Seven Times in the Jordan
Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. (2 Kings 5:12-14)
After his initial anger, Naaman's servants reasoned with him. They pointed out that if the Prophet had asked him to do something grand and difficult, he would have gladly attempted it. So a simple instruction to wash in a dirty river shouldn’t be dismissed so quickly. Naaman was wise enough to listen to the counsel around him and was willing to go down into the Jordan River. Now, notice what happened after his first attempt. Nothing. The second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth attempts produced no visible change either.
This detail really matters. If Naaman had stopped after any of the first six times because he saw no visible change, and had allowed his eyes to convince him to walk away from faith, he would have walked away still a leper. Technically, he would have obeyed most of what the Prophet asked him to do, but he would have missed the result. The healing came specifically on the seventh dip, following God’s instructions through the Prophet exactly.
Partial obedience to what God said, even obedience that looks like real, genuine effort, is not the same as complete obedience to exactly what He said. Naaman's healing did not require him to understand why seven dips mattered rather than six. It only required precise obedience to what had actually been instructed, followed all the way through, regardless of how unreasonable the instruction seemed for the condition he was dealing with.
Practical Application
If you have received a specific instruction from God, be sure to follow it through.
Ecclesiastes 11:4; Hebrews 5:8
