2 Kings 3:9-20 - Homilies By J. Orr

Man's extremity is God's opportunity.

This expedition, begun without consulting God, soon landed the allies in dire straits.

I. THE STRAITS OF THE ARMY .

1. The failure of water . The host must have been a large one, and they had much cattle with them for sustenance. For some reason, the journey occupied seven days, and the desert was waterless. They were in the same distress that the Israelites were in centuries before under Moses ( Exodus 17:1-3 ; Numbers 20:1-5 ); but they had not the same right to rely on Divine help. When, at the end of seven days, they arrived at a valley where water might be looked for—probably "the brook Zered" ( Deuteronomy 2:13 )—their condition became desperate.

2. God's hand recognized . Jehoram recognized, when it was too late, that it was not Moab who was fighting against him in this expedition, hut God. "Alas! that the Lord hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab!"

II. THE APPEAL TO ELISHA .

1. Jehoshaphat ' s inquiry . The King of Israel abandoned himself to despair, but Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire of the Lord by him?" Had he inquired of the Lord at the beginning, he would not now have been in this difficulty. But:

2. The three kings and the prophet .

3. Help only for the sake of Jehoshaphat . Elisha's spirit seems to have been strangely perturbed by the visit of these three kings. He was roused in part by scorn at a king like Jehoram, who ordinarily paid no respect to religion, coming to ask his aid in the pinch of physical distress. It is Elijah's fire which glows in him for the moment, as he sternly asks, "What have I to do with thee?" and bids the humbled monarch get him to the prophets of his father (the calves-prophets) and the prophets of his mother (the Baal-prophets), to see what they could do for him. But Jehoram knew that the prophets of the calves or of Baal could in that extremity give him little help. He deprecates Elisha's anger, only to he told that, but for the sake of Jehoshaphat, the prophet would neither look towards him nor see him.

III. THE DIVINE DELIVERANCE .

1. Holy minstrelsy . The discomposed state of Elisha's mind was not fitted for the reception of "revelations of the Lord." If God would speak, passion must be stilled. To this end, he called for a minstrel, that by the soothing, subduing effect of sacred melody, his soul might be restored to a calm condition. It is a wonderful power that resides in music; we do well in God's service to take advantage of it. "The noblest passages in ' Paradise Lost' were composed as Milton's daughter played to her father on the organ." Music gives wings to the soul, reveals to it the existence of a world of harmony, touches and harmonizes it to like "fine issues."

2. A labor of faith . As the minstrel played, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha, and he gave directions to make the valley full of trenches. As yet there was not the slightest sign of water, nor would there be any. The work was to be done in entire dependence on the word of God that water would be sent. This is faith—acting on God's bare word of promise. All that night the laborers toiled, and when the morning came, the valley was seamed with trenches, and studded with pits, to hold the yet invisible supply of the life-giving water.

3. Streams from Edom . In the morning, true to the Divine promise, the wished-for water came.