2 Kings 3 (Part 1) Bible Study (Moab Rebels Against Israel) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Second Kings chapter 3, in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat.

2 Kings 3 · chapter mention

That's how you would see it in the Hebrew.

Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. Jehoram, or Jehoram the son of

Ahab, became king over Israel and Samaria, and he reigned 12

years. He did what was evil in the

sight of the Lord, though not like his father and mother, for

he put away the pillar of the owl that his father had made.

Nevertheless he clung to the sin of Jeroboam, the son of the bat,

which he made Israel to sin. He did not depart from it.

Lord, we ask that You bless the reading, the proclamation, the

hearing, and the application of Your Word.

Give us great help, unction, excitement, clarity of thought

so that we can leave here equipped, furnished, washed by

Your Word. We ask these things trusting in

the help, in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Amen. So before we advance, I think

it's important to retrace our steps because this will

unclutter our thinking and it will give us greater clarity of

the setting of this passage that is before us today.

At the end of the Book of First Kings, the Holy Spirit focuses

on the reign of one particular king of the northern Kingdom of

Israel. Who was he?

His name starts with the letter A.

Oh no. What happened?

Ahab. Remember Ahab?

We focused on Ahab, and after Ahab had died, his son Ahaziah

succeeded him. That's what we see in the final

verses of the Book of First Kings.

And we study the brief reign of Ahaziah in the beginning of the

Book of Second Kings. And after Ahaziah died, we read

in these verses that Isaiah's brother Jeho Ram became king

over Israel. Now here's my first question.

Why didn't any of Ahaziah's sons succeed him?

Why was it that his brother seized the throne instead?

Any idea? He did not have any sons and

that's not speculation. That's what you find in verse 17

of Second Kings chapter one. We read that Isaiah, he had no

sons. Now during the administration of

these 3 kings, right? Remember, we have the northern

Kingdom of Israel. We have the Kingdom of Judah.

During the administration of these 3 kings, you had Ahab,

Isaiah, Jehoram. There was one king, a primary

king at least. I don't want to make it too

confusing, but there was one primary ruler governing the

southern Kingdom. What was his name?

Oh, no, we just read it. Say it.

Yes. Jehoshaphat.

Jehoshaphat. So Jehoshaphat was the one who

was ruling and reigning during the administration of these 3

kings. And we remember him, I hope we

remember that Jehoshaphat made a marriage alliance with who?

Ahab. He made a marriage alliance with

Ahab. And did that bless him, or did

that get him out of a lot of trouble?

A lot of trouble. Moreover, he partnered with

Isaiah, the son of Ahab. Did that get him in trouble as

well? It did get him in trouble, and

the trouble is only going to continue as he converges with

Joe Ram. We're going to see that in a

moment here, and I hope our vision is clarified a little bit

more to give us enough confidence now to understanding

the context of what is taking place here.

Now, there is more to know about Joe Ram other than the fact that

he was the brother of his I and the son of Ahab.

We read here that he was unsurprising to us, an evil man,

but he was not as evil as we might think, because the author

tells us that. Look at verse two.

He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, though not

like his father and mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal

that his father had made. Now who would, who would the

father of Jairam be? Remind me?

Ahab, right? So if Ahab is Jairam's father,

who would his mother be? Good, good, good, good.

Jezebel. That's right.

Now under score this that he was not like his father or mother

for one main reason. It says here that he put away

the pillar of bail that his father had made.

Evidently, there was some sort of monument that was dedicated,

a significant one that was placed in public view, and Jared

Ram moved that he hid it because we're not exactly told why, but

we can assume that he witnessing his father's life and the

outcome of bail ISM how bail failed his father was probably

the greatest motivation for him to disassociate himself with

this particular idol. And if that is the case, if

that's the reason why he does this, then we can applaud him

for having wisdom. Wisdom and learning of the

faults and the sins of others and applying it to your own

life. But it's a limited wisdom.

It's not complete wisdom. Why?

Because although he removes himself and separates himself

from one idol, we learn what he clings to other idols.

What are the other idols? Verse 3.

Nevertheless, he clung to the sin of Jeroboam, the son of

Nabat, which he made Israel to sin.

He did not depart from it. What were the idols that

Jeroboam created that caused Israel to stumble?

There were No2 what? 2 golden calves.

You remember that right? 2 golden calves 1 he set up in

Dan and the other place he set up where?

Bethel right? This is why we're doing this,

because I don't want to move on and and things evaporate every

chapter. I want us to be able to have

these things concrete. So you had Dan and Bethel, 2

golden calves. These are the idols that Jeremy

chose to keep and to protect. Why would he do that?

Well, he's a reminder to us that forsaking some sin, removing

some idols from our lives does not ultimately make us

righteous. We must abandon all known sin if

we want to truly be pleasing to God.

And his choice of idols shows us why there are people who cling

to certain sins over others. Think about it.

He saw what Baal ISM did to his father, to his Kingdom, and so

it was easy for him to say no thanks.

But the reason why Jeroboam created those idols was because

he did not want the people from the Northern Kingdom to unite

themselves to the Southern Kingdom, because they would have

to go to Jerusalem to worship at the temple.

And so Jeroboam thinks of this genius but wicked idea.

Let me create idols within the boundaries of my domain and keep

the people to myself. And I believe Jeroboam is the

one who is understanding this and following in that pattern,

seeing that there is an advantage to him and keeping

these idols. And people today are no

different. They are selected with their

repentance. So they give up certain sins,

but they hold on to others. They give up certain patterns

while holding on to others. God wants complete surrender,

total devotion. And if you want to be able to

identify what idols in your life, if there are any, hope

they're not. But what idols in your life are

the ones that are most difficult to get rid of?

I want you to just sit back and imagine the Lord asking of you,

not just of everything that that in theory is very easy to, to

agree with. I give up everything to you,

Lord, No Think of particular things in your life and ask

yourself, am I willing to let go of this if the Lord were to ask

me to give it up? In this particular case, he was

selective. That's not going to be good for

him, as we're about to discover. He's still deemed as evil.

Now we read in verse 4. Now Mesha, 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 Mohab rebelled against the king

of Israel. Now we study this in depth.

Remember in the opening study of the Book of Second Kings how

Moab was subservient to Israel since the days of David.

Remember David captured Moab and they were slaves to Israel and

they had to pay a tax, and this is the tax.

But it wasn't until Ahab was defeated by Syria where Moab saw

an opportunity to free themselves from the clutches of

Israel. And they did so.

And we understood that when Moab, which is east to Israel,

right, it's modern day Jordan, when Moab freed themselves from

Israel, we determined that that was a providential thing to

cause a Heziah who took Ahab's place to to call out to God to

see this disturbance and for him to self examine and to

ultimately seek the Lord, which he failed to do.

But a Heziah's brother Jairam will not be, will not be like

that. He will not accept this.

He will not even be slothful in dealing with it.

Almost right away, he makes his top priority emergency protocol.

He comes up with a plan to try to regain what his brother had

lost. And we're going to see what's

going to happen now. Following that, let's read verse

6. So King Joram 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?

Joram answered By the way of the wilderness of Edom.

Does Joram's invitation and Jehoshaphat's response sound

familiar? It does, right?

Because it is almost identical to the interaction that we

studied between Ahab and Jehoshaphat.

Remember, Ahab is Jerem's father.

Let's revisit it. Go to 1st Kings with me, chapter

22, First Kings 22. Look with me at verse 4.

This is when Ahab wanted to go to war with Syria, and he wants

Jehoshaphat to join him. And he says here, and he said to

Jehoshaphat, will you go with me to battle at Ramoth Gilead?

And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are my

people, as your people, my horses as your horses.

Is it surprising that Jehoram asked Jehoshaphat to join him in

battle? It's not surprising.

Why? Because there was a marriage

alliance between these two families.

What might be and should be shocking to us is Jehoshaphat's

relapse into the tendency of what being unequally yoked.

Did this guy not learn his lesson from working with Ahab?

He almost died when he yoked himself to a wicked man, and for

a brief moment there looked like that he did in fact learn his

lesson. But now we come to this point

and we realized that he actually didn't.

Is there any indication to why this man is willing to put

himself at risk of doing something that he knows God told

him not to do beforehand? There is explanation.

There is a complimentary story in the Bible.

It's not found in First Kings. It's not found in Second Kings.

But something happens. Pay pay attention to this.

Something happens after Jehoshaphat's fallout with Ahab

and before his treaty with Joram.

Something happens in between after his fallout with Ahab and

before he goes to war in this chapter, and we find that

incident in the book of Second Chronicles.

So you have to turn there. It's found in chapter 20.

There is a war that takes place in that interval period of time,

and the reason why 1st and 2nd Kings doesn't mention it, the

reason why the Chronicler includes it in his writings is

because the Chronicler is more interested in depicting and

revealing the history of the Southern Kingdom.

And that's why we find this story here.

But look at verse one of Second Chronicles chapter 20.

2 Chronicles 20 · chapter mention

After this. Those two words are important.

You know why? Because when you read the

previous chapters, you will learn of Ahab's partnership with

Jehoshaphat when they went to war together.

That's also found in Kings. It's also found in Chronicles.

So after this the Moabites and Ammonites, and with them some of

the Meonite came against Jehoshaphat for battle.

Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, A great multitude

is coming against you from Edom from beyond the sea, and behold

they are in hazards on Tamar, that is in Getty.

Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord,

and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

And Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord.

From all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

So here we have a coalition that arose against the Kingdom of

Judah. Josephat responds in fear.

He is absolutely terrified, but he does the right thing.

He seeks the Lord. And what you have in here is one

of the most outstanding testimonies of prayer in all of

the Bible. It's an incredible chapter.

And the reason why victory will come is because of that.

There was a simple yet desperate faith that Jehoshaphat had, and

he led the people to have as well the people under his care.

We don't have time to read obviously the entire chapter,

but victory comes against this coalition and we read it.

Look down at verse 23. For the men of Amon and Moab

rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to

destruction. And when they had made an end of

the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one

another. So something weird happens that

these armies that were working together at one point now stop

and begin to kill each other. When Judah came to the

Watchtower of the Wilderness, they look toward the horde and

behold, there were dead bodies lying on the ground.

None had escaped. It's marvelous.

It's a supernatural account. And this victory provides more

explanation as to why Jeho Ram wanted Jehoshaphat to go to war

with them, right? But it also provides

explanation, makes sense of Jehoshaphat's eagerness to agree

with it in this coalition. Did you notice who was

mentioned? The Moabites, The same people

who rebelled against the people of Israel, the same people that

Jehoram wants to go to war against.

Perhaps Jehoshaphat saw Jehoram's invitation to go to

war with Moab as an opportunity to put a final end to a

potentially recurring threat, namely the Moabites.

And he was so fixated on defeating the Moabites, I'm sure

that he did not even regard the consequences of being unequally

yoked with with evil people, even though he almost died in a

similar situation. I believe that Jehoshaphat, in

agreeing to go to war with Jehoram against the Moabites, is

encouraged by fear. And you have to learn from

Jehoshaphat, please, that you and I are more prone to

compromise our convictions and even overlook the potential

consequences of our compromise. When you make your decisions out

of fear, when you allow your decision making to be influenced

by alarm or agitation. I'm currently reading the book

of Jeremiah. I'm almost done in my personal

devotions and separate from this, I was just overwhelmed by

the different characters in that story that made very foolish

decisions because of fear. They even outright rebelled

against some of the clear commands of the Lord because

they were so overcome by dread. Fear is possessive.

Fear is intoxicating. Fear has a way of blurring your

judgement and rewiring the way you understand things and

events. It's very powerful.

Some people are willing to again overlook the consequences of

what that fear is leading to do because it is so persuasive and

and one of the consequences of revisiting sin, any sin, when

you find yourself in a cycle of compromise, it will eventually

change you. We don't often think about that

when we think about unequally yoked relationships, among other

things, we think about the physical, relational, financial

harm that we might place ourselves in.

But rarely do people talk about this outcome of sin, that when

you sit in it long enough, it alters you, it mutates you, it

has the ability of changing you. And here you have Jehoshaphat

now who is compromising yet again.

This is his third time out of three kings that he chooses to

work with when he shouldn't have.

And you'll notice a change in Jehoshaphat very early on in

this chapter saying, what do you mean?

Look at verse 8 again. So after he told Jehoram, my

horses are as your horses, my people are as your people.

It says here in the ESV. Then he said, By which way shall

we March? Jarem answered by the way of the

wilderness of Edom. Compare that to how he responded

to Ahab. Remember with Ahab he said, My

people as your people, my horses, your horses.

But what does he say right after that?

Go to 1st Kings 22. Look at verse 4 again, and look

at verse 5. And he said to Jehoshaphat, Will

you go with me to battle at Ramoth Gilead?

And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my

people, as your people, my horses as your horses.

And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, inquire first for the

word of the Lord. Did he say that, that he asked

for that with Joram? No.

What do you say? All right, what's the plan?

How do we get this thing going? I'm ready.

Let's go. He does not inquire of the Lord.

There's no impulse to pray. There's no mindfulness of God.

Instead, there is this hurriedness to move along with

the project. Do you know what this means?

It means that the longer we compromise, the more you are

likely to change. I see it all the time.

Things that used to prick your conscience no longer bother you.

Words and profanities that you would never have used are

starting to become part of your vocabulary.

Emotions that you were able to have control over by the power

of the Holy Spirit now overtake you with ease.

Matters that you would once pray about, you no longer seek the

Lord for. And the dreadful possibilities

go on and on and on when you and I repeatedly revisit the same

compromise. But you know you can praise God

for something. In light of that saying, what do

you mean? If you truly belong to the Lord,

He will not allow you to remain in such a condition without His

intervention. And that's exactly what's going

to happen here. We're about to read something

that we've seen in so many Bible studies in the past.

Look at verse nine. So the king of Israel went with

the king of Judah and the king of Edom.

And when they had made a circulus March of seven days,

there was no water for the army or for the animals that followed

them. We always pay a price when we

fail to put God first. Always the price might look

different every time, but there is always a cost.

They failed to acknowledge the Lord.

And even though earlier Jehoshaphat shouldn't have

worked with Ahab, he at least had a spiritual sensitivity to

say, can we first seek a word from a prophet?

He doesn't do that here. And guess what?

They're going to pay for it. They wander in the wilderness

for days and they put themselves on a very dangerous predicament.

They, they have no water left. And I look at this and I think

to myself, if it was God's will for them to go to battle with

Moab to begin with, surely if they sought the Lord, he would

have given them instructions to maximize their efficiency and

minimize their distress. You know this very well.

You probably have this verse somewhere on a coffee cup in

your house. Proverbs 3/6 In all your ways do

what? Acknowledge Him and what's the

promise he will make straight your path.

In some of your ways. In all of your ways all means

all. It's not cryptic.

All means all. In all your ways acknowledge Him

and the promises He'll make straight your path.

I hope you develop that habit. I hope you developed the habit

of inviting the Lord and all your affairs, that when you want

to move somewhere, you invite the Lord.

When you want to purchase something, you ask the Lord.

I'm not talking about being overly spiritual and crippling

where you become legalistic. That's not what I'm saying.

But with a joyful heart, when you are aware that you can make

a blunder here, that you would call the Lord to deposit His

wisdom and His leading, He's faithful to do that in all your

ways. Acknowledge him and he will make

straight your path. But what does that mean?

That seems so general. He'll make straight your path,

but you have to look at the context.

There are blessings around that in the same chapter of Proverbs

that give us an indication of what we inherit.

When you make it a discipline to say, Lord, I'm, I'm putting you

before me now, I'm putting you before me in these plans, I'm

putting you before me in these desires, I'm putting you before

me. Is this what you want here?

Here it is. Look at Proverbs 3-4.

Proverbs 3/6 was acknowledge Him in all your ways.

Proverbs 3-4 Listen to this. So you will find favor and good

success in the sight of God and man.

You will find favor and good success in the sight of God and

man. Look at Proverbs 32 for length

of days and years of life and peace.

They will add to you. What is he talking about here?

He's talking about the commands of the Lord.

This is what the Father is saying to his son.

And one of those commands are what?

Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways.

That's the context. So look at these blessings that

are attached to an individual who makes it a practice to say,

Lord, I'm acknowledging you. I'm inviting you into this

length of days and years of life.

That's wonderful, but it's actually a curse if you don't

have peace with it, right? Peace.

We're talking about peace. We're talking about favor, we're

talking about good success and it's exclusive to those who make

it their heart desire to say, Lord, I want your will.

Please, I put this before you may become our reflex as we

advance in this life. Now, it doesn't mean that if you

pray about certain things that it guarantees a trial free

journey. Actually, if you ask the Lord

for His will, sometimes you'll be LED into greater turmoil, but

at least you will have this peace and knowing that whatever

problems might arise, they carry purpose because you have done

your part to commit that cause to the Lord.

So what praying and inviting the Lord does.

It doesn't eliminate challenges or trials, but it does give you

the rest of knowing that whatever might come your way,

you are shielded by this tranquility.

Because before anything even began, you said this is yours.

So you don't have to second guess or wonder what this is all

about. You can look back and realize

I've prayed about it. I've been praying about it.

So whatever this is, is in accordance with God's plan.

I am at rest. Does that make sense?

I hope it does. And one might say, well,

couldn't have the Lord just provided for them anyway?

Couldn't he have made water come into the wilderness even though

they hadn't prayed me? Could have, but God is not

interested in dishing out His mercies from a distance.

One of His primary designs in distress is that you would be

drawn to Him, that you would allow calamities of any size to

'cause you, even if you need to crawl to Him, especially if

you've wandered away. Joshua fat wandered away.

And so there is no doubt in my mind that this is the Lord

bringing them to a point of such despair that they would actually

now inquire of the Lord and they're going to do that in a

moment. But the king of Israel, Jeho Ram

doesn't interpret this in the same way you and I do.

Notice what he says in verse 10. Then the king of Israel said,

alas, the Lord has called these 3 kings to give them to the hand

of Moab. Can I translate that for you?

This is God's fault. That's what he's saying.

So he's, he's acknowledging Providence here, right?

What does he say? That the Lord has brought these

3 kings together. He's acknowledging Providence,

but in an accusatory way. He's blaming God for their

troubles here. Can we blame God for any of this

mess? No, not one thing.

There's no indication that it was the Lord's will for Jairam

to go to war with Moab. Joshaphat and him collaborating

together was wrong in itself, and there is no partnership in

seeking the will of the Lord moving forward.

So God wasn't included in any of this and gets guess who gets all

the blame? God.

And before you think that this is a unique attitude attributed

to Jairam, the Bible tells us that many people have the habit

of doing this. You want another proverb?

Here's a good one. Proverbs 19, verse three.

It says there that when a fool brings his way to ruin, his

heart rages against the Lord. Have you ever read that proverb?

I remember the first time I saw it, I laughed because I've seen

it all my life. So people don't honor God's word

when it comes to who to find in a spouse.

They go ahead and they just work with their passion and they make

decisions based on their emotions and then they realize

what a disaster it is. And then guess who they blame?

God. There are people who in any

sphere of life, they trust in their wisdom, They have enough

Christian background to include God in their thinking to some

degree, but they don't, they're not.

They don't acknowledge the Lord in all their ways, just some

other ways. Just like Joram.

I'd like this one. I'll get rid of that one.

I'll acknowledge God here, but not here.

And then problems ensue and get guess who gets the blame?

God, so the king of Israel, represents what's what a fool

does when their sin causes them trouble.

On the other hand, Jehoshaphat is about to demonstrate to us

what we must do if we have gone astray.

What happens here? Look at verse 11.

And Jehoshaphat said, is there no prophet of the Lord here

through whom we may inquire of the Lord?

Then one of the kings, rather the one, one of the king of

Israel's servants, answered Elijah, the son of Shaphatis

here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.

Josh, about his history with God.

He understands what God has done in the past.

And so he pauses in this moment as people are frantic and the

king of Israel is raising his first to the heavens, and he

says, is there any prophet that we can inquire of?

Is there anybody who is in tune with God that can give us some

direction here? You know what I thought when I

meditated on this today? I thought to myself, why didn't

you do this before? Why are you doing this now?

In many instances we wouldn't need to pray as much in

difficult times if we knew how to pray when things were going

well. At the same time, if you and I

have failed to seek God in the past, then we must make it our

priority to seek Him while He may be found and trust that He

will welcome us. I believe the reason why

Jehoshaphat is able to do this is because he's done it before.

I wasn't planning to do this, but let's go there anyway.

Remember when he was with Ahab? He inquires a word from the

Lord. The prophet Makai comes and

tells him exactly what God's will is, and Jehoshaphat doesn't

listen. Anyway, he goes into battle with

Ahab against Syria, and what happens?

They think that Jehoshaphat is the king of Israel and they're

ready to kill him. And does anybody remember what

this man does for his life to be spared?

Very good, very good. He cries out to the Lord.

Let me read this to you. This is in Second Chronicles 18

2 Chronicles 18:31

verse 31, Second Chronicles 1831.

As soon as the captains of the chariot saw Jehoshaphat, they

said it is the king of Israel. So they turned to fight against

them, and Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him.

God drew them away from him. Jehoshaphat knew despite his

frustrating thinking and his relapse, he understood.

It's never too late to cry out to God.

Please believe that. Please believe that no matter

where you are, no matter how far you've gone, no matter what

you've repeated, it is never too late to seek the Lord.

And so he initiates this. He says, let's look for a

prophet. Does anybody know of a prophet?

And here's what's so amazing. They get an answer, but the

answer doesn't come from the king of Israel.

The answer doesn't come from the king of Edom.

Now remember, there's 3 kings here, right?

So at some point they recruited the king of Edom.

And it doesn't come from Jehoshaphat himself.

Who's the one who found an answer.

If you don't know, you're right. He is unknown.

All we know about him. Look back at verse 11.

Then one of the king of Israel's servants answered, unknown,

unnamed, a servant. It was this servant who was

aware of the whereabouts of Elijah, while the kings were

completely oblivious to it. Is this detail random?

You've been at this Bible study long enough to know that this

detail is not random. It provides a wonderful

contrast. Here's what I thought.

I read this last night before I closed my Bible and resumed this

morning. Better to be a servant who has

knowledge of God than to be a king who is oblivious to the

things of God. Better to be a servant and in

tune with the things of God than a king who is absent minded of

them. The thing about it who who is

more powerful and efficient and what matters most here?

It's not the commander of the armies, it's this poor fellow

who has a right understanding of God, the things of God, the

people of God. And I remember that we studied

this with another servant. You remember when Saul, before

he became king, was looking for his, his father's donkeys.

Remember that? And they were lost and they

could have fined it. And so at one point they arrived

at a certain place. And it was his servant who said

to him, Samuel the prophet, he's here, let's go inquire of him.

And we we learned there that a servant was more sensitive, more

in tune with the things of God then Saul, who would be the

first king of Israel. Position doesn't matter, status

doesn't matter. What matters the most is what

matters the most. Knowing God, knowing the truth,

possessing that information that sets people free.

Remember what Jeremiah said. Let not the man who is mighty

boasts in his might. Let not the man who has riches

boasts in his riches, the not the man who is wise boasts in

his wisdom, but let him who boasts, boasts in this, that he

understands and knows. Me.

I don't covet anything in this life.

If there's one thing that my heart has a holy jealousy for is

a person who has the word of God, richly abiding and dwelling

in them, who has a close and intimate walk with God.

This servant shows something very special, and we can even

apply it to Elijah himself. Do you remember what we said of

Elijah before he died? Go to 2nd Kings 13.

You'll see it with me. Second Kings 13.

Look at verse 14. Now, when Elijah had fallen sick

with the illness of which he was to die, Joash, king of Israel,

went down to him and wept before him, crying, My father, my

father, the Chariots of Israel and its horsemen.

What is he saying there? In a symbolic way?

He's saying you're really the strength, the power of this

nation. It's not the armies, it's not

the commanders, it's not the generals.

You are what has been the protective force for this

people. And he was mourning because he

saw Elijah now leaving, being taken away from the scene.

You know what that reminds me of?

People should be able to say the same about the Church of Jesus

Christ. People should be able to say

that about the church when she is walking strong and holy in

accordance to God's will, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Communities should feel it, families should feel it.

It should be recognizable. Even these kings recognize

something about these men of God.

When they were there, there was wonderful things, blessings that

would flow. When they were not there, it was

a mournful thing. So Elijah here as a man of God

is of greater importance than these armies who are stranded in

the wilderness and are about to die because they don't have

water. And so we come back to our text

and we realize that as much as he was indeed the Chariots of

Israel and its horsemen, he's referred to differently in verse

11. You know, verse 11 of Second

2 Kings 3 · chapter mention

Kings chapter 3 can be a Bible studying itself.

Just verse 11. There's so much to say in this

one verse. Then one of the king of Israel's

servants answered Elijah, the son of Shaphat this year, who

poured water on the hands of Elijah.

Why is he saying that? Well, Elijah not too long ago

graduated into heaven. Elijah just took his place.

And so the servant wants to provide credentials to these

kings of the newly installed prophet.

So he says, look, Elijah was a close associate to Elijah.

He assisted him. He walked with him.

He indeed succeeded him. But this means more to us than

just that. It says something about the

beginnings of Elijah, does it not?

It says something about his humility, says something about

his servant heart. What did he do?

What was he known for? Pouring water on the hands of

his tutor. Doesn't sound very glamorous,

does it? But here's the image that came

to mind because we studied Second Kings chapter 2 last

2 Kings 2 · chapter mention

week, did we not? And one of the miracles that

Elisha performed is that he took salt in a clean bowl and he

poured it in the waters of Jericho.

But before he poured salt in the waters of Jericho, Elisha poured

water on the hands of Elijah. Before God can promote anybody,

he first must find humility. He first must find somebody who

is dedicated, committed to the most menial tasks.

Elijah went from washing the hands of a man to healing the

waters of a city. I'm moved by this man.

Verse 12. Here's where we're ending

tonight. And 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.

So once they were granted information about the

whereabouts of Elijah, and that's, that's, that's an

extension of God's grace in itself, right?

We don't know exactly how it is that Elijah was in the same area

as these armies. Makes you wonder if the Lord

instructed Elijah to go there and to wait for this moment.

Makes you wonder if Elijah was following them.

That's concealed to us. But what's important is that

once they learned where Elijah was, they made their way to him.

And these 3 kings give us a model of how, no matter what

your foolishness has LED you to, of what you should do in order

to receive the greatest help you can receive, and that is help

from God. They do two things.

The first thing that they do is that they humble themselves.

These are kings. What would be the temptation of

any king if they want somebody to be in their presence?

Servants go find Elijah and bring him here.

Is that what they do? No, they said, let's go find

Elijah. That's a humbling thing for

kings to do. If you're a king, you summon

people. You don't go out of your way and

spend your energy and time to look for them.

So if you are in a place where you're not supposed to be, you

have to humble yourself. I've sat, I've sat enough with

people who are in very dire circumstances because of their

own sins. And when they're presented the

prescription according to the word of God, of what they need

to do to get out of that pit, some people refuse to humble

themselves. You will never know an inch of

victory if you're not willing to do exactly what the Lord calls

you to do. I love that miracle in John too.

Jesus performs a miracle at a wedding.

Jesus was invited to weddings and when they ran out of wine,

Mary approaches. Jesus brings the predicament to

his attention, and when Mary walks away, she says whatever He

tells you to do, do it. And it's no different for you

and I that when sin or any circumstances causes us to be

dried up in one way or another, we must be willing to do what

the Lord tells us to do. So if you have to, if you have

to seek people for forgiveness, you do that.

If you have to gain more accountability, you need to,

whatever it is that He presents to you, you have to humble

yourself. It starts there and very close

to it, as I already mentioned, is that they, they didn't just

go anywhere. They went where what the

Jehoshaphat say, the word of the Lord is with him.

There are many prophets in the land, false prophets, but this

is what qualified Elisha. God's word was with Elisha.

You want real help out of the rut of rebellion I have The

sickness of sin, the fractures that come from folly.

Go where God's word is. And in this case, it was a

prophetic word of Elijah. But in our context, it's the

written word of God that we all have access to.

This encouraged me. You know why?

Because Elijah had a reputation. Yeah.

He washed the hands of Elijah, and he would gain a reputation

of performing wonderful miracles.

But this one moves me incredibly.

People knew him, at least Jehoshaphat did at this time, as

the one whose God's word was with.

And this is my prayer for this church, that if this church

would be recognized for anything, it'd be for people to

say the word of the Lord is there.

If this church will be made-up of anybody, it would be made-up

of people who live in such a way.

Their reverence for the Word, there's their subjection to the

Word, their adoration of the Word would cause others to see

the blessings that come from such a relationship with the

Word of God, that they would say there's something.

These are real people of the book.

Elisha was that man. They recognize them and they

would go to him. So the king of Israel and

Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

I believe this is a good place to pause before we finish this

chapter. Much has been said, much

deserves meditation. So let's stop here and thank God

for it. Well, we ask you tonight that

you would help these truths become real to us.

Please, Lord, bring them to remembrance.

Lord, if we are in a place where we feel as though we're doing

nothing of significance, we're just washing, we're just

supervising, we're just taking care of simple things.

Lord, help us believe that you are pleased by that.

And when it's done well, it moves others as well.

Lord, help us learn from Jehoshaphat to never allow

compromise in our lives to go unchallenged, but to realize

that one of the greatest, greatest ramifications of it is

that it can begin to change us, blunt our spirituality, dull our

conscience. Lord, sin is vicious with us.

May we be vicious with sin. And Lord, we thank you for the

threads of mercy and grace in this chapter.

That even when these men walk their own way, ignored you,

despised you, when they called upon you, you answered.

Help us never abuse that. But we pray Lord that we would

learn ahead and we would know how to acknowledge you in all

our ways and not only acknowledging you when our ways

mess up. So Lord, tonight we just pause

and we afresh dedicate every aspect of our lives like the

burnt offering that was cut into pieces, every part must be put

on. We pray for every part of our

lives to be consecrated to your will.

From our finances Lord, to our relationships, to our desires,

to our ministries, our plans, to our abode.

We just lay it all at your feet and we say, please, Lord, have

your way. Take it where you want it to go.

And we trust Lord, that you will make straight our paths.

So Lord, we rejoice in you that in your love you warn us.

You give us clear, stark examples to keep us from making

the same foolish mistakes. And for this we give you thanks.

In Jesus name we pray, Amen, Amen.

Let's stand, let's sing to him, honor him, praise and worship

him, love him, for His word was rich tonight.