This song, lyrics by Rev. Johnson Oatman Jr., published in 1902, sets to music the story from 2 Kings 5 about Elisha the prophet of Israel healing Naaman, a commander of Syria’s army — who was also a leper. One reason to love this song is because it gets us thinking about one of the most satisfying healing victories recorded in the Bible. Please give it a sing-along listen, then come back for a look at a few of the many bright thoughts we can take from this Bible record … and this song.
What a story!
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him [Jesus] out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. (Luke 4:28,29 BSB)
What on earth did Jesus say to these people — in his own home town — that got them so riled up? According to Luke, here are his closing words:
“And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet. Yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” (Luke 4:27 BSB)
Apparently his neighbors in Nazareth knew this record very well. Do you know the story Jesus was talking about?
No respecter of persons
“and as I have done to Samaria and its idols, will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols?” [Isaiah 10:11]
“God ‘will repay each one according to his deeds.’ To those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger.” [Romans 2:6-8]
Find the record of Naaman and Elisha in 2 Kings 5.
Naaman, an honored military leader of Syria, historically an enemy of Israel, is dying of leprosy. His wife’s servant, a girl captured from Israel, shares her faith that Israel’s God can heal the leader, and tells them about Israel’s prophet. Both Naaman and his pagan Syrian king think Naaman should go to Israel and get healed. So Syria’s king reaches out to Israel’s king for healing. Israel’s king has no sense — or faith — there is healing available in his land, and figures Syria’s king is trying to pick a fight. The prophet in Israel, Elisha, hears about all this and tells the king of Israel to send the sick leader to him, “so they will know there is a prophet in Israel.” Naaman reports to Elisha’s home, but Elisha does not even show his face to Naaman. Instead, Elisha sends his servant out to tell Naaman to go wash in the Jordan seven times and be clean.
Naaman is furious and offended by the seeming lack of personal attention and is about to leave, when his servants talk sense into him. He calms down, does what the prophet said — and is healed. Elisha refuses payment, but gives him “permission” to continue to serve his boss, the pagan king, at his pagan worship services without fear of becoming sick again. Meanwhile, Elisha’s servant disobeys — and lies about it — and ends up a leper himself.
So, in this record, powerful foreign “bad guys” reach out to Israel’s God, and believe, and receive grace, mercy and miraculous healing.
What an encouraging record of God’s goodness to those who will honor Him.
But wait! The story is all wrong! In this record, the home folks — the ones who were supposed to be “the good guys” in this story — don’t seem to recognize or honor God’s genuine movement in their own land. Only a captive slave in a foreign land, a foreign military leader/leper and his servants believe Israel’s God can heal. The leper gets healed. And if that isn’t stunning enough, the healed leper is given grace and mercy to go back home and continue to serve his king during pagan worship services without fear of losing his healing. And the prophet’s own servant disobeys the prophet and lies about it, and ends up with leprosy himself.
I think we can begin to see why the people of Nazareth wanted to throw their town’s native son off a cliff. They knew this story from 2 Kings and its characters — and they knew which roles from that story Jesus was thinking they themselves were playing that day.
Sad to say the best they could think to do was to prove by their words and deeds that Jesus was right.
That’s one of many good lessons this song points us to — “Jesus. Is. Right.” People have always done well to learn that sooner rather than later.
What kind of sinner am I?
Rev. Oatman’s song retells the story of Elisha and Naaman, and then takes it a step further by encouraging “sinners” to do as Naaman did, and to make a decision to get saved — to be made whole — the Lord’s way. A lot of these old songs have pleas lovingly and respectfully addressed to “sinners”.
I asked around and found I’m not the only one who has noticed modern church culture doesn’t speak of “sinners” so much anymore. To many, “sinner” sounds confrontational or judgmental, so instead we’ll refer to folks as “seekers”, or maybe “broken” or “flawed”. We hear “sinner” and think of fire and brimstone and sermons such as “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, which motivate more by a call to stop being a sinner and move away from the consuming heat than motivate by a call to become seekers who move toward the loving light.
True, to help a person who has no knowledge of God’s ways, it may be easier to motivate him to become a seeker (because God likes when people seek), than to motivate him to quit being a sinner (because God distains sin). Still, both seekers and sinners need the Lord’s salvation.
I encourage that we keep the word “sinner” in our vocabulary, since Bibles do. (And a lot of good Bible songs do, too.) “Sinner” (or “sinners”) occurs around 107 times in the Bible (depending on the version), often used in the context of highlighting the distinction between those who follow God’s ways and those who reject or ignore them. We must remember how the language of the past works if we are going to retain access to literature penned in the past – most especially the Bible. We want to understand Bible terms the way the Bible defines them, and “sinner” is certainly one of those Bible terms important to understand — biblically.
To the more “seasoned” in the Lord — to ones who have experienced His grace, mercy and forgiveness time and again — I encourage looking at this song’s last verse and being reminded yet again that we are still a work in progress. Remember to be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make requests known to God. Remember unsaved sinners can get saved — go from death to life — and thus enter into an everlasting standing of “sonship”. Remember saved sons who sin and get “out of fellowship” are to confess those sins, knowing “He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”, and so return to the fluctuating state of “fellowship”.
Let’s let this song remind us that believers “gotta believe”, meaning we need to act on God’s word. To succeed in this life we need to keep our hearts and minds open to changing our thinking and actions when obedience to the Lord calls for it and get up and move, like Naaman did that wonderful day when Elisha told his servant to say to the leper, “Naaman, GO!”
God bless you lots
-Dale R.
LYRICS – Naaman, Go!
Text: Rev. Johnson Oatman, Jr.
Tune: Geo. C. Hugg (1902)
1. When the captive maid had told of a prophet grave and old,
Who through pow’r of God had great diseases cured,
Naaman rode in chariot grand to the far off Jewish land,
Where Elisha lived as he had been assured;
With great pomp he stopped before the physician’s humble door,
Told his errand when the prophet he had seen;
“Naaman, great and mighty man, heed now this plain command;
Seven times wash in the Jordan and be clean.”
2. From his door did Naaman turn while his anger fierce did burn,
“What, go down to yonder Jordan’s muddy strand?
Let us go away from here to some water sparkling clear,
There are better rivers in my native land;”
Then he would have turned away, but his servants bade him stay,
For they believed that what the prophet said was so;
“If some great thing he had told, you would mighty be and bold,
Now unto the river yonder, Naaman, go.”
Chorus:
Go you down into the Jordan, Naaman, go! (Naaman, go!)
For Elisha’s God will heal you in its flow, (in its flow,)
From your loathsome leprosy, He will cleanse and make you free,
Go down into the Jordan, Naaman, go! (Naaman, go!)
3. Then forgetful of his pride Naaman stepped into the tide,
Thinking that this simple treatment he would try;
Gold and silver he had paid, but no cure had e’er been made,
And he knew that if this failed him he must die;
Hoping, doubting, half afraid, as the prophet he obeyed,
Seven times he dipped beneath the river’s flow,
By the pow’r of God unseen, Naaman then was pure and clean,
Thankful that Elisha uttered, “Naaman, go!”
4. If your heart is filled with sin, there is leprosy within,
But from David’s house a healing stream does flow;
Come, there is no other way, if you would be saved today,
Down beneath this crimson current you must go’
Christ alone can save today, for He is the life, the way,
He will cleanse from sin and make you white as snow,
To the arms of mercy fly, do not turn away and die,
But for healing unto Calv’ry’s fountain go.
(Last verse’s chorus:)
Go you down into the fountain, sinner, go! (sinner, go!)
For the blood of Christ will make you white as snow, (white as snow,)
Jesus now will make you whole, He will heal your sin-sick soul,
Do now as He commands you, sinner, go! (sinner, go!)
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