2 Kings 3

This chapter was slightly reminiscent of 1 Kings 22! Except now Ahab's son Joram (not the most upright fella, but not as bad as his mom and dad) is wanting to defeat the rebels of Moab. So he calls Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom to help him. But after a long march, the army was out of water. So Jehoshaphat said just like last time, "Is there no prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of the LORD through him?"

An officer replied, "Elisha is here. He was Elijah's personal servant."

So these three kings (couldn't resist:P) went to Elisha. Elisha said to Joram, "What do we have to do with each other? Go to the prophets of your father and mother!" He was basically saying, "God's not your God, go to your own god!"

But Joram said,"No, because it was the LORD who called us three kings together to hand us over to Moab." Sure. Sure.

Elisha said, "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." Heehee! I can just see Joram shrugging and sticking his nose in the air. But Elisha said, "This is what the LORD says: Make this valley full of ditches. 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 stones."

Then it says, "The next morning, about the time for offering the sacrifice, there it was - water flowing from the direction of Edom! And the land was filled with water." Whoa!

The Moabites looked down into the valley early in the morning, and the sun shining on the water (that wasn't supposed to be there) looked red. "That's blood!" they all said. "Those kings must have fought and slaughtered each other. Now to the plunder, Moab!" But when they came down, Israel pounced on them and destroyed the towns, and threw rocks on the fields, and cut down trees, and did everything Elisha said they would. It's amazing how God comes through for us. He even gave success to a wicked man for the sake of a good one. I love that about God.