>> Jen: Hello and good morning, friends and faithful listeners. Today we're going to be reading 2 Kings chapter 3, the entire chapter, and talking about the Israelites going in and trying to take back Moab for themselves. So stay tuned for all of that. It's going to be a great episode. I am definitely looking forward to talking about this episode today, so let's jump right in. I'll be reading the entire chapter of 2 Kings 3 from the Web version. Grab your cup of tea
or your cup of coffee this morning. I've got peppermint, um, tea here with me today, and I have to say, I actually tried some coffee the other day, and I did not feel sick when I tried it. So that was very, very exciting for me. I don't know how often I'm gonna be drinking coffee, but I would love to be able to drink a nice steaming hot cup of coffee again and, uh, hopefully pray for me. I'll be able to soon. All right, once again, let's read the entire chapter of 2 Kings 3.
Now, Jehoram, the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, and he reigned 12 years. He did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, but not like his father and like his mother. For he put away the pillar of baal that his father had made. Nevertheless, he held to the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin, and he didn't depart
from them. Now, Masha, king of Moab, was a sheep breeder, and he supplied the king of Israel with 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. But when Ahab was dead, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel. He went and sent to Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, saying, the king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me against Moab to battle? He said, I will go up.
I am as you are, my people as your people. My horses as your horses. Then he said, which way shall we go up? Jehoram answered, the way of the wilderness of Edom. So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. And they marched for seven days along a circuitous route. There was no water for the army or for the animals that followed them. The king of Israel said, alas, for Yahweh has called these three kings
together to deliver them into the hand of Moab. But Jehoshaphat said, isn't there a prophet of Yahweh here that we may inquire of Yahweh by him? One of the king of Israel's servants answered, elisha, the son of Shaphat, who poured water on the hands of Elijah is here. Jehoshaphat said, Yahweh's word is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. Elisha said to the king of Israel, what have I to do with
you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother. The king of Israel said to him, no, for Yahweh has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab. Elisha said, as Yahweh of armies lives before whom I stand, surely were it not that I respect the presence of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I would not look toward you nor see you. But now bring me a musician. When the musician played, Yahweh's hand came on him. He said, Yahweh says,
make this valley full of trenches. For Yahweh says, you will not see wind, neither will you see rain. Yet the valley will be filled with water, and you will drink both you and your livestock and your other animals. This is an easy thing. In Yahweh's sight, He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand. You shall strike every fortified city and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree and stop all springs of water, and mar every
good piece of land with stones. In the morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice, behold, water came by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water. Now, when all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, they gathered themselves together. All who were able to put on armor, young and old, and stood on the border. They rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone on the water. And the Moabites saw the water
opposite them as red as blood. They said, this is blood. The kings surely are destroyed. They have struck each other. Now therefore, Moab to the plunder. When they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them. And they went forward into the land, attacking the Moabites. They beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land each man cast his
stone and filled it. They also stopped all the springs of water and cut down all the Good trees until in Kir Harasheth, all they left was its stones. However, the men armed with slings went around and attacked it. When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too severe for him, he. He took with him 700 men who drew a sword to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not. Then he took his oldest son, who would have reigned in his place, and offered him for a
burnt offering on the wall. There was a great wrath against Israel. They departed from him and returned to their own land. So we haven't talked about the Israeli kings in some time because Scripture kind of took a break from talking about them. And so last week we covered Elijah going up into heaven by a whirlwind, and also Elisha becoming the new prophet of Israel and some of the miracles that he did.
But now we're again talking about the new king of Israel, because if you remember what happened in Second Kings, Chapter 1, Ahab, King Ahab, the notoriously evil king, died, and his son Ahaziah reigned in his place. But Ahazia died very quickly because he actually fell off of a rooftop and, uh, had complications from m. The fall and died. And Ahazia did a lot of bad things during his very short time as king. Um, namely, he allowed Moab to
rebel during his time as king. And then also he targeted Elijah because Elijah was still alive. And, uh, tried to kill Elijah on three separate occasions, but it did not work. And Ahazia ended up dying from this complication, from a fall. So then his brother, because Ahaziah had no kids himself, his brother ended up taking the throne, and his brother is named Jehoram. So now we're getting into
Jehoram's story. Now, in 2 Kings, chapter 3, it says in verse 1, Now, Jehoram, the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. And he reigned for 12 years. So after Hazzia dies, Jehoram the brother takes over. He reigned for 18 years in the northern tribes, while Jehoshaphat, who was the good king of Judah, reigned in Judah. However, Jehoram was not a good king like Jehoshaphat
was. Jehoram, it says in verse two, did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, but not like his father and like his mother, who happened to be Ahab and Jezebel. For Jehoram put away the pillar of baal that his father had made. So Jehoram stopped the worship of baal so that was something, I guess, kind of good that he did, but he didn't do anything else because idol worship was rampant
in Israel at that time. Perhaps Jehoram got rid of baal worship, but still, all of these other really terrible idols were still in Israel, like the Asherah poles and those two calves. Remember that, uh, Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, made to get the people to not go to Judah. And that was a political move, obviously, for Jeroboam. And Jehoram now maintained that same religion that Jeroboam started. So even though he got rid of one idol out of Israel, he didn't do anything to
stop the other idol worship in Israel. It says, nevertheless, he held to the sins of Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, with which Jeroboam made Israel to sin. And Jehoram didn't depart from those sins. So now, Masha, the king of Moab, was a sheep breeder, it says in verse four. And he supplied the king of Israel and all the kings prior to Ahab, because Moab was under the control of Israel from the time of David. So all of the kings of Moab had to supply
Israel with tribute. And apparently, because Moab was a place of sheep, the Moabites would supply Israel with their sheeps. It said he supplied the king of Israel with 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. But when Ahab was dead, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. And now King Jehoram, now that Ahazia is dead, decides, you know what? I'm gonna go take Moab back for Israel. Verse 6. King Jehoram went
out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel. And then he went and sent to Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah. The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me M against Moab to battle? Now, here's the thing about, uh, King Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat lived obviously in the southern half of Israel. He was the king of Judah because Israel was split apart this point in time. And Jehoshaphat kept making alliances with the northern parts of Israel, even though northern Israel was
super evil. And Jehoshaphat, the last time he partnered with northern Israel, almost got killed in the process of it. And he allowed his son to marry one of the daughters of Jezebel and Ahab for political reasons. So even though Jehoshaphat was a very good king for Israel because he honored God and everything, he. He partnered with the wrong people and he just kept doing this. He. I don't know what his viewpoints on this was.
Maybe he really didn't like that Israel was split apart and wanted it to get back to, like, the OG Israel. But he went about it in the wrong way. He kept partnering with these evil kings. That caused him a lot of pain in the long run. But Jehoshaphat overall was a very good king of Judah. And now Jehoram, the king of Israel, wants Jehoshaphat to go to battle with him against Moab. And so Jehoshaphat agrees. He says, I
will go up. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. This is the second time now that Jehoshaphat has agreed to go into battle with northern Israel. And he said the same thing the last time as well. He says, you know, we're the same. You and I are the same. We are all part of Israel. We're all brothers and sisters here in Israel, so we can go to battle together. But here's the thing. Northern Israel, even though, yes, they were related by blood, they were
not any longer related spiritually. The term Jewish means both, uh, Jewish by ancestry and heritage and also Jewish by religion. So Jehoshaphat was getting it wrong. He's saying, you know, you and I are brothers and sisters. Yes, they were related by blood, but spiritually they were as far apart as you can possibly get. So they weren't related any longer spiritually. So Jehoshaphat agrees to go with Jehoram into battle against Moab. And he
asks, which way shall we go up? And that's kind of interesting because even though Jehoshaphat was the far older king, between him and Jehoram, he never really went to battle all that often. He was relatively a very peaceful king. So he actually did not have as much battle prowess as the kings of Israel had. So Jehoshaphat actually asks Jehoram for advice, how shall we attack the king of Moab? And Jehoram answered, we'll go by
the way of the wilderness of Edom. Now, in verse nine, it says that they also included the king of Edom in this plan as well, since they'd have to go through Edom. Now, you might remember several chapters ago, back in First Kings, it mentioned that there was no king of Edom during the time of Jehoshaphat. But it could be that whoever this king of Edom is was just the highest ranking official of Edom, or something changed in the 20ish years that Jehoshaphat was king. And Edom, um,
did in fact get a king for themselves. So we're not exactly 100% sure. But it does say now that Edom does have a king, whether he was an acting king or a appointed king by Jehoshaphat, or Edom just got their own king, we don't really know. So these three kings march for seven days along the circuitous route. And there was no water for the army or for the animals that followed them. So they're looking for water everywhere, trying to get up to Moab
to take, uh, it back. And they can't find a single drop of water for themselves, for their men, or for their horses and the other animals that they brought along. So the king of Israel, Jehoram, freaks out. He's like, alas, for Yahweh has called us three kings together to deliver us into the hand of Moab. So he freaks out. He believes that Yahweh is against him and immediately tries to run away. And it kind of sounds like Jehoram is a little bit guilty
sounding when he says that, right? Like, it sounds like he. He thinks there might be a reason why Yahweh would target him and the other kings. Which is interesting because don't forget that Jehoram got rid of the idols of baal in Israel. So it sounds like Jehoram had a little bit of a fear of Yahweh, but it wasn't the correct kind of fear, the fear that God wants us to have of him. It's more of a fear of just awe and respect that we should have for God. So unfortunately, Jehoram didn't have the
right kind of fear of Yahweh. And also it sort of seems like Jehoram was a little bit sorry for what Israel had done to Yahweh, but didn't truly have a repentant heart. Which is really funny because we talked about that yesterday on the podcast over on the New Testament side of stuff. We talked about how you have to not just feel sorry about something, but you also have to repent and turn away from
it completely. So Jehoah might have felt sorry, might have felt afraid because he saw what happened to his brother and he saw what happened to his father and how Yahweh judged those two men in his life. And he might have felt scared because of that, might have felt sorry because of that, but he didn't really have heart change. All he did was get rid of the pillars of baal, but nothing else. He didn't spiritually lead his people into
worship of God. And even now, right here, he immediately breaks down when they can't find any water and thinks that Yahweh is against him. But Jehoshaphat, who's the good king of the group, says, isn't there a prophet of Yahweh here that we may inquire of Yahweh by him? So Jehoshaphat has a completely different response from Jehoram. Jehoram says, God hates us, he's going to kill us. Jehoshaphat says,
why don't we ask God about this? Why don't we literally come before God and see what He has to say before jumping to any conclusions? So one of the servants is like, yeah, there is a prophet nearby. His name is Elisha. He was the servant of Elijah. And so Jehoshaphat says Yahweh's word is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
I really like. Actually, I'm just noticing this now that this entire chapter keeps calling Jehoshaphat by his first name instead of calling him the king of Judah. I don't know, I think that that's kind of interesting. It keeps, uh, ignoring the name of Jehoram and the. We don't even know the name of this king of Edom. It only calls Jehoshaphat by his name. Anyway, all these three kings go down to visit Elisha. And Elisha says to the king of Israel when he sees him there, what have I to
do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother. So Elisha is clearly not happy with the king of Israel. Even though the king of Israel got rid of all the baal stuff, Elisha knew that Jehoram truly had no heart change. And there was still prophets in Israel that were false prophets. There was still, um, idol worshiping prophets in Israel. There were still other idols in Israel. So Elisha's like, why don't you go to your own prophets instead of inquiring of
Yahweh? And the king of Israel says to him in verse 13, no, for Yahweh has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab. Isn't that interesting that whenever something bad happens, people always blame Yahweh? I mean, look at this. Jehoram has a million other idols that Israel is worshiping. He didn't blame any of those other idols. He blamed Yahweh. Yahweh has called us together to deliver us into the hand of Moab. And Elisha responds, as Yahweh of
armies lives before whom I stand. Surely were not because I respect Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I would not even look towards you or see you. Uh, I think that's really funny. So because of Elisha's respect for Jehoshaphat, he agrees to give the men some prophecy. But something that really caught my attention is in verse 15, Elisha says, Bring me now a musician. There is power in music. God can use music to stir the soul.
We have seen the power of music several times throughout Scripture, specifically the psalms that we're going through on Fridays with the members. And secondly, with David playing the harp for King Solomon. When King Solomon had this demon that was oppressing him, David would play his music and the demon would leave Solomon alone. There is power in music, and God can use it to stir your
soul. Sometimes people can abuse the power of music by making it overly emotional and trying to stir some sort of response from the crowd through music, which could potentially be a bad thing. Actually, I learned, um, from my husband, who's a history nerd, I learned that when Hitler would go up to speak to the crowds, before he got up to speak, apparently the Nazis would play a really low hum, um, on musical instruments that would unsettle the people who were waiting to hear Hitler
speak. And it was almost unnoticeable. It would go on for several minutes until Hitler went up to speak. And then the second Hitler took the stage, the noise would go away. And immediately the people down in the audience would feel this relief just wash over them as they're no longer subconsciously hearing this note that sounds like doom to them. So music can definitely influence our emotions, and it's been used throughout history to influence emotions of people. Music is obviously
very powerful. However, you can use music to invoke good feelings of emotion, and it's not necessarily wrong to do that. It's not necessarily wrong for a church to play emotional music during sermons or to play uplifting and upbeat music when the pastor is, you know, talking to his congregants or something like that. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, because that's exactly what Elisha does right here. He needs his emotions to be settled, so he
asks for a musician. Apparently, he is very upset over the presence of Jehoram, king of Israel. So upset that he needs the music to play some hymns so that he can settle his mind and hear what God has to say to him. It says when the musician played Yahweh's hand came on him. So it's definitely not a sin to use music to help you feel closer to God, to help you worship. Those things are certainly not sins. And music can be very, very
good and very powerful for that. So the second the musician starts to play, Elisha, uh, hears a prophecy from God. And he says, Yahweh says, make this valley full of trenches. For Yahweh says, you will not see wind, neither will you see rain. And yet the valley will be filled with water, and you will drink both you and your livestock and your other animals. So remember the problem. The problem was that the three kings had no water for themselves, for their men, or for
their animals. And Elisha says that God is going to fill the valley with rainwater, except that these men aren't going to experience a drop of rain or any wind whatsoever. It's going to be a clear, sunny day, and yet the valley will be filled with water. So they better dig a bunch of trenches in order for them to catch all of this water. And I can imagine, you know, the men were probably complaining. They were probably like, I don't want to, you know, dig a trench.
It doesn't seem like it's gonna help us at all. Why are we digging trenches? We're already dying of thirst here. We've been two days without any water, and you want us to dig a trench? But this was an act of faith that God was calling the Israelite army to do. And the deeper they dug these trenches, the more trenches they dug, the more the water would fill them, the more the blessing of God. And this is an analogy of just
work for God's kingdom. Because man, sometimes it just feels like you are digging a trench for no reason whatsoever. You are digging and digging, and it feels like there is no purpose as to why you are digging. But if you don't give up, if you trust in the promises of God, then God will bless you so much. Just like He said He would bless these Israelites for digging these trenches, they would soon be filled with water. And like I said, the bigger they
dug these trenches, the more blessing they would have. And not only this, but God would use these ditches to trap the Moabite army. It says He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand. This is a small thing in Yahweh's sight, is what it says in verse 18. You shall strike every fortified city and every choice city. You shall fell every good tree and stop all springs of water and mar every good piece of
land with stones. So Israel was going to go into Moab with a complete and total victory is what Elisha says God said. So the kings go back to their camp. They order their men to dig these trenches. And it says in the morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice, behold, water came by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with
water. So apparently there was some sort of, uh, storm that happened miles away that caused all of that rainwater to go off of the mountainsides and into the valley and fill those trenches with water. And I can't even imagine the amount of complaining those men were doing. When's it gonna rain? When's these trenches gonna be filled? I can just imagine it. But anyway, these trenches are now filled with water. And everybody has their fill of water.
And the Moabites, who are, who know that these three kings are nearby, are standing on the border of Moab and Israel, and they're looking past the border at the Israelites camp, and they see these trenches filled with water. But the sun, the morning sun, because this was early, early in the morning when all this took place, the morning sun must have been very red because the red from the sun was shining on the water. And to the Moabites, it looked like fields of blood,
like pools of blood all over the place. So the Moabites are like, oh, my gosh, the three kings that were going to attack us have attacked each other. There was some sort of conflict in their camp and they have attacked each other. So let's go, let's go and plunder the, the Israelite camp. So the Moabites go, they think that they're going to
go plunder the camp of Israel. They show up completely off guard to the Israelite camp, who the Israelites are on guard because they're about to go into battle, right? And yet the Moabites just like walk into their camp and there's the Israelites armed, ready to go into battle. And the Israelites completely destroy this Moabite army like there was no contest. So the Moabites are running away. The Israelites are
pursuing. The Israelites go into Moab, they destroy some of the cities, they cut down some of the good trees, they stop up the water. And the king of Moab, it says in verse 26, saw that the battle was too severe for him. So he took with him 700 men who drew a sword to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not. So when he fully failed, it says the king of Moab took his oldest son, who would have reigned in his place and offered him for a burnt offering on the
wall. And the Moabites at this point in time, worshiped Chemish, who was a God of human sacrifice. So this Moabite king, unfortunately feels the need to sacrifice his firstborn son to Chemish in order for Chemish to come and help the Moabites. And it says here there was a great wrath against Israel, and they departed from him and returned to their own land. And so this part is kind of confusing. We're not exactly sure why Israel left Moab after this happened, but there's two
possibilities. Either Israel was very angry over what this king had done to his firstborn son, because even though Israel had its problems, it didn't yet have human sacrifice. I should mention that, yes, they worshiped, baal, yes, they worshiped asherah, and those were egregious, weird cults that, uh, worshiped sex and worshiped pedophilia and worshiped, um, you know, human feces and things like that. But they did not do human sacrifice yet
that we know of. So perhaps the Israelites were just, like, appalled over what they had just seen this king do. And so the Israelites actually leave out of disgust over what that king had done. And the king, in a way, kind of gets his way by sacrificing his son.
The Israelites leave him alone. So it's either that or, unfortunately, the Israelites, because their faith was not fully in Yahweh, even though Yahweh said, I will deliver all of these cities of Moab to you, the Israelites did not have enough faith or courage to go up against the king of Moab, and they left. But whatever the reason was, Israel shouldn't have left because they. They left a terrible king in place. And actually, there is something called the Meisha stele. I've
talked about it briefly before. It's called the Moabite stone. It was discovered in the 1800s in the area of Moab, and it dates all the way back to right around the time that 2 Kings 3 takes place. They actually were able to translate the Mesha stele, and they
know, for the most part, what it says. And the entire thing talks about how the king of Moab worshiped Chemish, called himself the son of Chemish, went into Israel and killed children and pregnant women in the name of Chemish, and did all sorts of terrible things, all documented on this stone, on this tablet that has been
preserved throughout history. So, yeah, the king of Moab and the Moabites in general were very, very evil and corrupt people who had no problem killing their own and other people and the most vulnerable society in order to get what they wanted. So the Israelites should not have left this Moabite king alive, especially after they saw him kill and sacrifice his son, his own son. We don't even know how old this son was. He could have been a baby for all we know. But they saw this happen
and can you imagine seeing something like that? Can you imagine that the Israelites saw this happen and left this guy alive? And uh, not sure why they did that but anyway, faithful listeners, this is the story of second Kings chapter three where Israel partially takes back Moab, not fully but partially takes back Moab and God helped the Israelites to do that. But faithful listeners, have a
fantastic and wonderful rest of your day. I will see you guys tomorrow to discuss an episode from Second Corinthians. Until then, happy listening and God bless.