Naaman and the Wild God of Israel

***What follows is an article written by Michael A. King from Spirituality Today, Spring 1986, Vol. 38, pp. 4-8***

Though our theologies seek to grasp at God and limit him, we know him only partly, for he remains mysterious, unpredictable, unknowable and "untame."

WE like a tame God, a God we can easily and comfortably believe in, worship and explain. We like a God we can hold warmly to our bosoms when we feel the need, a teddy bear of a God who can be cuddled when the night at bedtime seems too dark (and there are times, certainly, when God tenderly fills just that longing), but who can be, most of the rest of the time, properly ignored. We like a predictable God, a God who will act like we think he should act.

But is he like that, or is he a God who, just when we think we have squeezed him, like a genie, into a bottle from which he will emerge only upon our command, lets out a great roar and shatters the bottle into sharp shreds? That's the question that twists in my mind as I encounter the strange and unsettling story of a mighty soldier called Naaman contained in II Kings 5:1-19.

Just as soon as the story begins, the strangeness begins. Naaman commands the army of the King of Aram (Aram being in that portion of territory north of Israel which today we call Syria), and he is considered a corking good general, a Patton-Eisenhower-McArthur of a general, because he has proved victorious in battle against, among others, the people of Israel. Why has he won? Because the Lord God of Israel, the God one would think should be siding with his poor and oppressed chosen people, that being the theological bottle he belongs in, has given him the victory. Ah, but maybe the bottle can be glued back together, we think, as the story moves on and mighty proud Naaman falls victim to dreaded leprosy. Thus are the mighty brought low! Naaman's disease has not barred him from social interaction, which suggests he has a mild form of leprosy, but he is still doomed to a life of embarrassing and disfiguring affliction.

Yet the story now takes another odd twist. A young Israelite girl captured by Naaman's army serves Naaman's wife, and she bursts out to her mistress with tender concern for this man ultimately responsible for her captivity, "If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." Naaman and his wife have most likely just taken in a weekend of marriage enrichment, because his wife apparently communicates this word quite reliably and accurately to Naaman, and he then shares the information with his king.

The king needs his general, the capable commander of his battles with Israel; he'll stand by his man. If healing is to be found in Israel, why then, he tells Naaman, "By all means, go." Yes, go, go to the people you have conquered, and get them to help you. He sends with Naaman a letter requesting that the king of Israel cure Naaman's leprosy, along with a great gift of silver and gold and rich clothing, not to mention a SONY VCR and a pile of movie cassettes. The king of Aram doesn't really know what he's doing; he knows nothing about the God of Israel and the means he may use to bring healing to Naaman. He simply assumes that in Israel, as in Aram, kings control the magical power needed to cure someone. So he does the right thing but for all the wrong reasons.

When the king of Israel receives the letter, he thoroughly misinterprets the whole affair and goes nuts. An enemy ruler requesting he cure the leprosy of an enemy soldier? A trick, a devious, dastardly trick it must be! He knows enough about God to know that merely being a king doesn't give him control of divine power, but that, he assumes, is an irrelevant issue. Healing Naaman isn't the point at all. What the king of Aram is really trying to do is to provoke a fight so he can justify some further aggression against Israel. Nevertheless, inept though he is, the king of Israel unwittingly furthers Naaman's cause, as he moans and groans and tears his robes dramatically enough that the word at last gets out to Elisha, the man who holds the key to God's intervention in Naaman's life.

Elisha sends word to Naaman suggesting Naaman's appearance at his house, and Naaman responds as any proper general would, showing up with horses and chariots and jeeps, and a few helicopters hovering overhead to ensure security. The prophet, surely, will drop whatever he is doing, probably checking out the most recent New York Times analysis of animosity between Aram and Israel, and respectfully rush out and heal him.

But no. Not at all. Elisha just stays in his easy chair and sends a messenger out to say, "Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed." Naaman goes off in a huff, probably after motioning his helicopters to settle over Elisha's house and roar in his ears for a while. In the first place, Naaman grumbles, one would have thought all that was needed for the healing was for Elisha to call on God and wave his hand like a wand over the leprosy. Even if one let him get away with ordering instead a seven-fold dip in a river, the least he could have done was to suggest it be carried out in one of the clear, clean, lovely rivers of Damascus, rather than the sluggish muddy waters of the Jordan!

GOD'S WAY OF HEALING

Naaman wants divine healing, but God and his prophet are proving too wild for him. All Naaman wants is a proper healing ceremony, one with a touch of grace and class as befits his stature, and all he is getting is a remarkably irritating and demeaning run around from a God who refuses to be tamed to his expectations. Then, once again from unexpected quarters, from Naaman's lowly servants, comes the suggestion that he certainly would have tried some great and heroic healing process commanded by Elisha, so what harm could it do to simply get wet in a river, even if muddy? Why not try it, at least?

"So Naaman went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy," says the text. God has been wild and unpredictable and elusive, but God has come through as Naaman has allowed the bottle of the preconceptions within which he has tried to tame the divine to be broken. A motley assortment of people have participated. Kings, slave girls, servants, and prophets, mostly in ignorance, making their own free and unpredictable moves each step of the way, have been woven by God into the web of events leading to Naaman's healing. And Naaman, reluctantly, doubtfully, not understanding, has nevertheless obeyed the words of the Lord as spoken through his prophet.

Now Naaman, his flesh healed and his spirit chastened and mellowed, returns to Elisha to declare that he now knows the only God in all the world is Israel's God. This is a powerful and striking affirmation of monotheism, coming as it does from a man whose beliefs have been shaped in a culture characterized by the worship of a variety of local gods.

One would at this point expect a stirring repudiation from the happy new convert of all his former pagan and idolatrous ways, particularly since this story is part of the book of Kings, which makes over and over again the point that the God of Israel is a jealous God who demands that Israel worship him with total purity and exorcise all traces of evil foreign influence. But Naaman doesn't do that. Instead, he demonstrates his cultural conditioning, which predisposes him to see gods as tied to particular areas of land, so that even as he exalts the God of Israel as the God of all earth, he still wants to cart two tons of Israelite soil, to which he apparently thinks God is specially bound, back to Aram as an aid to his proper worship of God.

Not only does he want to muddy the purity of his new worship of God in this way, however. Even more strikingly, he asks Elisha:

May the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: when my master
enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I bow
there also-when I bow in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this.

Naaman is asking that the prophet recognize the realities he will face back in Aram, where, as the highly regarded and trusted general of the king he will be expected to show respect while the king worships Rimmon, the storm god of Damascus and the equivalent of the Caananite god, Baal.

Surely Elisha will now curse and storm and call down thunder and lightning on Naaman's wretched wishy-washy cowardly head! If Naaman's not going to go all the way with God, he can forget the whole thing. The purity of Israelite worship must be maintained! In addition to calling down judgment on Naaman for these corrupt worship practices, surely Elisha will demand that Naaman end the powerful, violent military career from within which he has fought the battles against the Israel where he has found healing and God. Surely, surely, Elisha will now tie up these disturbing lose ends.

What does Elisha in fact do? He says to Naaman, "Go in peace." "Go in peace," says the prophet of the Lord to this man torn between the ideals of his new faith and the realities of his old life. Now just because "Go in peace" are the key words in this situation, we need not see them as blasting apart the Bible's view of Israelites as God's chosen people, its calls for undivided worship of the one true God, and its pleading for peace, for justice, for the undoing of the proud and mighty. But such unexpected words should threaten our efforts to make of such concerns idols through which we can claim to have captured God and truth. "Go in peace," says the prophet to the people we so quickly judge and dismiss when we make idols of our limited understandings.

"Go in peace." The words swirl in the air surrounding Naaman and surrounding us, telling us our God is not a tame God. We can grasp at him through our theologies of peace, hope, liberation, grace, or personal salvation through Christ. But always we know him only in part, always he rises fiercely and wildly above us just when we think we have pinned him down. He is not a butterfly to be chased and stuck to a board and admired. He is, finally, as we see in Jesus, a God of joy and love, but he is a God also whose ways remain partly mysterious and unknowable, and before whom we do well to bow with fear and trembling as he touches and moves our lives in ways our bottles of theology and doctrine are too small and fragile to contain.

Zakkai the Giant

Eugene had an excellent lesson last night about the "giant" in Luke 19. The man named Zakkai (Zacchaeus to us Westerners), was of short stature, but a "giant" in his faith, his desire, and in his humility.

I love that Eugene gave Zakkai the credit he deserves because I've heard plenty of people bash Zakkai for being a dishonest tax collector.

The text, as Eugene correctly noted, doesn't say that Zakkai was dishonest. Verse 8 says, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor: and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold." (emphasis mine)

Zakkai said "if" I have taken, not "because" I have taken... But there is something very deep in what Zakkai is saying here.

Zakkai's repentance was complete, as was his knowledge of the Hebrew scriptures. What was the penalty for theft in the Torah?

When a person confessed to fraud and made voluntary restitution the Torah required him to return the original amount plus 20% (Leviticus 6:1-4). An apprehended thief had to pay the victim double (Exodus 22:4, 7). But a man stealing what was essential (such as a sheep) and showing no pity was required to pay back fourfold (Exodus 22:1).

In the parable Nathan told to David in 2 Samuel 12, David, in his anger, stated that the rich man who coldly put to death the lone family sheep of his neighbor was to repay that debt fourfold because he had no pity.

Now had Zakkai been cold and cruel in his work for the Romans? Who knows? His sins aren't laid out for us in the Text, but he called down the full penalty on himself if anyone had anything against him. His sins are hidden, his repentance is center stage.

Jesus gives a clever word play on His name when he says in verse 9 "Today salvation has come to this house..." because the Hebrew word yeshu'ah means "salvation" and is the proper Hebraic rendering of Jesus' name. Yeshua/Salvation had literally come to Zakkai's house!

Speaking of Hebrew names...the name Zakkai means "innocent." Salvation indeed!

Dylan and I are back from Camalu, Mexico. We had a great mission trip as we helped the Camalu Church of Christ in several ways. Dylan and I were primarily construction guys as we helped extend a water line and placed about 20 yards of fresh concrete on the church grounds. The concrete is very helpful because of the heavy rains every March. The ground around the church building washes away during the rains and the concrete helps to keep the mud out of the buildings.

Other members of our group included our physician, Ty, who saw over 200 patients and gave away over 20,000 vitamins and prescription medicine; Dr. Terry Conner who gave over 200 eye exams and gave away several pairs of prescription eyeglasses to needy people; and Rudy Thompson who provided a joint/pain clinic and taught how to work without straining your back or your joints.

Several members of our group were involved in benevolence work where they gave out countless clothing items and food to the local families. The food bags alone contained enough food for 1 month for each family.

Of course, the trip was not all work and no play. Dylan and the other young men enjoyed playing soccer with the local boys. They even enjoyed the "capuchie," which is Spanish for "piggy-back ride."

It was a great trip and we are looking forward to going back next year.

We could not have made this trip without your generous financial support and we pray that the kingdom of God was expanded through our combined efforts.

Thanks again and God bless.

To His Glory! Justin King and Dylan Barnes

The Grenade

A new recruit went into training at Paris Island, hoping to become a marine. He was one of those young men who seemed to be a bit out of step with the norm, and he easily became the subject of ridicule for those who enjoy picking on off beat people.

In the particular barracks to which this young marine was assigned, there was an extremely high level of meanness. The other young men did everything they could to make a joke of the new recruit and to humiliate him. One day, someone came up with the bright idea that they could scare the daylights out of this young marine by dropping a disarmed hand grenade onto the floor and pretending it was about to go off. Everyone else knew about this and they were all ready to get a big laugh.

The hand grenade was thrown into the middle of the floor, and the warning was yelled, "It's a live grenade, it's a live grenade! It's about to explode!"

They fully expected that the young man would get hysterical and perhaps jump out the window. Instead, the young marine fell on the grenade, hugged it to his stomach, and yelled to the other men in the barracks, "Run for your lives! Run for your lives! You'll be killed if you don't!"

The other marines froze in stillness and shame. They realized that the one they had scorned was the one ready to lay down his life for them.

And so it was with Jesus.

(Taken from Tony Campolo's book "Let me tell you a story")

Monk Warriors

For those of you who love Randy Harris and his unique perspective on the Bible, he now has a blog, several actually, so you can feed on his insights into spiritual formation.

The first is http://postmodernmystic.org/.

The other is dedicated to a covenant group of young men that Randy is discipling: http://monkwarrior.org/

The question I'm begging to ask from the latter site is, "What does it take to be a 'Monk Warrior?'"

Seems they anticipated my question by providing a statement describing their committment to their covenant relationship. It is called the "Neophyte Rule" and it goes like this (emphasis is theirs):

Specifically, as a NEOPHYTE MONK WARRIOR, I make the following vows to God and my brothers.

1. I will read the Sermon on the Mount 4 times a week and begin to commit it to memory.

2. I will meet for prayer, confession and encouragement 2 times a week with another monk warrior.

3. I will treat Everyone with respect as ones created in the image and likeness of God. I will value people over technology.

4. In every situation, I will seek to do acts of service, take the lowest place, place others’ needs above my own.

5. I will cultivate the discipline of a warrior. I will do my part to improve our physical benchmarks and excel in school. I will practice the “One”—giving my all. I WILL NOT WHINE.

6. I will cultivate the contemplative life of a monk, by practicing silence, solitude, and fasting. I will enter the dangerous way of prayer. Specifically, I commit to fast one day a week and spend 15 minutes a day in silence before God.

7. As Jesus taught us, I will be a bearer of love, peace, and reconciliation, to those who are Jesus followers and to those who are not—especially to those who in our world are “the least of these.” I will participate in some small way in “The coming of the Kingdom” everyday.

I ask my brothers to hold me graciously accountable to this rule and I pledge to do the same for them, for the sake of the kingdom of God and truly meaningful life.

No conviction

The first chapter of The Orthodox Heretic by Peter Rollins is a parable called "No Conviction."

In a world where following Christ is decreed to be a subversive and illegal activity you have been accused of being a believer, arrested, and dragged before a court.

You have been under clandestine serveillance for some time now, and so the prosecution has been able to build up quite a case against you. They begin the trial by offering the judge dozens of photographs that show you attending church meetings, speaking at religious events, and participating in various prayer and worship services. After this, they present a selection of items that have been confiscated from your home: religious books that you own, worship CD's and other Christian artifacts. They then step up the pace by displaying many of the poems, pieces of prose, and journal entries that you had lovingly written concerning your faith. Finally, in closing, the prosecution offers your Bible to the judge.

This is a well-worn book with scribbles, notes, drawings, and underlinings throughout; evidence, if it were needed, that you had read and reread the sacred text many times.

Throughout the case you have been sitting silently in fear and trembling. You know deep in your heart that with the large body of evidence that has been amassed by the prosecution you face the possibility of a long imprisonment or even execution. At various times throughout the proceedings you have lost all confidence and have been on the verge of standing up and denying Christ. But while this thought has plagued your mind throughout the trial, you resist the temptation and remain focused.

Once the prosecution has finished presenting their case the judge proceeds to ask if you have anything to add, but you remain silent and resolute, terrified that if you open your mouth, even for a moment, you might deny the charges made against you. Like Christ, you remain silent before your accusers. In response you are led outside to wait as the judge ponders your case.

The hours pass slowly as you sit under guard in the foyer waiting to be summoned back.

Eventually a young man in uniform appears and leads you into the courtroom so that you may hear the verdict and receive word of your punishment. Once you have been seated in the dock the judge, a harsh and unyielding man, enters the room, stands before you, looks deep into your eyes and begins to speak.

"Of the charges that have been brought forward I find the accused not guilty."

"Not guilty?" your heart freezes. Then, in a split second, the fear and terror that had moments before threatened to strip your resolve are swallowed up by confusion and rage.

Despite the surrounding, you stand defiantly before the judge and demand that he give an account concerning why you are innocent of the charges in light of the evidence.

"What evidence?" he replies in shock.

"What about the poems and prose that I wrote?" you reply.

"They simply show that you think of yourself as a poet, nothing more."

"But what about the services I spoke at, the times I wept in church and the long, sleepless nights of prayer?"

"Evidence that you are a good speaker and actor, nothing more." replied the judge. "It is obvious that you deluded those around you, and perhaps at times you even deluded yourself, but this foolishness is not enough to convict you in a court of law."

"But this is madness!" you shout. "It would seem that no evidence would convince you!"

"Not so," replies the judge as if informing you of a great, long forgotten secret.

"The court is indifferent toward your Bible reading and church attendance; it has no concern for worship with words and a pen. Continue to develop your theology, and use it to paint pictures of love. We have no interest in such armchair artists who spend their time creating images of a better world."

"We exist only for those who would lay down that brush, and their life, in a Christ-like endeavor to create a better world. So, until you live as Christ and his followers, until you challenge this system and become a thorn in our side, until you die to yourself and offer your body to the flames, until then my friend, you are no enemy of ours."

Blessings for Shavuot

Tomorrow (or tonight at sundown if you want to count your days like a Jew) is the Feast of Shavuot; better known to us westerners as Pentecost. "Shavuot" is translated into English as "weeks" and it gets its name from the fact that it begins seven weeks after Passover. The Jews didn't make this up, they were commanded to observe this feast in Leviticus 23:15ff. Seven Sabbaths would be counted until the day after day 49 (7x7) when the feast of Shavuot would be celebrated. Thus there were 50 days between Passover and Weeks. In these 50 days we get the Greek word "Pentecost."

Shavuot is one of the three great pilgrimage feasts commanded by God in Deuteronomy 16:16 where all males must appear before the LORD in the place where He put His Name.

That's why in Acts 2 there is such a crowd from all around the Middle East gathered at Jerusalem.

Neat huh?

Modern celebrations of Shavuot consists of an all-night study of the Scriptures. And you thought week long gospel meetings were tough?

Observant Jews will stay in their synagogues all night tonight to learn of the Torah to prepare themselves for tomorrow when they will read the 10 commandments anew, recommiting themselves to do all the LORD has commanded.

The Jews have celebrated the giving of the Law, by God at Mt. Sinai to Moses, on Shavuot since before Jesus' time although the practice of remaining awake and studying all night is a modern custom rather than a commandment and is to express one's desire to draw closer to God.

Modern Jews carry out this tradition to counter the behavior of the Jews who slept at Mt. Sinai instead of waiting for the Torah. By staying up the entire night and studying, they strive to right that wrong and honor God's Law.

Shavuot is very important to Christians as well. Just as Jesus fulfilled the Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits with His death, burial, and resurrection; Jesus fulfills Shavuot by sending the Holy Spirit.

Compare these two texts:

In Exodus 32, Moses returns from Mt. Sinai with the tablets of the Ten Commandments. What does he find in the Israelite camp? Idolatry in the form of golden calf worship. Moses asks for those loyal to God to come to him and the Levites rally to him. God commanded those Levites to go through the camp killing his brother, friend, and neighbor. Look at verse 28:

"The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died."

Three thousand died when the Law came.

That number should make the hairs stand on your head. What happened about 1200 years later on the day where the people of Israel celebrated Law coming down from God? Peter preached the first Gospel sermon and commanded repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus. What was the result? Look at Acts 2:

"Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day."

Three thousand were given new life when the Spirit came.

The Feast was fulfilled. The Holy Spirit came down on Pentecost; on Shavuot. God is Faithful and He shows His Faithfulness through His feasts.

Just ask Paul. He understands the power of the Spirit coming down to give new life.

2nd Corinthians 3:6 "He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant-not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (emphasis mine)

The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

3000 died at Sinai, 3000 found new life at Shavuot.

Some might see a coincidence. I see the mighty hand of God.