A Sovereign God with Mysterious Purposes

In the well-known passage about Naaman and Elisha, there are many truths and teachings that speak to us about a sovereign God who has mysterious purposes, who sometimes moves in ways we cannot understand, who is at work even in the times of trial and difficulty in our lives, and who always wants to glorify Himself in every aspect of our lives.

God wants to show us spiritual lessons that build our character and allow us to know Him better, and not merely, as we sometimes think, give us a quick solution to our problems and get us out of a tight spot. God also wants to instill character in us, work within our inner being, lead us to become more and more like Christ Jesus each day, and be glorified in our lives and through our conduct. He does not want simply to keep giving us what we ask for and keep us like spoiled children who, accustomed to always getting what we want from our father, become proud and dependent on God in an almost parasitic way, instead of also being contributors, participants, and providers for the Kingdom of God and His holy purposes.

In this passage, found in chapter 5 of Second Kings—if you have your Bible, you can follow along—I am not going to read the whole passage because it is quite long, and I will try to divide it into segments so that we have several meditations to enjoy over the coming days. Here in this passage, Second Kings chapter 5, we see that Naaman, the Bible says, _“was a general in the army of Syria and a great man in the sight of his master; his king held him in high esteem because through Naaman God had given deliverance to Syria.”

Here is something interesting. First, we see this great warrior, a very distinguished general who had been used to win many battles for the very powerful nation of Syria and who was held in very high esteem by that country’s king.

One of the things I find interesting right at the beginning of this passage is that it says here that God had used Naaman to bring deliverance to the nation of Syria. It is interesting because Syria is an enemy nation of Israel, an oppressive nation that persecutes and oppresses the people of Israel, and yet here it says that God used Naaman to bring deliverance to Syria. And one wonders: Why would God want to save and defend, and give victory to, a nation that is oppressing His people Israel and causing them to stumble?

There are several possible explanations we could offer, and in each of them we can see something about the sovereignty of God: the fact that God is more mysterious and more sovereign than we sometimes give Him credit for or imagine. God has purposes that we cannot understand.

Sometimes one wonders: Why, in the times we are living in, do the wicked seem to prosper so much? Dishonest people are getting ahead while the children of God are being oppressed. Why does God allow the Church of Jesus Christ to suffer so much persecution, and evil to advance among humanity, and entire nations that do not believe in the Gospel, that are oppressing Christians and trampling on the values of the Gospel, to prosper? And why does God not send judgment upon these nations and these rulers, but instead seem almost to bless them?

And it is because God is an infinite chess player who sees things we cannot see. Events that sometimes seem to be used by Satan are, rather, part of the work of a very complex God who is moving the pieces on His infinite chessboard of history to bring things to a conclusion in keeping with His complex Will. God sometimes takes a long time to teach us and show us what He has in mind through the different events that take place in history or even in our own lives, and we must be patient and understand that God knows what He is doing.

In this case Syria was playing a role that we cannot fully understand, but I believe God was using Syria to discipline Israel, a rebellious nation; it has always been so—a proud and arrogant people, idolatrous and ungrateful to the God who has given them so much. God often used the pagan nations around Israel to discipline His people and lead them to seek Him. We see this continually throughout history: God used enemy nations to compel Israel to humble itself, seek God more, and repent of its sins.

So I believe God was using Syria for a much greater purpose, and perhaps that is why He had used Naaman to give this nation victory—to give it victory so it could exert the pressure God wanted it to exert on His people Israel, ultimately bringing Israel to repentance and reconciliation with its God.

So perhaps that is the main point of this meditation. Let us never underestimate the complexity of God’s movements in our lives. God may be doing things you do not understand, and you may think that perhaps others are being used to deal with you in your life, being used in a way that may be negative and oppressive for you. But God may be disciplining you and trying to give you a message so that you will draw closer to Him, seek Him more, and recognize that you need Him in every area of your life.

This passage about Naaman will teach us many important things, but today let us recognize God’s sovereignty and His complex movements in our lives, even when they seem contradictory. May the Lord bless you, and we will continue our study in our next meditation.