CHAPTER 3

(895 B.C.)

JEHORAM REIGNS OVER ISRAEL

¹Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years.

²And he wrought evil in the sight of the LORD; but not like his father, and like his mother: for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made.

³Nevertheless he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom. (Jehoram removes the obscene idol erected by his father, but resolutely holds on to the great sin of Jeroboam, that is, the golden calf. In the Books of Kings, as in the first Epistle of John, sin principally means the substitution of a god other than the Lord Jesus, and evil means fidelity to that false god and false saviour.)

ELISHA PREDICTS VICTORY OVER MOAB

⁴And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool (tribute rendered each year).

⁵But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

⁶And king Jehoram went out of Samaria the same time, and numbered all Israel (prepared for war).

⁷And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab has rebelled against me: will you go with me against Moab to battle? And he said, I will go up: I am as you are, my people as your people, and my horses as your horses. (These words were probably a common formula expressive of willingness to enter into the closest possible alliance.

The incurable insubjection of the natural will, even in a Christian, to the Word of the Lord is seen in Jehoshaphat. Despite two severe lessons from God, he, for the third time, unites with the religious world in a laudable enterprise. The result will be that he nearly loses his life.)

⁸And he said, Which way shall we go up? And he answered, The way through the wilderness of Edom (Edom, though under a native king, was a dependency of Judah [I Ki. 22:47]; so, this would be an easier route for invasion).

⁹So the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah, and the king of Edom: and they fetched a compass of seven days journey: and there was no water for the host, and for the cattle that followed them (the baggage animals).

¹⁰And the king of Israel said, Alas! that the LORD has called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab! (Even though an idol-worshipper, Jehoram blames the Lord for their predicament!)

¹¹But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a Prophet of the LORD, that we may enquire of the LORD by him? And one of the king of Israels servants answered and said, Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah. (Had Jehoshaphat enquired of such before he came, he would not now be in this predicament. Believers all too often seek the Lord after the die has been cast. Its best to seek Him beforehand, and for all things. It would save us much trouble.)

¹²And 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 (went to the Prophet Elisha).

¹³And Elisha said unto the king of Israel, What have I to do with you? get you to the prophets of your father, and to the prophets of your mother. And the king of Israel said unto him, No: for the LORD has called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab (Elisha regards it as incumbent on him to rebuke the monarch from Israel, who, though he had put away the image of Baal which his father had made, still wrought evil in the sight of the Lord, and cleaved to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat [3:2-3]; the King of Israel answered wisely!).

¹⁴And Elisha said, As the LORD of Hosts lives, before Whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward you, nor see you (this states that, in effect, Jehoram and the king of Edom owed their lives to Jehoshaphat).

¹⁵But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the Hand of the LORD came upon him (most probably, these were musicians who came, sang, and played the Psalms; music which is touched by the Lord refreshes, heals, and delivers [I Sam. 16:23]).

¹⁶And he (Elisha) said, Thus says the LORD, Make this valley full of ditches.

¹⁷For thus says the LORD, You shall not see wind, neither shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that you may drink, both you, and your cattle, and your beasts (there would be rain, but it would be a distance away, actually out of sight, with the water running down into the valley and, thereby, filling the ditches).

¹⁸And this is but a light thing in the sight of the LORD (God, the Author of nature, has full control over nature, and it is an easy matter for Him to produce at will any natural phenomena): He will deliver the Moabites also into your hand (victory!).

¹⁹And you shall smite every fenced city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all wells of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones (in other words, Moab was to be scorched earth, because of her great wickedness against the Lord).

²⁰And it came to pass in the morning, when the Meat Offering was offered, that, behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water (evidently, there were flash floods out of distance of the valley, but with the runoff filling the valley).

MOAB DEFEATED

²¹And when all the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them, they gathered all who were able to put on armour, and upward, and stood in the border (a large army).

²²And they rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, and the Moabites saw the water on the other side as red as blood (the Moabites concluded that the red-looking liquid was blood):

²³And they said, This is blood: the kings are surely killed, and they have smitten one another: now therefore, Moab, to the spoil (they thought that Judah, Israel, and Edom had turned on each other, because there had been bad blood in the past between these countries).

²⁴And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them: but they went forward smiting the Moabites, even in their country (the smiting of the enemy can only be carried out by the Believer as Faith is evidenced in Christ and the Cross; the Holy Spirit, Who Alone can help, works entirely within the framework of the Finished Work of Christ).

²⁵And they beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees: only in Kir-haraseth left they the stones thereof; howbeit the slingers went about it, and smote it (fulfilling the predictions of Elisha).

²⁶And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew swords, to break through even unto the king of Edom: but they could not (the attempt failed; Edom was too strong).

²⁷Then he (the king of Moab) took his oldest son who should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall (human sacrifice was widely practiced by the idolatrous nations who bordered on Israel and Judah, and by none more than by the Moabites). And there was great indignation against Israel (by the Moabites): and they (Judah, Samaria, and Edom) departed from him (from the Moabite king), and returned to their own land.