“Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized.” Luke 3:21
IN THE BOOK OF 2 KINGS, CHAPTER 5, IS THE STORY OF NAAMAN, COMMANDER OF THE KING OF SYRIA’S ARMY, A MAN OF GREAT STATURE. BUT NAAMAN HAD LEPROSY. THROUGH A JEWISH GIRL THAT SYRIA HAD TAKEN CAPTIVE, NAAMAN LEARNED OF A PROPHET IN ISRAEL WHO COULD CURE HIM. THE PROPHET WAS ELISHA. NAAMAN WAS TOLD BY ELISHA TO WASH SEVEN TIMES IN THE JORDAN RIVER. NAAMAN WAS VERY ANGRY AND SAID, “THE RIVERS OF DAMASCUS, THE ABANA AND PHARPAR, ARE BETTER THAN ANY OF THE WATERS OF ISRAEL!” BUT NAAMAN FINALLY DOES WHAT THE PROPHET INSTRUCTS HIM TO DO AND IS HEALED. NAAMAN WANTS TO RICHLY REWARD ELISHA, BUT ELISHA REFUSES. THEN NAAMAN MAKES AN ASTOUNDING REQUEST OF ELISHA. “PLEASE GIVE YOUR SERVANT A LOAD OF SOIL, ENOUGH FOR A PAIR OF MULES TO CARRY, FOR YOUR SERVANT WILL NEVER AGAIN OFFER A BURNT OFFERING OR SACRIFICE TO A GOD OTHER THAN THE LORD.” (THE LORD IS JEHOVAH, THE GOD OF ISRAEL).
NAAMAN’S OBEDIENCE LED TO FAITH AND MORE OBEDIENCE. HE WENT BACK TO SYRIA A CHANGED MAN. HE NO LONGER NEEDED HIS IDOLS FOR HE NOW BELIEVED IN THE LIVING GOD AND WORSHIPED HIM BEFORE THE ALTER MADE FROM THE DUST OF ISRAEL.
EVERYTHING GOD DOES HAS MEANING AND PURPOSE. GOD SAW FIT TO HEAL NAAMAN BY REQUIRING HIM TO DIP SEVEN TIMES IN THE JORDAN RIVER. THE NUMBER SEVEN IS GOD’S NUMBER, THE NUMBER OF COMPLETION, AND THE JORDAN RIVER IS WHERE THE LORD JESUS WAS BAPTIZED.
LET US THINK ABOUT THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. HE TOO WAS OBEDIENT TO THE WORD OF GOD. WHEN JOHN, JESUS’ COUSIN, OBJECTED TO JESUS, A HOLY MAN, BEING BAPTIZED BY HIM A SINNER, JESUS ANSWERED JOHN, “IT IS FITTING FOR US TO FULFILL ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS, PUTTING HIMSELF ALONG SIDE OF JOHN. THAT IS THE MEANING OF COUNSELOR, ONE WHO IS ALONG SIDE. “FOR A CHILD WILL BE BORN TO US, A SON WILL BE GIVEN TO US; AND THE GOVERNMENT WILL REST ON HIS SHOULDERS; AND HIS NAME WILL BE CALLED WONDERFUL, COUNSELOR, MIGHTY GOD, ETERNAL FATHER, PRINCE OF PEACE.” Isaiah 9:6
NAAMAN’S OBEDIENCE TO THE WORD OF GOD MATTERED AS DID JESUS’ OBEDIENCE MATTER. THE LIFE THAT GOD OFFERS US IN HIS SON HAD TO MATURE AND BE PERFECTED. THE SCRIPTURES TELL US THAT HE GREW IN STATURE AND IN FAVOR WITH GOD AND MEN. AT AGE TWELVE, HE WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE REMAINED THERE IN JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE WHICH HE CALLED, “MY FATHER’S HOUSE,” BUT HE WAS OBEDIENT TO HIS PARENTS AND RETURNED TO NAZARETH WITH THEM. DURING THE NEXT EIGHTEEN YEARS, WHICH ARE HIDDEN FROM OUR SIGHT, HE CONTINUED TO LEARN, MATURE AND BE PERFECTED.
WHEN HE APPEARED THERE ON THE BANK OF THE JORDAN RIVER TO BE BAPTIZED, HE WAS A MATURE MAN, THE FIRST COMPLETE HUMAN BEING. ONLY THE HOLY ETERNAL LIFE OF GOD COMPLETES MAN. THE FIRST PART OF ROMANS 3:23 SAYS, “ALL HAVE SINNED.” THE SECOND PART OF THAT VERSE SAYS THAT WE HAVE “FALLEN SHORT” OF THE GLORY OF GOD. JESUS WAS COMPLETE. HE WAS EVERYTHING GOD HAD IN MIND WHEN HE CREATED ADAM.
AFTER GOD FINISHED ADAM, HE RESTED FROM HIS WORK OF CREATION UNTIL JESUS, WHO COULD SAY, “MY FATHER IS WORKING UNTIL NOW AND I MYSELF AM WORKING.” John 5:17 AT HIS BAPTISM, JESUS HAD BEGUN TO COMPLETE THE FATHER’S WORK OF CREATION. FROM THEN ON, THE FATHER’S CREATIVE WORK WAS THROUGH HIS HUMAN SON. “THUS IT IS FITTING FOR US,” SAID JESUS TO JOHN, “TO FULFILL ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
BUT THIS INVOLVED THE DESCENT OF THE SON OF MAN AND SON OF GOD TO WHERE WE ARE IN OUR SIN, BEGINNING WITH GOING INTO THE JORDAN RIVER CONFESSING NOT ONLY OUR SIN BUT HIS OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS WITNESSED BY THE FATHER, “THIS IS MY BELOVED SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.”
2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 IS ALWAYS QUOTED IN REFERENCE TO THE CROSS. “GOD MADE THE ONE WHO DID NOT KNOW SIN TO BE SIN FOR US, SO THAT IN HIM WE WOULD BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD.” THE CROSS WAS THE CULMINATION OF WHAT HAD BEEN GOING ON ALL THROUGH JESUS’ LIFE. ISAIAH 53 IS A PROPHECY, NOT ONLY OF JESUS’ CROSS, BUT OF HIS WHOLE SACRIFICIAL LIFE. THE ONLY PLACE IN THE GOSPELS THAT ISAIAH 53 IS QUOTED IS IN MATTHEW 8:17, THE ACCOUNT OF JESUS HEALING PEOPLE ALL DAY LONG. “IN THIS WAY WHAT WAS SPOKEN BY ISAIAH THE PROPHET WAS FULFILLED, ‘HE TOOK OUR WEAKNESSES AND CARRIED OUR DISEASES.’”
GOD’S LIFE IS NOW A PART OF OUR HUMAN RACE AND ACCESSIBLE TO ALL WHO BELIEVE. AS JESUS TOUCHED THE LEPER, SO GOD CAN TOUCH US AND GIVE TO US HIS OWN LIFE THROUGH HIS SON.
BY OBEYING THE WORD OF GOD THROUGH THE PROPHET ELISHA, NAAMAN WAS NOT JUST HEALED FROM HIS LEPROSY BUT BEGAN TO KNOW THE ONE TRUE GOD, JEHOVAH. AS IT WAS FOR NAAMAN, SO IT IS FOR US. WE MUST FIRST ENTER JORDAN WITH JESUS, CONFESSING BOTH OUR SIN AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. HE WHO KNEW NO SIN, BECAME SIN FOR US, THAT WE MIGHT BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM.
Rosemary E. Hyslop January 31, 2020