Why Seven Times

Even if our salvation is complete in Jesus, God has different ways and methods to save us from self and attract us to Him. “For we must needs die, and [are] as water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect [any] person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.“2 Samuel 14:14.
The leprosy of sin has banished us from the presence of God. We have lost our kingly origin and our right to the kingdom of peace and love, but all heaven is involved in our redemption and there are many people in our every day interactions that are God’s appointed agents to help us go back to Him. Have you examined your life and seen the wise and loving methods the Lord is using in your particular case to humble you and make you surrender your will to His?
Let us study how the Lord patiently, lovingly and wisely led a man to conversion.

“Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, [but he was] a leper.” 2 Kings 5:1.
The main character in this story is Naaman, a famous and beloved person among his people. He was a conqueror, a victor, but he suffered from a terrible disease that corrodes man’s flesh to the point that he cannot be recognized by his own relatives and friends: leprosy. Leprosy is a symbol of sin that has managed to erase the image of God in man. This incurable and disgusting disease isolates man from society and separates him from the company of his beloved ones. The leper lived in a cave or lazaretto and shared his fate with others in his same miserable condition. Would this be the end of that man who was so much loved and admired by the people of his time? Is it God’s will for us to be corroded by sin to the point that we may have to live as outcasts?

“And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord [were] with the prophet that [is] in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.” 2 Kings 5:2, 3.

Here we meet the second main character in our story, a young girl. This girl was a captive in the home of the leper, Naaman, but she had no hate towards her master, the conqueror of her people. She did not murmur or complain because she was taken away from her country or her relatives, but she was sensitive and sympathized with the pain of others. She was aware of the drama that was lived in the bosom of that family and she was there to serve. She did not concentrate on herself and her needs, her loneliness or the injustice committed to her and her people, but she tried to find a way to be helpful and the Spirit of God used her as a link between this pagan and God’s prophet. This girl is an example of what a Christian is to be like; a help, a solution, a person who brings hope in desperate situations. With her kindness and faithfulness she had conquered the heart of her mistress and the captain’s wife influenced her husband to follow the counsel of her maid.

Although it was a private and personal case, Naaman went to his king to be recommended to the king of Israel. He was a captain of the king’s army and was submitted to his lord. He followed the way of order. Naaman took with him silver and gold. He was ready to pay a high price for his health, but what a big disappointment was to see the reaction of the king of Israel! The king confessed his impotence to help him and as it often happens when someone does not understand something or cannot find a solution, he tries to find fault in others. He thought the king of Syria wanted to make war with him. Political issues have to be taken to statesmen, but spiritual men can only solve spiritual matters. The king of Israel, the leader of God’s people, ignored the existence of the Lord’s prophet! Unfortunately there was no cooperation between the leader and God’s real servants.

“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 hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.” 2 Kings, 5:8.

The prophet of God was not asleep; he was aware of what was going on among his people. He knew his mission and was ready to fulfil it.

“So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.” 2 Kings 5:9, 10.

Naaman, came to the door of the prophet’s habitation with a chariot full of gold and silver, but the prophet did not come out. He sent his servant to receive him. What a terrible disappointment for Naaman! How humiliating! It was almost an insult! As a captain of the army he was used to having people obeying his orders and paying compliments to him and now, in the country that he had recently defeated, the prophet considered him not worthy to be received by him at the door of his house. The faith that had been awakened in his desperate heart, that faith that was mostly an intellectual knowledge, had to be tested to the utmost. Instead of being cheerfully welcomed and treated according to his rank, he was told by the prophet’s servant what he had to do. He had to follow a therapeutic method that had no logic whatsoever. Who did the prophet think he was? What did it mean he had to wash in the Jordan seven times?!

“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 the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.” 2 Kings 5:11.

Naaman had his own idea as to how he was to be healed and his disappointment was translated into anger. Does it not happen to us that when we are terribly disappointed we get angry with others or with ourselves because things do not happen the way we expected? The same things will happen with those who have their own opinion of how they are to be saved. They do not like God’s method. They are not satisfied with it; they want to be saved in a miraculous and passive way and disappointment is inevitable. Naaman wanted to be instantly healed by the prophet without the need that he himself did something. But the prophet told him he had to dip himself seven times in the waters of the Jordan River. He had to do something himself. He had to give testimony of his faith. Jesus says, “Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Naaman had come to Elisha, he was at the door of his house. Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Naaman had to be obedient in order to learn humbleness.

Instead of accepting the yoke, his intellectual and national pride led him to say, “[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.” 2 Kings 5:12. He had taken such a long trip, he had brought so much richness and so many men with him to be told he had to dip in the water of a river! In his country there was also much water and the rivers of Syria were so much better than those of Israel! Does it happen to us sometimes that we identify so much with our country that we tend to think that nothing can be compared to its beauty, its cuisine, its costumes? Have we ever thought that there is much national pride and idolatry involved in that? Have we forgotten that we are called to be citizens of heaven and are just pilgrims on this earth?

What will Naaman do? Will he overcome his disappointment and anger? Will he go back home to his wife and his king as a leper again? Will he deny the faith that made him leave his country in search of healing by not complying to its requirements? Will he reject this only possibility of being healed? Let us see what happens.

“And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, [if] the prophet had bid thee [do some] great thing, wouldest thou not have done [it]? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?” 2 Kings 5:13.

How important it is to have faithful and wise advisors! Generally, when someone is in a position of authority, his words and opinion are an order and people have not the courage to contradict him, but Naaman’s servants were his friends. The greatest proof of their love toward their master was that they had the courage to make the General change his mind. They spoke to him in a logical and humble way, with much tact, and he was convinced. The Lord never leaves us alone. He always has someone near us who can help us see people and situations in the right light so that we are not blinded by our own thoughts and feelings. Surely Naaman was kind and considerate with his servants and they did not fear him but respected and loved him like a father.

“Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” 2 Kings 5:14.

Naaman overcame himself, humbled himself and obeyed. There is no faith without works. When he had passed the test, his skin became like the one of a little child. Not only was he healed from the leprosy, but also from his unbelief, which is the worst sin in God’s eye. Unbelief is always a result of pride, of trusting our own understanding instead of the Lord’s word and promises.

Naaman had to dip himself in the water seven times. Why not three or five? Seven is the number that symbolizes perfection. He was going to be perfectly and completely healed. In Leviticus 4:6 we read about a very solemn ceremony that took place in the temple, “And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary.”

Every time a sinner brought an animal to be sacrificed, the priest had to perform this rite with the blood of the victim.

Our salvation is not something simple, but a process that has seven stages, namely:

1) Acknowledgement of our sins
2) Repentance- sorrow for the sin under the influence of the Holy Spirit
3) Confession
4) Justification – Forgiveness
5) Reconciliation – restoration of the relationship between man and God
6) Sanctification- the process of being cleansed from sin
7) Redemption – glorification- when the image of God will be restored in us and we shall be in His holy presence
Naaman’s skin was as clean as that of a child. He was a new creature, he now knew the true living God personally and started a new life under His guidance.

When he went back to the man of God, he offered him much silver and gold. But what was the prophet’s answer?
“[As] the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take [it]; but he refused.” 2 Kings 5: 16.

Why did the prophet of God assume this attitude? “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, [as] silver and gold… but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter 1:18, 19. No richness of this world can pay for our salvation.

May the Lord help us to accept His precious blood shed for us in Calvary and not to look for any other way to be saved because “neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.“ Acts 4:12.
AMEN.

Teresa Corti