Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper (2Kings 5:1).
“Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” These are the words of a note the first astronauts who set foot on the moon over 40 years ago left behind on the surface of the moon. This and other achievements of humankind tells of humanity’s capacity to accomplish great feats (see Genesis 11:1-9).
Despite this though, there is a disease we have not cured and conquered. It plagues humankind from the newly born infant to the oldest person living on earth. The disease is sin. It attacks every single one of us. We may have great achievements to our names but those achievements don’t deal with our basic sinful problem. Only God can through Christ.
Naaman was a “commander of the army of the king of Israel” “A mighty man of valour”. But he had a problem — Leprosy. Leprosy in biblical language was a sign of uncleanness and sin (Leviticus 13:1-3). All humankind, irrespective of how refined and accomplished we are, have a sin problem to deal with. We are flawed and corrupted in our nature.
Sin is our greatest predicament. It is the “but” which mars all of our achievements. Like Naaman, we all carry a sin problem which needs cleansing. We need forgiveness and there is only One who can forgive and cleanse us from our leprosy. His name is Jesus.
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