The Living Word for Sunday, October 9, 2022
Bible study for groups and individuals based on the following Bible readings set in the interdenominational Revised Common Lectionary:
Theme: God’s amazing mercy shown to those who do not know Him
- Read this week’s linked article telling the story through these excerpted readings
- Watch this week’s video God’s Heart of Love for Those Distant from Him
2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15 — Outsider Naaman encounters God in his healing
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 — God’s true word is sent to reassure the exiles
Luke 17:11-19 — The most excluded leper receives the full salvation
2 Timothy 2:8-15 — The Good News for all is not to be restricted
Psalm 66:1-6
1-2 Shout for joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of His name; make His praise glorious.
3-4 Say to God, “How awÏesome are Your deeds! So great is Your power that Yyour enemies cringe before You. All the earth bows down to You; they sing praise to You, they sing the praises of Your name.”
5 Come and see what God has done, His awesome deeds for mankind!
6 He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot — come, let us rejoice in Him.
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2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15 — Outsider Naaman encounters God in his healing
Unmoved by opulent gifts, Elisha sets him a test of his submission to God
5 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.
“Through him the Lord had given victory” — lack of faithfulness to the Lord and His covenant, Deut. 28:25, cost Israel in its conflict with Aram.
“Leprosy” — any of a range of skin diseases ruled unclean in Israel.
2-3 Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
“Captive a young girl from Israel” — from the frequent border raids.
“The prophet who is in Samaria” — Elisha maintained a base in Samaria’s capital.
4-6 Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.”
“Taking with him” — getting on for half a ton of silver and gold.
7 As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”
“Tore his robes” — suspecting Aram’s delegation had set him up for failure.
8 When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house.
“With his… chariots” — a display of rank and importance.
10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”
“Wash yourself seven times” — Naaman sees this as a cleansing ritual. He expected personal attention.
11-12 But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.
“The rivers of Damascus” — Mount Hermon’s waters ran clearer than the muddy Jordan.
13-14 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, ““My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed!'” So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
“My father” — while Naaman was fuming with pride, his household were aware that Elisha’s servant had said “and your flesh will be restored”, v.10
“As the man of God had told him” — he submitted to God which opened the way to His blessings, Ps. 119:9-11.
15 Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.”
“No God except in Israel” — Naaman’s good confession, a foreigner like Rahab and Ruth, shames the idolatrous Israelites who hedged their dependence between the Lord and Baal.
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Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 — God’s true word is sent to reassure the exiles
29 This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
“The letter… the prophet… sent” — in 597 BC while most of the population had been deported, Jeremiah remains in Jerusalem. Hananiah, a false prophet, Jeremiah 28, pronounced a swift reverse to the deportation, but Jeremiah circulates a papyrus letter telling the exiles to prepare for 70 years.
4-6 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.
“Build… and.. plant” — exile was not necessarily enslavement; people could raise families and grow crops, significant activities that fulfil specifics in Jeremiah’s call, Jer. 1:10.
“Marry and have sons and daughters” — they were to become numerous enough in two or three generations, to return.
7 “Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city” — a shocking suggestion, to pray for the shalom of Babylon as those whose future is bound up in it — and the opposite of what the false prophets were saying.
• For further study: the NT teaches the principle of submission to all strands of government, and intercession for all those who govern, Romans 13:1; 1 Tim. 2:1-4.
Reflection
SUMMARY An enemy of Israel now has to conquer his pride and submit to God, and finds miraculous healing in his extreme need. And exiles, deported by Israel’s enemy, Babylon, are encouraged by Jeremiah bringing a word to them to marry and have children there — and challenged to pray for and bless their pagan masters.
APPLICATION Although we have received God’s grace ourselves, we find God’s grace for others difficult. His unconditional love and grace are perplexing to our sense of logic — requiring us to take a spiritual view.
QUESTION Who might be a ‘Naaman’ for us who we should prayerfully expect God to reach and change?
Luke 17:11-19 — The most excluded leper receives the full salvation
While the healed lepers head for Jerusalem, the Samaritan one worships Jesus
11 -13 Now on His way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As He was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met Him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
“Along the border” — Jesus is following a circuitous route to fulfil His destiny in Jerusalem. In this mixed-population area the leper group included Jews and Samaritans.
14 When He saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
“When He saw them” — they had to attract His attention from a distance and shout that they were ‘unclean’.
“As they went” — a test of faith, requiring them to go on their way as if healed (with similarities to Naaman’s cleansing in the River Jordan, 2 Kings 5:9-14).
15-16 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him — and he was a Samaritan.
“Threw himself at Jesus’ feet” — heartfelt thanks but also worship. The Samaritan, used to being despised and hated by the Jews, was the one to recognise who Jesus was and to give Him thanks — in every other of 37 occurrences, thanks is directed to God the Father.
17-19 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then He said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
“Your faith has made you well” — could also be rendered “your faith has saved you”; the man’s faith and trust in Jesus brought him into the kingdom of God in the course of healing him.
Reflection
SUMMARY The lepers encouraged by Jesus to go, believingly, to carry out a specific action remind us of the challenge to Naaman to gointo the river.
APPLICATION In both these instances there was a test of faith, requiring an action in faith. The lifegiving change comes at the point of their stepping out in faith.
QUESTION Why did this ‘outsider’ find faith and favour where we often struggle? Deep down, do we feel an entitlement to God’s mercy?
2 Timothy 2:8-15 — The Good News for all is not to be restricted
A reminder that the Gospel is about salvation that comes from knowing Jesus
8-9 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal.
“Remember” — a call to remember the central truth of the gospel. Jesus Christ, “descended from David” emphasises His humanity while “raised from the dead” asserts His living presence at the right hand of the Father.
“Chained like a criminal” — awaiting execution, aware that “the time for My departure is near”, 2 Tim. 4:6.
9a-10 But God’s word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
“God’s word is not chained” — in sharp contrast with Paul’s situation, the word was spreading rapidly, reaching beyond Judaism and showing its permanence, 2 Thess. 3:1, 1 Peter 1:23-25. Paul’s point is that sharing the power of the resurrection and new life in salvation will be a truth that will always flourish.
11-13 Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him.
If we disown Him, He will also disown us.
If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.
“Trustworthy saying” — a phrase Paul used in writing to Timothy and Titus to emphasise foundational truths.
To “live with Him” is a definition, not of following a religious framework, but entering into a personal relationship.
14 Keep reminding God’s people of these things. Warn them before God against quarrelling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen.
“Reminding God’s people” — of the foundational truths of who Jesus is, and what it means to be one with Him. This confronts the worldly, reducing redefinition by false teachers of every age.
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
“Correctly handles” — lit. “cutting it straight” like a master craftsman (Paul’s trade was as a leather worker). Interpreting and sharing God’s word is a high call which requires not just communication skills but a disciplined accuracy which avoids the strife of quibbling over details.
Reflection
SUMMARY Timothy, Paul’s protégé apostolic leader, is charged to be careful and accurate in communicating God’s Word. He must resist false teachers who were trying to make following Christ something for a religiously-exclusive few. No, says Paul, the Good News about Jesus Christ must not be limited by man’s restriction.
APPLICATION This gospel, with its message of salvation and the freedom of new life is the very opposite of Paul chained up and awaiting execution. We may hesitate to label preachers of a misleading message today as false, but in every age the attack on grace and personal faith arises — until the reality of knowing Jesus, and His hope for all comers, is made the main thing again.
QUESTION Why do we so easily put our confidence in things other than Jesus? What is behind that loss of focus?
PRAYER Lord, to ask that we might grow in Your unconditional love is a big prayer. To share your desire to draw in those who imagine they are furthest from Your love, is bigger. And we ask it, that our hearts might be conformed towards Your heart, to save those who are excluded, and who have excluded themselves. In Jesus we pray, Amen.
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