2 Kings 5:10

RECEIVING ELISHA'S COMMAND; NAAMAN LEFT IN A RAGE

"And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and wave his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the 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."

"Go and wash in the Jordan seven times" (2 Kings 5:10). "The word for `wash' here is `dip'; and it is identified with `baptism' in the N.T."[7] (See the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the O.T.) Thus, what was commanded was that Naaman should be IMMERSED seven times in Jordan. Jesus gave a similar command to the man born blind, "Go wash in the pool of Siloam" (John 9:7); and it should be remembered that all mankind are commanded to "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38).

Significantly, the reaction of countless sons of Adam to that Divine injunction is very similar to that of Naaman's initial reaction here, with exactly the same result. He remained a leper; they remain in their sins.

This leads us to inquire as to why Naaman was angry. There were several reasons: (1) The implication that he needed a bath was offensive. (2) The waters of Jordan were usually muddy as compared with the crystal streams of Damascus. (3) His pride had been wounded. He was a great man and expected to be honored and respected by the prophet, but Elisha's merely SENDING him a message appeared to him as an insult.

However, his salvation from leprosy, designed to serve as a type of the whole Gentile world receiving salvation, required that he obey God's Word as conveyed to him by a messenger. All people are to be saved "through their word" (John 17:20), that is, the word of the apostles, the messengers and preachers of the truth, through whom they shall hear the words of eternal life.

"Behold, I thought, He will come out to me ... and call on the name of Jehovah his God" (2 Kings 5:11). It is significant that Naaman knew the name of the God of Israel, a name also mentioned on the Moabite Stone. In fact, one of the important revelations of this episode is that the Gentiles indeed "knew God," as Paul declared that, "Knowing God, they glorified him not as God" (Romans 1:21).

"Are not Abanah and Pharpar better than all the waters of Israel" (2 Kings 5:12). There is a sense, of course, in which it was true that the Jordan did not compare favorably with the crystal rivers of Damascus. "Abanah is identified with the Barada, and the Pharpar was either a tributary to Abanah called Fidjeh, or another independent river, the Awaaj, running several miles south of Damascus. The Romans called the Abanah the Chrysorrhoas."[8]