2 Kings 3:23
"This is blood!" they exclaimed. "The kings have clashed swords and slaughtered one another. Now to the plunder, Moab!"
Sermons
Aspects of a Godly ManD. Thomas 2 Kings 3:13-27
The Valley Full of DitchesC.H. Irwwin 2 Kings 3:16-25
The Defeat of MoabJ. Orr 2 Kings 3:18-27














This also was foretold by Elisha as a mercy from the Lord, in comparison with which the supply of water was "a light thing." If these are God's "light things," surely we need not fear to ask from him all that we require. Our sin is, not in asking too much, but in asking too little (John 16:24). "He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20).

I. LOST THROUGH ILLUSION. The manner in which the defeat of the Moabites was brought about is very remarkable. The defeat was caused:

1. Through illusion. Their forces - "all that were able to put on amour, and upward" - were mustered on the mountains opposite, ready for battle on the morrow. As the morning sun rose, its red beams, falling on the pools of water in the valley, gave the water the appearance of blood - an effect to which the red soil may have contributed. This startling appearance the Moabites - who knew nothing of the unlooked-for supply of water - interpreted in their own way. They said, "This is blood," and concluded - remembering a recent experience of their own (2 Chronicles 20.) - that the attacking forces had fallen out, and destroyed each other.

2. Through over-haste and over-confidence. The cry was at once raised, "Moab, to the spoil!" and, casting aside all precautions, the people flew down, to find themselves in the power of their enemies. How many defeats are sustained in life from the same causes! We eagerly snatch at first appearances, which are often so deceptive; we hurry to the fray, without faking due precautions or counting the cost; we are confident in our strength or numbers as sufficient to bear down all opposition, if by chance we should be surprised. Therefore we fail. God often snares men through their own illusions. Haman went to Esther's banquet under the illusion that it was the road to highest honor, and found it the way to death (Esther 5:11, 12; Esther 7.). Of the wicked it is said, "For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie" (2 Thessalonians 2:11).

II. THE MERCILESS PURSUIT. The passage describing this pursuit is a terrible illustration of the severities of war. They were, perhaps, under the circumstances, not needless severities, but they are nonetheless extreme and painful to think of.

(1) The Moabites were pursued into their own country, and cut down in the pursuit.

(2) The cities were leveled to the ground.

(3) The good land was made useless by every man casting on it a stone, till it was covered with stones.

(4) Even fruit trees were cut down, and wells stopped.

(5) There remained only the city of Kir-haraseth, which, on its elevated plateau, defied direct assault; but it they besieged, while the slingers, taking their station on the surrounding eminences, galled it with their missiles. The words of the prophet in ver. 19 are perhaps prediction, not command, but it may be inferred that he gave the policy pursued his sanction. The object was so effectually to cripple the power of Moab that it would not be able to lift up the head for many a day to come.

1. The most direct lesson we can learn from the passage is the dreadfulness of war. Wherever or however waged, wars are a source of incalculable misery. Even just wars entail a loss of life, a destruction of wealth, and a waste of the means of production and of human happiness, which may well make the heart of the lover of his species sicken.

2. An indirect lesson to be gleaned from ver. 25 is the power of little things - "every man his stone." By each man bringing but a single stone, the ground was covered, and the end aimed at attained. The power was wielded here for destruction, but it may be wielded as well for good. Each doing his individual part - though that in itself is little - great results will be achieved.

3. We do well to carry into moral warfare the same thoroughness as is here displayed in physical warfare. Not content with operating on individuals, let us strike at causes and sources - stopping the wells of poisonous influence, etc.

III. THE LAST TRAGIC ACT. The war was brought to a sudden and unlooked-for termination.

1. The fearful sacrifice. Beaten into his last stronghold, driven to desperation, the King of Moab, having made an unsuccessful sortie with seven hundred men, resolved on an act which, he rightly judged, would strike horror into the hearts of his enemies, while it might also propitiate his god. He took his eldest son, the heir to his throne, and offered him up for a burnt offering on the wall.

(1) The fact that he performed the sacrifice upon the wall would seem to show that he had in view as much the effect to be produced on the spectators as the possible effect to be produced on Chemosh.

(2) The deed was awful and inhuman - perhaps, from Mesha's point of view, not without its nobler and patriotic side - but in itself most detestable. We have need to be thankful for a purer religious faith, which teaches us that God does not delight in such unnatural and cruel acts (Micah 6:6-9).

2. Repulsed by horror. "There was," we read, "great indignation against [or, 'upon'] Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land." The meaning seems to be that the ghastly act produced a universal horror, which turned into indignation against Israel as the original authors of the expedition which had so dreadful an end. There is an element of superstition in all men, and sudden revulsions of feeling, caused by an act that powerfully impresses the imagination, are not uncommon. The Israelites themselves so far sympathized with the emotion of horror which brought upon them the indignation of the Moabites, of neighboring tribes, perhaps also of the Edomites and others among their own allies, that they gave up the thought of proceeding further. This seems a more natural explanation than either

(1) that the indignation meant is that of Jehovah; or

(2) that it is the wrath of Chemosh (!); or

(3) the subjective horror of the Israelites themselves. - J.O.

And it came to pass in the morning there came water by the way of Moab.
Sermon Outlines.
I. THE THREEFOLD PREPARATION FOR THIS MIRACULOUS INTERPOSITION.

1. The preparation of supplication. The kings, in their need, "inquired of the Lord" (ver. 11) by means of His prophet. The act implies an application for the help of Jehovah. Preparation for the reception of special blessing by means of supplication is a law of God's kingdom. The prayer of the leper made way for Christ's miraculous healing (Matthew 8:2-4); the beseeching entreaty of the Syro-Phenician woman brought down the blessing she desired (Luke 7:24-30). The supplication (Acts 2:14) of the Early Church was the preparation for the descent of the Holy Spirit. Supplication is the placing of the wood in order upon the altar in readiness for the descent of fire from heaven.

2. The preparation of the prophet's mind for the reception of the Divine direction. "When the minstrel played, the hand of the Lord came upon him" (ver. 15). The soul that has to bear the message of God to others needs to rise into some degree of harmony with the mind of God, to partake in some measure of the holy calm which belongs to Him. Music prepares the heart of the good man to receive, and hence to be the bearer of special help from the Divine Spirit.

II. THE MIRACLE ITSELF. That the flowing in of the water was miraculous is evident because it came without rain, where there were no natural springs, and in fulfilment of Elisha's prophecy. In the New Testament the supernatural Divine workings are classified into "signs, wonders, miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost." (Hebrews 2:2).

III. THE TWOFOLD EFFECT OF THE MIRACLE. It was the occasion of life to one army and of death to the other. The one was brought about by the supernatural interposition, the other by a natural, though mistaken, inference. The cloud that was the help of Israel at the Red Sea, became the destruction of the Egyptians.

(Sermon Outlines.)

I noticed on one of our streets during the frost, when the pipes were all congealed and frozen and waterless, that the water authorities opened the main pipe early in the morning. The inhabitants got up that frosty morning, they turned the tap, but no water flowed. Then the neighbours began to tell one another that in a certain street the main pipe was flowing, and the bairns got their pitchers and buckets and flagons, and the women put their shawls over their heads in their hurry, and the domestics were sent out with the utensils from the kitchen. The cry had gone out that the water was flowing, and on that frosty morning they gathered round the main pipe. What brought them? Just the real flowing of real water. That was the reason of the crowd. If Christians were to experience freshly and literally and truly the grace of God, thousands would flock into every assembly in the city, and in the land, just drawn and won by the reality of the grace of Christ.

(J. Robertson.)

People
Ahab, Aram, Elijah, Elisha, Israelites, Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, Jeroboam, Mesha, Moabites, Nebat, Shaphat
Places
Edom, Kir-hareseth, Moab, Samaria
Topics
Blood, Clear, Destroyed, Destruction, Entirely, Fellow, Fighting, Fought, Goods, Kings, Moab, Neighbour, Plunder, Slain, Slaughtered, Smite, Smitten, Spoil, Struck, Surely
Outline
1. Jehoram's reign
4. Mesha rebels
6. Jehoram, with Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom, being distressed for want of water,
13. by Elisha obtains water, and promise of victory
21. The Moabites, deceived by the colour of the water, coming to spoil, are overcome
26. The king of Moab sacrifices his son, and raises the siege

Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Kings 3:16-25

     1416   miracles, nature of

2 Kings 3:21-23

     4954   morning

2 Kings 3:21-27

     5214   attack

Library
Sight and Blindness
'Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. 9. And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that them pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down. 10. And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice. 11. Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Minstrel
ELISHA needed that the Holy Spirit should come upon him to inspire him with prophetic utterances. "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." We need that the hand of the Lord should be laid upon us, for we can never open our mouths in wisdom except we are under the divine touch. Now, the Spirit of God works according to his own will. "The wind bloweth where it listeth," and the Spirit of God operates as he chooseth. Elisha could not prophesy just when he liked; he must wait until
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 27: 1881

The Old Testament and Archeology
A century ago the student of the world's history found it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to paint for himself a clear picture of events antedating B.C. 400. Concerning earlier periods, he was, aside from the Old Testament, practically without records that could claim contemporaneousness with the events recorded. But, one hundred years ago, men had commenced to test every statement, be it historical, or scientific, or theological, by severe canons of criticism, and if it could not stand
Frederick Carl Eiselen—The Christian View of the Old Testament

Balak's Inquiries Relative to the Service of God, and Balaam's Answer, Briefly Considered.
"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with, thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression; the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?--He hath shewed thee, 0 man, what is good: And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" As mankind are
Andrew Lee et al—Sermons on Various Important Subjects

The Prophet Amos.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. It will not be necessary to extend our preliminary remarks on the prophet Amos, since on the main point--viz., the circumstances under which he appeared as a prophet--the introduction to the prophecies of Hosea may be regarded as having been written for those of Amos also. For, according to the inscription, they belong to the same period at which Hosea's prophetic ministry began, viz., the latter part of the reign of Jeroboam II., and after Uzziah had ascended the
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The Prophet Joel.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. The position which has been assigned to Joel in the collection of the Minor Prophets, furnishes an external argument for the determination of the time at which Joel wrote. There cannot be any doubt that the Collectors were guided by a consideration of the chronology. The circumstance, that they placed the prophecies of Joel just between the two prophets who, according to the inscriptions and contents of their prophecies, belonged to the time of Jeroboam and Uzziah, is
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The Secret of Its Greatness
[Illustration: (drop cap G) The Great Pyramid] God always chooses the right kind of people to do His work. Not only so, He always gives to those whom He chooses just the sort of life which will best prepare them for the work He will one day call them to do. That is why God put it into the heart of Pharaoh's daughter to bring up Moses as her own son in the Egyptian palace. The most important part of Moses' training was that his heart should be right with God, and therefore he was allowed to remain
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making

The Assyrian Revival and the Struggle for Syria
Assur-nazir-pal (885-860) and Shalmaneser III. (860-825)--The kingdom of Urartu and its conquering princes: Menuas and Argistis. Assyria was the first to reappear on the scene of action. Less hampered by an ancient past than Egypt and Chaldaea, she was the sooner able to recover her strength after any disastrous crisis, and to assume again the offensive along the whole of her frontier line. Image Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief at Koyunjik of the time of Sennacherib. The initial cut,
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 7

Kings
The book[1] of Kings is strikingly unlike any modern historical narrative. Its comparative brevity, its curious perspective, and-with some brilliant exceptions--its relative monotony, are obvious to the most cursory perusal, and to understand these things is, in large measure, to understand the book. It covers a period of no less than four centuries. Beginning with the death of David and the accession of Solomon (1 Kings i., ii.) it traverses his reign with considerable fulness (1 Kings iii.-xi.),
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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