2 Kings 3 ends with Elisha’s prophecy of water coming into the valley being fulfilled. You may recall that Elisha had the armies dig trenches to collect water as they were very thirsty and had run out of H2O. The followed his direction and waited. “In the morning….the water arrived….a flash flood filling the valley with water”. Just like Elisha had said. The enemy – the Moabites – had lined up to “take a stand at the border” – every person who was old enough to handle a sword. As the “sun rose over the water…..the water reflecting the sun looked red like blood”. The people of Moab thought that the three armies had broken into fighting between themselves so they charge ahead to join the ruckus only to find out that was not at all what happened. God had set them up to be slaughtered. They rushed into the Israelite camp and get massacred. The result was that the army of Israel:
- leveled the towns
- littered the cultivated fields with rocks
- clogged the springs
- clear cut the orchards
Only the capital of Moab was left and not for long. The King of Moab finally sacrifices his first born son whom would succeed him “on the city wall” in front of everyone and then the Israelites stopped the destruction and returned home. Can you imagine being there that day. Elisha had told the armies who were overcome with thirst to dig trenches in the parched ground. I can only imagine the whining that would have been going on. Sure Elisha, I am really tired and thirsty and now you want me to do a bunch of work digging a hole in the dirt. It hasn’t rained here for a long time. Somewhat like Noah building an ark before they had ever experienced rain. The real secret sauce here – obedience to God’s Word. Over and over we see it happen. If we are obedient to God’s Word, be it written or spoken, it comes to fruition. God’s truth always prevails. It is dependable as clockwork. If we only learn to be obedient to the things God tells us to do, we will ALWAYS get the results God tells us we will get. It isn’t a sometimes thing. He is faithful……