keeping faith, even when the miracle doesn’t come, perhaps especially when it doesn’t come. Job, in the midst of his suffering, says “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” (Job 13:15) Paul is mindful of this when he writes, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Eph. 1:8)
Father, we thank you for the incredible gift of faith, ours only by your grace as a gift, and that only through Jesus’ death on the cross. Father, thank you for the greatest miracle, salvation. Thank you that this miracle is ours, and this also through Jesus’ death on the cross. May we ever turn to you, not as a need in times of trouble, but as the spiritual discipline in our daily lives that we exercise by faith. And may we be perennially cleansed by “the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (Rev. 22:1)
As the river flows…
Q. …Does it flow over and through me?
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