Metaphysical meaning of Naaman (mbd)
Naaman, na'-a-man (Heb.)--sociable; agreeable; amiable; sweet; pleasant; graceful; good.
a Son of Benjamin (Gen. 46:21); in Num. 26:40 this Naaman is mentioned as being a son of Bela, and grandson of Benjamin. b Captain of the host of the king of Syria. He was healed of leprosy through the ministrations of Elisha (II Kings 5:1-27).
Meta. The joy and pleasant, agreeable, harmonious, unifying result that ensues in consciousness when one's faith and will act in accord with one's highest Truth ideals. (One Naaman was a Benjamite, and Benjamites signify the faith quality in man actively executive, accomplishing results. Another Naaman was captain of the hosts of the king of Syria; a king always represents some phase of the will.)
Naaman of Syria represents the executive activity of the personal will. He is "captain of the host of the king of Syria"; symbolically he is the directive power of the intellectual realm of mind. Syria signifies the intellect; the king of Israel is the ruling lawgiver in the realm of spiritual thought, and the king of Syria is the same ruling power in the intellectual thought. The will is mighty, and when working under divine law is constructive. But if man allows himself to become attached, through the activity of the personal will, to the realm of flesh sensations, and bound by the belief that life is material, he becomes a leper, or unholy and unclean.
A complete cleansing process is necessary to restore man to his original purity. Seven stands for completeness, and the river Jordan represents the life current in the organism of man. When awakened to his spiritual possibilities, man begins cleansing his will from personal activities, ambitions, attainments, and sense attachments, and cultivates the childlike attitude of mind necessary to invite the inflow of the river of life (Jordan). When man has cleansed his mind through the baptism of spiritual thoughts, his body becomes clean, whole, and pure.
Naaman (executive activity of personal will) was commanded to wash in Jordan (life stream) because, as man's spiritual perception (maiden) reveals to him the realities of life, he is convinced of the need of cleansing the personal will. Spiritual I AM (Elisha) commands the denial of material beliefs and limitations. When the will is under the direction of Spirit, the mind and the body express their natural purity and perfection.
The servants of Naaman (II Kings 5:13) are the thoughts that do most of the work, and they have learned by experience that the law is the same in both the great and the small. Meditating on this the mighty Naaman stoops to the simple denials of personal, material limitations in the seven departments of the formed man, and his flesh becomes "again like unto the flesh of a little child," and he is clean.
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Preceding Entry: Naamah
Following Entry: Naamathite
