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.

 

2 Kings 5:1-14 (ESV)
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  Now 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.
³  She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
⁴  So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.”
⁵  And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.
⁶  And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.”
⁷  And 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.”
⁸  But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
⁹  So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house.
¹⁰  And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.”
¹¹  But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.
¹²  Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
¹³  But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
¹⁴  So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

 

James 5:17-18 (ESV)
¹⁷  Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
¹⁸  Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.