THEY HELPED, AND THEN WENT OUT OF SIGHT
J. R. Surtees
2 Kings 5: 13, 14; Job 33: 1–7; Acts 22: 12–16
These scriptures speak in a simple way of persons who were used to help. Scripture is full of instruction in those who serve, who come into the picture, so to speak, and who serve, and who go out of sight again afterwards. That is a fine thing, I believe. They do not do more, or try to do more, than they have the impression of, or the commission for, and are effective in what they do. Scripture is full of such persons, not all of them older ones either; some are children, the little maid, for example, earlier in this chapter; she serves according to her measure and speaks of what she knows as to the prophet in Israel and the faith that she has as to Naaman’s leprosy, and out of the picture she goes.
Well, I desire to speak simply in this connection as to the thought of teaching and admonishing; Scripture speaks of doing this “in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs”. Colossians 3: 16. It is not that I am able for all the detail of how that may work out, but I think there is an attractive thread in the Scriptures as to teaching and admonishing in a positive way, in a living way, and
in an effective way, in a way in which the position that I take is not in any way taking me out of the place in which I belong, or giving me a place for which I am not qualified. The Scripture allows us to see, I think, that there is something for all, there is a place for all to fill, there is something for each to do.
So this man Naaman needed help. We often speak of Naaman; he was a captain. I suppose he would have been called Captain Naaman. He had a place and evidently God honoured him in it. He had many to help him besides the little maid that we spoke of; he had these servants.
They were evidently not part of his military retinue; they did not have to salute and say ‘Sir’.
They could draw near; they were persons who had that grace and that liberty. More than that, they spoke to him in a remarkable way—“My father”—they all said it apparently; they drew near together, however many there were. He took ten changes of raiment with him and no doubt it was a splendid sort of train that went from the king of Syria to Samaria. I suppose all over it you saw Naaman, from start to finish. Everything would reflect his public image in all its array. Then when Elisha did not even come out and talk to him he thought it was a big let-down, did he not? Well, I suppose that what his servants said to him was, in substance. If you are to get the blessing then your status and self-opinionation have got to go. So they drew near. Paul knew that if he was going to help those in Corinth he must love them; even if he was less loved as a result of seeking to help them it would still not affect the position, because he would love them the more.
So these servants knew what it was to draw near. They would not try to catch Naaman out; they were not trying to do that; they had not got
their own thoughts in mind at all, their own impressions or their own well-being. They did not want promotion or anything of that, they just said the truth—“If the prophet had bidden thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?” He was able for great things.
Naaman. I suppose he was self-confident. Mr. Raven said that new birth strikes at the root of that sort of thing, the root of self-confidence. Well, Naaman was self-confident and whether or not the prophet’s word meant anything to him at the time is a question, but after these servants had spoken to him the prophet’s words sank into his soul. They said, “how much rather then, when he says to thee, Wash and be clean?”
It is interesting that the servants say, “how much rather then, when he says to thee”; not that
‘he has said to thee’, but “when he says to thee, Wash and be clean?”. So the prophet’s word was still in their hearts, and thus they helped Naaman down. Can we do that? It was an admonition, but there was teaching in it. I suppose they would feel their loyalty to Naaman as never before, and no doubt his affection and regard for his servants would be such as it had never been before; he would see that this had to do with his salvation—“how much rather”.
What an appeal there is in that, is there not? They were not telling him what to do. The world is not short of people who think that they have the capacity to tell others what to do; we all know that. They were not telling him what to do, they were saying, This is the truth. They were saying, ‘Now, Naaman, you know that if the prophet had bidden thee do some mighty act you would have shone at it; probably nobody else around here could have done it better than you; but all he says to you is, “Wash and be clean”. Never mind about the rivers; never mind about your status’, (that is all part of Naaman that
had to go)—“Wash and be clean”. That would remind us of John 9, would it not? The man went and washed and came seeing. The moral side is in that. Are we ready for that? Down into the Jordan Naaman plunged seven times, “And his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean”. Still the same man; still with the same name, possibly still the same job. But instead of the office making the man, the man would make the office now.
Naaman was clean; Naaman was in accordance with the word of God. The servants of Naaman would be a company for help such as they never could have given before.
Well, I read in Job. Job had a trying time. We get one or two references to months in Job. I do not know whether that indicates that the discipline lasted for some months or maybe years, but it was very severe. Job agitated his friends so-called, and they agitated him, and one thing led to another and they all said things for which they would have been sorry afterwards; we all know the history. So it went on and there seemed to be no end to it, and evidently Elihu listened all that time. That is to his credit, I think, and then he draws near to Job. There is much that he says, and the remarkable thing is that it does not record, as far as I am aware, that Job says anything at all to Elihu. Elihu was able to say a good deal but there is a difference in his approach and substance, and then he disappears from view. These others made a claim to have some understanding of why Job was disciplined, but Elihu says he is just the same, “I also am formed out of the clay”; he is no different. He is young; Job is not young and apparently the friends of Job are not young either. So Elihu draws near and he says, “My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart, and my lips shall utter knowledge purely”. There was no secondary or ulterior motive with Elihu; he had much to speak of, much to point out to Job that was not quite right with him. Grace is evident in Elihu’s words. How he draws near to Job!
Job had not experienced this previously, indeed at one earlier stage it says that they sat down for seven days and seven nights without saying a word. Just think of that! All of them; Job in his distress, and the other three pretending to know why, and yet they all sit down there for a week and say nothing. What sort of situation is that? Do we know anything about that? Have we ever known anything like that in our localities? Or in our homes, have we ever known anything like that? Elihu would not permit such a situation, not at all. He said he was ready to burst, but he says at the same time that he was just a man, as Job was. He had something from God to say to Job, but before saying it he would like to draw near and assure Job in what he said that he wanted to justify him. He says, “If thou hast anything to say, answer me; speak, for I desire to justify thee” (Job 33: 32).
Well, this was the turning point in Job’s history; he found himself in a whirlwind after it and God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind. Much soul-searching must have gone on, and Job evidently got the gain of it. There was what Job said in response Godward showing his experience with God “Thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine”, (Job 42: 1), and other things. It also says that “Jehovah turned the captivity of Job, when he had prayed for his friends” (Job 42: 10), those who had tried, as it would appear, to help him, but who had in fact really only justified themselves. Job spoke rightly of Jehovah, and he also prayed for his friends; at that point the captivity of Job is turned. He was changed, things would be different; his illness, I suppose, went. No doubt his spirit of self-justification had already gone. Jehovah blessed him with what he had never had before.
Well, I read of Ananias. We get more, I think, in this account of Ananias than we do in Acts 9. The Lord Jesus reveals to Saul of Tarsus that he will get help by going into the city there “it shall be told thee what thou must do”, Acts 9: 6. So we get this remarkable man Ananias, pious, and borne witness to by the local brethren. Paul says, “Coming to me and standing by me, (he) said to me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And I in the same hour, received my sight and saw him”. That would remain in Paul’s experience that as opening his eyes and receiving his sight the first person he saw was Ananias. There was this man who had a little question, as we know from earlier scriptures, as to whether he was right in bringing in such a one as Saul of Tarsus, and then Paul’s eyes are opened and he sees Ananias. It says, “laying his hands upon him” in Acts 9, here it says, “standing by me, (he) said to me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight”.
This man Saul was outrageous, he was a murderer, he was a blasphemer, he compelled the saints to blaspheme—he says so—entering into houses and dragging people off; he was violent. We have received in the teaching that there are two ways in which the devil acts, and they never change; he has not any fresh ideas, they always are the same, and the two ways are either corruption or violence. If he cannot destroy the saints by violence he will try to destroy them by corruption; he will do what he can to lead the saints into corruption—Beware!
Beware of the world and all that is in it because it is the devil’s means of leading saints, especially young people, if at all possible into corruption; he will do that if he can; that is one of his ways of acting.
Here it was by violence, Paul was violent, vicious, like a roaring lion he imposed terror upon the saints. Here he was, and here was Ananias standing by him, saying, “Brother Saul, receive thy sight”. What a change had come about! We have often heard that we receive things as we are ready to receive them; they come into our history and into our souls and become part of us as we are ready for them. Well, much had happened during the three days when Saul had not sight. He was praying; then Ananias came along and said, “Brother Saul”, and there Saul saw him. He would see a brother. He had seen, no doubt, many believers, seen much that perplexed him in the endurance of the saints, much that perplexed him in their meekness, the evidences of the work of God that would have come to light in the saints that had been persecuted for their Saviour and Master. He saw the same substance, but it was for him now; it was towards him, standing by him—not against him, but standing by him. Have you ever known that, a brother standing by you? Said of Tarsus began his history with a brother standing by him.
Ananias then goes on to say, “The God of our fathers has chosen thee beforehand to know his will, and to see the just one, and to hear a voice out of his mouth”. These are depths here, are they not? “has chosen thee beforehand to know his will”. I suppose that would be understood through history with God, to know His will, to prove it. Scripture speaks about proving the good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12: 2), proving it. That would be one thing, and to “see the just one, and to hear a voice out of his mouth; for thou shalt be a witness for him to all men of what thou hast seen and heard”. What a prophetic word this was! Just one hearer with one speaking, and no distance between them; no feeling of insufficiency or self-occupation; no apology on the part of Ananias for saying what he did say, and no doubt, or anything like that, expressed by Saul of Tarsus.
What a moment in their histories, both of them.
And then Ananias says, “And now why lingerest thou?” Now this is the brother; what he said before was no doubt a word from the Lord and prophetic, but this is the brother coming in now “Arise and get baptised, and have thy sins washed away, calling on his name”. Now that was a brotherly word, was it not?—teaching and admonishing. It has struck me more than once if there is any expression in the Scriptures of teaching and admonishing in the way of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, this would be an example of it. Saul of Tarsus just needed helping on, as Naaman did, and as Job did. They were both at the point where they had received something and they could either go back on it all and lose all the gain of it, or with the touch of somebody ready to help they could just be helped on into the reality of it.
So that is what he says, “And now why lingerest thou?” Do not think of yourself and your own insufficiency—“why lingerest thou? Arise and get baptised, and have thy sins washed away, calling on his name”. Paul was to open up those truths, the teaching of baptism and the reality of calling on His name. These things would come into Paul’s ministry in the way of enlargement and fulness. They bring their own tests, and there are brethren who are in the gain of the truth and in the liberty of the Spirit and ready to help us all, and slip out of sight afterwards, as these persons did. May it be so for His name’s sake.
Address at Colchester
23 June 1990