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Alright, we are going to be in
2 Kings chapter 3 this evening. 2 Kings chapter 3. And if the stories of the divided
kingdom are not well known by many believers today, this story
for sure is not well known. It is an account in the reign
of King Jehoram of the north, King Jehoshaphat of the southern
kingdom of Judah. During the service of the prophet
Elisha, it involves the king of Edom and it relates to the
king and kingdom of Moab. And so immediately you have a
lot of names, different territories, different political sovereignties,
some of which may be familiar, some of which may not. And it's
easy to kind of get lost in the history of this period. Now I've
been reminding you of the kings of the Northern and Southern
Kingdom. And I want to continue to review this with you. Again,
you'll get more out of these stories if you will do the hard
work of learning these names and something about these characters. The first king of the Northern
Kingdom of Israel is Jeroboam. He is followed by his son, Nadab,
who reigns only two years. Then there is turnover in the
kingdom. Bayesha usurps the throne, conspires
together to become the next king. He reigns for about 11 years
and then is followed by his son, Elah. Both Nadab and Elah only
hold the throne for two years, or a portion of two years. Then there is another usurpation,
as it were. Bayesha Elah is followed by Zimri. Zimri, of course, has the inauspicious
honor of only holding the throne for about seven days. And then
we get to the first really significant king since Jeroboam I, and that
is Omri. Omri is a very significant king,
not so much in terms of the biblical narrative, but in terms of the
extra-biblical literature relating to the history of the northern
kingdom of Israel. He's important in terms of the
scriptural narrative only because of his son. He establishes the
first true dynasty in the northern kingdom. His son is Ahab, and
of course Ahab is well known to us. Ahab is then succeeded
by his son Ahaziah, who reigns only a very short period of time
before he falls through the lattice and incurs a mortal wound that
ultimately ends in his death. And then Ahab's second son, Jehoram,
or in some of your versions and some parallel accounts, Joram. Joram or Jehoram takes the throne. Both of these are sons of Ahab. Now in the southern kingdom of
Judah, and we can change the colors here just to make it easier,
we have Solomon's son, Rehoboam. We have Rehoboam's son, Abijah,
or in some cases, Abijam. And then we have Asa, a very
good king, although one who has his own failures and weaknesses
at the end of his life. And then his son, Jehoshaphat.
Now, Asa is in some ways a reformer king. He does work, limited reforms,
and the account in Chronicles deals with that. But Jehoshaphat
is definitely a reformer king. He does far more. And he's the
first, maybe we might say, major reformer or true reformer. He'll
ultimately be eclipsed in that role by Hezekiah and then later
by Josiah. Now, Jehoshaphat's reign is coextensive
with Ahab, Abaziah, and Jehoram. And that's important to know
because Jehoshaphat is going to be a major character both
in the death of Ahab as well as in this account with regard
to Jehoram. Jehoshaphat intermarries the
two families of Ahab and his own house. So he gives his son
to Ahab's daughter, Athaliah, and she'll become an important
character during this time. So this is where we are. We're during
the reign of Jehoram, and they are going to go to battle together,
Jehoshaphat and Jehoram, against the kingdom of Moab. Let's begin
by reading the text, and I'm going to read the entire chapter,
although then we'll break it down for the purposes of our
discussion tonight. 2 Kings 3. In the 18th year of
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, Jehoram, the son of Ahab, became king
over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned 12 years. He did what
was evil in the sight of Yahweh, though not like his father and
mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made.
Nevertheless, he clung to the sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat,
which he made Israel to sin. He did not depart from it. Now
Misha, king of Moab, was a sheep breeder, and he had to deliver
to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000
rams. But when Ahab died, the king
of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. So King Jehoram
marched out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel.
And he went and sent word to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, the
king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to battle
against Moab? And he said, I will go. I am
as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.
Then he said, by which way shall we march? Jehoram answered, by
the way of the wilderness of Edom. So the king of Israel went
with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. And when they had
made a circuitous march of seven days, there was no water for
the army or for the animals that followed them. Then the king
of Israel said, Alas, Yahweh has called these three kings
to give them into the hand of Moab. And Jehoshaphat said, Is
there no prophet of Yahweh here through whom we may inquire of
Yahweh? Then one of the king of Israel's servants answered,
Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the
hands of Elijah. And Jehoshaphat said, the word
of Yahweh is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat
and the king of Edom went down to him. And Elisha said to the
king of Israel, what have I to do with you? Go to the prophets
of your father and of your mother. But the king of Israel said to
him, no, it is Yahweh who has called these three kings to give
them into the hand of Moab. And Elisha said, as Yahweh of
Host lives before whom I stand, were it not that I have regard
for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor
see you. But now bring me a musician.
And when the musician played, the hand of Yahweh came upon
him, and he said, Thus says Yahweh, I will make this dry streambed
full of pools. For thus says Yahweh, You shall
not see wind or rain, but that streambed shall be filled with
water, so that you shall drink. you, your livestock, and your
animals. This is a light thing in the
sight of Yahweh. He will also give the Moabites
into your hand, and you shall attack every fortified city,
and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop
up all springs of water, and ruin every good piece of land
with stones." The next morning, about the time of offering the
sacrifice, behold, water came from the direction of Edom, till
the country was filled with water. When all the Moabites heard that
the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were able
to put on armor from the youngest to the oldest were called out
and were drawn up at the border. And when they rose early in the
morning and the sun shone on the water, the Moabites saw the
water opposite them as red as blood. And they said, This is
blood! The kings have surely fought
together and struck one another down. Now then, Moab, to the
spoil! But when they came to the camp
of Israel, the Israelites rose and struck the Moabites till
they fled before them. And they went forward, striking
the Moabites as they went. And they overthrew the cities.
And on every good piece of land, every man threw a stone until
it was covered. They stopped every spring of
water and felled all the good trees till only its stones were
left in Kir Haraseth. And the slingers surrounded and
attacked it. When the king of Moab saw that the battle was
going against him, he took with him 700 swordsmen to break through
opposite the king of Edom, but they could not. Then he took
his oldest son, who was to reign in his place, and offered him
for a burnt offering on the wall. And there came great wrath against
Israel, and they withdrew from him and returned to their own
land. You know, right there at the
end of the story, what is kind of an interesting account of,
you know, the military campaign and then ultimately conquest,
turns really dark. It just comes out of nowhere.
Israel is experiencing this great victory, and then the king of
Moab does something so barbaric as to offer his own son as a
burnt offering. Now, I will mention this here
briefly. We've mentioned before that Jehoshaphat is going to
be succeeded. by his son Jehoram, and don't let this confuse you
that Ahab's son Jehoram is presently on the throne and Jehoshaphat's
son Jehoram is also hanging around. If you compare information from
chapter 1, chapter 3, and then later in chapter 8, you'll notice
through that parallel information that Jehoram is already reigning
with his father Jehoshaphat. This is a co-regency that is
actually pretty common in the ancient Near East, and that's
why you'll find different dates associated with the beginning
of their reigns. Jehoram is already on the throne,
but he is serving essentially as the crown prince, and he is
co-reigning with his father, who is in the closing years of
his own reign. Now, when the text opens in the
first three verses, we have an introduction to Jehoram, not
the son of Jehoshaphat, but the son of Ahab. Jehoram, who is
king over Israel and Samaria. He reigns, verse 1 tells us,
12 years. He does, verse 2, what was evil
in the sight of the Lord, but not like his father and his mother.
Now, when you recognize that his father and his mother are
Ahab and Jezebel, you may immediately suspect that that's not saying
a whole lot, and that's exactly right. To say, well, he's bad,
but he's not as bad as Ahab and Jezebel were, that's true, but
it's not really a compliment. One of the things, though, that's
interesting about this is that verse 2 says, he put away the
pillar of Baal that his father had made. Apparently, Jehoram
is less committed to Baalism and to the religion that Ahab
and Jezebel had institutionalized in the northern kingdom. He's
less committed to that religious system than his parents had been.
But it would be a mistake to infer from that that he is hostile
to the religion of Baal. Jehoram is going to be the king
who is on the throne when God raises up Jehu as the next king
of Israel. And Jehu is going to be commissioned
by the Lord to take the throne in Israel for one purpose, and
that is to make war against the house of Ahab and his family
and against the religion of Baal. And when Jehu comes and makes
war against the family of Jehoram, you're going to find that Baalism
is still flourishing. There is still a temple, there
is still a very strong Baal cult. Whatever it was that Jehoram
did in terms of putting away this pillar does not amount to
an all-out deplatforming of Baal in the Northern Kingdom. He may
be less of a proponent, he may be less personally committed
to that religion, but he is by no means antagonistic to it in
the way that Jehu ultimately will be. He is, however, verse
3 says, very committed to the religion of Jeroboam the son
of Nebath. This goes all the way back to
the first king of the northern kingdom. And you'll remember
that Jeroboam created his own church. Now he does so in the
name of Yahweh. He says, we're going to still
worship the same God that brought us out of Egypt, the same God
that gave us the promised land. But we are going to appropriate
historical icons of Yahweh worship. You remember the great golden
calf that Aaron made down at Mount Sinai and everybody's going,
yeah, do you remember how that turned out? Well, never mind
about that. appropriate some of these historical
artifacts and he sets up golden calves at Dan and Bethel at the
northern and southern borders of his kingdom. And Jehoram is
very committed to that system. So whether Jehoram himself is
just more committed to kind of a nominal Yahweh-type religion
or whether he just simply rolls back some of the bailist programs
that his father had put into place. In either case, he is
by no means a faithful servant of Yahweh. He is a wicked and
corrupt man who is rightly under the judgment of God. Well, in
verses 4 to 8, we find the problem in Moab and the plans that Jehoram
makes for war. And this is one of the places
where the history of Scripture is confirmed and corroborated
by extra-biblical historical accounts. The Moabite stone gives
us some information about this war. And Jehoshaphat is recruited
by Jehoram to participate in this war, and foolishly he agrees. We've already seen God send a
prophet to Jehoshaphat to ask the question rhetorically, should
you love those who hate me? Jehoshaphat is a good man. He's
a faithful man. He's a good king. But like all
good, faithful men, Jehoshaphat has blind spots. He has weaknesses. And in this case, Jehoshaphat's
weakness is in this political alliance with the family of Ahab. He has married his son to Ahab's
daughter, and therefore Jehoram has some kind of an in-law connection
with Jehoshaphat. They are relatives of one another,
not only by marriage, but ethnically. They're all Israelites, right?
They used to be one nation. They are close neighbors to one
another. And for whatever reason, all of those factors and maybe
others that we haven't mentioned, Jehoshaphat just sees it as politically
expedient to support the family of Ahab, the house of Ahab. He
doesn't agree with Ahab's family. He doesn't agree with the worship
of Baal. He doesn't agree with the calf
worship of Jeroboam. He is a committed servant of
Yahweh. But as so many Christians do, he kind of rationalizes a
relationship as co-belligerence that actually amounts to a compromise
of spiritual convictions and priorities. And we need to make
clear that not every relationship with an unbeliever does so. It's
not wrong to have relationships with unbelievers. All of us will.
We live in the world. We don't expect all of our neighbors
and all of our business associates to have the same faith that we
have. But we have to be very careful with the type of relationships
that we enter into. The nature of those entanglements. Because if we enter into a relationship
that seems to support condone and encourage something that
is antithetical to the God whom we serve and the God who will
judge this world, well then we are compromised in our witness,
we're compromised in our practice, and we are not to be unequally
yoked with unbelievers and unfortunately Jehoshaphat has been and continues
to be unequally yoked in just that way. So Jehoram wants to
go to war against Moab because the Moabites had been in subjection
to the house of Ahab. You'll remember that Moab occupies
territory to the southeast of Israel and Judah on the other
side of the Dead Sea. They're a considerable nation
in their own right. They are historically connected
to the Israelites. But they have been placed in
subjection to the house of Ahab some years prior, and this involved
paying tax, paying tribute every year. 100,000 lambs and the wool
of 100,000 rams, and this is the tax money. And essentially
the way this works in the ancient world, it's a protection racket.
It says, you pay us this, and we promise that we will not come
and destroy you. And sometimes, if it was kind
of a benevolent sort of vassal relationship, then there would
also be protection offered to say, not only will we not come
and destroy you, but if you get into a bind, we will come and
fight for you and we will protect you, at least if we're in a good
mood. Well, Moab has had this relationship with the house of
Ahab. When Ahab dies, Clearly, Misha, the king of Moab, is not
as impressed with Ahaziah and the prospects of succession in
the family, and so he refuses to pay the tribute. Now, the
way this would work, because this isn't paid in quarterly
installments, right? It's not like it's drafted every
month out of the Moabite treasury, right? It would take a period
of time for this to come to light, you know? Okay, it's getting
to be that time of the year again, and the tribute is not forthcoming,
and I wonder why not, and I wonder what's going on, and time passes,
and maybe we send messengers, and we try to, you know, it's
not like we can send an email or make a phone call. And so
sometimes this would go on for a couple of years. We've seen
this already earlier in our study of the book of Genesis in Genesis
chapter 14. And so Misha has, placed Moab
in a position of revolt. They're refusing to pay the tribute.
And Jehoram says, this is intolerable. We want our lambs. We want our
wool. We want to put Moab in their place. We're going to go
and make war against the Moabites and subdue them. Jehoshaphat,
will you come with us? And Jehoshaphat says, yes. My
army is your army. My horses are your horses. It's
a foolish statement, but you can understand why he would imagine
it to be politically expedient. And then they're also joined
by a third king, the king of Edom, whose territory is adjacent
to Moab. They are going to travel through
Edom's territory, and Edom is obviously, it's in their interest
to have Moab subdued. They don't want a strong Moab,
right? And so they're going to participate
in the war as well. In verses 9 to 12, the armies
are journeying together through a desolate land, and after seven
days they run out of water. And now the soldiers are dry
and parched, and the animals are dry and parched. They are
in desperation in a dry land. Once again, Israel is in the
wilderness. We'll come back to that before
we're done. But it's at this point we meet the first really
interesting point that will develop for application shortly, and
that is in Jehoram's reaction to their circumstances, verse
10. The king of Israel said, alas, Yahweh, notice in your
Bibles, the Lord, Lord is all in capital letters, so there's
the Tetragrammaton, there's the covenant name of God, this is
Yahweh, or Jehovah. Yahweh has called these three
kings, in other words gathered them together, in order to give
them into the hand of Moab. So what's fascinating about this
is you have a man who at some level is nominally committed
to worshiping Yahweh, albeit through this corrupted calf form,
but who is certainly okay with Baalism and comes from a family
of Baalists. So he's not a servant of Yahweh,
and yet immediately, to whom does he attribute their circumstances? He immediately identifies this
as Yahweh's work. He sees the sovereignty of the
true God immediately in their own circumstance. Now this is
amazing to me because they're not in the territory of Israel
or Judah, they're in the territory of Edom and kind of the desolate
area that's going to Moab, right, where the battle is actually
gonna be joined. He doesn't associate it with the God of the Edomites.
He doesn't associate it with the God of Moab. He doesn't associate
it with Chemosh to whom Misha is going to attempt to make propitiation
in the offering of his son. He attributes it to Yahweh. But
how does he see Yahweh's sovereignty in this? He's right to see Yahweh
as sovereign, right? He's right to say Yahweh is responsible
for the predicament that we're in right now. He's correct about
that, but he's completely wrong in his understanding and application
of the significance of that, right? He says, Yahweh has obviously
placed us in the fire here. He's gathered these kings together
so that we can be defeated by the Middlemen. He looks at it
through the lens of pessimism and unbelief. Jehoshaphat, by
contrast, verse 11 says, well, is there no prophet of Yahweh
here through whom we may inquire of Yahweh? Now I like this, because
you don't actually have this contrast between the glass is
half-empty Jehoram and glass is half-full Jehoshaphat. It's
not as though Jehoram is just a pessimist and Jehoshaphat is
an optimist. If Jehoram said, God has done
this to us to give us over to defeat, and Jehoshaphat said,
no, no, no, our God wouldn't do that. Oh, you better believe
he would do that. I'd say he does that all the
time, right? This could absolutely be a judgment of God because
of the sin and rebellion of Jehoram and the foolishness of Jehoshaphat.
Who's to say that God is not chastening both of these kings
in this experience? But Jehoshaphat is more measured.
He's more careful. He doesn't try to read the tea
leaves of Providence. And this is not a point that
we're going to make tonight, but I will make it now just briefly
in passing. You cannot read the tea leaves
of Providence. You can only see Providence in
retrospect. Providence is not an interpretive
guide to how you ought to live your life. You know, you say,
well, I'm going to pray, and if they call and offer me the
job, then it's God's will for me to take the job, you know?
Maybe, but maybe not, right? That's not how decision making
is done biblically. That's not how God's people are
supposed to make choices in life. You're not supposed to try and
read the tea leaves of providence and say, obviously God is pleased,
or obviously God is displeased, or obviously God wants me to
do this or to do that. I'm not suggesting that God does
not providentially lead us. He does. What I'm suggesting
is that you're not supposed to be trying to read the tea leaves
as if you are some kind of an occultist. and interpreting the
tarot cards of opportunity or calamity. And so Jehoshaphat
is right. He does not look at the circumstance
and say, obviously, God X. He simply says, we need a prophet.
We need a word. We need God to speak. We don't
know what's going on here. Maybe the Lord is chastening
them. Maybe the devil is putting stumbling
blocks in their path. Maybe God has ordained this for
some other good purpose. We don't know and we can't know
unless God speaks. So is there a prophet? And one of Jehoram's servants
speaks up and says, Elisha, the son of Shaphat is here. Is here
makes some commentators believe he's actually in the train with
the army. Why in the world would he be
there? Maybe because God told him to be there. Maybe because
God ordained all of this from the beginning. Maybe he sends
a prophet with the army for this very purpose. Or it may be that
God has already positioned Elisha in close proximity to the army
and he's staying... We just don't know. But he's
in close enough proximity that this army that is out of water
and can't go much farther is able to ask. a prophet of God. And Jehoshaphat knows who Elisha
is. Even though Elisha is a prophet of the northern kingdom, he knows
the name, he recognizes immediately that this is a man of God. The
word of Yahweh is with him. Verse 12. Did you notice how
the king's servant described Elisha? We mentioned this last
week when we talked about Elijah's departure. Elisha is known as
the man who poured water over the hands of Elijah. He is identified
as Elijah's servant. You may say, well, why? Elisha
is a great prophet in his own right. He needs to just step
out of Elijah's shadow. That's thinking carnally. Elisha
is content to be a Timothy to Elijah. He is content to be a
servant. He is content to be known as
a servant. That is one of the defining features of Elisha at
this point in his ministry. And that's perfectly OK. It's
an honorable designation. And so the king of Israel and
Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom go to see Elisha. In verses 13
to 20, God speaks to these three kings through the prophet Elisha,
who just happens to be close by. They were very lucky in that. Luck had nothing to do with it.
In verse 13, Elisha says, not to Jehoshaphat, but to Jehoram,
what have I to do with you? Why are you coming to me? I've
got nothing to say. You want a word from God? Go
see the prophets of your parents. Now, that does suggest that Jehoram
is comfortable with the religion of his parents, right? And what
Elisha is saying here is absolutely appropriate. What business do
you have as an unbeliever to presume to call upon God in crisis?
You disregard the Lord, you break His law, you despise His name
every other day of your life, and on the day you've got a problem,
you're gonna cry out to Him and say, oh Lord, help me. The election
says, don't even bother. Go see the prophets of your parents
if you want a word from the Lord. Jehoram retorts, right, fires
back, no, it is Yahweh who has called these three kings to give
them into the hand of Moab. He's certain he's right. My sense,
at least, is that Jehoram doesn't even know why we're here talking
to Elisha. I mean, it's certainly not because he and Elisha are
friends, right? This is Jehoshaphat's idea, but I already know what
is going on here. I know what God is doing. He's brought us
here to harm us. That's the kind of God that you
serve, Elisha, right? Well, you wouldn't blame the
Lord if he did, in fact, want to harm this kind of a king.
But in verse 14, Elisha says, as Yahweh of hosts lives before
whom I stand. See, he's in the presence of
three kings, and he is unfazed. Do you see that? This is the
boldness of a person who knows that he serves the King of all
kings and Lord of all lords. Yes, he can stand in the presence
of three kings, and he says, I stand in the presence of the
Lord. I am his servant. Right? He is not overawed by
this opportunity to address royalty. He says, if it were not that
I have regard for Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I would neither
look at you nor see you. Now, we saw last week in the
previous chapter that Elisha received a double portion of
Elijah's spirit, and he just proved it. I mean, Elijah had
some fantastic lines heaping scorn upon his spiritual opponents,
but that was his anger. I mean, really and truly. If
it were not for the fact that Jehoshaphat is standing here,
I wouldn't even notice that you are here, right? That's how insignificant
this king of Israel is. This prophet would not even pay
attention to. He calls for a musician. Music
begins to play. The Psalms, by the way, are an
important part of prophecy in the Old Testament, right? And
the psalmist who wrote the Psalms were themselves described as
prophets in an earlier portion of history recorded in the Book
of Chronicles. And so the music begins to play
and the Spirit comes upon Elisha, and this is what he says. He
says, I will make this dry stream bed full of pools, but not through
a storm that is visible to you. You will not hear wind, you will
not see rain, but I will fill the land with water." Now, some
of your Bibles, if you're reading from the New American Standard
or some other versions, you'll see that Israel digs trenches.
Again, there's a little bit of a difficulty here in terms of
how we translate the Hebrew. Either they dig the trenches
or there is a dry stream bed already there. In either case,
what you end up having is a trench that fills up with water overnight. And it does so without any visible
storm. God sends water through the land of Edom that fills up,
and this would have to be, I mean, you've got three kings represented
here, you've presumably got three military divisions represented
here, you've got a lot of men, you've got a lot of animals,
and you need a lot of water. And this is a lot of water, which
might be one reason to prefer the ESV's reference to the stream
bed here. But he says, I will make water
for you to drink, you, your livestock, and your animals. And then in
verse 18, Elisha says this, this is a light thing in the sight
of the Lord. That's not even a big deal, right? That's a piece
of cake. But here's what I'm also going
to do. I'm going to give Moab into your hand. You will attack
every fortified city, verse 19, every choice city, fell every
good tree, stop up all the springs of water, ruin every good piece
of land with stones. Some people have questioned here
whether this is actually a prescription or prophecy contrary to the rules
of engagement given in Deuteronomy. I don't think it is, I think
it's a misreading of what Deuteronomy says, but I would say even if
you read Deuteronomy and concluded that ordinarily the Israelites
are not supposed to cut down trees and to raise their enemies'
fields, this is a prescription of judgment against the Moabites.
This is the Lord actually pronouncing a curse. And he's saying, you're
going to cut down their timber, and you're going to fill their
fields with stones, and you're going to tear down the walls
of their cities. And you're going to devastate this land. This
is an exceedingly wicked land. By the way, God is not judging
Moab for failing to send lambs and wool to the king of Israel.
Right? That is just the reason that
Jehoram is here. That's the reason he's interested in participating
in this war. But God has his own reasons. God has his own
ways. And when he makes war against the nation, he does so in vengeance
for their sins. sure enough the next morning
the land is filled with water now in the meantime the scene
shifts verse 20 through 27 the end of the chapter we see moab campaign about these divisions
of armies that are coming out against them. They muster all
of their troops, their young men who are able to arm themselves.
They go out, position themselves in proximity to the enemy camp.
They're ready to do battle. And as the sun is coming up,
they look out and they see pools of blood. Now, does God help
them see things incorrectly? Sure. Fine, right? But there's also a natural phenomenon
here. They know this is a dry, arid
place. And they know that it's not rained.
And there's not supposed to be any water out there. And as the
sun is coming up, what does the rising sun make water look like?
It makes it look red. It makes it look like blood.
So as Matthew Henry says, what you want to believe, or what
you want to be true, you can easily believe, in commenting
on this passage. So whatever the circumstances
are that lead the Moabites to jump to the wrong conclusion,
that's exactly what they do. And they say, battle's over.
This happens a number of times in the Old Testament, by the
way. We've already seen this in the history that we've looked
at so far, we'll see it again, where Different groups, different
political entities form a coalition to go to war, but they don't
get along with one another and they begin fighting one another
and killing one another. That's what the Moabites think happened
here. And so they rush out to the spoil, Moab. Let's go get
the loot. Well, guess what? If you're running
out to collect spoil, guess what you're not doing? You're not
observing, like, good tactical protocol, you know? You're not
walking out with your armor and your weapons at the ready and,
you know, looking to the right and to the left. You're just
putting everything down and saying, hey, let's go, you know, let's get some empty
bags and let's get out there and find what's valuable on the
dead bodies. And they go out completely unprepared
and they walk into an ambush that Israel didn't even know
they had set. God sets the ambush. And they began defeating Moabites,
and killing Moabites, and chasing Moabites, and running all through
the territory of Moab. This would take some time, right?
This would be a campaign of at least several days, if not longer. Throwing stones into the fields,
cutting down timber, breaking down fortified cities, just as
the Lord had said. It was devastation that was decreed
by God. At the end of the chapter in
verses 26 and 27, Misha, the king of Moab, sees that the battle
is going against him, and he makes two last-ditch attempts
to survive. The first is to take 700 swordsmen
to break through the line of the king of Edom. He felt like
there was an advantage there, perhaps. And so he attacks the
line of the King of Edom and he fails. It does not succeed. They do not break through. And
so now he is literally besieged. He's in a fortified city and
it's the last stronghold and he's going to be overrun. And
so he takes his oldest son, the son that was to succeed him on
the throne. And on the wall, in the sight
of the armies, he offers him as a burnt sacrifice to his God. This would be Chemosh, who is
the God who accepts child sacrifice. And then the text gives us the
most difficult part of our study. In verse 27, it says, there came
great wrath against or upon Israel. And there is a question about
how you would render that. You could render it either way.
The consequence of that is that they withdrew from Moab and returned
to their own land. Now there are at least four different
possibilities. This could be the wrath of Yahweh
against Israel. If it is the wrath of Yahweh,
then it's difficult to understand. Some commentators who say, well,
they're violating the rules of engagement in Deuteronomy, and
so now God is punishing them for that. Maybe, if that's how
you interpret what they're doing, but I think they're doing exactly
what the prophet said they were supposed to do. Again, it's possible
that Elisha is simply predicting what they're going to do and
not prescribing, but I take it as prescribing. I take it as
Elisha saying, this is God's will. You're going to devastate
Moab, and this is how you're going to do it. Now it is possible
that this could be Yahweh's anger against Israel for some other
reason that is unidentified in the text. And there are all kinds
of reasons that we might speculate about, but that's all it would
be. It would be only speculation. That's not an obvious, obvious
interpretive option. It could be the wrath of the
god of Moab. the wrath of Chemosh against
Israel, the demon that stands behind that idol, stirring up
and strengthening the people of Moab for the battle. But while
I do believe that there are demons behind every idol, and I do believe
that there is a false deity that is not a true god that was worshipped
in that sacrifice, I don't think that that makes any sense of
the text at all. It really doesn't have any explanatory
power, and it raises more questions than it answers. Some would say
that this is the wrath of Moab against the Israelites. Some
commentators take this view and say essentially what happens
is the Moabites are so stirred up by this, either encouraged
or disgusted, that they rise up and make a really strong push
that ultimately repels the Israelites and causes them to disengage. But it seems like the majority
report, as far as I can tell, is that this is wrath that comes
upon the Israelites. And maybe wrath is not even the
best idea here. Maybe it would be indignation.
that it's not so much wrath against them, but it is that their spirits
themselves are indignant and wroth within themselves at this
disgusting display of barbarity. Many commentators take this view,
including Matthew Henry and Dale Ralph Davis, and I noted that
this is also the interpretation that Josephus makes of this story. I pulled out his history of this
period and found that that's how he read it as well. that
the Israelites were so disgusted, they were so horrified at seeing
this crown prince, however old he was, he may have been a grown
man for all we know, right? But this crown prince burned
alive in front of them on the wall, that they are so disgusted
that they would rather flee. and say, we don't want anything
to do with this. They're horrified, and they leave
in that state. I have to tell you that if I
have to take a position, that's the position I would take. It
makes the best sense, I think, of the text. But even there,
it still leaves me with questions. I think it's a difficult passage.
All right, I want to offer in the time that we have remaining
a few observations under the heading of four different applications,
and they are not of equal weight. The first one is not super important,
but I think it's an interesting observation that's worth giving
some thought to, and that is that Elisha is being presented
here as the new Moses. What you had in the preceding
chapter, in chapter 2, is Elijah and then Elisha in his in his
shoes, with his mantle, right, in his place, parting the waters
of the Jordan. And we said we've seen this before,
right? Not in the crossing of the Jordan where God stopped
the waters upriver at Adam, but rather we saw this at the Red
Sea. And that what God is doing is he is bringing a lawgiver
to the people as they are in exile, right? They are in the
wilderness of judgment because of their sin. That's the role
that Elijah and Elisha are playing. They are the law speakers, the
law givers, the prophets who are coming to a disobedient people
under judgment in the wilderness, and you see it in the parting
of the waters. And you see it here as well, because what happens
to Israel under the leadership of Moses immediately after crossing
the Red Sea? They run out of water, and they
cry out to God. And what does Moses do? He pronounces
the word of the Lord, and the Lord gives water to the people,
right? So I do think that there are some deliberate parallels
there. Now, by saying that, I don't mean in any way that this is
not historical, that this is just mythological representation
or something like that. No, no, no. What I'm suggesting
is this. What if God made everything in
the universe and all events and circumstances throughout human
history in order to point to one central truth of his identity,
sovereignty, and the glory that he would ultimately manifest
in the sending of his son? And it's not a thought experiment,
I think that's actually what's happened. I think certain events reappear
in human history for the purpose of typologically pointing us
to something else. And I think that what's happening
here is we are seeing a representation of the authority of God's man. Moses, Elijah, now Elisha. And partly, he does that through
some confirming signs that are reminiscent of the Exodus and
wilderness experience. The more important applications,
though, are this. First of all, the different perspectives that
we see on divine sovereignty. That was the first application
that we noted as we came through the text in verse 10. The king
of Israel sees Yahweh's sovereignty. He admits it, but he interprets
it as malicious. He says God obviously wants to
harm us. Well, there's a good reason he
would want to harm Jehoram. So he's not entirely wrong in
assuming that God might be displeased with him. But that is how a reprobate
views God. Psalm 2, let us burst their bonds. Let's cast their cords away from
us. The kings of the earth and the
rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed. They know he's the Lord. They know his anointed
is the enthroned king. They hate it. It's not that they
don't believe in God. It's not that they don't believe
he has a power and authority over their lives. It's that they
know it and they hate it. And that's Jehoram. He says,
I know this is God. Well, you're not wrong, it is
God, right? But you are not an infallible
interpreter of the circumstances of your life. And that's what
we see in Jehoshaphat's case, is the humility to recognize,
yes, God is involved in this, because it couldn't happen if
God was not involved in it, but God has not made clear by this
circumstance. what his will might be. We don't
know why we're out of water. It may be our own stupidity,
and God is allowing us to reap the consequences of our own foolishness.
Or it could be that God has ordained us for some other purpose. I
would say, interpreting this retrospectively, that it seems
pretty clear that God ran him out of water in order to demonstrate
the authority of his prophet. Why do you need Elisha in this
story if you don't have a drought? If the king of Israel and Judah
and Edom go to Moab, and because it's God's will to give them
the victory, they just run all the way through the Moabites.
They experience unhindered victory the whole way. So what? What does Jehoram do? He goes
home and gives glory to his God. What does the King of Edom do?
He goes home and gives glory to his God. What does Jehoshaphat
do? Just whatever he does, right?
But here, they have to go to the prophet. They hear expressly
God's plan and purpose to give them this victory. But they don't
have that conversation unless they run out of water. Now, it
seems to me that retrospectively, that's part of the purpose of
running out of water, right? God may have had more that he
was doing there than what I'm mentioning. But you can't interpret
the tea leaves of providence. You have to believe in God's
sovereignty. And if you are a believer, you will see God's sovereignty
as your security. Jehoshaphat is convinced that
God has something to say here. We just need to get to a prophet
so that he can tell us what it is. Jehoram is just as convinced
that God simply seeks their harm, and that is the attitude of a
reprobate. Be careful about how you view providence, be careful
about what attempts you make to interpret providence, and
be careful about how you judge the motivations of the Lord in
the suffering and circumstances of your life, right? Don't judge
it like a reprobate. Secondly, this is the point that
Dale Ralph Davis in his commentary focuses on. It's an excellent
observation. The only hope of these three kings is in God's
word, and that is our only hope as well. That's an excellent
observation, very, very good application of this text. They run out of water, and the
only hope that they have to survive is to find a prophet who can
pronounce to them some promise, some hope of salvation, right,
through water. And so this is the plight of
these three kings, God puts us in these positions in our life
to remind us of what is true on every other day of our life.
Right. So sometimes God ordains us to fall into sin to remind
us what great sinners we are every other day of our life.
Right. So you're struggling with sin and you say, oh, I'm really
struggling with sin right now. No, you're just conscious of
your struggle with sin right now. Right. You're more acutely
aware of the problem of sin. than you were yesterday, but
your sin was just as bad yesterday. You just didn't realize it, right?
When we pray, we pray as desperate people, but it doesn't feel that
way most of the time, right? Most of the time, you know, bow
my head over a meal, and thank you God for this food, and I
know God has given me this food, and I wanna honor Him as I enjoy
it, but I don't really feel desperate because I don't realize that
I wouldn't be able to breathe right now. I wouldn't be able
to breathe. I would not exist. The molecules
of my body and of this entire universe would fly apart and
pass out of existence if it were not that he holds all things
together by the word of his power, Paul says. So your only hope
is in the word of God. That's your only hope. And we
need to remember that when we get up in the mornings and everything
is important to us except spending time in the word. Right? And I'm not trying to shame you
into reading your Bible, but do you realize how often we minimize
the importance of that? I'm not suggesting you need to
get up in two hours every morning here to read 20 chapters of the
Bible. You may get up and read a sentence of Scripture and meditate
upon that as you prepare to go about your day. But you and I
have got to realize we live and die by the Word of God. That
is our hope. And that's the salvation of these
three kings, is to find a prophet and get the word from the Lord. Now, as important as that application
is, there is one that I want to focus on in just a couple
of minutes that we have remaining. But this is one where I really
need you to pay attention, because it's gonna be really easy to
misunderstand what I'm saying here, and I don't want you to
walk away with the wrong idea. The last application is this,
that we see in the story the vanity and futility of child
sacrifice that ultimately comes to a true fulfillment in the
cross. And don't misunderstand this
point. The king of Moab's offering of his son is abhorrent. It is not typological. Everybody hear me say that? It's
not typological. It's abhorrent. It's wicked at
an indescribable level. Yahweh's sacrifice of himself
in the person of Jesus Christ on the cross is holy. That is
the most beautiful event that's ever happened in the history
of the world, and simultaneously the most terrible. The King of
Moab's offering is ultimately futile, although at the time
it appeared successful. After all, what happens? He burns
his son, and what do the Israelites do? They leave. Seemed to work. Our God heard. Our God gave us
deliverance. No, that's not what happened,
right? But that's probably what the King of Moab thinks happened. It looks successful. It's ultimately
futile. What about the cross? The cross
appears futile, but it is ultimately efficacious. What are people
saying at the foot of Jesus's cross? They're saying He saved
others. He cannot save Himself. If you
are the King of Israel, come down and we'll believe. And He
doesn't. He dies. And He gets taken down
from the cross and rolled up in linen and buried in a tomb
and a stone is placed in front of that tomb and it's sealed
and a guard is placed and that's it. He's not the Messiah after
all. Or if He was, there goes the
kingdom. It appears futile. It's ultimately
efficacious. Paganism in the ancient world
recognized the extremity of human crisis, could never be satisfied
by animal blood. That's why you see human sacrifice
in ancient religions. What, what, what? Again, peer
behind the obvious disgust that we all should feel of this. What
are pagans saying when they burn their children rather than an
animal? What are they saying? They're
saying the blood of bulls and goats cannot solve this crisis. They're saying a ram is not enough,
a goat is not enough, a lamb is not enough. We need something
more. Their child sacrifice ritual
sought to earn merit by demonstrating to the deity their great devotion. That's what all paganism is about.
It's all paganism is. Paganism and witchcraft is a
crowbar. It's a lever. It's intended to
manipulate the forces of nature. That's all it is, just technically
speaking. And so they're trying to demonstrate
to the deity how devoted we are to you so that you will move
the levers of the world and save us or grant us the blessing that
we seek. But by contrast, the gospel tells
us of the offering of a son by the deity himself. to appease
his own wrath because nothing that man could ever do or offer
could satisfy. Do you see the contrast? So on the one hand, paganism
is saying this crisis is so great an animal's life won't suffice.
But if we show the God how devoted we truly are, he will count us
worthy of the blessing. And the gospel says exactly the
opposite of that. Exactly the opposite. That's
why I'm telling you, this is not typological. But it still points us to Jesus. Because the gospel says, no,
there is nothing you can offer to God that will prove your devotion.
There is no sacrifice that you can make that can remedy this
situation. God will have to propitiate himself
because there's no other way for this crisis to be resolved.
Misha's offering is not typological. It is actually against everything
that is holy, righteous, and good. But in the context of pagan
desperation and barbarity, we are able to see the marvel of
God's grace all the more clearly. Because what does God do? God
offers his son. He doesn't do so like Misha.
Not remotely. But God offers his son because
this is what it takes to save us from our sin. And the darker
the context, the darker the environment, the more clearly the light of
truth shines. We've used this illustration
before. If I strike a match standing up here at the front, some of
you can't even see the flame. because there's too much light
in here. But if we turn out all the lights, and we cover all
the windows, and the room is so pitch black that you can't
see your hand in front of your face, and then we strike a match
anywhere, it shines like a torch. Everyone can see it. Why? Because
the environment is so dark. You don't get any darker than
this. You don't get any darker than a society offering their
children on the altar of their own need. But in that context,
guess what you see all the more clearly? How great, gracious,
good, and utterly, indescribably different the gospel is than
every other religion of man and religious ritual that he performs.
2 Kings Ch. 3
Series The Book of Second Kings
| Sermon ID | 620191832490 |
| Duration | 52:14 |
| Date | |
| Category | Bible Study |
| Bible Text | 2 Kings 3 |
| Language | English |
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