Major Lessons from the Battle

Introduction: The Dual Purpose of Old Testament History

0:04 I would strongly urge you to turn to the portion of the Word of God that was read in your hearing tonight, 2 Kings, chapter 3.

0:16 Tonight is the ninth of a series of studies in the life and ministry of the prophet Elisha.

0:25 And our meditation tonight is the second in this particular chapter, 2 Kings, chapter 3. In our initial study of this chapter, last Lord's Day evening, we sought to underscore the fact that these historical narratives dealing with the life and ministry of the servants of God and the history of the people of God are never to be regarded as mere interesting historical facts, little snippets of incidents from the lives or lifetimes, or the life of a favored man or people, but rather they must always be read and understood in the light of Genesis 3.15, the announcement of God that He would come into a disordered cosmos, into a world in which sin has done its ugly work, and there He would establish enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, and enmity and warfare which would ultimately, result in the very bruising of the head of the serpent's seed. In the process, of course, the heel of the seed of the woman would be bruised. And as we read the Old Testament historical sections,

1:50 we are reading specific dimensions of that tremendous conflict, which will ultimately, of course, issue in the triumph of Christ over all His and His people's enemies. Then we proceeded to consider what I called a sketch of the main characters in the narrative, and we looked at them. There are five. And then I laid before you a synopsis of the main events in the narrative.

2:20 And I did so in a threefold division. We considered the development of the crisis, and then the resolution of the crisis, and then the sequel to the crisis. And in that way, we did, I trust, justice to all, all of the main factors, as well as the main actors, in this particular chapter of the Word of God. As we ran out of time, I just began to underscore some of the major lessons contained in the passage.

2:51 We had time only to consider one of those lessons, the lesson of verse 20, in which we are reminded of the unchanging basis of God's gracious dealings with His people, this entire incident of God's delivering power, came to pass, the text says, at the time of the offering of the oblation. That is, at the precise time that a sacrifice was being offered back in Jerusalem, God came forth to the deliverance of His people, reminding them that His gracious deliverance was based upon that redemptive work, so beautifully, typified in the offering up of the daily sacrifice. Now, tonight, we want to proceed and to consider some of the other major lessons contained in this portion of the Word of God. Now, as I introduce these lessons, I want to underscore the fact that it is both right and necessary to treat the Word of God in this way. In other words, these historical sections must not only be viewed, but also be understood.

4:04 As segments of this great redemptive conflict, we must view them in that light, but they must also be viewed as setting before us a visual commentary on the great principles of God's government, as setting forth illustrations of God's attributes, of underscoring something of the ways of God with men. In other words, as God is working out this tremendous warfare with the seed of the serpent, He is all along the way dropping hints as to how He will govern His people, how He will provide for His people. In short, all of the great principles of God's dealings with men in this great conflict are set before us in concrete illustrations. And therefore, it is not enough for us to read the Old Testament history and simply discover what God is doing to preserve the seed of the woman, to advance the cause of redemption, but we must, in the language of 1 Corinthians 10-11, recognize that these things are also written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the age have come. They are not only written to give us this vivid display

5:32 of God's mighty power, in the ongoing purposes of redemption, they are written that we who stand at this point in time might be admonished and warned and instructed by specific lessons in the Christian life. Or in the language of 2 Timothy 3-16, all Scripture is inspired of God and is also profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, which is in righteousness. Now, it's been long enough to see the tragedy of men and whole groups of people coming down exclusively on one or the other of these two categories by which Old Testament history is understood and applied to the people of God. There are some who never pause to see the relationship of the specific incident to the broad scope of God's redemptive work, and they miss a tremendous thing when they see the tragedy of God. And they miss a tremendous thing when they simply read Old Testament history as a sort of verbal photography album, album in which you have pictures of this individual and that individual, but no necessary connection between all of those individuals. Now, it's a tragedy when the Word of God is handled that way.

6:53 And some seeing that tragedy have said, a plague on your principles of handling the Old Testament history. They say what we must see is the word, the work of God in redemption. We must understand everything in the light of the ongoing flow of God's redemptive workings. And so every sermon from the Old Testament is a study in redemptive history, in what some would call a biblical theological perspective.

7:21 Well, that's proper and right, but that's not the whole. And some seeing how sterile that ministry can be, and the fact that it seldom has any real application to the consciences of the Bible, to the consciences of the Bible, to the consciences of the Bible, to the consciences of the Bible, to the consciences of the believers who sit under that ministry. Wonderful things are run before them like a beautiful picture, and they admire it, but nothing ever develops tentacles and wraps itself around their own hearts and consciences. Well, some seeing that react and say, no, these things are written for our admonition.

7:52 All Scripture is profitable for reproof, for correction, for instruction. And so the only way they handle these passages is to extract the principles of application and, in a sense, the particular chapter could be found in Kings, Chronicles, Genesis, it wouldn't make any difference in terms of the way they handle it. Now, neither of those positions is right in itself. And what we as your elders long for you as a congregation to have is a balanced, whole approach to the Word of God.

8:24 Well, last week the emphasis was upon the former. What is God doing at this point in the history of redemption to preserve the secret? The seed of the woman. Now, tonight we're going to handle the passage in the light of 1 Corinthians 10-11.

Lesson 1: A Vivid Display of Jehovah's Faithfulness

8:40 We're going to extract the moral and ethical and religious lessons that are here deposited for our prophet as the people of God. Come then and examine with me some of these major lessons. And the first one is this. This passage sets before us what I am calling a vivid display of Jehovah's faithfulness.

9:06 A vivid display of Jehovah's faithfulness. When all is said and done, who is the real hero of this chapter of the Word of God?

9:21 Would we say that the hero is Jehoram, this wicked man who though not quite as grossly wicked as his father, is nonetheless an idolater, nonetheless, a man whose religious scruples, whatever they are, seem to be primarily oriented to political ends. Surely he's not the hero of the passage. You remember the prophet said, if it were not for the presence of another king, I wouldn't give you the time of the day.

9:52 Well, surely the hero is not Jehoshaphat, a godly king, but in this situation, in a very compromising circumstance. He's entered into a league with this ungodly idolater named Jehoram. Surely he's not the hero of the passage.

10:11 And surely Elisha is not the hero. For all he did was deliver what was given. You remember in the reading tonight, it was said that the Lord came upon him. Jehovah came upon him.

10:23 The hand of the Lord came upon him. And he said, so in that sense, you see, he made no personal contribution. The hand of the Lord came. And with that, the word of the Lord came.

10:35 He simply delivered the word of God. And the real hero of this passage is Jehovah himself. Now again, try to use your imagination and consider with me what it must have been like after the complete destruction or defeat of the Moabites and the Israelites returned to their homes. Imagine what it was like the first night these soldiers were home in the family circle.

11:01 And they gathered their children about them. And one little lad looks up and says, Daddy, tell me what happened out there at the battle yesterday. And he said, son, well, it was something like this. You remember we left about eight or nine days ago.

11:16 Well, after we had left, we had great visions of a quick conquest of the Moabites. We joined arms with the armies of Judah and with the armies of Edom. And as we went out, we were filled with the sense that there was enough of us to beat them down and drive them back and to bring them into submission again. But after we'd been out for two or three days, our water supplies were gone.

11:42 And when we went to the places where we expected to find streams and pools and oases, there were none. And we began to feel the pinch of thirst until on the fifth and sixth day the situation began to be desperate. And then, as the scripture says here, on the seventh day, one could begin to see the camels beginning to drop to their knees and the other beast of burden no longer able to be driven. We begin to see men staggering under the pressure of the thirst and under the discomfort of the burning sun in that desert area or in that wilderness area.

12:21 About that time, you can just picture the eyes of the little kid and say, Daddy, Daddy, what happened? How did you get water? And then Daddy would say, Well, son, a strange thing happened. Our king left us for a brief period of time and when he came back, he commanded us to use whatever remaining strength we had to dig ditches right out there in the middle of that situation.

12:44 Well, Daddy, did you dig the ditches? Yes, we did. And then we were commanded to go to our beds. And we were told that there was a word from Jehovah telling us that water would fill the land by the morning and that we would defeat the Moabites.

13:00 Well, Daddy, what happened? Well, son, you can't believe it, but it happened. In the morning when we were awakened early, we went out. And to our amazement, all of the trenches that we had dug the day before were filled with water.

13:15 And you should have seen this, son. We jumped in clothes and all and we hooped and we hollered and we splashed the water upon one another and the animals drank and assuaged their thirst. Well, Daddy, where did the water come from?

13:30 Son, we're not exactly sure, but we heard no wind. We felt no rain. All we know is that it came suddenly somewhere from the way of Edom. Perhaps, son, Bob caused thunderstorms way up in the mountains of Edom, out of sight and beyond, earshot.

13:52 But all we know, son, is this. The trenches were full of water according to the word of Jehovah. Son, the real hero of that day was the God of our fathers, the God against whom we have wickedly sinned by turning to idols, son, the real hero on the battlefield that day was Jehovah, great God of the covenant. Yes, Daddy, but what about the Moabites?

14:22 You had your first problem met, but what happened with the Moabites? Well, son, a strange thing happened. We had no sooner quenched our thirst and met the need of our animals and retreated into camp when a strange thing happened. Well, Daddy, what happened?

14:39 Tell me, tell me. Well, we saw the Moabites coming toward us, but they had no swords, they had no spears, they had no staves, they had no shields. They had none of their cruel implements of war which we so dreaded in the flesh. They came merely with beasts of burden as though they were thinking to come to our camp and carry away the spoils.

15:01 Well, what did you do, Daddy? Well, at the signal of our kings, we set upon them and we slaughtered them left, right, and center and we beat them back into their cities right to the very walls of some of their greatest cities of strength. Well, Daddy, why in the world did the Moabites ever come that way? Well, son, we captured several of them and we inquired of them and you know what they told us?

15:27 They told us that when they got up in the morning and they looked out in the direction of our camp, they saw the trenches and assumed that those trenches were full of blood and assumed that our kings had turned against one another and had set the armies of Israel and Judah and of Edom against one another and assuming that we had all been killed by each other, they came into the camp thinking that they were going to take the spoil. Well, Daddy, you've told me that the Moabites are good soldiers, fierce soldiers, wise soldiers. How is it that they never sent out any scouts, Daddy? How is it that they didn't check first?

16:07 Son, I have no answer for that. But that Jehovah, was king on the battlefield that day. Now, is it unthinkable that an incident like that would have gone on in many a home there in Israel? Of course not.

16:25 Human nature has not changed. And when wives kissed a husband goodbye and tearful little sons and daughters waved goodbye to a daddy who was going off to war with the cruel Moabites, there was that same kind of anxiety that a mother and a wife and children feel when they see a man who is a man of God and they send a son or a daughter, a son or a husband off to battle in our day. And so God was demonstrating to the entire nation, particularly that northern kingdom, which under the leadership of Ahab had gone so tragically into the apostasy of Baal worship, and now under the leadership of Jehoram had some kind of a living retreat from that widespread Baal worship, but was still involved in the calf, worship at Bethel and at Dan, that wicked form of idolatry established under Jeroboam I. And you see, God was manifesting in the midst of this situation His own unfailing faithfulness to His people. And so I say that this passage does indeed present us with a vivid display of Jehovah's faithfulness, to His own.

17:47 And as then, so now, we as the people of God stand in circumstances very similar to God's ancient people in this particular passage. What is our hope? That the church will continue to exist and that the church will ultimately conquer in spite of all of its sin, in spite of its failure, in spite of the aggregate power of its enemies, for you see, our hope does not rest upon the shoulders of any of its leaders, and certainly it does not rest upon our own arm of flesh, but the Lord Jesus Himself has said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And you see, our confidence that God's purposes with regard to the seed of the woman, that purpose that envisions nothing less than a great multitude out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue and nation, redeemed by the blood of Christ, called and sanctified by the Spirit, and ultimately brought home safely to glory, you see, our confidence that that promise will be fulfilled does not rest upon the faithfulness of anyone who is a part of that redeemed body, but it is a part of the faithfulness of God. But it is a part of the faithfulness of God. But it is a part of the faithfulness of God.

19:16 And it rests down upon the faithfulness of the living God Himself. And as His ancient people needed this display of Jehovah's faithfulness as a bulwark to faith, and particularly now, remember that at this time there was that godly remnant. The Lord announced this to Elijah just a few years before. I have reserved 7,000 that have not bowed the knee to Baal.

19:43 What did that remnant need to understand? They too would hear the news of this story. They too would hear of the plight of the people of God in their thirst. They too would hear of the mighty deliverance that God wrought from the hand of the Moabites.

20:00 And they would understand if these blinded, besotten idol-worshippers would not understand and could perceive nothing more than that their skin had been spared for another time. Surely, the godly remnant whose hearts, whose hearts were broken by the idolatry, whose spirits were cast down in the face of the apparent widespread departure from truth and who wondered no doubt again and again, will the seed of the woman ever come and crush the serpent's head? What encouragement they would receive at this wonderful display of the faithfulness of Jehovah. And my dear fellow Christians, as we look, out into the situation in the church, some of us find that at times our hearts sink and are broken with grief. When we read of the methods and message that are proclaimed and implemented in the name of biblical Christianity, when we think of the confusion that exists, the trumpet sounds no certain note. When we look beyond the church into the state of our own country with its widespread turning away from all of the basic canons of decency and stability and order and becoming, as it were, a nation that is just drunk with its own pride

21:29 and mad and wild with its pursuit of carnal lust and the fulfillment of the baser passions. Are there not times when we just wonder where in the world will it all end? My friend, it's in such circumstances that we need to remember that the cause of God rests ultimately with God Himself.

21:52 It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. Great is thy faithfulness. And our confidence in the faithfulness of God should be strengthened when we read a passage such as this and the opening words confront us. And Jehoram, what was he like?

22:15 He was one, he was one, one who cleaved to the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat. What can you expect but judgment in a time when sin, as it were, entrenches itself from the very throne of Israel? And yet this chapter contains a narrative of the mighty deliverances of God, even with a king like that sitting on a throne. Why?

22:41 Because God is faithful. God is faithful. And He has committed Himself and has set for Himself a purpose, a plan to execute, and nothing will hinder Him in the accomplishment of the same. Well, we hasten on to the second great lesson that is in the passage, and I suggest that the portion we've looked at not only sets before us a vivid display of Jehovah's faithfulness, but a fascinating display of Jehovah's sovereignty.

Lesson 2: A Fascinating Display of Jehovah's Sovereignty

23:18 A fascinating display of Jehovah's sovereignty. Again and again, God declared in the Old Testament to His people the fact of His unrivaled enthronement as God. Perhaps one of the most wonderful texts in all of the Old Testament concerning the sovereignty of God is Psalm 115 and verse 3. Our God is in the heavens.

23:44 He hath done whatsoever. He hath pleased. Now remember how this issue is again to the fore in the face of this Baal worship and also in the face of the worship of the God of the Moabites, Chemosh or Chemosh.

24:07 Now go back to the living room of an Israelite the night after this conquest of the Moabites.

24:17 And here the children have gone to bed and a wife is left alone with her husband. And she says to him, Dear, tell me something of the facts of how you conquered the Moabites. And so he runs by the facts as we've given them to you in this passage as they've been read in your hearing about the presence of Elisha and the command to dig the trenches and all the rest. And then as a wife will often do, she'll begin to ask questions.

24:44 And she'll say, But dear, hold it a minute. Just a minute now. You say Elisha was there and one of the servants of the king knew about it. Why was Elisha there?

24:57 And he says, Dear, I'm not quite sure about the answer to that question. And so he goes on in his narrative of what happened. And she says, Excuse me, dear. You say Jehoshaphat was there.

25:08 Why did godly Jehoshaphat ever consent to go out to battle with our king Jehoram knowing that he was a worshipper of the false gods, the calf set up at Bethel and at Dan? And the poor man says, Again, as husbands often have to do in the presence of questions their wives ask them, Well, I'm not sure, dear. And so he goes on with the narrative. And then she says, Oh, excuse me, dear.

25:34 Why did it rain, if indeed it did, on the distant mountains in Edom that night at the precise place that would allow the water to make its way into the camp at the time of the morning sacrifice? How come? Why did it rain at such a distance that the Moabites had no thought that any rain had come? So when they see moisture, they assume it cannot be water.

25:59 It must be blood. Why, dear? By this time, he's really plucking at his beard very nervously saying, You've got more questions than a cat's got lives, dear. Will you let me finish the story?

26:10 So he goes on and then she interrupts him again and she says, But, dear, you've told me time and time again about the military prowess of the Moabites. Why did they not send out someone to do a little reconnoitering? Why didn't they send out someone to check things? Why did they just come blundering into the camp?

26:31 Well, you see, about this time, if he begins to think like a true Israelite, he would say, Well, dear, I believe our godly King David had an answer to this. Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

26:52 In other words, the answer to every one of those questions, questions that are very logical questions, the answer is God is displaying his absolute sovereignty in this great battlefield situation. And the amazing thing is that in all of these circumstances, everything seems to be, quote, just happening, operating by natural laws.

27:25 You see, God doesn't do anything that on the surface of things is a great interruption between of the natural order of things.

27:34 Everything seems to be, quote, just happening.

27:39 Elisha is, quote, just there. God didn't have him come riding in in a heavenly chariot, you know, right in the middle of the camp and everyone, Ooh, look!

27:48 He could have, if he took Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, he could have dropped Elisha out of heaven in one. No big deal for God.

27:59 He just happens to be there. And it just happens that one of the servants of the King knows about it. When even the King is ignorant of the fact. Strange happening.

28:10 And it just happens that Jehoshaphat compromises and goes on out to battle with this evil King. And it just happens that the Kings look at the precise time when the rays of the sun are dancing off that water in the trenches. And it just happens that the dirt in that area is reddish in color so that what they think they see is blood. And it just happens that they're so confused and so confident that they throw aside all military caution and run to their own slaughter.

28:43 It just happens, happens, happens, happens. But who's behind all of those happenings? An almighty, sovereign God in such perfect control that He tells us exactly what's going to happen before it does. And that's the marvel of prophecy.

29:02 Every prophecy is an assertion of the absolute sovereignty of Jehovah. For in the fulfillment, in the fulfillment of that prophecy, there are generally dozens and hundreds of strands that must all come together at the same time and at the right place if the prophecy is ever to be fulfilled.

29:22 And God says, that's no big job for me. So behind all of this, God is orchestrating the whole scene. Isn't that a marvelous thing? I say it's a fascinating display of Jehovah's sovereignty governing the ecology.

29:36 Why in the world did the streams dry up at that particular time of the year, right at that particular time of the month? So that there was a mini drought right when the armies of Israel and Edom are out to take on the army of Moab. Why was there an ecological condition that probably caused rain high up in the mountains of Edom so that water would come not by way of the Moabites, they would have seen it, but by way of Edom. The text is careful to point that out.

30:11 Water came, by the way of Edom.

30:16 Why was it not a cloudy morning so that no sun would be there to shine off the water? My friend, can you read all of this and just say, oh, that just happens? No, no. God is displaying that He is the sovereign God and in particular, remember, Baal was supposedly the God of productivity, the God of the earth, the God who controlled the elements.

30:41 And so the miracles under Elisha and Elijah again and again touch on those elements of the natural order where God is carrying on His conflict with Baal saying, I am God! Baal is no God.

30:57 And then to add to the fascination of this element of divine sovereignty, you not only have God doing all these things, doing them in a way that appears on the surface of things, very natural, but think of all of the purposes that He's accomplishing in the midst of that. With the same set of circumstances, He's preserving the seed of the woman in that great battle of which this is just a lesser battle. He's preserving the seed of the woman. Christ in that sense is still in the womb of Israel and Judah.

31:31 They must be preserved until He is brought into the world. He's punishing the wicked and rebellious king of Moab and all his rebellious subjects. He's rebuking and humbling a wicked, impartially reformed king of Israel named Jehoram. You remember what the prophet said to him?

31:50 He rebuked him. He's humbling him. And then he's chastising as well as commending the godly king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, saying it's because of his presence that I'm going to show mercy. While at the same time, Jehoshaphat felt the thirst as well as all the others.

32:07 So he's rebuked with fatherly chastisement while commended with fatherly love. And then he exalts and honors his servant Elijah not only in the eyes now of the entire nation, the northern and the southern kingdom, but also in the eyes of the heathen as well. Now all of that is under even a greater canopy of concern. This sovereign God is vindicating his claims as Jehovah.

32:38 Not only against the Baal worship of Israel, but against the worship of Chemosh, God of the Moabites. Do you take any comfort in reading a passage like that? Oh, my dear fellow Christians, amidst the seemingly tangled web of our own individual lives, what do we need to know? We need to come to renewed conviction concerning the fact that God is at work wisely and powerfully ordering and disposing all things for our good and for his glory.

33:17 We come back to our old standby text, Romans 8, 28, and we know, do you know, as a matter of conviction, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose. Look at your life tonight, sitting there. It seems to be a tangled web of nonsensical and illogical details.

33:49 Yes, that's what it seems like it is to you. Do you have the faith to say without one strand being untangled, this is a beautiful work of art to the eye of God?

34:03 Hmm?

34:06 Suppose you had been one of that 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal, one of the true Israelites who was out there in those armies, and you go forth with a burning zeal that Jehovah will be vindicated against the Moabites, and seven days later your tongue is out there and your body is hanging out, your mouth is swollen and dry, and you seem to be on the verge of death. Would it take an act of faith to believe that Jehovah was on his throne?

34:35 It was easy to believe when your head was ducked under the water and you were hooping and hollering like a kid on Christmas morning. That took no faith.

34:46 But to believe when you felt the pangs of thirst that our God is in the heavens, all things are working together for good. And you see, it was good. It was good. It was good.

34:57 It was good. It was good. It was good. It was good.

34:57 It was good. It humbled the king. It caused him to confess how empty was Ith worship. For when the prophet taunted him and said, Hey, go call in the gods of your father and your mother.

35:08 He says, Nay, not in this situation. No, these gods are helpless when you really got your back against the wall. Things were working together for good. The very thing a godly Israelite longed to see.

35:21 The king in Israel acknowledging Jehovah as God. God has to use a seeming tragedy to bring it to pass. And right through the passage, my friend, can you, sitting where you are tonight, looking at what seems to you to be a tangled mess, an illogical, irrational web of circumstances, can you say, Oh God, I do believe, I will believe that all things are working together for my good. And what is true of us individually is true of us as a church.

36:07 I know, for many of you, this lengthy trial through which God has put us in connection with the building has been a real source of irritation. For some of you, it's been an occasion of being tempted to unbelief. You've been tempted to go restive under the leadership of your elders and deacons. Some of you saying somewhere along the line they've missed it.

36:30 I wasn't born yesterday. I know what some of you are thinking. I know what some of you are struggling with. You know how I know?

36:37 Because my heart's made of the same stuff yours is.

36:43 But what is God saying to us as a church? Well, among the many things, no doubt, He's saying this is one of them. Do we believe in the absolute sovereignty of God? Be in control of all the factors that continue to keep our backs to the wall with respect to having a more permanent and adequate place of dwelling as a body of His people.

37:10 Well, I must confess that my one resting place again and again has been this very truth. This God is our God forever and ever and He will be our guide even unto death. Look beyond your own individual life, beyond those things in our own life as a church. What is the sense of the bloodshed, the war, the rattling of sabers on the border of Vietnam and China?

37:40 Why God? Why? Why God? It's not us, our responsibility to ask that question.

37:52 It is to believe that in a world that seems to be nothing but a tangled mess, Almighty God is working out His sovereign will. If you could have been dropped down on the field of battle that day from outer space and you saw Israelites chasing Moabites and hacking and hewing and seeing dead bodies strewn all over the place and then the world of devastation and destruction that we read about in the end of the chapter when they heat stones upon all the fertile land and they rooted up the trees, you'd say in the name of common sense, what in the world is happening? And if someone said, Almighty God is carrying out His purposes of redemption, you'd have scratched your head and said, what kind of God is that? Amidst all this gore and bloodshed and bloated bodies, what in the world is all of this? Well, my friend, it all makes sense when you read, when the fullness of the times was come, God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the law that He might redeem men that were under the law.

39:05 If you've been a visitor from outer space, dropped down in Palestine some 2,000 years ago and stood before a gory, shocking scene in which there was a naked man hung up on a piece of wood and his face was beaten and bruised and his body soaked and caked in his own blood.

39:32 And if you could have seen him taunted and mocked and jeered and asked the question, what is the sense of all of this? If an angel from heaven said, my visitor, friend from another planet, this is the focal point of human history. Eternity pivots on what you see. He would have said, it makes no sense.

39:59 The cross is the most irrational act in all of human history when viewed in isolation from all of the realities that lead to it, flow from it, and that stand behind it in the realm of the Spirit.

40:17 Do you see the point that I'm pressing? When we read a passage like this, such as this, God is giving us a display of his sovereignty, one that in its outworking appears to be so irrational when viewed in isolation, but one which in the perspective of that which God unfolds subsequently in his word, that which he unfolds previously, does indeed make sense in the times coming when we shall know, even as we are known.

40:57 And we, in the language of Murray McShane, when we stand with Christ in glory looking o'er life's finished story, then, Lord, shall we fully know, not till then, how much we are. Can you believe that God is absolutely sovereign in the face of all that is happening in the world,

41:20 all that is happening in the life, ministry of this assembly, and all that is happening in the universe of your own little life?

41:31 Lest to some degree you come to that God-given ability to say whatever happens, God is upon his throne doing what he pleases. You will never come to any real stability as a Christian. But then finally,

Lesson 3: A Forceful Display of Jehovah's Strategy

41:51 I would direct your attention to this passage as it sets forth not only a vivid display of Jehovah's faithfulness, a fascinating display of Jehovah's sovereignty, but a forceful display of Jehovah's strategy. And I didn't know what other word to use. A forceful display of Jehovah's strategy. We may well ask the question, if God purposed to preserve the armies of Israel and Judah and of Edom from a drought and death by thirst, why did he not simply order the events so that the water supplies held up?

42:32 Wouldn't that have been just as easy for God? Why did he bring them to that point of extremity? Is he capricious in his dealings? Did he drop a thread and forget about the water supplies in that part of his world for a few days and then say, oh, whoa, I just see they're in a fix, I'd better bail them out?

42:55 No, no. Furthermore, if God purposed the defeat of the Moabites, why did he not simply make the Israelites mighty in battle as he had done so many times in their previous history? When there was no unusual intervention, when God simply enabled one to put a thousand to flight and two to put ten thousand to flight? Well, you see, the answer lies in recognizing one of the major principles of God's strategy with his own.

43:24 And perhaps nowhere is that principle more succinctly stated than in 2 Corinthians 12, 12. The apostle recognizes this principle in God's dealings with him. And he says in that well-known passage, the biography of Paul's thorn in the flesh, 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 10, Wherefore I take pleasures in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong. Or the principle, as it's enunciated back in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 9, Yea, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead. You see what the apostle is saying? It is only when I am brought to the point of conscious, felt weakness and dependantness that I am in the way of being a true candidate for the mighty operations of divine power. Now this is one of the Lord's strategies with his people.

44:53 We considered it earlier in our study in 1 Corinthians 1. He takes the weak things to confound the mighty. And the things that are not to bring to naught the things that are that no flesh should glory before him. And here we see God doing it again.

45:11 Why does he allow the water supply to dry up? Or why does he order the drying up of the water supply? That the people might be brought to the point of desperation for when they were then they began to seek a word from God. There is no indication that they called for the prophet of God, God's representative in Israel.

45:33 Before they went out to battle, they went out in presumptive self-confidence and in their aggregate strength. We'll knock these boys right off the battlefield. We've got the three armies. There'll be no match for us.

45:49 And God says, you think so, huh? Now what are three mighty armies? With everyone with his tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth. A pretty weak bunch of patsies.

46:02 God says, I'll bring you to felt weakness. I'll bring you to have the sentence of death in yourself that you will not trust in yourselves. But in God who raised up the dead. You see the desperate plight weaned them of all hope in themselves and this drove them to God.

46:24 And God came and manifested his power and so secured his own glory. Now child of God, if you don't come to grips with this principle of God's strategy with his own people, you'll always have a hankering and a yearning and a longing that somehow, somewhere things will get better. And you'll get a little breathing space. Don't grow weary, child of God, of the things that hedge you up and press you down and make you consciously weak.

47:00 These are reflections of God's merciful dealings with you. He knocks out all human props not to dash us to the ground but to make us feel the strength of the everlasting arms that are beneath us. And as long as we've got lots of padding of our own strength between us and his arm, we don't know what it is experimentally to be upheld by the felt awareness of that arm. And I'm convinced personally this is why earnest Christians end up in false teaching with regard to theories of the Christian life.

47:40 At the core of those theories of Christian living that appeal to earnest Christians is this common denominator. There's an easier way. There's a way in which the struggle will no longer be as intense. The conflict will not rage so fiercely.

48:05 And if you read the books of the so-called deeper life or higher life or charismatic experience, all of them have this common denominator of offering deliverance from the reality and the pinch of the struggle. All of them. Without exception. Whether they use the terminology of getting a baptism in the spirit that lifts you above the flesh or an experience of reckoning and yielding that gets you out of Romans 7 into Romans 8, the terminology on the surface may be as different as night from day.

48:44 But down underneath there is that itch to somehow get in a position where God is not constantly battering me down, to teach me how weak I am, that I might learn what it is to rest only upon His arm. Now if this is a lesson that could be learned once for all, then why didn't the great apostle learn it once for all? He says, We who live are continually delivered unto death. He says, My life history is a history of being hedged up and boxed in and shut up to despair.

49:28 When I am weak, am I strong. Now my friends, if one so advanced in grace as the apostle Paul never in that sense got out of Romans 7 into Romans 8, who in the world do you think you are? We live concurrently in Romans 6, 7 and 8. If we are believers, we have some knowledge of that radical break with the dominion of sin spoken of in Romans 6.

50:00 If we have laid hold of God's offer of mercy in Christ, we know something of the dimension of the Spirit's liberating power, of His leading, of His witness to our sonship of Romans 8. But concurrent with those realities is the painful awareness of the struggle and the conflict of the latter part of Romans 7. But that's wearisome, isn't it? Well, the apostle said he knew that wearisome pressure.

50:32 He used this language in 2 Corinthians 5. We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, longing to put on our habitation from heaven. Well, here in 2 Kings 3 is a vivid display on the military battlefield of this strategy of God with His people. It's celebrated in such psalms as the 107th Psalm.

51:01 You remember? Again and again, God brings His people down, down, down, until in their desperation they cry and the Lord delivers them. And then they become carnally confident and God brings them down, down, down, until they cry to Him again in their despair. Well, you see, my dear Christian friend, that's the pattern of God's dealings.

51:25 That's why He says count it all joy when you have what? A glorious experience that puts you above tribulation? No, He says count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. Tribulation, work, and patience.

Application: Embracing God's Strategy and Thirsting for Christ

51:42 Now, you better stop arguing with God and telling Him you don't like the method He's decided He's going to use to cause you to grow in grace. Could it be you who sit here tonight, strangers to the grace of God, that this is exactly what the Lord is doing with some of you? You see, no sinner will ever drink of the water of life until he's made thirsty. Now, your thirst is not the warrant to drink.

52:10 The warrant to drink is that God commands and offers you the water of life. But in reality, you never will drink until you're thirsty. And perhaps there's some of you whom God is making thirsty. Thirst is not a pleasant sensation.

52:28 But God says if any man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink. And as long as you're satisfied drinking at the fountains of your own carnal pleasure, your own earthly pursuits, you'll never drink of the water of life. Perhaps some of you even now are angry with God. Everything you put to your lips and that others seem to drink to their pleasure when put to your lips, there's no satisfaction.

52:58 My friend, don't be angry with God. Thank Him. For those who find sufficient satisfaction at earthly fountains in this life will know what it is to cry with the rich man in hell in the life to come. Give me a drop of water for I am tormented in these flames.

53:22 It's a merciful thing to God for God to make you thirsty. And if I speak to some unconverted man or woman sitting here tonight who's begun to feel something of that thirst, oh, I would point you to this great, faithful, sovereign, gracious God of 2 Kings 3, the God who is so determined to show mercy to sinners that He is here on the battlefield preserving the seed of a woman that in due time Christ might come, born of a woman, to be the Savior of all who will come and put their trust in Him. Oh, may God grant that if you sense something of that thirst, even this night you will come to Him and drink. Well, God willing, in our next study, we'll go back again to this passage and consider what it teaches us in a very vivid, and I think the only word to use is ugly, an ugly display of the power of sin, the chapters full of graphic descriptions of what sin is and what sin does. And again, God has given us that picture that seeing the ugliness of our sin, we might flee to Him who alone can forgive and cleanse us

Conclusion and Prayer

54:46 and break the power of sin over us. Let us pray. Our Father, we are indeed grateful that we have the Scriptures as a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. And we thank You that You have not only declared to us in clear statements that You are faithful, that You are sovereign, but we bless You for these vivid pictures of that sovereignty and of that faithfulness.

55:27 And we pray that You will take the things upon which we have meditated this night and write them upon our hearts to our mutual prophet and to Your own everlasting praise. How we thank You for Your faithfulness. O Lord, we marvel at Your patience with Your people, not only Your ancient people Israel, but Your patience with us. O Lord, we bless and praise You tonight.

55:57 We find ourselves at a loss for words to express the gratitude we feel in our hearts when we think of all that You have borne with us, Your people. Do have mercy upon us and fill us with renewed confidence that You are upon Your throne. And though the mountains shake and be cast into the heart of the sea, may we be able to say with the psalmist, we will not fear. We thank You that You are in the midst of Your church.

56:36 We pray now that You will seal to our hearts the word preached this day and give us grace so to live and walk that others may see that indeed our lives are regulated by a hope of which they are utterly ignorant and to which they are complete strangers. And may we even in the coming week have the joy of giving a reason of the hope that is in us. Hear our prayer and receive our thanks for Your presence with us this day. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

57:15 Amen.