Out of the Mouths of Babes

Don't go to the priests and beg their help. Don't spend money at their shrines. It's a dead religion.

Go to Israel to the prophet of God. See, at the very time she should have been doubting her God, she is affirming Him. Imagine the state she came from. The Israelites seem to be losing on every corner.

Prophets are ignored. And now she's ripped from her home, perhaps seeing her own family killed. She's sold into slavery.

She lives in the house of a leper, a warlord, an enemy of Israel. Enough, I would think, is enough. The central message of the Bible is how God has worked and is working to make salvation possible. Each person who's ever been born since Adam was born with a serious problem.

It's called sin, and it's terminal. But there is hope. In 2 Kings 5, a leper received that message of hope once and for all.

We're going to look at that account today. But we're also going to see that as believers, we have been entrusted with that message of hope, and we have the unique opportunity to be used by God in sharing it. This is Wisdom for the Heart, and Stephen's message today is entitled, Out of the Mouths of Babes. I almost missed a wonderful story tucked inside another story. The last time we were together, we looked at Naaman's story and his wonderful cure in the muddy rivers of the Jordan. But there is a testimony of a little girl there who says some rather profound things, although it's just one brief verse.

And what I want to do is focus our attention on her. The word tells us in the New Testament that things written earlier were written for our instruction and encouragement, which means that this little Hebrew girl can encourage and instruct us in her story. So if you haven't already, take your Bibles and turn to 2 Kings 5. And to set the stage, let's go back and refresh our memories with verse 1, and the story that unfolds. Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man with his master, and highly respected, because by him of the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper. Now, as we studied, the text really doesn't give us much chronological help, although it seems to indicate that Naaman's leprosy did not surface until later in life, namely this event now that meets us here.

And the brief description of Naaman, as you pull it apart, phrase by phrase, just leaps off the page with the message that apart from this terminal incurable disease, that is to this day incurable, Naaman had it made. He was, if you'll look back again and refresh your memory, this man was a great man, verse 1 says, and highly respected. He was a valiant warrior, but then this poignant declaration, the text, the Hebrews simply says, a leper, period.

It's meant to be shocking. This valiant soldier, who I believe was the idol of his men, supposedly he was the one who shot Ahab with that arrow, Josephus says. The whispers had already circulated in the camp, Naaman was a leper, and now his soldiers would avoid him at all costs. The horror of that terrifying disease, as we looked in detail at it last time, sort of overshadows the horror of this little girl's own experience.

And let's look at it together. Look at verse 2. Now the Arameans had gone out in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel, and she waited on Naaman's wife.

Most believe that the phrase little beside girl indicates she was perhaps 8, 9, 10, no older than 12. Now in the course of the raids that were taking place in the outer village regions of Israelite property, the Syrians would slip in and slip out, and of course they were looking for young ones to sell as slaves as well as gold or silver or raiment. The Hebrew verb translated raiding party is the verb that could be rendered to cut. This was a guerrilla warfare.

These men were not wearing the heavy uniform for hand to hand. These men were dressed so that they could slip in under the cover of night and raid a village, perhaps set it on fire, capture whom they could capture, and then as quickly as they could, slip out again and be gone, disappear into the night. Now verse 2 makes it very clear in some of the other translations that I read even clearer that she was not among other captives taken. She was the only captive taken. Imagine the horror of finding yourselves ripped from your family, perhaps at the screams of your mother, maybe even the death of your father who's in hand-to-hand combat with these men, trying to save his daughter's life, but she's whisked away, deposited in a foreign culture, a foreign land, a foreign language, and these men are the barbarians. These are the enemies of Israel's people, these warlords from Syria. Imagine her being auctioned off in the Capitol Square, or maybe she was given as a gift to their great leader.

We don't know. So from this phrase, from the mouth of this little babe, comes some profound rather convicting challenges to everyone here who names Jesus Christ as Master, and what I want to do is suggest some qualities that emanate from that. Perhaps these will encourage you as they have made. The first thing that I'm struck with here about her is the quality of compassion. Look at the first phrase, first part of verse 3 again. She said to her mistress, I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria, and you have to ask the question.

Now the Syrians were enemies of Israel. He is a pagan warlord. He is an idolater. Why would she want him to live? If I were this little Hebrew child, I would pillow my head at night with the memory of my past racing through my own heart, and I would say, oh God, thank you that he has leprosy.

Help him die a slow death. That's what you would expect. Do you have somebody at work who hates you? Is there somebody on campus whose greatest joy is to ridicule your faith? Or professor?

Is there some co-worker that just looks for the opportunity to jab? How motivated are you for their health and prosperity? Not very. This is Jesus Christ here weeping over the city that will impale him. This is Jesus Christ hanging on the cross, taking time to express forgiveness to a dying thief. This is Jesus Christ who pitched his tent among us, who died for us while we were yet sinners. That's compassion. Now don't overlook the fact as well that Naaman was stricken with a disease that was the mark of God's judgment, and according to Mosaic law, he is the epitome of uncleanness.

He is to be avoided. If anything, this little girl would have resented the fact that she is a slave, but add on top of that, she is now a slave living in a leper's home. That is the height of insult to a Hebrew, yet she had compassion to say, I wish Naaman could be healed.

I just wish that he could see Elisha, and I know Elisha would help him. Profound. Well, she also had another quality I want to suggest to you, just from that phrase.

She possessed the quality of faith. Would you look at the last phrase again in verse 3? Then he would cure him of his leprosy. In other words, Naaman, don't go to the prophets of Baal. I know Syria is a Baalistic state. Don't go to the prophets and priests and beg their help. Don't spend money at their shrines. It's a dead religion.

Go to Israel to the prophet of God. See, at the very time she should have been doubting her God, she is affirming him. Imagine the state she came from. The Israelites seem to be losing on every corner. Baalism is the religion not only of Syria, but Israel. The prophets are ignored, and now she's ripped from her home, perhaps seeing her own family killed. She's sold into slavery. She lives in the house of a leper, a warlord, an enemy of Israel.

Enough, I would think, is enough. Where is God in this? Maybe in some way you identify with her today, because things may be dark. All of the evidences would reveal that God is either lacking in power or at least care for you, and yet she affirms her faith. Now, I want to show you how deep her faith was. It's not in that story. It's in the Gospel of Luke.

We'll put one more clue together that explains her, describes her. Would you look at Luke chapter 4? And while you're turning, would you agree with me that it wouldn't be a great stretch of faith to believe that Elisha, the prophet of God, could heal leprosy? Would you think that'd be a real stretch? Well, every one of us would say, well, sure, Elisha can do that.

No sweat. Go to Elisha. He'll fix you up. Surely the stories of Elisha's healing of not only the other diseases, but leprosy, would have abounded that this little girl had heard about. It's really no stretch of my imagination or faith that he could be healed by Elisha. Well, look at the passage where Jesus is preaching. You're already searching. Nobody's looking at me.

Everybody's head is just down. That's good. Look at verse 25. Jesus is preaching in the synagogue and he says, I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land. And yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow.

We studied that. Verse 27. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. Now, Jesus Christ is preaching with another intention in mind, but did you catch what he said about Elisha's track record with lepers? How many had he healed? How many stories had this little girl heard before being ripped from her home that Elisha could heal a leper?

Zero. Can you imagine going to a cardiologist for open-heart surgery who had yet to be successful in the operating room? Doctor, I understand you've had 85 patients, none of them lived.

Would you operate on me? That would take great faith in the face of the lack of evidences. Listen Naaman, in effect she is saying, this little nine or ten year old, there are a lot of lepers in Israel. Elisha hasn't healed any of them, but I believe he can heal you. That takes great faith in the prophets God. Now, would you go back to 2 Kings chapter 5, and I want you to pay careful attention to her specific words.

How great is her faith. Verse 3. I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria, then he might be able to cure him. Then maybe he'll be able to help him out. He'll give it his best shot.

No. Then he would cure him of his leprosy. You see, instead of doubting her faith, she is here declaring her faith in God. So you have the qualities in that little phrase that speak a volume of compassion, she cared, of faith, she believed. And that will make for a powerful witness in any land, in any generation. It's what ours needs today. What I want to do with our remaining time is, is I just want to talk about what it means to be a witness. On the eve of our missions conference, we'll be looking around the world.

I want to look here, in this city, in your city, a little bit. What does it take to be effective? First, I want to clear up some rather popular misconceptions about the subject. Misconception number one says something like this. Being an effective witness requires tremendous public exposure.

Well, it isn't true. If I were to ask you, do you know anybody in your life who's an effective witness? You'd probably think, okay, who has the most results? Where are all the stories around somebody's life? Who's reaping fruit by the bushel basket? That's an effective witness. Who is speaking to hundreds? I think we tend to view it that way, but it isn't true. Being an effective witness involves obedience.

The sphere and the scope of your witness, your exposure, has to do with God's placement of your life. It might be to one. It might be to your children. It might be to one neighbor.

It might be to many. It might be to students in a classroom, or a group of people that you disciple or teach. But the truth is, from this little girl's life who had very little exposure, she was, we would all agree, effective. But the truth was, she was anonymous. We aren't given her name. And I thought immediately that that's exactly the analogy that we are in the New Testament.

We as witnesses are called what? We are called salt. Salt is invisible on the food which it is sprinkled. And it doesn't lay there and argue with the hand that placed it, saying, I wish you would have put me somewhere else, or you could have sprinkled me further.

No. It just lies there and immediately brings life and taste to something that's dull. It provides preservation from that which is decaying, and it ultimately produces thirst. The truth is, your sphere and exposure, my friends, have everything to do with where God has placed you.

Large, small, wide, minuscule. This little girl was sprinkled into the home of a Syrian warlord and was effective. The second misconception says this. Being an effective witness requires years of study and experience. Well, she shoots that one full of holes, and I won't comment other than to take another look at this nine-year-old girl or ten-year-old girl who was simply overwhelmed with compassion and faith. She had a secret that she was willing to share, period. Well, then what's the truth about being a witness?

And we can say a hundred things. I want to limit our focus to this little girl. Here's one truth that we can raise from this passage. Being an effective witness requires honest courage. She did have the courage to sound the alarm. I can imagine that everyone around her avoided the subject of Naaman's condition.

I can imagine that when she got to the home and began her servitude that she was given a little lecture, maybe even by Naaman's wife. Now listen, little girl. Try not to notice the blotches on his face and hands. And when you bring food to the table, don't let him find you staring at him. If you should be cornered or in a hallway and have to make conversation, talk about his medals.

Ask him about his battles. Whatever you do, don't mention the word leprosy. Isn't that what we do? We carpool with people, we work with people, and we talk about the weather and the news. We do everything but talk about their condition. And she, maybe naively, just simply says, looks to me like Naaman's got a serious problem.

It's terminal. He's gonna die. I know somebody that can help him. Before anybody can be healed of leprosy, or at least treated of cancer, of leukemia, of pneumonia. Some doctor has to look them in the eye and say, you are very sick. Here's the medicine. In our culture today, it demands someone to look it in the eye and say, you are very sick with compassion.

Here's the Messiah. To be an effective witness will take courage. And if you have shared your faith with some, you know there is that one moment and and the light bulb turns on in their mind and they all of a sudden realize what you're saying about them. As kind as you've been. And then they turn perhaps to either repent by the grace of God or they become angry with you.

Maybe you have a relative like that or a boss like that or a co-worker or a child. And that shuts you into cowardice. No, here's a little girl who said what needed to be said. Truth number two, being an effective witness requires heartfelt compassion. You know it's possible to have courage now without compassion. You can talk about hell all all you want. It is true and and it is a place of judgment.

It exists. It is a place and it is reserved for all those who have rejected the truth of Christ. But it's possible to be very courageous in that declaration and lack compassion like a like the Lord Jesus who wept over Jerusalem. Listen to the compassion of the Apostle Paul who in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 said, for the word of the cross is to those who are perishing. In 2nd Corinthians he says, we the believers are the fragrance of Christ to God among those who are perishing. Paul said in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 3, if our gospel is hidden it is hidden to those who are perishing.

He seemed to be hung up on that word. They are dying. They are good as dead. They are infected with a terminal disease.

We know it as sin. And the statistics are no one survives. Being an effective witness means living with Paul, with the mind of this little girl, with compassion, recognizing that you live in a neighborhood filled with dead people.

You work at a corporation filled with dead people. There are people in your family who are as good as dead unless they come to faith in Jesus Christ, the cure. And with courage and compassion sharing the secret.

That'll give you an altogether different view on that professor who ridicules your faith or that neighbor or family member who seeks to inflict as much upon you as he can or she. I want to read you a story. It's the story of another little girl that I came across this past week. She was an 11 year old girl when her story was told living in central Chile.

The March 1980 edition of the journal Mountain Movers carried the story. Let me read it. Maria had come to faith in Christ and now her friends and her had been praying for months that her daddy would receive Christ's gift of salvation as well. Take the book, daddy. Please take this book, pled 11 year old Marie.

You can read it tonight during your break at the mine. No, Maria, I don't have time for that. Where's my lunch? It's on the kitchen table, daddy. As he disappeared into the kitchen, Maria slipped the little book that she had purchased into her dad's coat pocket. Lunch in hand, he picked up his coat, gave Maria a kiss and walked out the door. Please, Lord, make daddy read that book.

I want him to come to know you. Two years earlier, Maria's mother had died. Alone now, she took care of her daddy, washing his clothes and cooking his meals. Nothing she could do seemed to interest him in spiritual things and her efforts to make him come to church have been futile. When a missionary came by with some Christian books, Maria had a thought.

Well, maybe my daddy will read a book. After she explained her need, the missionary recommended one of the books saying, I think he might read this one. All Maria could do now was pray and hope.

Perhaps tonight her daddy would find the book in his coat and read it and come to Christ. The explosion at 1 10 a.m. shook the mining town awake. Sirens began wailing. The villagers rushed to the mine entrance, fear clutching their hearts. Of course, Maria was always among them. She watched apprehensively as a beehive of men desperately toward the caved-in mine entrance, pushing out debris and shoveling out dirt to make a passageway for oxygen and hopefully for any survivors.

After what seemed like hours, there was a shout of joy. Some had survived. With other girls and mothers, however, Maria huddled at the entrance to watch the men come out.

Her father was not among them. The hours dragged by on and on into the next day. With each passing hour, hope faded more. The missing men had been caught deep, deeper in the mine with their oxygen supply cut off from caved-in material from above. Late into the second night they found them, one of the searchers described the scene, quote, as we were digging deep in the mine well, the ground gave way suddenly.

Once the dust had settled, we saw the bodies, all eight of them. One of them had a small book in his hand and it was open to the last page. With a piece of charcoal, he had scratched out a message, quote, my dearest Maria, thank you for putting the little book in my coat pocket. I read it several times and all the other men listened. I did what the book says and accepted Jesus as my savior. One day we'll be together in heaven.

I love you very much. Education, great exposure, courage, compassion, yes, in the mouths of babes. May we be like them. I'm glad you were able to join us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. If you haven't already, I encourage you to install our app to your phone so that you can quickly and easily access all of our Bible-based resources. Before we close today, I want to remind you of a time-sensitive opportunity.

I mentioned it earlier in the week, but I want to remind you one last time. Each year Stephen hosts a conference called the Shepherds 360 Conference. This three-day event is designed for anyone involved in church leadership. You might be a pastor, a deacon, or you're a teacher or Bible study leader in your church, and if so, this conference is for you. Each year several Bible college and seminary students come as they train to serve in the church. In addition to hearing from Stephen, you'll get to meet and hear from other godly men like Erwin Lutzer and many others. If you're able to make it, we'd love to have you join us. It's coming up quickly, but there's still time for you to sign up. Call us today at 866-48-BIBLE or 866-482-4253. You can also click the link on the home page of our website, which is wisdomonline.org. Take a look at the information, and if you're able, come join us. Thanks for joining us on this broadcast today. We're glad you were with us and hope you'll be back tomorrow for more wisdom for the heart. you