Today’s passage: 2 Kings 3:1-27
Helpful thoughts:
- King Jehoram continued in the sins of Jeroboam, but when his own plans weren’t going the way he hoped he was certainly able to blame the Lord for it (Verse 10, 13).
- God’s solution for their need of water also turned into a winning battle strategy as the mistaken appearance of blood caused the Moabites to run right into their defeat.
- The hardness of the hearts of man is on display in verse 27.
- A king killed his own son, the crown prince, in desperation to call on a fake god.
- The sight of this deed roused anger in the Moabites, not against their king, but against the Israelites.
Questions to consider:
- When it seems obvious to us throughout Scripture that people should believe in and obey the Lord of hosts, why don’t they? Jehoram should have been angry with the golden calves and Baal, the Moabites should have been angry at Chemosh or even their king…Israel should have seen the Lord as giving them victory, yet they left this battle thinking Chemosh had ended the conflict (Verse 27), why?
- How much of this battle (The build-up, the conflict, the results) was under God’s sovereign control? Even if nations in our day view victory as a simply consequence of superior tactics, training, resources, etc. how much control does God still exert today?
- When “good” things happen in your life, who gets the credit? When “bad” things are happening, who gets the blame? How can “good” things and “bad” things turn us away from the Lord…or TO Him? (2 Timothy 4:10, Romans 8:28-29)