Pools of Faith

2 Kings 3:1-20 
1 In the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned twelve years. 2 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, though not like his father and mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made. 3 Nevertheless, he clung to the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin; he did not depart from it.
4 Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder, and he had to deliver to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. 5 But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. 6 So King Jehoram marched out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel. 7 And he went and sent word to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to battle against Moab?” And he said, “I will go. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” 8 Then he said, “By which way shall we march?” Jehoram answered, “By the way of the wilderness of Edom.” 9 So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. And when they had made a circuitous march of seven days, there was no water for the army or for the animals that followed them. 10 Then the king of Israel said, “Alas! The Lord has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.” 11 And Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here, through whom we may inquire of the Lord?” Then one of the king of Israel’s servants answered, “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” 12 And Jehoshaphat said, “The word of the Lord is with him.” So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. 13 And Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother.” But the king of Israel said to him, “No; it is the Lord who has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.” 14 And Elisha said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor see you. 15 But now bring me a musician.” And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him. 16 And he said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘I will make this dry streambed full of pools.’ 17 For thus says the Lord, ‘You shall not see wind or rain, but that streambed shall be filled with water, so that you shall drink, you, your livestock, and your animals.’ 18 This is a light thing in the sight of the Lord. He will also give the Moabites into your hand, 19 and you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree and stop up all springs of water and ruin every good piece of land with stones.” 20 The next morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice, behold, water came from the direction of Edom, till the country was filled with water.

Such a challenging time in which the Old Testament people lived! If you don't bring tribute to the king such as he expects, he may just march into your country and kill all of your people! Sometimes we struggle with those attitudes and choices because we're not quite like that - most of the time. Disrupt our oil supply and and we tend to get a little testy. (Oops. This is not a political blog, but a spiritual one - sorry.)

Anyway, here we have a story about 3 kings joining their forces together to take out an offending king. The kings of Israel and Judah combine (for once) with the king of Edom to attack the offending king of Moab. They choose to go at Moab from the desert, rather than a frontal assult over the river. This puts them in a better position tactically. But - the desert is dry and they run out of water before they are able to carry out their plan. Now that they're in trouble, they seek God's help via Elisha. Naturally, Elisha is ready to deny them and tells them to go to their own gods. But, out of respect for the King of Judah, he helps them. God tells Elisha (and he tells the kings) that water will indeed be provided and without cloud or storm! And they are to prepare for this supply by digging pools or collection spots for that water before it arrives. They are expect to act with faith that what God said He would do will happen. I'll bet some of those soldiers thought this was a stupid activity if they were not believers in the True God. But, they obeyed their leaders and the pools were dug. The best line of the passage is verse 18 where Elisha tells the kings that "this is a light thing in the sight of the Lord." In other words, that's going to be a easy day for God if all He has to do is produce a little water!

When we ask God to help us, do we prepare to be helped? There is the old story of the rural area that was struggling under severe drought. The pastor of the local congregation declared that there would be a special service of prayer and petition before the Lord begging Him to have mercy and send rain upon the land. The people gathered into the church at the appointed hour and the pastor stood before the people and told them that the service was cancelled. They were shocked! Why would he cancel the prayer meeting? He told them that they were clearly a faithless people and that prayer would be a waste of time, for not one of them brought an umbrella. They didn't really believe God would ease their drought with rain. It's an old story, but it makes a great point. When we ask God for something are we out there digging pits so that the water can fill them up or are we bringing our umbrellas? Are we really expecting God to hear our cries and come to help us? We can't just say we have faith, we have to actually live like it too!