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