Our Infinite God

You know how a passage will stick in your mind for weeks?

A few weeks ago one of our pastors, Tim Fisk, gave a message on 2 Kings 5:1-14.  It’s the story of Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, a leper who came to the prophet Elisha to be healed.  Elisha didn’t answer the door when Naaman knocked.  He sent his servant to tell the commander to dip himself in the  Jordan River seven times.  No money, no rituals performed, just a simple faith-building instruction — not what Naaman was expecting.  After struggling with the simplicity of Elisha’s instruction, Naaman finally dipped himself in the Jordan and was healed.

I’ve been thinking about infinity and of our infinite God lately.  Infinity is a number which is so large, it does not grow larger with the addition of any other number.  It’s so large a number if you could divide infinity in half, you would have two infinite numbers.  We have no infinite numbers in our entire universe.  The number of electrons in the Universe is an enormous number, but it is not infinite, doesn’t even make a dent.  That’s how big infinity is.

Since God is infinite, He must be infinite in all His attributes: infinitely just, infinitely merciful, infinitely powerful, and so on.  Well, if God, the One who created the universe with just a word, is the God of Elisha, then Naaman had no idea just who’s door he was knocking on.  It was the door of the earthly representative of this infinitely powerful God.

I realized in my study, that creation of our huge and complex universe by an infinitely powerful God was done with no effort at all.  No task requires effort if it is done by Someone who is infinitely powerful.

With that in mind, Naaman’s story tells us of a God for Whom incredible miracles such as healing a leper, is simple and effortless.  There was no effort involved in healing Naaman.  God just willed it, and it was done. Healing Naaman was so low on God’s “power scale,” God didn’t even send His representative, His servant, to the door when Naaman knocked.  He sent His servant’s servant.  God didn’t heal Naaman by having His servant or His servant’s servant go through rituals or rites or even with a wave of Elisha’s hand.  He just gave Naaman instructions to take a step of faith in order to be healed.  Incredible power!

James 5:17 says that Elija, Elisha’s mentor, was nothing special.  He was a human just like us…and like Elisha.  And, here’s the point: you and I aren’t special humans.  It’s the God Who dwells in us Who is Phenomenal.  Like Elisha, we’re representatives of that great and infinite God and there are Naamans out there knocking on our doors.  Let’s keep awake and look carefully for the Naamans God will bring into our lives.

As usual, an expanded version of this post with the passages sited is available on the menu.