Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
There is only one verse in 2 Kings that mentions 'desert'...it's in chapter 3, verse 8. I'll be honest; I almost just called it a geographic reference (which it is) and moved on. But it is in an...interesting..story of God's intervention in a pretty unusual way, marking the entrance of Elisha as a national prophet, so I decided to have a closer look.
A little context...Ahab's son Joram had become king of Israel. Moab had been sending a tribute of sheep and wool to Israel; when Ahab died, the king of Moab decided he was done with that and rebelled. Joram sent out a call for the men of Israel to join him to subdue the rebellion. Picking up in verse 7 for context:
He also sent this message to Jeshoshaphat king of Judah: "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab?"
"I will go with you, " he replied. "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as you horses."
"By what route shall we attack?" he asked.
"Through the Desert of Edom," he answered.
There is some pronoun trouble in verse 8...I am guessing the quotes indicate a change in speaker, so it likely was young Joram who asked the experienced king Jehoshaphat what the best attack route might be. It may be that Jehoshaphat had an alliance w/ the King of Edom, because he joined with their cause as well (v. 9), so that may have been the reasoning behind attacking Moab that way; Edom is on the southern border of Moab.
Now, why the wool and the sheep were an issue worth going to war over I cannot begin to say. There was probably more at stake here than is recorded...a political situation that I don't recognize. But it was a big enough deal that three kings and their armies banded together to handle it.
To attack through the Desert of Edom, the armies of Israel and Judah had to march around the Dead Sea to join up with the Edomites in the Desert of Edom. The last half of verse 9 tells us that they made a 'roundabout march of seven days' and they ran out of water...nothing for their soldiers or their animals.
I think what they say at that point is rather typical of human nature. "What!" exclaimed the king of Israel, "Has the LORD called us three kings together only to hand us over to Moab?" (v. 9). See, there's no record WHATSOEVER that any of them inquired of the Lord how to proceed until that moment...but God has suddenly gotten the blame for their predicament. It appears to me that they all just assumed they were doing what God wanted them to do in this case. Unless Jehoshaphat actually did inquire of God before responding to Joram...but I don't think that would have been unrecorded. So they are now in a pickle...and Jehoshaphat suddenly wants to seek God. "Is there no prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of the LORD through him?" (v. 11).
Well, it just so happens that one of Joram's officers knew of someone who had apparently marched along with the men of Israel. "Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He used to pour water on the hands of Elijah." (still v. 11).
In other words, 'We have a guy here who was a servant to the last great prophet.' At that point, Elisha really hadn't done anything regarding the king. He had split the Jordan river to return to Jericho after Elijah's translation (2:14), miraculously cured Jericho's well (2: 21-22) then cursed a group of rowdy teens, who were making fun of his bald headedness, for their disrespect...and they all got attacked and mauled (not sure how many, if any, actually died) by a couple of bears. Then he went to Samaria (2:25), and, apparently when Joram sent the word for all the fighting men to join his campaign against Moab, Elisha joined up. I rather expect he had a nudge from God telling him to go, so that he would be at hand when he was needed. Sure enough, Jehoshaphat jumped on that news. 'The word of the LORD is with him."
Now, here's the interesting bit. They didn't send the officer to bring Elisha to them. The kings themselves went to Elisha (3:12). Elisha was not particularly impressed. "What do we have to do with each other? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother."
Joram protested, "No, because it was the LORD who called us three kings together to hand us over to Moab." (v 13)
Again, was it God? There's no record indicating such. But Joram was either convinced it was...or he had convinced himself that it was God's idea, in order to blame-shift.
Elisha was still disgruntled, and he replied, "As surely as the LORD Almighty lives, whom I serve, if I did not have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would not look at you or even notice you. But now bring me a harpist."
So they got someone from the camp who could play the harp.
I think this is an important little detail to have included in the narrative. Elisha had to get rid of his irritation in order to hear God...and he called for music to help him. We don't have the harpist's set list, but I have to believe he was playing some of David's psalms; that was, after all, the hymn book of the Hebrews. Which meant that...Elisha used worship to get his attention off of his personal opinion of the pagan kings and onto whatever God might be saying in the midst of it all. And, in his worship, he heard from God. (3:16).
And, as was typical for a word from God, the instructions made no sense. They were told to...dig trenches. 'Make this valley full of ditches' Elisha told them in v16. "For this is what the LORD says: You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your cattle and your other animals will drink. This is an easy thing in the eyes of the LORD; he will also hand Moab over to you. You will overthrow every fortified city and every major town. You will cut down every good tree, stop up all the springs and ruin every good field with stone." (vs. 17 - 18) . Truth be told, this sounds like judgment passed against Moab. As I said, I think there's more to this story than we have recorded here....but it didn't directly apply to the Israelites. They had something to do.
Dig ditches in the desert. So, they dug ditches.
And the next morning, around the time of the morning sacrifice, water came pouring down into the ditches from Edom. It was a flash flood...and, since the ditches had been dug, the water ran in the ditches. This is not an uncommon thing, really, for rain to fall miles away from one spot in the desert, in the mountains, and then water to flow down into the dry area. We heard about it several times in last year's Israel trip...it's the reason there are so many cisterns in Israel and the surrounding area; to hold the runoff from flash flooding coming from a mountainous area that had a sudden deluge. It was an easy thing for the Lord to send rain in an area that drained into the valley where they were. In fact, it may even have been raining in the mountains of Edom when Elisha was delivering the prophecy; it would take a little bit for the water to travel the distance.
In any case, the morning saw the ditches fill with water...and all the men and animals were able to drink.
Meantime, across the border in Moab, the king had mustered up all of his fighting men to resist Joram and his allies. The morning sun glinted across the water in the ditches, making it look like the valley was full of blood. The Moabites immediately assumed the three armies had had a falling out and slaughtered each other, and took off running to the allies' camp to plunder it. Imagine their surprise when they found there were not corpses lying about, but soldiers ready for battle.
They were beaten...all the way back to a single surviving town in Moab, before the allied army left them and returned to their own countries, having stopped up springs, thrown rocks in the fields, and cut down trees. Moab paid a price for their rebellion.
Here's what I got out of this little story...it's never too late to ask God what to do. It may be that your deliverance is set in motion when you turn your heart to ask, so that by the time you are actually at the place of inquiry, the answer is already on its way. God may require something really odd..but what he's doing is setting you up to receive the blessing. This is another account of God instructing someone to prepare capacity for a blessing before the blessing arrives (think also of the widow with her oil..that story is the very next one recorded in 2 Kings). You can only receive the blessing in proportion to the preparation done before it gets there. If the allied armies had not dug the valley full of trenches, the flash flood would have all run off; possibly even carrying their campsites away. At the very least, there would have been nothing remaining to satisfy the thirst in the camp. And, finally, when you are having trouble getting past distractions...even if those distractions are in your own heart and mind...just turn your heart to worship, which will turn your ear to God's voice.
All things I needed to be reminded of. So glad I didn't just skip over this verse.
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