A Pew Research study found that nearly half of us have “Googled” our name.[1] This refers to typing your name in the Google Internet search engine to find out if there is any mention of you on the Internet. Nearly half of us have Googled our name. Why? I think it’s because we want to find out if we have any notoriety. We want to know how popular we are. We want to know how many people might know our name.
It’s why we clip out newspaper articles that may mention us by name. It’s why some are so excited about having X number of “friends” on Facebook or X number of “followers” on Twitter. It’s one reason why I was so excited when, in 1998, my first book was published. My name was on a book that you might find at a local bookstore! We want to be known. We want some notoriety behind our name.
But many of us have probably had times when people didn’t know our name. Times when we felt like a no-name. Sometimes we seem to have no popularity, no name. Shortly after my first book came out Jerry Rushford at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California invited me to teach a class on the book at the Pepperdine Bible Lectures. Wow! I thought. I have arrived! I am a known author and I’ll be speaking at the Pepperdine Bible Lectures. I flew to Los Angeles and got picked up by the Pepperdine vans and was driven to the campus of Pepperdine University. I attended the opening keynote which was packed and I watched long lines of people waiting speak to the preacher afterwards. I attended classes in large rooms filled with people eager to listen to the teachers. All of these preachers and teachers had names I and everyone else knew very well. These were the celebrities of Churches of Christ. And I was among their number. I was on the same program as they were. Finally, the day arrived for my class. With great anticipation I entered the room assigned for me. I expected to see wall-to-wall crowds. After all, I was an author. My name was in the lectureship brochure. But when I entered the room, there were four people present. Four people had come to listen to my lecture. Four. And after fifteen minutes of my lecture, one of them left. I never felt more like a nobody than I did that day. I had no popularity. I was a no-name.
This morning we meet someone who literally has no name. Her story comes in a series of books in the Bible which are filled with names. Her story is tucked away in a book called 2 Kings. The books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings are in the Old Testament. They are the 11th and 12th books in the Bible. They are part 1 and part 2 of a story. It’s the story of the kings who ruled over God’s people from the time of Solomon—king David’s son, to end of the nation of Israel. The story of these kings spans a time period of almost 400 years. And the books are filled with names, especially the names of kings. There’s Solomon, Jeroboam, Rehoboam, Abijam, Asa, Nadab, Baasha, Zimri, Omri and a host of other names. These were people who were well-known. Some were famous. Others were infamous. And within the context of this long story of well-known named kings comes a story about a young woman with no name.
Her story is told in 2 Kings 5. This chapter is filled with a cast of characters:
- There’s Elisha. He’s one of the most famous men in the Bible. He possessed great power from God to do great miracles. He’s kind of like the Bible’s version of a Star Wars Jedi-knight. Everyone knows Elisha.
- Then there’s Gehazi. He’s Elisha’s servant. He’s well-known not because of his fame but because of his infamy. He’s the bad guy in this story.
- And then there’s Naaman. Here’s how he is described: 1 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 (2 Kgs 5:1-2 ESV). I’ll point out four things about Naaman.
- First, he is the called “commander of the army of the king of Syria.” The Syrians, also known as the Aramaeans, occupied territory to the northeast of Israel. [2] [PP Map] We are told that recently God has given Syria victory over Israel. Naaman doesn’t know that God was responsible for this. Neither does Syria’s king. As far as they are concerned, Naaman gets all the credit. He’s led the army to defeat Isreal.
- Second, Naaman is called “a great man.” This could mean that he had a lot of wealth. But it more generally means that he was a person of high status.[3] Everyone knew who Naaman was. Just like many Americans knew of “Stormin’ Norman” or General Norman Schwarzkopf after his success in the Persian Gulf War in 1991, everyone knew Naaman.
- Third, he is called a person of “high favor.” This phrase literally refers to his face. His face was well-known. He was recognizable.[4]
- Fourth, he is called a “mighty man of valor.” The basic meaning of this phrase is “strong” or “powerful.” It can be used of physical strength, or material strength, or strength of character.[5] Naaman was a powerful and influential man in his time—one of the most powerful and influential. In this story, he’s the person with the biggest name.
Finally, we come to one more person: 2Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. (2 Kgs 5:2 ESV) I’ll point out three things about this young woman. First, just like so many of us, this young woman has no popularity, no name. She’s just called “little girl.” In the original language, this phrase means small or unimportant.[6] She is the least important person in the story. She’s so unimportant she’s not even named. When famous Naaman led his troops to attack Israel, they did what was common in that day. They took people and property from the losers for their own purposes. Someone, perhaps Naaman, abducted this little girl. She was ripped from the arms of her mother and father and dragged to another country. Perhaps she never saw her family, her friends, or her home again. Her story makes me think of Elizabeth Smart, the Salt Lake fourteen-year-old who was abducted for nine months before being rescued. It’s a tragic story. But the ironic thing is that at least we know Elizabeth Smart’s name. She’s visited the White House. She’s been on TV. She’s been the focus of books and magazines. But we don’t even know this girl’s name. She’s a nobody. She has no popularity, no name.
Second, like many of us, she has no power. Her owner, Naaman, has a problem: 1 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 (2 Kgs 5:1-2 ESV). The word “leper” does not refer to the debilitating and disfiguring skin disease we associate with the word leprosy. That type of skin disease wasn’t known until much later.[7] This word just refers to some kind of infectious skin disease. Naaman probably had patches of skin that would swell, or he had scabs that would flake away and turn light or dark. [8] It was still a very serious condition. And it was virtually impossible to heal. That’s why when Naaman shows up in the palace of the king of Israel with a letter from the king of Syria asking for the king of Israel to heal Naaman, the king of Israel panics: 7And 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 sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.” (2 Kgs 5:7 ESV). The king of Israel is saying that curing this skin disease would take as much divine power as raising the dead.[9] Only God could do this. Naaman has a very serious condition. And surprisingly, the little girl with no name who’s been abducted and forced into labor wants to do something about it. The challenge, however, is that she has no power. She has no resources. She cannot take him in her car and drive him to a doctor. She cannot call a specialist to look at him. She does know someone who can help. She knows that Elisha has the divine power to heal Naaman. But she cannot drag Naaman to Elisha or Elisha to Naaman. This no-name girl has no power. All she can do is wish out loud: 3She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” (2 Kings 5:4 ESV).
Finally, this little girl has no perspective. She has no popularity, no name. She has no power. And just like many of us, she has no perspective. The author of 2 Kings lets us know in vs. 1 that this is really a story about God. He tells us that God is the one who gave Naaman victory. God’s at work in this story. But this little girl has no sense of this larger picture. She’s just wishing aloud. She has no idea what God might do with her wish. She has no perspective.
But here’s the real perspective. It turns out that God’s not just at work in the war in this story. And he’s not just at work healing Naaman, as we’ll see in a moment. God’s actually got something much larger going on here. God’s goal in this story is to get Naaman, one of the most powerful and influential pagans of the day, to become a worshiper of God. This is one of the only places in 1st and 2nd Kings where we watch a non-Israelite become a worshiper of God.[10] As part of his ongoing quest to lead people everywhere and everyplace into a relationship with him, God wants to lead Naaman, one of the most well known and most highly regarded celebrities, to become a God-worshipper. It’d be like God turning Lady Gaga or Edward Cullen into devout followers of God. The impact on others would be tremendous.
Watch then, how God does this. The little girl with no name, the nobody in this story who has no power and no perspective, wishes aloud: Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy. Her wish becomes the turning point in the story. Her wish leads Naaman to become a worshipper of God. The wife tells Naaman about this wish. Naaman then tells the king of Syria. The king sends Naaman with gifts and a letter to the king of Israel. The king of Israel nearly faints with fear when he reads the letter because he knows there is no way to heal this skin disease. Elisha eventually hears about it and sends word for Naaman to come to Elisha’s house. When Naaman arrives, Elisha sends a messenger to Naaman: “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” (2 Kings 5:10 ESV). Naaman blows his top because he’s a big shot and he expected Elisha himself to come out and do some big production to heal him. But Naaman’s wise servants counsel him to follow the Elisha’s message. Naaman does. His skin condition is healed. And most importantly–Naaman credits the God of Israel. He confesses, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel (2 Kings 5:15 ESV). Then he swears, from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the LORD (2 Kings 5:17 ESV). And Naaman takes two loads of earth from Israel, probably to use in building a small altar back in Syria where he will worship the Lord (2 Kings 5:17). [11] In our terms, Naaman goes back to Syria and plants a church. One of the most celebrated and well known pagans of the day goes back home and establishes a place of worship devoted to the one true God.
That’s what God’s doing in this story. God’s leading a cultural icon and a major power player to become a worshiper of the one true God. And how did God do it? He didn’t do it through the powerful people. He didn’t do it through the people with great insight and heavenly perspective. He didn’t use the popular people, the ones with big names. Not even Elisha really plays an important role in this story. He just sends a servant to tell Naaman to bath in the river. Instead, God uses this no name little girl to accomplish this amazing feat. Her wish sets in motion the events that lead to Naaman’s conversion. God uses the nobody to lead this celebrity to become a follower of God. Through this no-name person, God does something amazing.
And here’s the real point: God uses those with no popularity—no name and those with no power or perspective to accomplish his purposes in the world. God does his greatest work through everyday people doing the little they can do. We might think that it’s only the Presidents and Governors and CEO’s and celebrities who get things done in this world. It’s not. Not in God’s world. It’s the children, the teenagers, the college student, the single man or woman, the mother of two, the father of four, the secretary, the janitor, the cashier, and the intern. It’s the little girl abducted from her home turned into a slave and given no name. It’s regular people just doing the little they can who become the hero’s in God’s story.
And over forty years ago, it was a group of sanitation workers. Highland’s Herbert Parson was a nineteen year old Memphis sanitation worker in 1968 when he joined over one thousand of his coworkers in a strike protesting low pay, poor working conditions and safety issues. In that time in Memphis, sanitation workers were treated like dogs. They were called buzzards. They were nobodies. But in February 1968, Herbert and others made a stand. They marched in the streets. They confronted City Hall. Joined by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. they endured beatings, fire hoses, and mace. These were people with no popularity, no name. They had no power in society. And they had no perspective—they could have never imagined what might have happened through their efforts. But their stand became a turning point in civil rights history. These marches of a group of buzzards inspired a movement that helped end an era of national injustice. The Memphis sanitation workers like Herbert were so influential that they were recently inducted into the U. S. Labor Hall of Fame and personally welcomed by the President of the United States into the White House. God did some of the greatest civil rights work through this group of nobodies. Here’s Herbert sharing the story: [VIDEO]
It’s the people with no names. It’s the people with no power. It’s the people who might not even have the perspective to imagine what God might do through their little efforts. Those are the ones whom God uses to accomplish his purposes in the world. What might God do through you this week?
[1] http://searchengineland.com/pew-survey-finds-most-people-dont-google-themselves-that-often-after-all-12952.
[2] Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996). New Bible dictionary (3rd ed.) (65). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.
[3] Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[4] Brown, F., Driver, S. R., & Briggs, C. A. (2000). Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (electronic ed.) (816). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems.
[5] Weber, C. P. (1999). 624 ????. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (271–272). Chicago: Moody Press.
[6] Brown, F., Driver, S. R., & Briggs, C. A. (2000). Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (electronic ed.) (881). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems.
[7] Myers, A. C. (1987). The Eerdmans Bible dictionary (650). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans.
[8] Wiseman, D. J. (1993). Vol. 9: 1 and 2 Kings: An introduction and commentary. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (220). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
[9] Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (653). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[10] Wiseman, D. J. (1993). Vol. 9: 1 and 2 Kings: An introduction and commentary. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (219). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
[11] Carson, D. A. (1994). New Bible commentary : 21st century edition (4th ed.) (2 Ki 5:1–27). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., USA: Inter-Varsity Press.
