2nd Kings Chapter 3 – John Karmelich
1.
My
title of this lesson is "How do we go about making a difference for
God?" If you've been a reader of my
lessons for a while, you know that one of my favorite questions to ask is,
"If we are saved, what are you doing about it?" I'm not saying this chapter gives the exact model of how we are to act as
Christians. I'm saying that this chapter
gives a great illustration of how we're to seek God's wisdom and once we are
inspired to take on a project for Him, how does God blesses what we take on for
His glory? A great example of that work and
blessing is here in this chapter.
2.
To
begin, let me share a wonderful principal that I heard about how God will and
will not work in our lives. It goes, "A great mistake
too many churches make is that they build their own flood control channels and
then say, OK God, here is our channel, work our way through this channel that
we built." To put it simply, we want God to
work our way. The problem with that model is
that we get the glory and not God. I bring this
up here because literally, we will read about the Israelites digging pits and
channels in order for God to perform a specific miracle.
a)
The
difference is the ditches built here were a request for God to work through
them, not a demand. This chapter is about the
Israelites doing the footwork so that God can if He is willing to work through
it. It would be like saying, "Dear God, we really want
You to bless our lives as we make a difference for You, so we'll take a step in
faith and take on a project if You desire to work through it". The difference between what the Israelites did and the negative example I
gave is all about the credit. Do we take the credit for
building our flood control channels or are we following God's lead of what He
wants us to do? In effect, that is the great
question most of us should ask if we are using our time to make a difference
for God in our lives.
3.
To
state what may be obvious, there is more to the chapter than that one effort to
dig ditches. As we read through this chapter,
we'll learn about a war that the Israelites fight with the Moabites, a group
that lives east of Israel. Yes it seems like every other
chapter in Kings involves Israelites battling somebody to the east of them. As I also love to state, I don't think God cares that we can recall the
names of the ancient Israelite enemies or even the kings names listed here as
much as He wants us to learn how to apply the lessons of these stories to our
lives.
a)
With
that said, this chapter involves both the Northern and Southern Kingdom of
Israel fighting against the Moabites who live to the east (northeast) of
Israel. The story is about how they
attack from the southern direction and have the major problem of running out of
water. The prophet Elisha comes on the
scene. He makes a statement how he
doesn't care for the king of Northern Israel as that man is not a God fearing
man. However, he is willing to consult God for the sake of
the God-fearing king of the Southern Kingdom.
b)
Elijah
then asks for an unnamed musician to play in order to get his focus on God. This is not saying that music is necessary in order to seek God, but
simply that music that focuses on God can be a wonderful aid to get our focus
on Him. That is why most church services
feature music to get the congregation to focus upon God. Once that is done, Elisha's then tells the Israelite kings in effect, God
is going to bring lots of water to this place, neither by rain nor by wind. Therefore, have all the soldiers who are dying of thirst out in this
desert dig lots of ditches in order to collect the water that is about to
occur. Apparently Elisha's reputation
as a prophet is known enough that the kings obey Elisha's request. Either that, or they are so desperate for water they are willing to take
the risk of trusting Elisha and digging ditches in order to collect whatever
water will come.
c)
The
summary is that a flash flood probably occurred in nearby mountains. That caused the flow of water that can be collected by the effort made by
these ditch diggers. There's a related miracle here: The water has a red appearance from a distance in the morning sun. That caused the enemy to think the Israelites are killing themselves, so
they attack. This caused the Israelites win
this war and are for the moment, are trusting God again.
4.
There
you now have a summary of the events of this chapter in one page. As we go through the chapter verse by verse, the important thing to learn
is not the historical facts of what happened to the Israelite people in this
battle, but to show how God works in our lives. How we should use our lives to make a difference for God by our
willingness to take on projects for Him that not can bring Him glory but show
others of His existence in the world around us. I admit, it's strange to think of making a difference for God by digging
ditches in the hot sun by faith, this chapter is an example of how we make a
difference for Him in our lives. With that
said, 2nd Kings, Chapter 3.
5.
Verse
1: Joram son of Ahab became king of
Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he
reigned twelve years.
a)
To
begin the chapter, we have to return to the confusing world of "who's
who" in this 400 year history of Israel during the period that nation was
ruled by kings. As of this moment the focus is
on the son of a wicked king of the Northern Kingdom named Joram. To keep it simple, Joram's brother died in Chapter 1 (Verse 16) of 2nd
Kings. Apparently the last king of
Northern Israel didn't have any sons, so his brother became the next king. If you are new here, Samaria is the capital of the Northern Kingdom of
Israel, as Israel split into two separate kingdoms at this point in history. It also helps to remember that God never says anything good about any of
the kings of the Northern Kingdom. Therefore,
before we learn anything else about this Joram character, we know he is another
"bad egg".
b)
The
other confusing thing about first and second kings is it marks time by who is
reigning in the other kingdom. For example in this verse it
says while Jehoshaphat was in his 18th
year as king of the Southern Kingdom, Joram started to reign in the northern
kingdom.
c)
Now let me give everyone
some good news: I'm
pretty positive when we get to heaven we
will not have a quiz on the names of all these kings. We may meet some of them and it is nice to know their story, but knowing
all of these names is not an entry requirement for heaven. My point is don't worry about the names as much as the lessons to be
learned how God is working at this time in these places.
6.
Verse
2: He
did evil in the eyes of the LORD, but not as his father and mother had done. He
got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that his father had made. 3
Nevertheless he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused
Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them.
a)
Remember I said that no
king from the North was a good egg? That effectively is what these two verses are saying.
My rough translation is "This
current king is not as bad as his father, who made a statue to the false god named
Baal. However, he still
sinned as bad as his brother Jeroboam." Bottom line is this family not only turned from the
true God of the world, but required the Israelites to do like wise.
b)
A quick footnote about
something that is confusing. Until this current king took power, both the kings of
the Northern and Southern Kingdom were named Jeroboam.
That is why the text mentions Jeroboam as
king of the South and another Jeroboam the "son of Nebat" who was the
last king of the Northern Kingdom.
c)
OK John, I get the idea
we are dealing with a bunch of bad eggs as kings as you like to call them.
Why should we care?
The answer is we're only on the third
verse and we haven't even come to the heart of the story or any of the
"good characters" yet. Therefore, hang in there as the good stuff is coming.
7.
Verse 4:
Now Mesha king of Moab raised sheep, and
he had to supply the king of Israel with a hundred thousand lambs and with the
wool of a hundred thousand rams. 5 But after Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled
against the king of Israel.
a)
To
explain this verse, remember that Chapter 1, Verse 1 (last lesson) opened with
a similar statement that after Ahab's
death, Moab rebelled against Israel. Here in Chapter 3, we're backtracking to the same
event. Chapter
1 used this rebellion as a time marker. Now here we're discussing the rebellion itself.
The quick historical version is a former
king of Israel (Omri) apparently conquered Moab and they had to supply 100,000
lambs and ram's wool (each) to Israel for losing. Now many years later, this country is rebelling
against Israel.
8.
Verse
6: So
at that time King Joram set out from Samaria and mobilized all Israel. 7 He also
sent this message to Jehoshaphat king of Judah: "The king of Moab has
rebelled against me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab?"
"I will go with you," he
replied. "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your
horses."
a)
Before I even comment on
these verses, if you are thinking, "Why should I care about any of this
stuff?" What
about the introductory comments about how we make a difference for God?
The answer is we're setting up the
background to this story here and we're coming to that issue in another page.
Therefore, hang in there as we're getting
there.
b)
Time for another very
loose translation: The king of Northern Israel wanted to go attack the country
of Moab. Therefore
he organized all of the men of Northern Israel to go fight against this
country. Then
this king thought, "I still need more men so we will have Moab
outnumbered. I
know, I'll send a message to the king of Southern Israel to say in effect,
"We are both Israelites. Help me conquer Moab and we'll both collect the spoil
from this war effort." One has to remember that at this time in history, the
king's word was it and whatever a king said, people did.
Bottom line is both kings organized their
resources to go attack Moab.
c)
The unknown question at
this point in history is, "Is this God's will?"
My gut reaction is no, simply because the
Northern Kingdom was not willing to seek God and the king of the Southern
Kingdom should have not gone along with this plan.
However, the plan is now in place, and
we'll read on as to what happens next.
9.
Verse 8:
"By what route shall we
attack?" he asked. "Through the Desert of Edom," he answered.
a)
A little history based
on non-biblical sources should help here. The Moabites had strong defenses to the north and to
the west. However,
their weakest point of attack would be to come up from the south.
Why did the Moabites not have a strong
defense to the south? The
quick answer is that it is a huge desert (wasteland) and hard for any army to
survive from that direction. That is why the two kings plotted effectively, the
weakest point to attack them is from the south so they traveled around the Dead
Sea to the south to attack.
b)
So how do we know this
non-biblical source to be accurate? In the late 1800's in what was the country of Moab, a
large stone was found called "The Moabite Stone".
It tells the story of the Israelites
attacking them as described in this chapter. That stone, found in 1868 in what is today Jordan.
The stone itself was destroyed, but
before that happened, a detailed description of what it was said was copied and
that is now in the Louvre in Paris, France. The point is we have good
archeological evidence to support this attack as accurate.
c)
Meanwhile, let us return
from France and get back to Israel. Since the attack needed to go through another kingdom
called Edom, they also got the king of Edom involved in this plan and probably
agreed to a three way split once they conquered Moab (again, think of the
country of Jordan, today when describing the land of both Moab and Edom.)
10.
Verse 9:
So the king of Israel set out with the
king of Judah and the king of Edom. After a roundabout march of seven days, the
army had no more water for themselves or for the animals with them.
a)
The story here is this
combined army of three countries were now marching through the wilderness of
"Edom" south of Moab. Armies survive either by taking whatever food and
water they can find on the way or whatever supplies are brought to them.
The point here is now they are out of
water for themselves and the animals they brought as supplies and as food.
b)
Now comes the good news,
no more background of setting up the story. From this point forward, we're getting to the meat of
the story and how it applies to our lives. The point here is that these three kings are now in
trouble and the good news is that they focus on God to help them in what seems
like an impossible situation. That is a good summary of our own lives:
We get in situations that seem impossible
to find a solution, we then turn to God and He works to make a difference for
His glory. With
that said, let's read on.
11.
Verse
10: "What!"
exclaimed the king of Israel. "Has the LORD called us three kings together
only to hand us over to Moab?"
a)
I admit, I am fascinated
by this verse. Remember
that the Northern Kings did not trust in the God of the Israelites.
The mother of the current king was
Jezebel, who's famous in the bible for turning the king and the Israelites away
from God to worship Baal. Yet
when the three kings are in big trouble, the first thought of the king of
(North) Israel was is in effect, "What did we do to tick off God, so that
we die out here in the desert?"
b)
In other words, when the
chips are really down, we realize God is there, He is in charge and our fates
are in His hands, and not whatever else we may trust in, in order to help us
through whatever situation we face.
c)
With that dilemma
stated, we now get to the heart of the story:
12.
Verse
11: But
Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there no prophet of the LORD here, that we may
inquire of the LORD through him?" An officer of the king of Israel answered,
"Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He used to pour water on the hands of
Elijah. "
a)
At this point while the
three kings are wondering what to do, the king of the Southern kingdom says,
"Maybe we should find a prophet of God to consult for help."
To put this another way, we can't pray as
a group because one of us three kings is an Edomite and he doesn't trust in God
and the king of the Northern Kingdom doesn't do a lot of praying so maybe we
should find a prophet of God to help us here.
b)
Remember that there is a
large army from three countries assembled here. Apparently the prophet Elisha was either drafted to be
part of this army or just happened to be in the area in case he was called into
service as a prophet. If
we learn nothing else, here is a reminder about our willingness to be a witness
to the world around us for God. Elijah showed his willingness to be where the action
is, in case he is called into service for God.
c)
With that said, it is
time for a quick reminder of who Elisha was. He was called to be a great prophet in Israel.
Apparently he worked as an assistant to
the prophet Elijah for a long time before Elijah was taken into heaven.
Elisha asked Elijah before that event if
he could have a "double portion" of Elijah's power.
The implication of that request is Elisha
wanted to be considered the next great power in Israel as a prophet just as
Elijah was.
d)
Bottom line here is that
Elijah is no longer around, but even an officer of the king of the Northern
Kingdom of Israel recognized Elisha as a servant of the now famous Elijah.
As I have been stating in previous
lessons, if you get the names mixed up, remember that in the English word
"Jesus", the "J" comes before the letter "S".
Just remember that Elijah was much older
and lived prior to Elisha. With that background stated, the point is that Elisha
had the reputation of being an assistant to Elijah so he is trusted as a
prophet.
e)
Before we discuss what
Elisha actually says to these three kings, I'm fascinated by the fact that
Elisha was known as the man who poured water on the hands of Elijah.
Most likely, this refers to an ancient
Jewish ritual of washing one's hands before eating.
My point is I have found that if one
wants to be used greatly by God, which Elisha did desire by asking for the
double portion, one has to be willing to work as a humble servant before one
can be used greatly. I've
yet to meet one person used in a mighty way by God who didn't have to first
spend many years as a servant to another godly man or woman in order to
understand how God does work in our lives. If nothing else this is another reminder of my
principal that "Every Paul needs a Timothy and every Timothy needs a
Paul". That
just means every young believer should team with an older believer in order to
pass on how God works in our lives.
f)
In the meantime, it is
time for these three kings to go meet Elisha.
13.
Verse 12:
Jehoshaphat said, "The word of the
LORD is with him." So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of
Edom went down to him.
a)
Jehoshaphat is saying, I
do believe this man does have the gift of prophesy, which is just the ability
to speak God's will (think His word) to others. Let's go listen to him.
14.
Verse 13:
Elisha said to the king of Israel,
"What do we have to do with each other? Go to the prophets of your father
and the prophets of your mother." "No," the king of Israel answered,
"because it was the LORD who called us three kings together to hand us
over to Moab."
a)
If nothing else, I have
to admit Elisha has guts. When
one is in the kings' presence, one's life is now at risk.
However that situation did not scare
Elisha. I
suspect Elijah trained him well on the principal of saying what it is God
called one to say no matter what is the consequences of speaking God's will.
b)
For Elisha to say to the
king of (Northern) Israel, go to the prophets of your father and your mother,
is meant as an insult. The
mother of this king was Jezebel. She is the one who dined daily with hundreds of
prophets of Baal. The
father of this king was Ahab, and as the chapter opened, it said he built a
statue to Baal. The
point is Elisha was well aware that thing king was raised to trust in foreign
gods, even though he was the king of the Israelites.
That's why Elisha opens with this insult
to start their meeting.
c)
As I stated, I'm
fascinated by the fact that king of Israel who knows he is in trouble, seeks
the true God when the chips are on the line. That king believed it was God's will for the three
kings to work together to go conquer Moab. Whether or not it was actually God's will in effect
will be answered in the next verse. Speaking of which;
15.
Verse 14: Elisha said,
"As surely as the LORD Almighty lives, whom I serve, if I did not have
respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look at you
or even notice you.
a)
Time to paraphrase
Elisha's response: I
don't care for you, the king of North Israel, nor do I care about trying to
help you, the king of Edom. That's because neither one of you seek the true God
for guidance. However,
the king of the Southern Kingdom (Judah) is a man who does care about pleasing
God and I'm willing to seek God for his sake.
i)
But John, isn't the role
of a prophet to lead others to God? Of course. The point is just to say we seek God when the chips
are down is one thing. It's quite another to want to seek God daily
to guide one's life. That
is what Elisha is saying albeit in a negative tone in these verses.
However, because Elisha does respect the
one king of these three he is willing to help anyway.
b)
It may help to recall
something that God told Elijah to do back in 1st Kings 19:15-16. Back when
Elijah was depressed and God still wanted to use him for a great purpose, God
told Elijah to go anoint not only Elisha, but also the next king of Israel (the
Northern Kingdom) as well as the next king of Edom, the country directly to the
south of where the Israelites are currently fighting.
I bring that up here, because I suspect
that Elijah told Elisha that he never completed that mission and now Elisha is
staring at the son of Ahab, who God has condemned for turning from Him.
I'd argue that Elisha is aware that God
has already pronounced judgment on that family so Elisha is not interested in
helping him. However
for the sake of the "good" king, Elisha will see what God has to say
here.
16.
Verse
15, (Part 1): But now bring me a harpist."
a)
To understand this
request, think about a couple of things:
i)
First, these kings are
in the middle of the desert with a large army about to attack a country called
Moab. That means along with
this army, somebody must have this musical instrument and the ability to praise
God with that instrument.
ii)
This also means there is
God-fearing people in this army of three nations.
b)
The
other interesting point to get here is that Elisha didn't just start praying or
recite some message from God that he had in his head. He wanted a musician for inspiration.
c)
This
leads me to the issue of why do we have music in our church services? To be honest, preachers can preach without that music coming first. People can listen without having a short concert before hand. To further state the obvious, there is lots of secular music now and I'm
pretty positive back then too. So, why do we have music today
in church in order to seek God and why did Elisha request a musician? The answer is that it is a way (not "the") way to get our
collective focus upon God with music that focuses on Him.
d)
To
continue, music inspires us to get our focus on him. There is something about either singing to God or listening to other
people singing about God that helps get and keep our collective focus on Him. I don't believe it’s a requirement for Christians to do so, nor do I believe
it was necessary for Elisha to do so here, but in both cases hearing such music
gets the audience to focus upon God better. I suspect
Elisha called for this musician not just so he could get his own focus upon
God, but so the audience that he's about to preach to will also get their focus
upon God as Elisha speaks on his behalf.
e)
Finally,
notice in this passage that the musician's name is not given. This is a subtle way of saying one can be of service to God without
getting credit on the spot. Was God aware of the musician's
name? Of course. The point is
we don't always get the public credit in this lifetime for our service to Him. Having the musician there gets the audience to focus upon God and not the
musician himself or herself. I'm sure a nice tune was played
and maybe a song that got the group's focus upon God.
f)
While
that music was playing it is time for Elisha's message.
17.
Verse
15 (Part 2): While the harpist was playing, the hand of the LORD
came upon Elisha 16 and he said, "This is what the LORD says: Make
this valley full of ditches. 17For this is what the LORD says: You will see neither
wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your cattle
and your other animals will drink.
a)
Before I talk about what
Elisha actually said here, let me make one final comment about the music being
played. As
someone who has taught God's word in public settings, I do know first hand that
such music can inspire me. Like Elisha all of sudden I believe I get messages
from God what to say that was not written in my prepared notes.
It doesn’t happen all the time that way
and I'm not saying it is a requirement for pastors or teachers to have such
music. I'm
just saying that just as this music was playing as all of a sudden God had a
message for Elisha, so God often has messages for preachers and teachers that
are not necessarily part of the planned speech. It isn't a requirement for God to work this way, but I
have noticed that if an audience is collectively thinking about God such as can
happen after music is played that focuses upon Him, I have seen God work in
ways that can't be explained by preparation alone.
b)
With that little
unplanned speech out of my system, back to the text.
While the music was playing God had a
message for Elisha to give to the kings and through them, the message is to the
three armies that are surrounding these kings.
c)
Let me give the message
and expand upon it a little: Remember that the issue at hand is that there is no
water for these armies. It
is hot and a very dry desert climate. Now God is telling the kings to go dig lots of ditches
as God will fill those ditches with water. To prove this is from God, there will not be any rain
nor wind, yet water will just come out of nowhere to fill up these ditches.
God is saying through Elisha that there
will be enough water not only for the soldiers, but also for their animals to
drink.
d)
Stop and think about the
faith it took to carry out that order. It meant that all three of the kings had to trust in
God. All three of them had
to believe that Elisha spoke for God and that they had to obey what it was they
had to say. What
is more, they had to order all of their men who are thirsty to go work out in
the hot sun and dig ditches to collect this rain that is supposed to
miraculously come from God. That took faith.
e)
If you haven't noticed
by now, we are back to the main theme of this lesson, which is how we go about
making a difference for God. To use the example here, God told them to go and dig
ditches as to expect a miracle of water showing up out of nowhere.
Give all of the soldiers credit for
willing to listen to these kings. Give the kings credit for willingness to listen to
Elisha and a willingness to obey. I suspect that the kings were desperate enough to try
anything. Besides
they didn't have to dig themselves, so they obeyed what it was that Elisha had
to say. Besides
they knew Elisha was an assistant to Elijah and Elijah was the one who made it
rain after a three year drought some years earler.
f)
Before we move on, let's
get back to the idea of how do we dig our own "ditches" based on what
God calls us to do in our lives. In other words, how do we know when God's calling us to take on some sort of
project. Often
we don't know until hindsight. I believe it is just doing what we believe is the
right thing to do at any given moment and then watch God work once we make an
effort for Him. To
state the obvious we have to pray through such situations and then do what we
believe is the right thing to do. In this particular case, the three kings were
listening to background music focusing on God, they were listening to a man who
had a reputation as being a prophet of God and then they took a step in faith
to have a bunch of ditches dug to see if God was going to work this way.
To put it another way, they had nothing
to lose as they were in a desert dying of thirst anyway.
g)
Speaking of being back
in the desert, it's time to get back to the story itself.
18.
Verse
18: This
is an easy thing in the eyes of the LORD; he will also hand Moab over to you. 19You will
overthrow every fortified city and every major town. You will cut down every
good tree, stop up all the springs, and ruin every good field with
stones."
a)
John's loose
translation: Because
you have sought Me for guidance in your lives I will give you victory over your
problems. What
seems impossible to you is no problem for Me to solve as it is My will to guide
you for My glory. To
be more specific, because the Israelites did dig a whole bunch of ditches God
will fill them with water to drink and to take with them as they go out and
fight in His name.
b)
So why does God want to
specifically destroy this placed called Moab? The short version is that they are rebelling against
God's people. Does
that mean that God wants us to fight against any group that doesn't believe in
Him? Of course not.
We are living witnesses for Him not
destroyers of nations. However,
there are times for war and apparently we have one of them here.
God is specifically saying here, I want
the Israelite solders to literally go and destroy these cities and ruin their
fields so that they know the God of the Israelites is also the same God that
rules over the whole world. That is why God is asking them to go fight to defeat
the enemy, cut down their trees (that produce fruit), put rocks on top of the
places where their water springs occur and place rocks all over the place where
they go to grow food. But
isn't that cruel? This
is a message that God is not to be messed with and it costs the lives of those
who refuse to believe in God.
i)
In other words we are
back to judgment and God is using the Israelites to carry out His judgment on
those who refuse to believe in His name.
ii)
Bottom
line is the three kings and their army's obey God's command and water is going
to fill the ditches that they dug.
c)
Let
me say one more thing on this topic before I move on. I am convinced that God works based on how much effort we are willing to
make to "dig a ditch" on his behalf. If we just go and dig a small hole, that's all God is willing to bless us
based on that small hole. If we dig a large ditch, God
will fill that ditch. Life is never a guarantee that
whatever effort we make will pay off, but I have watched time and time again of
those willing to "dig ditches" in order to succeed at some project
and God comes through for them.
d)
I
also have to admit that whenever I think of this story, I am reminded of the
story of my fellow Croatians who immigrated to the United States in last 100
years. There used to be an old joke in
California that there were two groups of "slavs" (Slavic people) that
lives in California, the fisherman Slavs and the ditch digging Slavs. That's because the two main occupations of this group of immigrants were
either fisherman or ditch diggers for some building projects. I happen to know that some of those ditch diggers went on to become great
real estate developers locally just as some of the fisherman went on to
successful in their own industry. My point is
that hard work usually pays off when one is wiling to do the necessary work in
order to succeed at a project.
i)
In
other words the principal of making the effort "ditch dig and watch God
work" not only applies to God but to any effort we make in order to do the
right thing.
19.
Verse
20: The
next morning, about the time for offering the sacrifice, there it was--water
flowing from the direction of Edom! And the land was filled with water.
a)
Before I talk about the
water miracle of the ditches being filled, I love the fact that the time of the
day is marked by the "time of the morning sacrifice".
Back in Jerusalem, I assume there were
priests performing their daily ritual of offering up lambs as a sacrifice to
God. The connection is
while the priests were doing what God called them to do and trusting that God
will continue to provide the lambs for them, God is working here in the desert
so that Israel can win its victory and provide more lambs for the future.
b)
By the way, the text
never says it was a flash flood that filled the ditches.
I just suspect that is the way God worked
at this moment. If
you have ever seen a flash flood, it often comes in dry times based on water
bursting from a source far away and then flowing to a valley.
That is what I suspect happened here.
If those ditches were never dug, the
water would have kept on flowing and not be collected for the soldiers to drink
The point is the effort made to dig those
ditches paid off as God blessed the work that they did here.
c)
So how did they know the
water came from Edom? That
is logic. Edom was up on a hill and the Israelites were in a deserted valley.
Whether it was a flowing water source or
just some damn that broke in Edom, either way the flash flood provided the
water that all of the soldiers needed to survive at this point.
d)
At this point the story
switches to the point of view of the enemy, the Moabites:
20.
Verse 21:
Now all the Moabites had heard that the
kings had come to fight against them; so every man, young and old, who could
bear arms was called up and stationed on the border. 22 When
they got up early in the morning, the sun was shining on the water. To the
Moabites across the way, the water looked red--like blood. 23
"That's blood!" they said. "Those kings must have fought and
slaughtered each other. Now to the plunder, Moab!"
a)
To
set the scene, the point is the Moabites had army scouts who spotted this large
army that was assembled out in the desert. Therefore,
the Moabites mobilized their own forces in the direction of this large army. To add a bit of geography, there's a lot of red color in the rocks of
this area. If one has ever traveled in some
desert locations, there is often a lot of red in the color of that area and
when the sun shines on it, first thing in the morning, it can even appear more
red. The bottom line here is the Moabite scouts saw the water
that appeared in the ditches and from their distant perspective, they were
convinced that the water was very bloody. In other
words they thought that the armies of these three united kings were fighting
amongst themselves and a great slaughter had taken place.
b)
Before
I go on from here, this was a reasonable thing to think. After all the Northern and the Southern kingdoms of Israel had a history
of fighting each other. Plus the Edomites were joining
their side so internal squabbles were possible. Plus the Moabites must have been scared of this army approaching them so
seeing the bloody looking water must have been a sign of relief to them that
their war was already over before it began.
i)
That
is why the Moabites shouted amongst themselves, "We have already won this
war. Quick, let us march down there and collect what we can
off the dead bodies as we don't even have to go fight them!"
c)
I
mentioned earlier there was a great archeological discovery called the
"Moabite stone" that records this battle from the Moabite
perspective. It is amazing how history can be
slanted based on who is writing the history. I heard
Chuck Missler talk about when he was in Egypt, they had monuments to their
victory over the Israelites in the 1967 war. If one knows
that war, the Israelites defeated Egypt and if was not for a peace deal lead by
the United States, the Israelites probably would have wiped out the Egyptian
army at that point in that war. My point is when one reads
historical accounts of a battle keep in mind who is the author as to the
perspective of what happened in that war.
d)
In
the meantime, it is time for us to read the results of what actually happened
in the war between the Israelites and the Edomites based on the bloody looking
water.
21.
Verse
24: But
when the Moabites came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and fought
them until they fled. And the Israelites invaded the land and slaughtered the
Moabites. 25 They destroyed the towns, and each man threw a stone
on every good field until it was covered. They stopped up all the springs and
cut down every good tree. Only Kir Hareseth was left with its stones in place,
but men armed with slings surrounded it and attacked it as well.
a)
Speaking of telling
history based on perspective, the bible tells us that the Israelites won this
war big time. When
the Moabites came to collect the spoil of what they thought were many dead
Israelite soldiers, they then lost the war big time.
The text goes out of its way to point out
that not only did the Israelites win, but they did what God commanded them to
do, go conquer the land of Moab, destroy the towns, stop up the springs and cut
down their trees that produced food for the Moabites.
While all of this seems cruel to read
from our perspective, one has to remember this is a kill or be killed way of
living. One
has to see this from the perspective of God showing the nations around Israel
that God's people are not to be messed with as long as they are trusting in Him
to guide their lives.
b)
The lesson for us of
course, is in effect we too can't lose if we are trusting in God to guide our
lives. We
may lose a battle or war, but eternally we are betting on the right horse.
So if we are willing to bet our eternal
souls here, how do we know we are betting as you put it, on the right horse?
How do we know that the bible is not
biased toward the Israelites winning just as the Moabite stone is biased toward
their side winning?
c)
To answer, remember the
acronym "MAPS". The
back of most bibles has a series of maps and that acronym actually helps us to
understand how we know the bible is truly God's word.
That acronym is "Manuscripts,
Archeology, Prophesy and Statistics or MAPS for short.
We have thousands of manuscripts of the
bible from three continents that validate the accuracy of the bible.
Yes there are copyists errors but they
are not consistent from one place to the other. When it was a death sentence to own a bible, one can
understand how copyist errors could occur let alone the normal process of hand
copying these books. Yet
by comparing all of those copies let alone the thousands (millions) of ancient
quotes we have of what others believe were the original scriptures, we can
pretty much validate almost all of the bible as being accurate based on the way
it was written.
i)
The next step is
archeology. To
put it simply the Moabite stone is not the only bit of archeological evidence
we have of biblical events. There is lots of archeological evidence to support the
bible as accurate.
ii)
The next bit of evidence
is prophecy. About
one third of the bible is short term and long-term predictions of which the
bible has a 100% track record of being accurate. If one simply believes the Old Testament was written
long before the New Testament was written, it is amazing to study the
predictions that came true let along all of the many predictions fulfilled from
one book to the other.
iii)
The final bit of
evidence is statistics. Scholars
have counted over 300 predictions made about the Messiah in the Old Testament
that have been fulfilled through what Jesus accomplished in his life and death.
I'm going to talk about that some more in
the next lesson. Those same bible scholars count over 600 predictions to be
fulfilled about Jesus Second Coming. My point is statistics about His first coming give us
support to trust in the future events of the Second Coming.
d)
The reason I went
through this exercise in explaining MAPS, is to build up our own faith in our
own times of doubts. Let's
face it we can read about the ditches and just think, "OK a flash flood
came, so what?" We
can also think the bible says the Israelites won the war but the Moabite stone
gives credit for their country winning the war. It's very easy to go and look at one piece of evidence
and say it can be interpreted more than one way. If we start looking at hundreds or thousands of these
little pieces of evidence one has to get to a point where we realize, all of
this is way too much to be a coincidence, which is the logical conclusion one
would come to if one studies it as a collective body of work.
e)
While I was going off on
my MAPS tangent, the Israelites were still fighting this war.
The text says they accomplished all that
God wanted them to do, except for one city that was left in place.
Think of this as a 98% victory and not a
100% victory. So
why does the bible bother to tell us about this one city that was not
conquered? One
reason was to show the accuracy of the bible version as it mentions a specific
town not conquered. It
also shows that the Israelites failed to completely conquer this group, which
means that they will live to fight again another day.
The text even mentions the fact that the
Israelites did make the effort to attack this place, but failed to conquer it.
The "why" is not given.
f)
The
other possible reason this one city is mentioned is the next verse talks about
the king of Moab trying to survive and what he does in desperation. This one city may be where he was located at that time. With that said, let's finish the chapter.
22.
Verse
26: When the king of Moab saw that the
battle had gone against him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break
through to the king of Edom, but they failed. 27 Then he
took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a
sacrifice on the city wall. The fury against Israel was great; they withdrew
and returned to their own land.
a)
The point here is the
Moabites were losing badly and the king in his desperation took 700 soldiers
(probably his personal guards) to get out but this group also lost.
In a moment of desperation, the king
offered as a sacrifice to his god, his firstborn son.
This is their king in a desperate time
saying, god (false one) to prove my loyalty to you, I'm willing to kill the
next in line to be the king to see if you will act to rescue me out of this
situation.
b)
Before
I say anything else, let us go back to the famous story in Genesis where God
asks Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. In effect
God is saying to Abraham, are you willing to trust me as much as the foreign
kings in the area are willing to trust in their false gods? We see evidence of that here with the king of Moab. To state the obvious, this sacrifice by the Moab king didn't work and
this was proof to him that the God of the Israelites is more powerful than the
god he trusted in even to the point of offering his son as a sacrifice.
c)
Let
me also state the obvious that God never calls on us to kill or even hurt those
around us to prove our loyalty to Him. God calls us
on to be a witness for Him and that's how we show our love to Him, not by
offering up people or even animals as a sacrifice. To say it another way, Jesus paid the complete sacrifice so we don't have
to make any sacrifices in order to prove our worth to Him.
d)
Coming
back to the text, at this point the Israelites and the Edomites withdrew. The war was over, the Israelites won, and the Moabite king is now
painfully aware that the God of the Israelites was far more powerful than the
god he trusted in. All this suffering proved God's
existence to that corner of the world at that time.
23.
The
next chapter switches topics, which is why I wanted to focus specifically here
on teaching about taking the effort to trust in God and how we can make an
effort in faith to do that. As I have stated, I don't think
God wants us to care about the specific historical events as much as He is
interested in us learning how this applies to our lives. Hopefully this lesson will inspire all of us to "dig our own
ditches" in anticipation of God working in our lives. That's the key point that I wanted to get across here, and with that
said, I'll end the lesson here.
24.
Father,
first we are grateful for our salvation and the fact we don't have to earn it. We desire that our time be used for Your glory. We don't know what You have planned for us today or coming up in the
future, but our trust is that You will guide us for Your glory. With that said, help us to do to the footwork to dig our own ditches in
preparation for You working in our lives, whatever those ditches happen to be. Make it obvious to us how You would like to use us and what you want us
to do to make that difference for You. We ask this
in Jesus name, Amen.