Now let him come to me...

2 Kings 5:1-14 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

 Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man with his master, and highly respected, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper. ² Now the Arameans had gone out in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. ³ She said to her mistress, “I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy.” ⁴ Naaman went in and told his master, saying, “Thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel.” ⁵ Then the king of Aram said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” He departed and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes.

⁶ He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, “And now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” ⁷ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? But consider now, and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me.”

⁸ It happened when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent word to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Now let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.” ⁹ So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. ¹⁰ Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean.” ¹¹ But Naaman was furious 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 wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.’ ¹² Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. ¹³ Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, “My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” ¹⁴ So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.

In today’s text we see evidence that separation of church and state is not God’s idea. God does indeed give separate mandates, separate authority to those who govern and to those who are spiritual leaders. But the two should work together each fulfilling the mandate and the calling they have. Jesus is after all our master and teacher. He has given us the Holy Spirit to be our guide and instruct us. But Jesus is also the King of kings, He is the Captain of the Host. He is the commander in chief of the greatest army the world has ever known. Jesus said:  “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” (Matthew 28:18)   Jesus has full authority, both over spiritual things and over earthly things.

In our present society and culture we see an effort being made to remove God and in particular Christ from almost every aspect of the culture and in particular, from the government. The church needs to understand, walk in and fulfill its mandate and purpose in society, culture and government. The church and believers cannot simply impose our will on others. God has given all people free will. How then, what then can we as believers, as the church do to impact a culture, a society and a government that has rejected Christ and us?

The first thing we need to do is to understand our mandate and where our authority lies. Jesus says:  “I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:18-19)   The word that Jesus used for church is the Greek word ekklesia. It means a group or congregation that is called out, separated, but not separated for the purpose of remaining unto itself, separated to rule. The authority that the church has been given is an authority to bind and loose things here on earth as they are in heaven. It is an authority we have in the spiritual realm through prayer and through declaring the word and the will of God in and over situations.

We are not to rule over the government, but rather to support the government and through the authority we have, rule with them. In 1Timothy 2:1-3 Paul wrote of the foundational part of our relationship to government:       I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,  for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.       Just as we relate to individuals, it does not mean that we accept or ignore the unrighteous or ungodly actions and laws the government does or imposes. It simply means that first and foremost we should pray that our leaders, those in governmental authority would individually and collectively have a revelation of Jesus Christ. If Christ is revealed we will as Paul says:   lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.  

In today’s text it says:    When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? But consider now, and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me.”

It happened when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent word to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Now let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.”         Elisha made himself available to help the king solve a problem that he was not able to solve in his governmental authority. In order for us to be in a position to be available we cannot constantly be fighting against the authorities in the natural realm. Rather we must focus on and concentrate on walking in our spiritual authority, our spiritual gifts and callings. Ephesians 4:11-16 says:      And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,  for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,  till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;  that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,  but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—  from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.      The church today and the world today needs apostles to be apostles, prophets to be prophets, evangelists to evangelize, pastors and teachers to walk in the fullness of their authority, their gift and their calling.

God will arrange the circumstances. He will initiate divine appointments between those in the world and those He has called to impact the world. In today’s text Naaman was dissatisfied, furious in fact with the advice he was given, with Elisha’s spiritual solution to his problem. Often times the world will also reject God’s wisdom when we speak it. Paul says:

 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”

Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?... Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. ²⁶ For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;  but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, (1 Corinthians 1:18-27)

When the world rejects the solution of God for the circumstance, we need to, like Elisha, stand firm on God’s word and His will. We need to neither change, to come up with an alternate, more pleasing plan nor do we need to condemn. We simply need to: “speak the truth in love”, to speak the word and the will of God;      to men for edification and exhortation and consolation.(1 Corinthians 14:3)

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ the King of kings; precious Holy Spirit, thank for the revelation of Jesus Christ in my life. Thank You for calling me to be part of Your church, Your ekklesia, to be called out and separated for the purpose of ruling here on earth. Continue to reveal Your calling and Your purpose for me, to me. Enable and empower me by the Holy Spirit to walk in the fullness of that call. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Thank You for the privilege of walking and working with You.   Amen