Pride Blocks Blessings: 2 Kings 5:1-14

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling” (fall, KJV).

Have you ever been given advice that you refused? You thought about what you had been told, and you came to the conclusion that the advice you had been given would not bring about the results that you hoped for. You used your own logic and concluded that maybe you had been given advice by the wrong person. In fact, you know better than the person that advised you. The proof that the person was wrong is that what they told you to do could not possibly be the best way. You know a better way. Because of your pride you would not get the blessing that you hoped to receive.

In this article we use the story of Naaman to show that pride blocks blessing. The greatest blessing that a person can receive is salvation. Used metaphorically, Naaman’s story tells us that God forgives sin, and God has determined what we must do to be cleansed of our sins so that we are reconciled to God.

The story of Naaman begins with the author telling the audience that Naaman was captain of the army, “a great man with his master, and highly respected because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram (Syria, KJV). “The man was also a great warrior, but he was a leper” (2 Kgs 5:1, NASB). Naaman was a man that met society’s highest expectations, but he was an unclean man in the eyes of the Lord. The pagan people of that day did not separate those with leprosy from the community, but God made a distinction between the clean and the unclean. God had a way for Naaman to be cleansed from the leprosy that his society knew no cure for. God had a plan.

The Arameans occasionally invaded the land of Israel. They took captives from Israel. During one raid a little girl was brought back to Aram. She became the servant of Naaman’s wife. This little girl saw that Naaman had leprosy. She knew that the God of Israel separated those with leprosy from the community. In Israel, the leper could not be included in the community until the leprosy had been cured.

One day the little girl was talking to her mistress. This little girl did all that she knew to do; all that she could do. She told her mistress about her God. There was a prophet of God in Samaria. Just as the king had been given victory by the hand of Naaman, God could heal Naaman by the hand of the prophet. The king was told, and he sent a letter to the king of Israel. The king of Israel was suspicious. He did not trust the king of Aram. He believed that the king of Aram was trying to start a quarrel with him. The king of Israel thought that the king of Aram should have known that he was not God. Only God could cure leprosy. When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes” he sent word to the king telling him to send the man to him, and the man would know that there was a prophet in Israel.

When Naaman arrived at to the door steps of Elisha, he sent a messenger to tell Naaman to wash himself seven times in the Jordan River. His flesh would be restored and he would be clean. Naaman was a man with pride and he refused the prophet’s offer.

Naaman had pride, and his pride was blocking his blessing. Now pride can be good pride or it can be bad pride. Good pride represents our dignity and self-respect. Bad pride is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance. Bad pride leads to self-centeredness and narcissism. Bad pride is thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to. Pride causes us to elevate our own self-worth while devaluing the worth of others. This is what we see in Naaman. We will see how pride blocks our blessings.

First, Naaman’s pride caused him to believe that he was more important than he really was. Yes, Naaman was a great man that was well respected by the king. He had done some great things. He was a great warrior. However, it seems that Naaman had overlooked the reason that he had come to see the prophet. Naaman’s pride caused him to think first about his own importance. Naaman became angry and he went away. He said, “Behold, I thought, ‘He will surely come out to me and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper’” (v. 11). Pride caused Naaman to think that the prophet should be more concerned about him than the prophet was concerned about his leprosy.

Second, Naaman refused to accept the prophet’s method for him to be cured. He thought that Naaman should have come out to him, stand and call on the Lord His God and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. So what was wrong with Naaman’s thinking? Let us consider Naaman’s thoughts and understanding about gods. Naaman was a pagan who knew nothing about the God of Israel. In Naaman’s religion the people took small figures with them wherever they went so that the gods could be with them. If the people met in a communal setting, they met at the temple where statues of the gods had been erected. The people sacrificed to their gods. They cried out to their gods, but they never heard the voice of their gods. The gods did not speak. The people could only call on their gods and perform some acts of submission. They had to wait and hope that their gods had heard them. The only evidence that the gods heard them was the results that they saw.

Naaman did not see Elisha. He performed no religious ritual. The prophet of God only spoke. The God of Israel did not respond to religious rituals performed by human beings. Rather, God called prophets to speak for Him. God gave the prophet His words. God told the prophet what to say and what to do. He answers the prayers of those that have faith in Him. They hear Him and they believe what He says. Elisha did not do anything except speak because in this instance that was all that God told him to do. Naaman did not know a god like God. His religion required a sign. God spoke a word.

Third, Naaman’s pride caused him to believe that the God of Israel lacked wisdom. The prophet had said, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times” (v. 10). How absurd Naaman thought. Why would God tell him to wash in the muddy waters of the Jordan River? If washing in a river could cure him, he could have stayed at home in Damascus. Naaman questioned the logic of what the prophet had said. Naaman said, “Are not the Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel” (v. 12)? Instead of traveling to a river with muddy waters, he could have stayed at home and washed in the clear waters of the rivers in Damascus. Surely washing in clear waters would be more effective than muddy water. Naaman asked, “Could I not wash in them and be cleaned” (v. 12)? Just thinking about what the prophet had said made him angrier. “So he turned and went away in a rage” (v. 12). Naaman’s pride blocked his blessing. Yet God would not give up on Naaman. God would make a second effort to bless him.

In verse 13 Naaman’s servants spoke to him. They asked him why he had rejected the words of the prophet. If the prophet had told him to do something great, he would have done what the prophet said. He should do what the prophet said because obedience to the words of the prophet would bring about the desired results. There was no power to cure leprosy in the waters of any river. The power to cure was in the words of the Lord. Naaman should not depend on the waters in the rivers. He should trust God who speaks into existence what God wants to be done. It has been this way from the beginning. God spoke and said “‘Let there be light”; and there was light” (Genesis 1:3).

We can see that pride turns us away from God. We don’t need God. We reject His words and our pride blocks our blessings. Pride causes us to reject the message of the gospel. When we reject the gospel we block the blessing of salvation.