Daily Devotional on 2 Kings 3
After Ahab’s death, the small kingdom of Moab stops paying its heavy
tribute to Israel. Jehoram, Ahab’s son, gathers Judah’s godly king
Jehoshaphat and the vassal king of Edom for a three–king campaign.
Archaeology lights up the page here. The famous Mesha
Stele (9th century BC, now in the Louvre) is Moab’s own record
of this same struggle. King Mesha boasts that his god
Chemosh gave him victory over Israel and that he
rebuilt towns the Bible also names (Nebo, Medeba, Dibon). Scripture and
stone, standing side by side, confirm the event and invite us to see the
spiritual war beneath the political one.
The coalition army chooses the desert route south of the Dead Sea—a
week with no water and nothing but rocks. Drought on the ground exposes
drought in the heart:
• Jehoram blames the Lord (v.10).
• Jehoshaphat seeks the Lord (v.11).
Western readers may miss how shameful it was in the ancient Near East
for a king to enter battle without first consulting his god. Jehoram’s
neglect signals spiritual drift.
Cross-references: Exodus 14:10-18; Jeremiah 2:13; James 1:5-8.
Elisha refuses to speak unless a “minstrel” plays
(v.15, Hebrew nagen, a stringed harp). Music and prophecy often
meet in Scripture (1 Samuel 10:5; 1 Chronicles 25:1-3). The gentle sound
stills the camp so the “hand of the LORD” (Hebrew idiom for overpowering
inspiration) can rest on Elisha.
The oracle is odd:
1. Dig trenches.
2. No wind, no rain—yet valleys will fill with
water.
3. This is “an easy thing” for God (v.18).
Faith must sweat before it drinks; they must dig before they see.
Suggested hymn: “Fill Thou My Life, O Lord My God” (Horatius Bonar, 1866) — a song that links ordinary labor with the presence of God.
At sunrise the water gleams like blood against the red hills of Edom.
Moab shouts, “The kings have slain each other!” and rushes in
disarray. Divine provision becomes divine strategy.
Literary note: Hebrew poetry likes wordplay with color. The noun
dam (blood) sits inside adom (red/Edom). The writer
hints, “The redness of Edom looked like the redness of blood.”
Cross-references: 2 Chronicles 20:22-25 (another misperceived battle); Isaiah 63:1-6 (red garments in judgment).
When driven back to Kir-hareseth, Mesha sacrifices his eldest son on
the city wall—public, desperate, demonic. Chemosh demands what the
living God later gives of Himself in Christ.
“Great wrath” (Hebrew qetsef gadol) then falls “upon Israel,”
and they retreat. Scholars differ:
• Some read it as righteous disgust in Israel’s own troops—horror halts
the siege.
• Others see Moab’s renewed fury, “divine” or psychological.
• Early church fathers, always looking to Christ, read it as a warning:
false sacrifice cannot advance God’s kingdom.
• Gregory Nazianzen (4th c.) saw in the trenches “a symbol of the
receptive heart: empty yourself, and God will fill you.”
• John Calvin warned that Jehoram’s presence almost cost Judah the
blessing—“Unholy alliances choke the channel of grace.”
• Charles Spurgeon loved the phrase “Make this valley full of ditches”
(Morning & Evening, 24 June), urging his readers to prepare great
capacity for great mercy.
Digging ditches looks foolish in a drought. Obedience often feels
like that: praying again when answers stay silent, giving generously
when budgets are tight, forgiving while wounds still sting. The chapter
whispers, “Move the shovel, and watch the dawn.”
Questions for reflection:
1. Where is God asking me to dig before I see?
2. Are any alliances draining spiritual moisture from my life?
3. How can I let worship (the minstrel’s harp) tune my ears to God’s
voice this week?
Psalm 63; Isaiah 41:17-20; 1 Peter 1:18-21; Revelation 7:16-17.
Lord of streams in the wasteland,
teach us to hollow out space in our anxious valleys.
Silence us with simple songs until Your hand rests on us.
Fill every trench of need with Your living water;
turn the redness of battle into the blush of dawn.
Keep us from false sacrifices and half-hearted trust.
For Jesus’ sake, Amen.