Victory over the Moabites

Driving home: Excuse me, the psalmist cries out, Oh God, what wilt thou do for thy great name? The name of God was at stake.

Martin uses the structure of an opera (character sketches, plot synopsis in acts) as a teaching device to help the congregation follow the narrative of 2 Kings 3.

Now some of you who occasionally attend an opera or an operetta, you see what I'm doing, don't you? You have little character sketches of the main characters and then you have a little synopsis of the plot in Act I, Act II, Act III and I'm simply using that as a teaching device. A synopsis now of the main events. How can we hold it all together?

22:23 - 22:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Excuse me, the psalmist cries out, Oh God, what wilt thou do for thy great name? The name of God was at stake.

He compares the irreconcilable tension between Moabites and Israelites over land to the modern Arab-Jewish conflict, illustrating the deep-seated human nature of claiming and defending territory.

It all begins with this rebellion of Moab recorded in verses 4 and 5. Now, Misha, king of Moab, was a sheepmaster, but it came to pass when Ahab was dead that he rebelled. Now this was serious because these nations, as I've already suggested, never enjoyed being dispossessed by the people of God. Just as you have this irreconcilable tension between Arab and Jewish, Jew over real estate, each side of the Jordan, it's our land, it's our land, you drove us out, you had no business being there.

23:18 - 24:00 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Excuse me, the psalmist cries out, Oh God, what wilt thou do for thy great name? The name of God was at stake.

The incident of the Ark of the Covenant being taken into a pagan temple is used to illustrate how ancient nations viewed military conquest as a victory of one god over another.

And when you read through Old Testament history, you find this again and again. You remember that incident when the people of God were defeated and the heathen nation was able to take the Ark of the Covenant? Where did they bring it? Into their own temple.

24:37 - 24:50 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A guilty conscience may be a tolerable commodity when everything's going well. But when you get your back to the wall, it's the worst of companions.

Martin paints a picture of the three allied armies, initially confident and jovial, sharing stories and deriding their enemy, before the crisis of thirst sets in.

Here is the army of three nations, the armies of Israel, of Judah, and of Edom. And again, human nature being the same, can you picture something of what it was like for these men going out with this tremendous strength, a sense of strength? The three armies have come together and soldiers telling their rival stories and laughing together and speaking in derisive terms of those that they're going to conquer with ease. But one day, there is no water, and the thirst begins to take hold of them and the cattle. And the absence of water, recorded in the latter part of verse 9, intensifies the crisi...

28:29 - 29:30 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A guilty conscience may be a tolerable commodity when everything's going well. But when you get your back to the wall, it's the worst of companions.

The precarious situation of Israel and Judah in the wilderness without water is likened to Christ being in the womb of the nation, with the threat of the 'mother' being killed before the 'child' is born, emphasizing the redemptive stakes.

And so the disciples of Jehovah's brought us out to be conquered by Moab. And that's what we're going to do. The spirit of despair reaches its pinnacle, as these three armies, with all the pangs of thirst and seeing the fainting animals about them, sense, we've had it. Now do you see something of the precarious situation of the seed of the woman? In a very real sense, Christ was yet in the womb of the nation of Israel, and the mother is about to be killed before the child is born. This was Israel and Judah out on the plains with no water.

31:33 - 32:13 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The resolution begins with Jehoshaphat's call for a prophet of the Lord. A humble servant reveals Elisha's presence, and the three kings humbly go down to him, signifying God's…

The fact that a 'little servant' of the king of Israel, rather than the kings themselves, knew of Elisha's presence illustrates God's pattern of using the weak to confound the strong.

But a little servant. God takes the weak things to confound. The things that are not to bring to naught the things that are. One of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, Elisha, the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.

35:06 - 35:28 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The resolution begins with Jehoshaphat's call for a prophet of the Lord. A humble servant reveals Elisha's presence, and the three kings humbly go down to him, signifying God's…

The image of three kings, 'big shots with all their entourage,' coming down to pay court to Elisha, who was 'minding his business,' highlights the prophet's authority and God's sovereignty.

And now there's a wonderful stroke of genius here. Here you have kings not sending a servant saying, Hey, preacher boy, come on up to us. No, no. The three kings, imagine what that would look like now.

36:04 - 36:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Elisha delivers a bold rebuke to Jehoram, explaining that any help comes only for Jehoshaphat's sake. After calling for a minstrel to quiet his spirit, Elisha gives God's command…

Elisha's taunting of Jehoram to go to his parents' prophets is compared to Elijah's taunting of the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, showing a shared spirit of boldness against idolatry.

He taunts them. You see, he caught something of the spirit of his predecessor. You remember upon Mount Carmel? When he taunted them with the folly of idol worship, he caught something of that spirit.

38:20 - 38:31 Read in full sermon

The point: The blessings that come upon many of you sitting here tonight, they do not come because of what you are, because you're an idol worshiper. If you were taken out of the context of a godly home that has a truly praying mot…

Martin applies the principle that Jehoram received help for Jehoshaphat's sake to congregants, suggesting that some receive blessings not for their own godliness but for the sake of a praying mother or father in their home.

It's coming because you happen to be in good company. And I am going to pause to apply for just a few seconds, because this has a powerful word to some of you sitting here. We'll open it up in a subsequent message more fully. The blessings that come upon many of you sitting here tonight, they do not come because of what you are, because you're an idol worshiper.

40:00 - 40:26 Read in full sermon

The point: The blessings that come upon many of you sitting here tonight, they do not come because of what you are, because you're an idol worshiper. If you were taken out of the context of a godly home that has a truly praying mot…

The minstrel's music calming Elisha's spirit is used to illustrate the powerful relationship between music as an art form and the state of the soul, arguing against the idea that music is amoral.

After the rebuke, which no doubt had run its current over his own soul, for no man of God can preach the word of God without something of his own blood being mixed with it, his own spirit is so agitated in the presence of this idol worship, and in the midst of that rebuke, his own spirit is so distraught, that he says, Now that I've delivered my soul of the rebuke, bring me a minstrel, that he may play soothing music to quiet my mind and my spirit, and place me in a proper frame to receive the word of God. And that music then has a wonderfully calming effect, and we're going to deal with that ...

41:31 - 42:42 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: God miraculously provides water in the morning, filling the trenches. The Moabites, seeing the reddish water in the morning sun, mistake it for blood from an internal conflict…

The Moabites' assumption that the reddish water was blood from the allied kings fighting among themselves is explained by the common occurrence of such internal conflicts in ancient military alliances.

And then with the brightness of the morning sun striking off those trenches of water, they said, aha, it's happened again. They knew in that moment, in their military history, that many times when different nations would come together in an alliance to fight a common enemy, they'd get fighting amongst themselves, and the enemy would never have to go against them. So they said, aha, it's happened again. Look at the language.

48:04 - 48:32 Read in full sermon