2 Kings 2 - 3

Moab Revolts and Elisha Ministers to Others

So, what we have here are three kings, who really don’t like one another and whose nations have not always been on the best of terms. But they all felt threatened to some extent by the growing power of Moab. As the old saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

The three armies decided to take a route through the desert of Edom. What could possibly go wrong with this plan? Well, after seven days, their armies ran out of water (verse 9). Who was the officer in charge of Logistics? Who was the officer in charge of calculating, acquiring, and organizing the food, water, weapons, etc. needed to maintain the fighting force? Someone was in big trouble. It will all come out in the After-Action Review.

At their next staff meeting, Joram asked, (verse 10), “Has the Lord called up three kings together only to hand us over to Moab?” Jehoshaphat asked, (verse 11), “Is there no prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of the Lord through him?” The answer was “No”, because Jezebel had them killed or they are in hiding. But an officer of the king of Israel, perhaps a quiet staff officer in the back of the conference room said, “Elisha is here.” “That’s right!” “Jehoshaphat said with wide eye excitement, “the word of the Lord is with him.” So, the three kings got on their horses or camels or into their jeeps or HUMVEEs (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle for you civilian types) and headed out to see Elisha. When their plans have gone awry and they have run out of options, only then did they decide to seek the counsel of God. Another after action review point to make note of.

Verse 13, with just a hint of sarcasm, “Elisha said to the king of Israel, ‘What do we have to do with each other? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.’” In other words, “What are you guys doing working together. You can’t stand each other, and you certainly can’t trust each other? Why don’t you go to your own prophets for advice.” Awkward silence.

Then Elisha says that if he hadn’t had any respect for Jehoshaphat, he wouldn’t give the three of them the time of day (verse 14). Ouch, that hurt. These “kings” have been humiliated by their failures to even get to the battle, then the prophet they needed more than they liked used his sharp tongue to cut them down to size.

Now these three kings are desperate. Their armies are out of water, and they are about to go into battle. That would be like starting a battle with mechanized vehicles and someone forgot to bring any fuel.

Before Elisha would tell them anything, he said, “But now bring me a harpist.” Was Elisha toying with these desperate kings? Do you think Elisha might have asked for other things, also? “Boy, I would really like a glass of wine, some French bread and an assortment of cheeses.” Or maybe, “My feet hurt; would someone massage my aching feet?” The kings might have looked at each and then the two kings would glare at the king of Edom, the lowest ranking official, and motioned him to massage Elisha’s feet.” Prophets can have a sense of humor, can’t they? By the way, where would they get a harpist? Was it standard operating procedure to bring a harpist into battle? A trumpeter I could see, but a harpist wouldn’t be of any help in signaling the troops. Imagine the commander ordering the harpist to sound “ATTACK.” No one would hear the signal. Did they have to send a messenger back to find a harpist?

After a good foot massage, a tasty snack and relaxing music, Elisha gives the three kings a message from God. Of course, he may have gotten the message from God earlier in the day, but he may have wanted to play with these high and mighty kings. Elisha tells the kings to dig ditches and that without any rain, the ditches will become filled with water for their men and their animals (verse 17). Oh, one more thing, (verse 18), “He (God) will also hand Moab over to you.”

Elisha reading and Ahab receiving the message.

Then the king of Edom might have turned away and squeezed a huge amount of hand sanitizer into the palm of his hand after massaging Elisha’s calloused feet with those disgusting thick yellow toenails. Would you like for me to find an image of that on the internet? No? I didn’t think so. And my editor (Linda) wouldn’t allow it.

Elisha goes on to tell them that their armies will cut down every good tree, stop up all the springs and ruin every good field with stones (verse 19). Isn’t that against the laws of war that Moses gave the Israelites? Deut. 20:19 says, “When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down.” Some scholars say that the prohibition is against cutting fruit trees, which provide food, not other trees. The prohibition might be limited to the trees in Canaan which they were about to enter. It would be foolish to destroy property that you would soon be inheriting. But these armies weren’t going to occupy Moab, just beat them down to quell the rebellion.

The next morning (verse 20) about the time for offering the sacrifice, there it was-water flowing from the direction of Edom! And the land was filled with water. And it hadn’t even rained. It’s a good thing they dug those ditches to collect the water. Perhaps it came from an underground spring.

When the Moabites got up the next morning, the sun was shining on the water. To them the water looked like blood (verse 23). They interpreted this to mean that the three armies, Israel, Judah, and Edom, had turned on each other and were slaughtering each other. The Moabite leader called out, “Now to the plunder, Moab!” Imagine Adolf Hitler getting word that Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill (The Big Three) turned on each other while at Tehran Conference in 1943.

Moab’s spy network and their intelligence analysis were as inaccurate as the U.S. intelligence agencies were leading up to the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.

Verses 24-26 describe how the “Big Three Armies” slaughtered the Moabites, destroyed the towns, covered the fields with stones, stopped up the springs and cut down trees. Just as Elisha predicted.

In desperation, the King of Moab even sacrificed his first-born son on the city wall (verse 27). Despite his sacrifice, the Moabite god Chemosh didn’t come to his aid.

But it wasn’t a total victory of Israel. The Moabites fought with such fury that the Israelites withdrew and returned to their own land. Why didn’t the three armies go all the way to Dibon, its capital? Why didn’t they kill or capture Mesha, the king of Moab?

After the Persian Gulf War in 1991 when the allied nations kicked Saddam Hussein’s military out of Kuwait, they too stopped the war without moving onto Baghdad, Iraq’s capital or removing Saddam Hussein from power. This gave Hussein the opportunity to claim victory to his people. Yes, his army was removed from Kuwait, but he himself was still in power.

The Moabite king, like King Hussein, could also claim victory because the Israelites retreated, Moab survived the war and its king, Mesha, remained in power.

Why wasn’t this a more complete victory for Israel? One commentator suggested that God was not very happy with Ahab’s dynasty and wanted to limit its success.

In Chapter four we see a few more miracles performed through Elisha. A widow who owed money was about to have her sons sold off as slaves if the debt wasn’t paid off soon (verse 1). Elisha asked her to gather as many pots and jars as she could from her neighbors. Then she was to pour what little oil she had into the pots and jars (verse 4). Her little jar of oil kept filling jar after jar, pot after pot until she ran out of items to fill. She sold the oil to pay off her debt and was able to keep her sons. And she probably wished she had found a few more pots, jars, washtubs, water troughs or even a tanker truck so she could go into business as an olive oil dealer: WIDOW AND SONS OLIVE OIL COMPANY. This miracle sounds very much like the miracle Elijah performed for the widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings 17:7-24.

The next miracle was another restoration of a dead son. Sound familiar? This older woman and her husband offered Elisha hospitality whenever he was in town (verse 10). They were childless, but Elisha told her that she would have a son within a year (verse 16). She found this prophecy as difficult to believe as Sarah did when she was told she would have a child (Gen. 18). Well, she did have a child, but then tragedy struck. Verse 18, The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. “My head! My head!” he said to his father. The child was carried into the house where he died sitting on his mother’s lap. No, I don’t know if he had suffered a head injury or had a brain tumor.

The mother laid the child on his bed, then went off with a servant to find Elisha (verse 25). They found Elisha at Mt. Carmel, where his mentor Elijah had that run in with the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). Elisha went with her to the son’s bedside. I bet you can guess where this story is heading. He stretched himself onto the boy’s body and soon the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes (verse 35). Why the sneezing? Did he not like Elisha’s after-shave lotion or something?

The next miracle deals with a pot of food prepared during a famine. While Elisha was meeting with the company of the prophets, he said to his servant, “put on the large pot and cook some stew for these men” (verse 38). One of the servants came across a wild vine with gourds. He cut them up and put them in the big pot of water, not knowing what these plants were. As the prophets began to eat, one of them exclaimed, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” and they could not eat it (verse 40). Elisha, who may have enjoyed cooking, knew what to do. Verse 41, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat. And there was nothing harmful in the pot.” Who was the first one to eat it?

The next miracle involved food also. Elisha was able to feed 100 men with only twenty loafs of bread (verses 42-44). Hmm. This sounds like something Jesus did, twice. Jesus fed 5,000 with five loafs and two fish and is the only miracle—aside from the resurrection—recorded in all four gospels. His second mass feeding had 4,000 guests with only seven loaves and a few fish.

In 2 Kings, chapter five we find the next miracle performed through Elisha. It was the healing of a soldier suffering from leprosy. The patient’s name was Naaman who was described in verse 1 as “commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded. . . he was a valiant soldier.”

Verse 5, Naaman took some gold, silver and several sets of clothing. When Naaman arrived at Elisha’s door, Elisha didn’t even come to the door to greet him. Verse 10, “Elisha sent a messenger to advise him to, ‘Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored, and you will be cleansed.” Well, Naaman felt insulted that he was greeted by a mere servant. After all, he was willing to come all that way, plus bring a load of valuable gifts. Protocol dictated better treatment than that and he was angry. In Army Regulations 600-25, Salutes, Honors and Courtesy, chapter 5 discusses courtesy visits within the army. Naaman expected to be greeted by the prophet himself, not a mere servant. And it wouldn’t hurt if he also had a small band or at least had someone there to blow a Shofar. And why would he be told to wash in the Jordan River? Naaman thought that there were better and bigger rivers in Damascus, and he went off in a rage (verse 12). But one of his servants reasoned with him suggesting that he just do what he was told, perhaps it would work, and it certainly wouldn’t do any harm, unless there were crocodiles and hippos in the water.

The commander’s anger dissipated, and he did dip himself seven times in the Jordan River. He might have felt a bit silly and might have lost count and had to do it again, but he was healed. As you might expect, his mood improved dramatically and he declared, (verse 15) “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.” Then he tried to hand out those gifts of gold, silver and clothing to Elisha.

Is this Naaman just before dipping himself in the water? He’s not smiling, so it must be the before photo.

But Elisha wouldn’t accept any gifts. Elisha didn’t accept anything in payment because he didn’t want anyone to think that he was doing this for money or that people could purchase blessing from God, such as when churches were selling indulgences.

Naaman then asked if he could take some soil from Israel back home (verse 17). What was that all about? Naaman probably wanted the soil as a reminder of his healing and his conversion. Naaman didn’t have a camera to take before and after pictures of his diseased skin or a selfie with Elisha, so the soil would serve as a reminder.

Today Jews outside of Israel are sometimes buried with a sample of soil from Israel. This tradition goes back to the time when Jacob asked his son Joseph to take his bones back to Israel when they left Egypt. Today, many Jews from around the world would like to be buried in Israel, especially on the Mount of Olives, just beyond the eastern wall of Jerusalem’s Old City. They want to be there when the Messiah comes, and the dead are resurrected. They want to be first in line. For those who can’t be buried in Israel, they like to be buried with a small amount of soil from Israel. Funeral homes who service Jewish clientele might even have a bag of soil from Israel so they can place a small amount of it in the coffins.

Christians have a similar tradition. They like to be baptized in the Jordan River and bring back a small vial of the water. And we sometimes bury our dead with symbolic items.

Then Naaman asked if it would be acceptable in God’s eyes, that when he accompanies the king to the temple of Rimmon, and the king bows down, leaning on my arm and I bow down, also, it that acceptable? It sounds as if he is asking the question, “Would it be ok for me to be there and bow down as long as I am there as an observer than a worshipper? It would be as if your handicapped neighbor needed a ride to a Hindu shrine or Muslim Mosque and you helped him through the worship service, knowing in your heart that you are there as a friend or medical assistant and not a worshipper. If a Church member can go to church and recite prayers, but in his heart, he is a non-believer, then the prayer means little or nothing. So would the opposite as in the case of Naaman. Elisha answers, “Go in peace.” In other words, “Don’t worry about that.”

What does it mean to “bow down to”? One source on the meaning of expressions said that the phrase to bow (down) in the house of Rimmon can mean to pay lip service to some principle which one does not accept. It would be like giving the Hitler salute in Germany when you really aren’t a supporter of Nazi ideology.

And who is Rimmon? I hadn’t heard of him before. Rimmon, was the chief Aramean god, Baal-Hadad, the god of weather. That’s the same god we see throughout that part of the world, same god, different country, different name.

Now, do you remember all that gold, silver and clothing that Naaman offered to Elisha? Well, Elisha’s servant Gehazi, wished that he had accepted at least some of the gifts. Afterall, you wouldn’t want to insult the Commander of the Army of Aram. He decided to hurry after Naaman (verse 21). He meets with Naaman and tells him that Elisha told him to come and ask for some of the treasures he offered to him earlier. Naaman, being a great mood, admiring his lovely skin, free of leprosy, asked his servant to carry bags of gifts for the servant. When they got to a hill near home, Gehazi hid the items in a house. Now why would he hide them if he didn’t feel some guilt about this.

Later on, Elisha asked Gehazi, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” Imagine the guilty look on Gehazi’s face. Well, Elisha was disappointed with his servant and told him that Naaman’s leprosy would (verse 27) cling to him and to his descendants forever. Does this bring to mind another person who got a bit greedy and took some war trophies? Back in Joshua 7, Achan stole a beautiful robe and some gold and silver after God warned that no one should take any of the spoils from Jericho. Achan’s sin defiled the other members of the community, as well as himself, and for that, he was killed. At least Elisha’s servant wasn’t killed.

In 2 Kings 6 we find the prophets moving to a new location. They borrowed an ax to cut down some trees and the head of it fell off, flew through the air into a body of water where it quickly sank. The prophets panicked and called out to Elisha. Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water and the ax head floated to the surface. Now this might seem like an insignificant loss, the head of an ax. But they couldn’t go down to Home Depot and buy whoever loaned them his ax a new Fiskar X27 Super Splitting Axe with a 36-inch shock absorbing handle.

To lose such an ax would be more like one of us losing a new Apple iPhone 13Pro (128GB) which sells for nearly $1,000.

Some of the miracles described in the Bible were spectacular and had a huge impact on many people. The parting of the Red Sea, the feeding of the multitudes, the raising of the dead, etc. But some of these miracles seem less important than others. Removing a toxin from a pot of stew, retrieving an axe head, or Jesus walking on water. The walking on the water was entertaining, but not quite so important as some of his other miracles like healing the blind. But maybe not. These seemingly “minor” miracles may have had a greater impact than we might think.

The miracles done for the benefit of the prophets (retrieving the axe head, purifying the stew) may have had a huge impact on them. Many of their peers had been killed by Jezebel. Others were hiding in caves, protected, and fed by Obadiah and other supporters. They were being hunted, constantly under threat of being arrested and killed and living off the land as best they could. Life was not easy for these people. Fear, fatigue, hunger and cold, wears on people, wears them down. To get a hot meal or have an axe head salvaged was a tremendous encouragement for those who are living on the edge. It reminded them that they weren’t forgotten by God.

Sometimes, when people are desperate, on the edge, about to give up on life, a simple act of kindness, an act of generosity, or a kind word of encouragement might be enough to pull them back from destruction. We might think that these small acts of kindness are not very important, but they can be. This brings to mind a character in the New Testament who was very encouraging to others. So much so, that we don’t even call him by his real name, which was Joseph. We know him by his nickname, Barnabas, which means “son of encouragement.” His small acts of encouragement helped many to step back from the edge of despair, to continue in ministry, etc. In Acts 4:33-37 he sold a piece of land so that the apostles could purchase for new believers the basics needed to survive when their families disowned them. Without this assistance they might have returned to Judaism. In Acts 9:26 when no one in the church in Jerusalem would welcome Paul, the former persecutor of the church, it was Barnabas who greeted him and accepted him into the fellowship of the church. And in Acts 15:37-38 it was Barnabas who gave John Mark a second chance for mission work after he had failed them on his first attempt. It was a chance that Barnabas was willing to give him, but Paul was not. Yet, when Paul was in prison, old, worn out, and about to be executed, who did he ask to come and visit him (2 Tim. 4:6)? Yes, it was John Mark.

Where would all those new believers be if Barnabas hadn’t given them practical assistance? Where would John Mark be if Barnabas hadn’t given him a second chance? Where would Paul be if Barnabas hadn’t accepted him into the church? Where would the church be without Barnabas, John Mark, and Paul? By the way, tradition has it that John Mark later became the bishop of Alexandria, Egypt. If he could, I imagine he would have had a photo of Barnabas on his desk.

Where would the prophets be if they weren’t encouraged by the “small” miracles of Elisha? And the widow? And the Army commander who might have become a lay evangelist for the God of Israel. What we do doesn’t have to be flashy, colorful and big to have a big impact on others.

And if you are a pastor, might my story about Barnabas make a good sermon subject for your church. We can all be like Barnabas. And we can all use some encouragement.