Conquest, Wrath & Regard

Good morning, Redeemer. I'm Jason, one of the pastors here. If I haven't met you, and I hope that I can meet you soon, maybe today, and we are in a series in the book of Kings.

So if you want to turn to your Old Testament, or we actually have some scripture journals in the back, or maybe you've got one in your hands right now, those work really well, too.

They give you space to take notes. And by the way, if you're new here, we would love for you to take one of those scripture journals, and then come back and walk with us through this book of 1st, I'm sorry, 2nd Kings.

Already did 1st Kings a couple years ago. And again, if you're new here, that's kind of what we do here, is that we believe in this approach called expository preaching, where we go verse by verse, chapter by chapter, through the Word of God.

And in that way, we're able to see the whole picture, the whole story of what God is doing. So let me ask you to look at chapter 3 today, 2nd Kings, chapter 3.

Once again, we're going to read a lot. We're going to take the whole chapter, all 27 verses, and I think you'll see why by the time we finish this reading.

So follow along with me as I read for us. 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 the Lord, 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, 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 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 is 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, the Lord has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab. And Jehoshaphat answered, Is there no prophet of the Lord here through whom we may inquire of the Lord?

Then one of the kings 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 the Lord 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 to the prophets of your mother. But the king of Israel said to him, No, it is the Lord who has called us three kings to give us into the hand of Moab.

And Elisha said, As the Lord of hosts 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 the Lord came upon him. And he said, Thus says the Lord, I will make this dry stream bed full of pools.

For this says the Lord, You shall not see wind or rain, but that stream bed 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 the Lord. He will also give the Moabites into your hand. And you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city.

And you shall fell every good tree and stop up all the springs of water and ruin every good piece of land with stones. The next morning, about the time of offering of the sacrifice, behold, water came from the direction of Edom till the country was filled with water.

When 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 drawn up at the border.

And when they rose early in the morning and the sun shone on the water, the Moabites said, 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. Let's pray. Father, this morning we come from different experiences this week. Lord, trials, joys, expectations, disappointments.

And we, Lord, want to clear that out of our hearts and minds so that we can hear from your word, Lord. I pray that you would give us a focus this morning and let my words be clear and helpful.

And we pray this in your name. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, as expected, Elisha's new role is taking him places. Look at where he pops up today.

We're going to see next week that he's going to be involved in some very local, very, very personal situations. But not today. Today, these are some very national, even international affairs.

As he shows up right in the heart of this military campaign that appears to go, well, it goes well at first. And by the end, it goes very, very wrong.

It starts out in the first few verses where we get kind of this summary evaluation of our new king. And we know that the Bible often does this for these kings.

We're told that this is the other son of Ahab. So what that means is that Ahaziah is the big brother, the man that in chapter 1 had a fall and died.

And now we've got younger brother Jehoram on the throne. And what is the verdict of Jehoram? Well, our narrator doesn't waste any time. Tells us right away that he's not the worst of the worst.

But he's not good. And what is the verdict? Well, Jehoram, the son of Ahab and Jezebel, don't forget that mother, he may have put away the pillar of Baal, verse 2, from the temple that his father made.

But we're told in verse 3 that he still clings to the sins of Jeroboam, which Israel made Israel to sin. We're told that he did not depart from it as he should have.

And that is quite an indictment. Because when you have not one but two kinds of idolatry pervading your kingdom, and yeah, you back off the one, but you're still hip deep in the other.

No, Jehoram may not be a Baal worshiper himself. He may be toned down Baal worship a bit by removing Baal's pillar. But he's still following in these sins of Jeroboam by worshiping golden calves.

And if you're new with us, or maybe if you just need a refresher, I could take you back to 1 Kings chapter 12, where it all started. Back then, we had the kingdom.

1 Kings 12 · chapter mention

After Solomon had split. And one of the two parts in the north went to a man named Jeroboam. Only Jeroboam got nervous that he would lose control of his half of the kingdom.

He was worried that the people would travel down south to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. And so what he did is he ordered the construction of not just one, but two rival worship sites.

One at Dan. One at Bethel. And he installed at those worship sites what they call companion animals that supposedly Yahweh would ride on. And they were these golden calves.

The problem is, and this is one of the reasons, one of these Ten Commandments tells us not to have any graven images, is that we make these things and we tend to focus on them.

And before we know it, we're worshiping them. And that's exactly what happened in the northern kingdom of Israel. There's a word, there's a term for this.

It's syncretism. Syncretism is mixing or blending the pure worship of the Lord with pagan elements. Like golden calves. I don't know what it would be like today.

Maybe using a magical spell to pray to Jesus. We don't do that. Those two don't mix. So Jehoram here, although he's not a Baal worshiper, he is still very much walking in the sins of Jeroboam as an idol worshiper.

And besides, there's also the fact that on up ahead in this book, although he right here appears to put away the Baal pillar, it's like, I don't know, maybe in one of your homes where your kids live with you, and you put away those toys.

And what happens later? You walk into the same room and everything's out again. Something like that happens later in 2 Kings chapter 10. Because we have this reformer who's coming, a man named Jehu, and Jehu is going to cleanse the temple, and he goes into the temple at Samaria, and guess what he finds there?

2 Kings 10 · chapter mention

The pillar of Baal is back. And scholars think maybe his mother Jezebel had something to do with that. In any case, all of what I've just told you is just a setup for the real story today.

And the real story starts off here as the king of Moab, a man named Mesha, one time loyal subject and vassal under Israel, since the days of David.

Mesha has now decided to take advantage of old king Ahab's death and rebel, be free. Time to throw off this yoke of oppression under Israel.

And it has been a pretty oppressive yoke in terms of sheer economics. Look at the arrangement. It's been that they have to pay tribute to Israel of 100,000 lambs and 100,000 pieces of wool from the rams.

I don't know about you, but that's a lot of lambs and a lot of wool. And scholars tell us that it is. It's very heavy tribute. And it would have been very taxing on Moab.

Well, verse 6. Jehoram, as every young man feels the need to do, once he learns of this rebellion, he's not about to sit back and consult with any wise advisors.

He knows what he needs to do. Immediately, let's muster the army, which he does, the whole northern army. But apparently invading Moab will be no small campaign and certainly no small journey.

And so what he does is he sends a text over to his co-regent in the south. Not really. Because they didn't have text messaging. But he does send word to King Jehoshaphat of Judah.

Verse 7. Hey, king, the king of Moab has rebelled against me. Basically, he says, would you care to join me? And the response of Jehoshaphat is like, you know I will.

Verse 7. He even repeats the very same thing that he had said earlier to Jehoram's father Ahab, if you remember back at the end of 1 Kings chapter 22.

1 Kings 22 · chapter mention

I am as you are. My people are as your people. My horses are your horses. It's verbatim what he said to Ahab, which is kind of eerie. Because things, if you remember, didn't go so well.

Just one question. And the question is one of tactics and approach. Now from the map, I think I have one here, you will see that Moab lies south and east of Israel.

And that will mean that they are either going to approach from the north, which is actually easier in terms of distance, terrain, but it's actually harder when you realize that Moab's strength is in the north.

They've mustered most of their fortified defenses in the north. The other option is to approach from the south, which is, as you can see, a much longer march through much harsher terrain.

But that southern approach has the advantage of surprise. Jehoram informs Jehoshaphat, we're going to take the southern route. We're going to go all the way around the Dead Sea, right through the land of Edom, where I'm planning to pick up the required services of another vassal king, the king of Edom.

He's going to join us. So we're going to bring three of us kings with all three of our armies. And by the time they show up to face a fourth army, yes, you could call it the Battle of the Four Armies.

Not five, but four. And if you don't know the Lord of the Rings, that's fine.

Just one problem, and we see it right away. After what is described as a circuitous march, what does that mean? It means they go around. That could either mean circuitous, as in they went around the Dead Sea that's in the way, or, more likely, it means they got a little lost.

And they were wandering a bit around a wilderness, which is interesting. Only problem is, after seven days, all the water is gone. Run dry. And that's a pretty big deal, there being no water for the people, the men, and no water for the animals, the pack animals either.

That's a big problem in the desert, because that usually means dehydration, which usually means death. Look at Jehoram in verse 10. Jehoram.

Desperate. Confused. But he says this. Alas! The Lord. That's Yahweh. The Lord has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.

Now, if you're wondering if he ever bothered to inquire of the Lord back up in Samaria, it appears doubtful. Oh, maybe there were a few court prophets that told him what they always told his father, which is, yes, go, be victorious.

But, he didn't consult any real prophet. Not a legitimate prophet. And notice how. Isn't it funny how? When you're out there doing what you want to do, and you run into problems, like Jehoram clearly has, facing a very desperate situation,

you point to the true God, and you blame him.

It's not Baal that he blames. He doesn't blame one of his golden calves he's been worshiping back home. Somehow, this is all the fault of the true God.

I guess he's sovereign after all. And Jehoram is certainly not the only person you and I have ever met or heard from that gets into a difficult jam in their life, and is really pretty godless as far as how they live, but they get into that jam, and who do they blame?

God. In any case, Jehoshaphat. We're told elsewhere, he is a man of some faithfulness to the Lord. He's a much better king. And so he immediately asks, in verse 11, is there no prophet of the Lord around of whom we can inquire, whom we can consult?

What? A servant of Jehoram overhears. He immediately answers, actually, yes, there is. Somebody said they spotted Elisha nearby. And Elisha, he's the one that poured waters on the hands of Elijah.

What he means is that he was like his main servant. And immediately, Jehoshaphat, once hearing that, he says, the word of the Lord is with him.

And just like that, our kings are off to meet up with Elisha. A-S-A-P. And you've got to love Elisha's bold response once these kings approach him for help in verse 13.

He takes one look at Jehoram, the king who started this whole fiasco, and he's like, what do I have to do with you? Why don't you go to your own prophets, the prophets of your father and mother?

Well, whether it's humility, talking, or shame, or just plain desperation, our king of Israel admits, I can't do that. Because I know this is actually the Lord's hand.

That the Lord has put us three kings out here to give us into the hand of Moab. It's funny, Jehoram is right away sensing judgment. It's like he's got a guilty conscience or something.

Verse 14, I imagine Elisha now looking square at Jehoram and he says it this way, you know, if it were up to me, I'd let you die. But, the fact that you've dragged this guy next to you, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, out here with you, he's the only reason

I'm even looking at you right now. he's in a bad mood, so in verse 15 he asks for some music. It's kind of funny. A musician is called, probably a harp or a lyre, plays in verse 15, and then we're told that the hand of the Lord came upon him and he receives

this prophetic word. Verse 15, thus says the Lord, I will make this dry stream bed full of pools. You won't see any wind or rain, no thunder or lightning, but that stream bed, that dry stream bed shall be filled and everyone

and everything is going to be able to drink to their heart's content. Verse 18, I want you to know that this is a light thing. In other words, an easy thing for the Lord to do because he will also give the Moabites into your hand.

Verse 19, and you're going to attack every fortified city and you shall fell every good tree and stop up all the springs of water and ruin every good piece of land with stones.

That sounds like devastation of the land and it is. Laying it to waste and you should know that there is a debate among scholars on this point about whether this is actually a command from the Lord to do this or just a prediction of what they're going to do.

And I personally favor the latter. I think it's a prediction and the reason I think that is because the Lord doesn't contradict Himself. And earlier in His law in the book of Deuteronomy He actually laid down some rules of war.

I want you to hear this in Deuteronomy chapter 20 verses 19 and 20. This is what the Lord says. When you, my people, lay siege to a city for a long time fighting against it to capture it.

Deuteronomy 20:19

Do not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are trees people that you should besiege them?

However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls. Are the trees people, the Lord asks?

In other words, it's like He's saying I created the trees and I like trees. And cutting down fruit trees is just dumb. You can eat from them.

They're for you. So if you're at war and you need to build siege materials, that's fine. Just cut down non-fruit bearing trees. That's what He said back then in the law.

Well, come the next morning, verse 20, the miracle happens. It all unfolds exactly as predicted. Water flows down from the direction of Edom, the hill country, and the whole valley is filled with pools of water.

Just as the Lord said. Meanwhile, verse 21, the Moabites are aware that they're coming. They have been mustering, arming themselves up for battle, we're told, calling out everybody young and old, and they have drawn themselves up at the border.

They're ready for Israel come sunrise. And they too get up the next morning, and they too take a look out, and they too see what's below. It is a valley filled with pools of water, and they look red.

That's strange. But actually, not in this part of the world. Experts of this region tell us that there is a lot of red sandstone. I tried to put a few pictures up.

Red sandstone in these dry wadis, and when water comes, if the sun apparently is rising and at the right angle, pools of water can look very red, can look like pools of blood.

And that's exactly what our Moabites think. Verse 23, they make the mistake of thinking that there have been some civil war, some internal conflicts that they've broken out, and that all the pools of blood here are from that.

Moabites, and before anybody can say, where are all the bodies, they rush in. Moab, to the spoil. But, verse 24, once in the camp of Israel, the tables are immediately turned.

And the Israelite coalition, we're told, rose up and struck the Moabites till they fled before them. Hot on their tail, the campaign presses and extends over the whole region of Moab.

As these three kings go on to do exactly what the prediction said. Striking every city, throwing stones on every good piece of land, stopping up every spring of water, and felling all the good trees.

Finally, they're down to just one city left. And it's the big one. Kir Haraseth. The city is surrounded. They've got the slingers around it, attacking.

Inside, the king of Moab sees how bad it's going, how desperate things are. And in verse 26, he decides to make one last push with his special forces of these 700 swordsmen.

Try to break through. He targets the king of Edom because presumably he's the weakest link in this coalition. But he can't even succeed in that.

Moab. It's to no avail. He fails. Things are looking amazing for Israel. And very, very dire for Moab. But just about the time everybody's ready for the white flag of surrender, instead,

our coalition force looks up and sees something else on the city walls. Verse 27, Then the king of Moab took his oldest son who was to reign in his place and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall.

What? Human sacrifice? His own kid? Yes. The king is burning his own son as an offering to his God. This would be the god Chamash. I should say the false god.

Chamash. The Moabite national deity. A deity known to be appeased by regular child sacrifice. And interesting because archaeologists have recently, within the last 50, 60 years, uncovered King Mesh's stone, his pillar, where he writes

about his accomplishments. And on that stone we read of how he himself says, and you can't always believe people and what they write about themselves, right?

Sometimes they exaggerate. But in this case he actually gets it right. It accords with biblical history. We read that his people had been under Chamash's wrath.

That's how he saw it because they were subjugated to Israel for 80 years. We must be under our God's wrath to have this happen. But then Mesh's went on to write that at the middle point of his reign Chamash's wrath had suddenly been lifted.

And they had triumphed over Israel in a very critical victory.

Well as the chapter wraps up with this last note, all that our narrator tells us in the very last verse is that great wrath came against Israel.

And that Israel withdrew from him and returned to their own land. what is happening?

If only our story had ended at verse 26, right? All would be well. All would be fine. This would be a comforting, reassuring story that although God's people can be a little wayward, a little idolatrous,

a little foolish at times that God still got their back. And he gives them total victory. But verse 27 shows us anything but total victory. It shows them giving up.

It actually records that great wrath came against Israel and that they tucked their tail and turned and ran back home. This last verse ruins everything.

It ruins what would be an otherwise heartening story because after all the drama, all the miraculous provision of water in the desert, all the predictions of victory, it turns out by the end it's a losing campaign after all.

Moab holds out and Israel loses them as a vassal along with all that tribute. And this doomed campaign was really all for nothing. In fact, if we didn't know any better, we might say it looks like

judgment happening here. Because we have to ask ourselves here at the end of verse 27, whose wrath, whose wrath is it that comes? There are a lot of theories.

some want to say the wrath of Chamash, the false god. Child sacrifice motivated Chamash to take action on their behalf, but that doesn't work with the biblical world view.

There is no other god that can compete with the true god. This is not Chamash's wrath. Well, maybe it's the Moabites. Maybe it's their wrath.

Maybe that horrific sight of watching their crown prince burn on the wall. Maybe it fired them up, right? No pun intended. Maybe it fired them up the fight so hard and made Israel feel their wrath.

But that seems pretty unlikely. They already tried with that last push in verse 26. No, they seem cornered, contained, beaten, defeated, desperate, not to mention vastly outnumbered.

I guess there's only one option left. And as a matter of fact, every other time we see this Hebrew expression of these two words, great wrath, you know what?

It always refers to God, to divine wrath. But if it is God's wrath, and I tend to think it is, then why is it directed at Israel? Israel? Why give Israel what appears to be victory according to Elisha's

prophecy, and then all of a sudden, when total victory seems sure, the battle is in hand, they can literally taste the victory, it's snatched from them, so that the whole thing looks more like a parody of a holy war,

and not an actual holy war. Let me offer you some insights from a couple of other scriptures that might shed some light for us. In fact, they may actually take these events that you've just looked at, and I've just looked at, and color them a little differently.

Take, for instance, what the Lord once told Moses early on in the book of Deuteronomy. This is before the conquest of the promised land. It even started.

Deuteronomy chapter 2, verse 9. Then the Lord said to me, Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any part of their land.

Deuteronomy 2:9

I have given R to the descendants of Lot as a possession. Understand that Israel, at least initially, they weren't supposed to fight the Moabites because Moab was not in the allotted territory of the promised land.

And that's because their forefather of the Moabite nation, Moab, was a child of Lot. Lot from Genesis, nephew of Abraham, Abraham being Israel's forefather.

Now granted, if you know the Bible, know the Old Testament a little bit, you know that Israel's relationship with Moab had been quite complicated.

From moderately hostile, you might call it, back in the book of Numbers, when Israel camped near them during the wilderness wanderings, it was their king, the king of Moab named Balak, who summoned the prophet Balaam to come curse Israel.

Other times though, it was more openly hostile, such as during the period of the judges when you had the fat king Eglon, do you remember him?

King Eglon invading and oppressing Israel. Strangely enough, there were even a few points where relations between Moab and Israel seemed friendly.

Did you realize, did you know that when King David was on the run from Saul, Saul was trying to kill him, David was concerned about his parents, and he took his parents to Moab, gave them to the king, and said, would you watch him?

But the relations were mostly hostile, and like other pagan nations, Moab wasn't good, they worshipped a false god, they were a snare to Israel.

But still the question stands, should Moab have been in this empire? Should Moab have been under the oppressive thumb of Israel? And should Israel right now be waging this war to try to resubjugate them?

Should Israel even be here at the gates of Kir Haraseth? Especially, and I would note this, especially, if their losing control of this empire was actually a part of the divine punishment on Ahab's house.

How can you be at war with Moab here and really expect God's blessing when you may not have legitimacy to be here, and you never even bothered to consult the Lord first?

So there's the goal of this campaign that's in question, but let's also remember the manner in which they've waged it. This scorched earth policy that we looked at, felling all the trees contrary to the rules of war in Deuteronomy 20, stopping up all those springs,

scattering stones on what limited fertile soil Moab had. Was this really good? Sure, Elisha's prophecy predicted that these things would happen, but was it a command from the Lord that they do this?

It doesn't seem so. Besides, this wouldn't be the first time that a member of the house of Ahab heard a prophecy that led to a bad end for them.

If you remember, again, 1 Kings chapter 22, we have King Ahab riding off disguised into battle, meets a fateful arrow and dies. I believe all of these factors should lead you and I to the conclusion that this great wrath that comes

1 Kings 22 · chapter mention

against Israel in verse 27. It's not from Chamash. It's not the Moabites wrath. It is from the Lord. Which really makes for a stunning reversal here at the end of this story.

I think Peter Light our scholar and author is right and he describes this ending as get this worthy of an M. Night Shyamalan movie, right? A twist, something you didn't expect and a twist that changes how you look at everything that happened before.

Isn't that true of verse 27? Does it not change how we read all 26 verses before it?

Spoiler alert, just like Bruce Willis' character was dead all along, it's like Israel has been under judgment all along.

Let's take a moment and turn to ourselves because this is very unsettling. And I think we need to turn to our own hearts and lives and ask ourselves, what are we supposed to see?

Why is this here for us? And what are we supposed to learn? And is there any way that the gospel relates to anything?

This morning with a firm conviction in our minds that everything written in the past in the Old Testament is here for our instruction, I would like to offer you three things from this story.

Really what they are is reminders. Three reminders. The first is cautionary and then the other two are much more encouraging. So let's start with the cautionary reminder number one.

Point number one. Remember to seek the Lord in whatever you do before pushing forward. Remember to seek the Lord in whatever you do before pushing forward.

Seems simple enough, right? Maybe not so simple for our king here. It's so easy to read right past verse six so quickly, but take a look again at verse six.

So King Jehoram marched out.

Moab rebels, tribute stops. We don't have enough wool around here. Where's our wool? Where's our lambs? And right away, Jehoram pushes forward, musters his army to fight, and sends the text message over to Jehoshaphat.

But did he consult the Lord first? Clearly not. Did he ever consider that the Lord might not be with him? No, because the Lord isn't really on his mind.

Did Jehoram ever stop to consider that perhaps in losing control over this kingdom and specifically over this vassal state Moab, that perhaps he and his father's house were witnessing judgment from the Lord?

I don't think that's all. But he and his house were, in fact, under divine discipline. The Lord was not pleased with the state of this kingdom or its leadership.

No, it wasn't as bad as it could be. Less veil worship, I guess that's a start, but it is far from where it needs to be. Because Jehoram had clearly not broken from the idolatry of the calf worship.

So how does any of this apply to us? How does this point apply to you in your life? Let me offer you a verse from the book of Proverbs. Maybe you've heard this one before.

It's Proverbs chapter 16 verse 9. It says, The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Read that again. the heart of man, the heart of woman, plans their way,

Proverbs 16:9

but the Lord establishes their steps. I think that's what's happening here with this man and his heart. Jehoram is planning his way, but the Lord is going to be the one who establishes or does not establish anything.

And Jehoram and his campaign have miscalculated and stumbled big time. First, ending up in a waterless desert, wandering around, and finally, in front of the walls of Kir Haraseth.

Jehoram's example here, I want you to know, is a warning for us. You could say it's like an omen of what happens when our steps are not established by the Lord.

That brings us to another key verse in Proverbs. This one's in the same chapters. Proverbs 16 verse 25 tells us there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

Proverbs 16:25

What seemed right to our king here? March out! Punish a vassal gone rogue! Get back the tribute! It seemed right to King Jehoram to do all of these things, and so he marches right out, allies himself with two other kings, and we're going to take Moab

by surprise coming from the south.

That's what seemed right to this king, but where did its end lead? Alas, verse 10, the king says, Alas, the Lord has called these three things to give them into the hand of Moab, death.

And later it would be literal death with an oldest son burning in a pyre high up on a city wall, which becomes a trigger for great wrath to come upon you and you lose.

So what is the takeaway for us? I think the takeaway is to remember to seek the Lord in whatever we do before we push forward. Before you react to a situation or before you make a final decision about something

important, before you consider a new endeavor, maybe a new job, adding another activity to the family schedule with the kids, a new commitment in life, remember to seek the Lord first in these things because you want the Lord's

guidance. or maybe his correction or maybe just maybe it's not a good thing at all that you're planning to do and you want the Lord's hand to stop you before you march out and make a big mess.

And what does it look like to seek the Lord first? Sometimes it's just simply pausing, stopping what you're doing and allowing the Lord to show you something, slowing down a decision is often a good idea.

It should always involve praying, consistently seeking through prayer God's will in your circumstance, in your situation, praying, Lord, is this what you want?

Lord, is it what you want? Or show me if it's only what I want. Is what I'm planning to do something that you want me to do? praying like that.

Remember to seek the Lord first before pushing forward. That's our first point. Let's get to these other two because they're much more encouraging.

Number two, number two, remember that were it not for his regard for David's heir, the Lord would not look upon us.

Remember that were it not for his regard for David's heir, David's heir, the Lord would not look upon us. You say, David's heir, look at our three kings here in this story and specifically, look at the king in the middle,

Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. You know who he is? He's David's heir. He was David's great, great, great grandson. I think, if I get it right. And you know his name actually appears in the New Testament.

In Matthew chapter 1, there's a genealogy. Jehoshaphat's name is in there. He, like Jesus, is a son of David. He is David's heir. So, when our prophet Elisha stands there in front of these kings and dresses down

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

King Jehoram in verse 14, and he says, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor see you.

That's like saying, without this guy next to you, you would be invisible to me. I would have no regard for you. I would let you get what you justly deserve.

love. But Jehoram does have someone by his side, and it's an heir of David. And because of that, and only because of that, he does get regard.

And it's surely the mercy of the Lord that Jehoshaphat has agreed to come with him and identify with him on this otherwise doomed campaign. And you know, that's a beautiful reassuring truth for people like you and me.

Because when it comes to God himself, if we were left to ourselves, and we showed up in front of him, we would hear words a lot like what Jehoram hears from Elisha.

I have no regard. What do you have to do with me? You're a sinner.

But we have David's heir, don't we? His son Jesus, and if we didn't, he would not look upon ourselves and the doomed campaign of our lives. That's what my life is.

Otherwise, without Jesus, because of my sin, it's a doomed campaign. That's what your life is too. Without Jesus, it's a doomed campaign.

Were it not for his regard, the Lord's regard, for the righteousness and merit of Jesus, David's heir, God the Father would not look upon us.

He wouldn't be able to look upon us. But he does. But he has. And it's only because of his regard for David's heir, the one born in Bethlehem, who died and rose and ascended back to heaven, and now aligns himself

behind every one of his children. I should say beside every one of his children.

And so I would simply say to you, if you have that heir of David in heaven standing next to you, standing in for you, so when the Lord looks in your direction, that's who he sees with you, you should praise him for that and thank him for that.

And if you don't have that heir of David, Jesus, standing for you, earning the regard of your heavenly father, then I would simply ask you, why not?

Why wait? He's available. You only have to ask. That's a second thing for you to remember. And here's a third one, and we'll finish with this, number three.

Number three, remember that great wrath came, not against us, but against a son who was offered on our behalf. Great wrath came, not against us, but against a son who was offered on

our behalf.

The horror of what King Mesha of Moab has done back here on this city wall. The atrocity of sacrificing his own son to a false god, to a Moabite god who, by the way, was routinely worshipped through ongoing

child sacrifice. This was not a one-off.

It was the final act at the end of a doomed campaign that triggered something. What did it trigger? It triggered the release of great wrath against a disobedient people.

But I would suggest to you that you and I can look at this scene and see it as nothing less than an inverted twisted flash of something up ahead that would actually be good.

Because it reminds us of something far, far better that was to come hundreds of years after this point. Not up on a city wall, but out on a hill away from a city, right?

God. Because the true God gave His Son as a willing and perfect sacrifice for His people. And here's the thing, that sacrifice did not trigger the release of great wrath against us.

It didn't trigger the release of wrath. It actually signaled its absorption, its consummation, and satisfaction. This is what our God did up on that hill called Calvary.

He fulfilled a plan that saw His one and only Son, Jesus, willingly, lovingly, offer Himself on the world's behalf so that the great and holy and just wrath that was coming upon us, if we are in Him,

in Christ, it doesn't come upon us. because He has taken it upon Himself.

And because of Jesus, all of us who would otherwise be on our doomed campaigns in life, can instead come to a holy God and find love and acceptance and freedom and blessing.

Let's pray and thank the Lord for that as the team comes. Heavenly Father, teach us your ways. Sometimes, Lord, in your word, we see direct pictures of what's coming in the great gospel of your Son.

Other times, like today, it's a twisted inverted flash.

Sometimes, Lord, we look at a character in this Old Testament account and think, that's nothing like me. I would never be like that. And other times, we look at the king and say, well, you know, actually, I am a lot like that.

And so, Lord, we come to you as a people today and we humble ourselves. And, Lord, before we push forward in these things in life that come at us, we ask for your spirit to help us pause, to seek you first, to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness and trust you for everything else.

Jesus, this morning, all we can do is say thank you for being that sacrifice, Lord. No one took your life from you. It was given for us by you, yourself, freely and in love.

And we will forever be grateful, Lord.

Lord, I pray for a person here this morning that has not come and personally sought you for the benefits of what's available, that has not come in repentance and humility and said, Lord, cleanse me by the work of Jesus on the cross.

Take my sins, forgive me and fill me with your spirit and use me.

Jesus, we thank you for this church. We thank you for the people of God who have gathered here today, for those who are watching at home. And we pray that you would do good in us for your glory.

We pray this together in the name of your son, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Would you stand as we sing this last song? Amen.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace Turn your eyes to the hillside

Where justice and mercy embrace There the Son of God gave His life for us

And our measureless debt was erased Jesus, to You we lift our eyes

Jesus, our glory and our prize We adore You, behold You Our Savior ever true

Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to You Turn your eyes to the morning

And see Christ the lion awake What a glorious dawn Fear of death Is gone

For we carry His life in our praise Jesus, to You we lift our eyes

Jesus, our glory and our prize We adore You, behold You We adore You, behold You Our Savior ever true

Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to You Turn your eyes to the heavens Our King, our King, our King

Our King will return for His own Every knee will bow Every tongue will shout All glory to Jesus the Lord

Jesus, to You Jesus, to You Jesus, to You Jesus, to You Jesus, to You Jesus, to You Jesus, to You Jesus, to You Jesus, to You

Jesus, to You Jesus, to You Jesus, to You Jesus, to You Jesus, to You Jesus, to You Oh, Jesus, to you we lift our eyes.

Jesus, our glory and our prize. We adore you, we hold you. I say you're ever true. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

Amen. Thank you for worshiping with us. As you go, let me bless you. Seek the Lord while he may be found, for he will show mercy for the sake of his son.

You are dismissed. Go in God's grace and peace.